Hi everyone!
It has been quite some time since I last blogged. It is crazy looking back on my last couple of posts. It was before Carter was born and life is completely different now that he is here. We have been so blessed with such a happy, healthy baby. The past seven months have been the greatest, most exciting, exhausting, hardest, best days of my life. Being a mom is the best thing I've ever experienced. I am so happy that we are in this new chapter of life with the best little guy around!
I will quickly try to recap things since Carter's arrival. Carter technically spent his first two months of life being French. We traveled to Paris a few days before going home to the States for the summer to get his American citizenship from the US Embassy. It was a headache putting together all the paperwork needed for his citizenship and passport, but it all went so smoothly once we were at the embassy and it will always be a cool story for him to tell. After spending the morning at the embassy, we were able to take Carter on his first mini tour of Paris. We walked along the Champs-Elysees, posed for some pictures at the Arc de Triomphe, grabbed lunch at a French cafe and took him to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time. At two months old, he had already gotten to do what many people can only dream of.
I always say our summers at home go way too fast. And this past summer was by far the quickest. It flew by trying to introduce Carter to so many friends and family and trying to do the million things that we wanted to get done. It was a great summer though. I loved having Carter in his "real" home and I cherish our time we have every summer. To be honest, it gets harder for me leaving every year. Especially now that we have Carter. I am so grateful for our home, family and friends that it is so hard to pack up again and say goodbye. I am truly grateful for the opportunities God has brought us through Tyler's career, but there is nothing better to me than being in our house in Minnesota, visiting my hometown in Iowa and revisiting our college memories and friends from South Dakota. I'm a Midwestern girl through and through.
As most of you know, we are back in France for a third season in a row (and Tyler's seventh season overseas). Tyler is with a new team but still the same league that he has been playing in since he has been in France. This year we are located in Reims, France and it is about an hour and 20 minute drive east of Paris. Tyler has already been here for over two months and Carter and I have been here for a month. Carter did amazing on the flight and in the airports. He slept most of the time but it was absolutely exhausting for me. I didn't sleep at all and I basically held him for 12 hours straight. Whoever decided that you can't get your stroller back until you clear customs after an international flight clearly isn't a woman/mom. Carrying him, a large carry on/diaper bag + my purse throughout one of the largest airports in the world, standing in a dreadfully long customs line and retrieving 3 suitcases, a car seat and stroller was no easy task. It would have been so nice to be able to get the stroller back after we landed. I literally could not open a bottle of water when Tyler picked us up because my arms were so weak. Oh, and I had a nasty cold. Thank the Lord for helping me through all that!
Carter and I have also had an extremely hard time adjusting to the time difference. I am one tired mama. We've seemed to do much better in the past week or so but my goodness, what I would do for a solid 8 hours of sleep. That hasn't happened since probably before I was pregnant and I know I won't be seeing 8 hours of the backs of my eyelids anytime soon. I'm just trying to catch up as much as I can.
But on a more positive note, I am loving Reims so far! There is a completely different dynamic to the team this year. We somehow always end up on a team where I am the only American wife. But this year, all four of the American players have wives/families! It is SO nice to be able to go to games with them and I have been able to hang out a couple of times with a couple of them. I am already looking forward to getting together more now that's Carter and I are getting on a better schedule.
Another thing that I am loving about Reims is that wherever we go, we are just as likely to hear someone speaking English as we are French. It is so bizarre! We will be out and about and hear so many people speaking English. Some people just flat out start speaking English to us - we clearly aren't doing a good job of passing off as French ;) At first I would just look at Tyler and be like "what is going on!!" When you live in a foreign country the majority of the year, hearing English is definitely comforting. We think there are so many English speakers because there is a University here. It definitely makes things easier when being out and knowing our chances of being able to communicate with people are fairly good.
That is pretty much an up to date summary. I am looking forward to what this season brings for us and it will be so crazy to see how much Carter grows from now until the end of the season. He will have a lot of big milestones in Reims: his first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, birthday ... he'll learn to crawl, walk, talk and everything in between. I'm sure this year will bring lots of memories for us in the future.
Until next time!
