Christmas 2015 (letter): looking back over the year

Hello friends & family!

Is it already this time again? I can’t even believe it! I hope this letter and card finds you well. This has been quite the year for us so I thought it deserved a separate recap!

As most of you know I had a major health scare and surgery that closed out 2014. That brought on a lot of thoughts about future events – both good and bad. We realized how isolated we were in California. Although we had a huge “family” of friends and my beloved workplace, we knew we wanted to be closer to my immediate family, especially as we begin to think of beginning our own. We wanted to be closer to family in case there were emergencies or health changes (mine or others) and we wanted to be part of their lives – not the visiting aunt and uncle. Since Luba’s family is far away (in South Africa), this relocation would be beneficial to all. We started making mental and tangible plans to relocate to St. Louis, where Letetia lives.

We checked final items off of our California bucket list in early 2015 and I applied for jobs in St. Louis. We made plans to road trip to our new home in April 2015. Saying goodbye to friends, co-workers, and clients/families was brutal. I stayed in denial and shock until the car hit the freeway heading out of Orange County. We checked many states off of our “states visited together” list this year. Luba got to see a lot of America through the road trip, as did I. We stopped at so many quirky & fun spots along the way (pictured: spray painting at Cadillac Ranch). We also stayed in some spooky places that we can now laugh about without a rising heart rate.

We arrived and moved in to our apartment on May 1. Since then, we have been settling in to new routines and making connections. I started work on May 18 at Easter Seals Midwest as a behavior analyst providing behavior therapy and ABA supervision/staff & family training for children and adults with autism. Luba started working at the International Institute in July. I also opened a private practice for speech pathology to allow me to keep up with my skills and build my network providing my first love, speech and language therapy.

We live about 5 miles from Letetia and her family and we love it (picture from Apple Picking at Eckert’s Farms). We have had lots of double dates and time with her kids. As Brady said: WE CAN DO FAMILY DINNERS! We even stayed over and were “insta-parents” while they vacationed in Mexico for 1 week. We are also driving distance (10 hours) to Mississippi (home) and have made the drive once already to visit my parents. I love that we can also visit family by meeting half way in Tennessee or somewhere else if we want! Everyone is much more accessible.

We like St. Louis so far. It’s in a great location for us geographically. We made it to 2 Cardinals games (picture from Busch Stadium) and have tickets for the Rams for December! Fly over state? Psssht. Within 8 hours, we can drive to so many cool cities. We have gone to Louisville Kentucky for the weekend (picture at Churchill Downs) once and are trying to plan Chicago, Nashville, Memphis and Kansas City. I love being able to hop in the car and go somewhere fun and a have a choice of states! We are loving the seasons but also bracing for initiation into Winter, coming soon.

We are also trying to plan a trip to South Africa for Spring 2016. This will be Luba’s first time home since coming in 2013 (he just celebrated his 2-year America-versary). I have not been since 2012 after going yearly for 6 years so I’m dying to get back there as well. This year’s trip will be very different for us. If you are in South Africa, WE CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU!

Please keep in contact with us. Our contact info is on the back of the cards. We would love to hear from you & know everything!

With love and warmest of wishes, Danielle & Luba

A picture is worth a thousand words right? Highlights from the year: