It seems like yesterday that our little family of three survived our first of what would become many international flights together. I remember distinctly our arrival into Saigon in the middle of that night. Feelings of fear and sadness coupled with exhaustion, eager anticipation, and grasping the reality of being foreign {literally} in our home swirled my mind as we lugged way too much baggage and a toddler through the last airport on our journey. Not much has changed in those three years, and yet things are so vastly different. We ebb and flow riding the roller coaster of expat life balancing new adventures, homesickness, and the chaos of our everyday goings-on. Our passports are filled with visas and stamps from more countries than we ever imagined being blessed with the opportunity to travel to - and our dreams and bucket lists keep growing with each new trip. {Fun fact: in the past three years, I've traveled nearly 90,000 miles by airplane...that's a lot of jet lag!}
Vietnam has become part of our story. Matt and I have spent half of our married life here, and Elijah has lived overseas more than twice as long as he's been stateside. We have fallen in love with the people along our journey - new friends made from all around the world, our expat and local Nike extended family, and countless strangers sharing their culture with us. Before moving here, we regularly enjoyed only a handful of Vietnamese favorites: bánh mì {baguette sandwich}, phở {beef noodle soup}, and gỏi cuốn {fresh spring rolls} were our typical go-tos. Now, as our love for Vietnamese food has grown exponentially, our palettes are well accustomed to adding nước mắm {fish sauce} to nearly every dish!
Our journey has definitely had its share of struggles and challenges, but we have had some amazing and fun adventures filling up those memories. Here are a few highlights from the past year: