A First and a Twenty-Sixth....

After Andrew & I returned from our trip to Bangkok, it was time to leave our jobs...I left my advertising job and Andrew, in a crazy turn of events, was actually officially laid off from his job at a commercial real estate company. The first of many adjustments we would make in the ensuing months!
We were speaking at some churches in South Texas at the beginnning of April, one which happened to be on my 26th birthday, so we were able to celebrate with my family in San Antonio. Nathan & Stacy and Matt & Kate were able to drive the one-hour trip from Austin as well. The birthday was a nice relaxation as we had just moved out of our apartment and into a smaller, cheaper apartment - across the street. This living arrangement was necessary as we only needed a place for 3 months before we'd leave for NYC training.
Our family LOVES dachshunds, especially the newest member of the family, Stacy & Nate's 2 and a half year old Maya. For Christmas I had been given a fun, black, silver-sequined shirt from Stacy (& Nathan, of course). I was astounded to find the same shirt months later: black tank top, silver sequins and all - except Maya-sized! Here we are above celebrating my birthday together in matching outfits.
A week later Andrew & I celebrated our FIRST anniversary early, as the 16th fell on Easter Sunday this year. We can hardly believe it's been a year already. I still remember our wedding day like it happened a few days ago. This year has honestly FLOWN by as we've been in the missions mindset and applied to MTW after only 4 months of marriage. Praise God for a good first year! We've learned so much about each other and have discovered how sanctifying marriage is. We still have so much to learn...but have the rest of our lives to do that!
Andrew surprised me with a trip to Fort Worth for our anniversary. Nothin like Cow-town to celebrate! We ate at the Riata, went to the Kimball Art Museum (Andrew was very patient) and then to the zoo, my favorite! A few pictures of that COLD morning. We decided all the animals were out and about because of the chill in the air.