REVIEW: 2018 – Unexpected changes to say the least
2018 finished out in a blur and all of a sudden it’s February 2019. While we have not been overly present here on social media in the last few months, it does not mean that we’ve been lazy! We have so many good things to share (especially one monumental one, that we CAN’T share fully yet).
One of our favorite traditions is to grab sushi and go through my list of year-end questions. There’s always WAtooto many questions, but it’s good for conversation.
You can grab a more simplified worksheet for your next year-end review by emailing me here! I’ll send it your way ASAP!
Several words come to mind as we think back to our year: re-direction, adoption, preparation, joyfulness, and hardship. Sometimes I get to the end of the year and can think about how we have missed documenting our journey here in Izmir, but every year, this recap shows me HOW MUCH WE HAVE!!!!
Here is our recap of 2018:
?Jason and his brother rewrote and relaunch bltn in January.
?Spent a week in Istanbul, the city we met in, loving on our friends’ kiddos!
?February was rainy in Izmir, so we decided to skip town and head to our friends in the desert. Traveled to Dubai to visit our dear friends then onward to Abu Dhabi.
?Jason ran his first race! I am SO VERY PROUD!
?Celebrated year 4 of marriage in Chios, one of the Greek island just a ferry ride off the coast of Turkey. (We chat about this trip in Episode050 of the podcast.)
?Made it to 2 more Greek islands, Lesvos and Rhodes (blog post series on this with 8 tips for traveling to the Greek Islands from Turkey!)
?Explored the area of Marmaris, Turkey and a quick pop-over to Rhodes Island, Greece
?Finished our podcast at episode 50 (here is the reason why) and moved over to starting some videos on YouTube to share our expat life in a more visual way!
?Celebrated adding a new nephew to our clan and rejoicing in 2 more coming in 2019!
?Made our annual visit to the states to visit our family and sneaked in a week trip to Nashville for touring and Catie’s work.
?Finished our 2nd year living in Turkey (Update coming one day!)
?Spent some time visiting our friends in Adana and took a day trip to Gaziantep (which we hope to share about soon too!)
?Enjoyed a day off the coast of Foça with some friends!
?Surprised Jason for his birthday
?Celebrated Izmir’s Independence Day properly since moving here.
?Announced our adoption plans! (Adoption video #1 on our YouTube channel, but you can view the adoption playlist here.)
?Decided we had to move to America for said adoption plans….
?Bought a house (yep, didn’t really announce that one)
?Then decided not to move to America because….
? Unexpected but exciting private adoption opportunity came up here in Turkey!
?Took a weekend to road trip to less-traveled historical sites near Izmir with some awesome people! (Can’t wait to share this road trip with you all!)
?Didn’t leave Turkey for 6 months which left us with some fun traveled around Izmir exploring a Car Museum, a Cable Car, and a couple of posts I FINALLY published about things to do IN IZMIR and day trips from here.
?Catie’s parents came to visit and celebrated Christmas with us!
?Catie has her first major Travel Writing Publication!
?On the side, Catie started advocating for cleaner, safer beauty products via @catiecleancollection and started a little travel shop @deartravels – both will help fund our adoption!
?Jason and I both read 29 books each!
?Talked about all the modes of transportation we used in Izmir, and then (finally) bought a car at the end of the year!
DON’T FORGET:
You can grab a more simplified worksheet for your next year-end review by emailing me here! I’ll send it your way ASAP!
THANK YOU for sitting around when our posts have lulled and being part of our 2018. We can’t wait to share our big news with you soon! So, stick around!
Jason + Catie
