Happy Anniversary to me!!

That’s right. It was a year today that I flew over to start a new life in America. Can I come home now???

JUST KIDDING! The year has flown by and when I think of all that has happened this year its amazing that I am still on my feet. I flew over on February 3rd 2006 just in time for the Superbowl. I then went on to pass my drivers test (on the second go…..I would have passed the first time if I wasn’t having so much difficulty staying on the right side of the road!) in March. Then in May I got the job as a Nurses assistant in Morgantown at a Rehab hospital. That same month Drew and I moved to a new apartment. Come August, 95% of The Hayes Family came to visit West Virginia and were amazed by how many trees there were. Throughout the months we went on small trips including New York, Grandma Diller’s house, visiting the In-Laws and camping at Maust Mountain. Then December arrived and everything went crazy. I resigned from my job, we rented a U-Haul and moved ourselves down to North Carolina to prepare for life at Seminary. Christmas raced towards us at full speed yet again. The New Year was welcomed in as we spent the night playing games and snacking on Salmon at a strangers house (that story is told on request). Drew and I then sat around for a month waiting for his classes to start, watching DVDs while I sat at my laptop applying for jobs via email! Then Late January I got a call from The Olde English Teas Rooms and was offered a job as a server. There I am and there I will stay.

Well, what a year! Don’t think me big headed if I say I think I have done well. I believe I settled in well and kept going when times seemed slow and struggling. God has been my strength though, don’t think this is all me. Without his advice and unconditional love I don’t know how I would have done it all. Early on in my American life I found it hard to be without a job, without a driver’s license (and public transport) and without close friends around. But God sat with me while I was at home all day everyday waiting for Drew to get off classes and bike home to see me. I could talk to God when the time difference made it hard to talk to my mummy and I could feel God’s presence when times seemed lonely. I owe everything to God. From the very beginning of this whole adventure.

Today I feel it the perfect time to express my gratitude because it truly is an amazing story how God bought me to America in the first place as a young exchange student. How he worked out his plan for Drew and I to get connected and then stay connected over such a long distance. Then to give me the courage and motivation to pursue my love in the summer of 2004 and to inspire us to choose between all or nothing. It was simply God’s Will that we would choose ALL. But then to work out the immigration process, to allow us the financial means, to give Drew the ability to go over everything clearly and just be there while the papers were being sent and passed over seas so many times!!! I feel overwhelmed when I begin to think about all we have been through and all that has been accomplished. Maybe I don’t need to go on because its true… its in the past now. Those years of living apart, being married but still living apart went so slowly yet now it seems like nothing. But I do feel like those times are the most important to reflect and rejoice in God’s awesome promises to us. To protect, to guide, to not forsake, to give us a future. And thankfully I find myself telling the story almost once a day to the guests that come in to the tea rooms or people at church. I love telling it. I love the fact that the underlying reason for this story is Drew, that he is the one I moved for, that he is the one I live apart from my family for. And I say that in the most honest and purest way, not to make him feel guilty and not to make him feel like he should owe me something but to make him feel special. Because he truly is a special and unique young man. Even though God is my ultimate provider, Drew is my side-kick!!! lol. When I cry he silently understands and demands nothing. I don’t have to explain my homesickness and there doesn’t need to be a reason. But he will always hug me until I stop. Drew is just a fantastic husband, he is hilariously funny and extremely smart, sometimes too smart for his own good! But i believe we are the prefect companions. Thank you Drew for being my reason to move to America.

England will always be my home but America is like a 4 star hotel.