Hey everyone!
I come to you in much better spirits than my last blog post and I am so grateful for that. As many of you know, last season was a big struggle for me. I just hit a point where the overseas lifestyle was taking a toll on me and I missed home so much. To be completely honest, I was miserable. I wasn't happy and I wasn't enjoying any of my time in France. I wasn't fun to be around (for Tyler) and the days couldn't go by fast enough until my flight home to the US.
I am feeling a billion times better and having a much more positive outlook on this season. The summer and time at home is exactly what I needed to be renewed. Carter and I got to spend 4 months in the USA, Tyler about 3 months, and we had an amazing summer just being HOME. I have truly grown such an appreciation for our country and I am so thankful for our home in Minnesota. We are so blessed to be Americans. Only getting to spend about 3-4 months of your year in your home country makes you truly thankful for what you have and realize that you should never take anything for granted. While it never gets easier leaving home (it's even harder now with a child in my opinion), I am looking forward to this season ahead.
So here we are, season 8, back in Italy! If you know me, you know how much I LOVE Italy! The season after Tyler and I got married, we were in Italy. It was an incredible season of being able to travel to many beautiful Italian cities and eating the best food I have ever had in my life. I honestly thought that we would be back again after that season. Tyler had a great year and we just thought for sure we would be back the following season. But this crazy world of basketball is so unpredictable. Before we knew it, Tyler had signed with a team in France and we ended up there for three years. Not that there is anything wrong with France by any means, but I always hoped there would be an opportunity to go back to Italy! When this offer came up over the summer and Tyler and I started seriously considering that this was the best move for both his career and our family, I could hardly contain my excitement! After having a pretty crappy season on my part, I was so looking forward to a new, refreshing chapter back in Italy.
I will always miss home and I honestly can't wait for the day that we are settled in the USA for good, but I know that this time in our lives is so temporary. Tyler has already been doing this for 8 years now and we definitely have more years behind us than in front of us in his career. I have such a renewed outlook and want to soak up every opportunity of being overseas. God has blessed us so much with everything that He given us and I don't want to waste it away. One day I am sure I will miss it.
I'm going to try REALLY hard to be much better at blogging. The past few seasons I've only shared a couple updates each season so I am going to try my best be a little better at it this season. I will be back soon to share how everything is going for us these first few weeks in Italy!
