Time for a change

Can I just say that living out of a suitcase...well, basically it sucks! And that's essentially what I've been doing since July. JULY! That's a long time ago. That's also how long I've been unemployed. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. I'd be lying if I said I'd been scouring the earth for a job since then. No, first I was waiting on paperwork, then I was planning a wedding, and now...now I'm just waiting to figure things out.
Tomorrow Mark and I will be heading back to Moscow, ID where we get the privilege of filing paperwork once again. Time to pay the government once again, and ask them for a little piece of paper that says it's okay for my new husband to live with me here on this continent.
Wait a minute. Husband? Oh yeah, that's right. I got married. Yes. Me. The girl who has been whining about being alone and single for something like forever. I'm now...a Wife. Changes abound, eh? And yet it's still hard for me to really define what that means. What has really changed after all? As of yet I haven't started on the paperwork that would legally change my name as well. But it's all out there, waiting for me to put it into order. I'm not just me anymore. I'm now me as a part of someone else. Let me just state right here that when someone has been on their own alone for as long as I have, it's difficult to revamp life in order to fully take on another person. But it has happened.
I'm sure I should back log. I mean, obviously quite a lot has happened since we headed to the US back in November. But I sorta don't think I'll do that. It was kind of a black hole, and it's better to move forward than to spend all my time looking back.
The wedding was crazy and amazing and ethereal and so many other things. I was there in this beautiful dress, not really looking like myself, surrounded by all these amazing people that were there just to bless me. With the exception of Marek's parents, who were blessedly able to be there even after his mom being sicker the week before they were supposed to fly than she had been in years, everyone who was there was there because of me. What a blessing. I mean for real.
Despite all the concerns I had leading up to the wedding about everything falling into place, it really did. My whole family was there, which was positively brilliant, and I was able to have all my nieces and nephews involved in the wedding in one way or another. My only regret is that there weren't more people there for Mark. I can't imagine how it must have been for him, on this day that was also important for the rest of his life, not to have a contingent of well wishers there on his behalf as well. But we can't have everything in life the way we wish it could be, so I'm thankful that things went as smoothly as they did, and that, as has been spoken soooo many times to soooo many couples, at the end of the day we were married. And the two became one...
Since that time life went through more transitions and craziness. The day after the wedding we were back with the family, making it feel even more surreal. We opened gifts, and started saying goodbyes. Then Mark and I took his parents on a trip down the Oregon Coast all the way to Crescent City. Crazy to think that only a couple weeks later it was struck by a tsunami. A reminder of just how unpredictable life can be. It was great to introduce his family to the Pacific Ocean and the Redwoods, and the Sea Lion caves. We even had the bizarre experience of seeing snow on the beach. What a wild ride for sure.
They flew back to Czech on the 27th, and we had a moment alone to breath and to start trying to figure out what this whole being married thing means. We were blessed to have a short honeymoon on the Coast by ourselves, with beautiful accommodations thanks to my parents timeshare property. This past week I've been working on catching up on almost a month of journal writing, and trying to put the house in a bit of order. We're hoping to move into my grandparents old house in a few months so we can have a chance to figure out this life on our own a little better.
In the meantime, we're heading back to Moscow to get that paperwork out of the way and to hopefully dedicate a bit of time to our passions. That is, Mark and his music and me and my writing.
Life is strange and unpredictable to be certain. What a blessing to know that I am not in control, and that no matter how complicated and busy and confusing things may look from my point of view, God is there keeping it all on track.