Bonjour!

Welcome to my first Belgian Blog. It's been six months since I moved here with Brooklyn and Ben and time is starting to fly. At first I had no idea what I was supposed to do all day because I didn't know anyone and the weather was TERRIBLE! But now I've had the good fortune of making some great friends and figuring out what one does for a whole day in Brussels.

Adjusting to life here has been one of the hardest challenges I've ever had. I was surrounded by such great friends and family in Utah that I never really had to figure out what to do for a day by myself. So when I got here I was floored by how bored one person can get in a day. I had nothing to do and, as cute as Brooklyn is, time was just dragging by. There are tons of videos of Brooklyn doing practically nothing but it was something to do so I recorded her. We had life five toys for her to play with and those got old really fast. Outside was cloudy, rainy, and freezing so we had to stay indoors and even if it wasn't I was new in the country and nobody spoke English. Side Note: if you are moving to a European country and people tell you that you can get by speaking English because they all learned it in school it is a LIE! I had nobody to talk to and nothing to do. It was awful. So awful in fact that Ben and I seriously debated going home for good.

Then one day I decided that I was going to do this one thing everyday. It was a challenge to read The Book of Mormon in 40 days. So I started with that. Everyday, no matter what I would read the selected chapters of the Book of Mormon. It wasn't much but it gave me something to look forward to everyday. That was a turning point for me.

Now everyday I make sure I take time to do the things that I want to do and life in Belgium is so much better! Brooklyn is growing up so fast! She's standing up by herself and getting into everything! Ben's research is going really well and we've grown so much closer as a family because we're all that we've got out here. I miss all of my family and friends dearly and hope to hear from you soon!

Andi