I always told you that I won’t spoil you by only telling you about the good things of living far away from home. So today I will talk about one of the big downsides. Our good friends got married this weekend, my little niece will celebrate her 6th birthday next week and my best friend will become a father any day now. And guess what: I will miss all of it. A lot of our friends celebrated weddings this year, the arrivals of their firstborn or important birthdays. All of those are moments where it is really hard for me to live here.

I am very lucky to have good friends that won’t ever let me down or come anything between or friendship even if I live a few thousand miles away. But I can’t hust hop on the next flight to live through big moments with them and that will always stand between us. It just really hurts me sometimes how I just can’t be there and even more that this will never change. Being away from the dear people in your life probably is the biggest downside of moving away. And also the most hurtful one.

On days like these it takes a lot of energy to just pull through and don’t let yourself drown in sadness. Even if your friend’s lifes happen in another timezone and far far away, you have to keep building your own life in your new home. And that can’t be filled with sadness. In moments like these I always remind myself of why we moved here in the first place. Which is to pursue or dreams and life the dream we always had. And the easiest thing to do that is by enjoying the beauty of our home – which for the most part for me means go to the beach and visit places I love.

It took me a little time to get these sad feelings under control and not mistake them for thoughts of moving back to Germany. Now I more try to cherish them, because they show me how lucky I am to still have those really close people in Germany. People who love me for actually making my dream come true and will always be there when I come back – even if it’s just to visit.

First of all: I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a great start into 2013. I know I was MIA for two weeks and as most of you might have guessed already it was, because we were in Germany. We spent two beautiful, but also stressful weeks at home and with our families and friends. I really needed that time after a few rough months that we had in 2012! Even if we still have some things to figure out and some problems to solve, that time back in Germany made me realize (once again) how much we have already achieved here in the US in the last two years and mostly how home we feel over here.

I still can’t believe it’s been nearly two years! Two years since we boarded a plane with only 6 suitcases and a lot of hopes and a few worries. And now we already have whole new lifes over here and feel home! Before our trip I was a little worried to go home. I was worried that seeing all my friends and our families would make me feel homesick and would maybe make me doubt our decision to move away from Germany. But the opposite happened. I did again have to realize how tough it still is to face everything I left behind. But I also realized that Germany is just not where I want to be and that I do have to chase my dreams over here – in the US! Our first week back in Los Angeles was filled with a lot of work and sleep (due to the jetlag), but yesterday we took some time to go to the beach and enjoyed what we love most about California!

On New Year’s Eve everyone always asks you about your resolutions for the upcoming year! Mine are to keep my head up high, never stop chasing and fulfilling my dreams and to make one big wish come true: Move closer to the beach!

I wish all my readers a successful and beautiful 2013 and hope that I will have many positive storys to share with you all!

Flo and I have been thinking about getting a pet for as long as we have lived here. It never was the right time to do it though. When we first arrived here, we weren’t sure for how long and if we were gonna stay. When we slowly settled down the next trip to Germany or the next visit from family or friends was always around the corner. And since we have been planning to move for a few months now, that was our latest excuse to just go ahead and adopt a cat.

Now this decision was kind of made for us. My colleague has a very sweet cat, which we watched for a few weeks last year. About a month ago she aske me, if we could take him again for a while. Since I already knew the cat, I immediately said yes and was very thrilled to have the little furry buddy around. As time passed by, we grew closer to him and kind of hoped she would let him stay with us for good.

Last week I asked her when she wanted to take him back and she said she was actually looking for a new permanent home for him, since she doesn’t have enough time and space to take care of him. I told her that we would like to keep him and the rest is history.

Yes, we will be leaving for our X-Mas Germany trip in less than two weeks, but we already made arrangements with friends that will take care of our new family addition. And therefor, welcome in our American life little Mr. Sampson. It is weird but nice how a pet can make you feel even more home and settled in a new surrouding.