Liang Christmas Letter 2015

December 2015

Well we had a lot on our plate last year with a 2 month old, so we never got around to writing a synopsis letter for 2014 before Christmas like we usually do each year to include with our Christmas card. Here is a link to the blog post of 2014 Year in Review written later: http://jackieandjoeliang.blogspot.nl/2015/01/christmas-letter-2014-year-in-review.html

For those of you that haven’t noticed, we moved from the Puget Sound, Washington area in the U.S. to Eindhoven, Netherlands in May 2014 for Joe’s work on a 3 year long expat contract through his company, Cummins. Joe has taken on a larger role in Cummins engine aftertreatment program with their European customer, DAF, to meet the latest emission testing. Jackie began a work sabbatical from architecture as she prepared to become a stay-at-home mom with the arrival of their baby girl in early October 2014. 

We are truly enjoying our life here in the Netherlands. We’ve been able to see a lot of Europe in the past year. Brooklyn, now 14 months old has now been to 10 countries: the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Taiwan and Austria. It’s a good thing this foreign Dutch-born girl was given extra pages in her U.S. passport! As the weeks go by it’s amazing all the new things Brooklyn is learning to do. She definitely keeps us on our toes these days.

This year I’m going to summarize the year in a David Letterman-style Top Ten List.

2015 Top Ten Highlights:

1) For Easter in April we visited Paris, France

2) While Dad worked in the US for a week in April, Mom & Brooklyn enjoyed family time in North Carolina

3) A week in May in Interlaken, Luzern & rode the Bernina Express through the Alps in Switzerland

4) A week in Italy in Cinque Terre & heavenly Tuscany

5) A trip the end of July to Copenhagen, Denmark

6) In early September we enjoyed the Stoehr grandparents visit & explored the Netherlands & Rhine Valley, Germany together

7) Jackie’s sister & brother-in-law traveled southern Netherlands, Antwerp & Aachen also in September

8) Celebrating 1 year since Brooklyn’s birth (Oct 6, 2014)

9) 2 weeks in October in Taiwan visiting with family and friends

10) Anticipated arrival of Baby #2 June 20, 2016!

We hope that you all are finding peace this Holiday season. Our hearts are bursting with joy and life and could not be more thankful for such a blessed year in 2015. Jesus is the reason for the season and we will not forget that. May the peace of Christ find you this holiday season and in the upcoming year to come. As we excitedly begin our own Christmas traditions as a family as we spend it in the Netherlands, we wish you a merry, merry time with family and friends near and far. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder and that home is where the heart is. We often get asked where is home and we have a hard time answering…Taiwan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Charleston, Seattle, Eindhoven? Although all these places have been home for us at some point, this year we are embracing home as a family in Eindhoven, Netherlands. May you feel at home this Christmas wherever this letter finds you.

All Our Love,

Joe, Jackie, Brooklyn, Baby #2 & Chance Liang

Christmas Letter / 2014 Year in Review

January 2015

Every year I write fun letter highlighting our many activities that we have been up to. This year we had so much going on that I chose to solely put the letter up on the blog. This way I can include more photos and not be regulated to 1 8.5x11 piece of paper. It was always a challenge to fit all our adventures in and this year we have some major news that we simply can’t surmise into a few words. Most of you are fully aware of what has been the time suck as of late, but we will get to that later.

At the beginning of 2014 Joe was continuing his job his Cummins here he has worked for 10 years. His current resident engineer position at the PACCAR Tech Center in Mount Vernon, WA was soon coming to a close as they wrapped up the 2015 emissions program he had been working on. He began hunting for the right job to move onto next. More to come on that later, because it was a long arduous process to get to where we are today. Jackie has continued to work at GGLO for the third year, now as a licensed architect in both the states of South Carolina and Washington.  She has taken on more responsibilities and observing 3 of her projects under construction: an apartment complex in Issaquah, a community center in Tacoma, and an affordable housing complex of 70 units in Tacoma.

With Joe’s job, he often had to go to Thompson, Manitoba Canada to conduct winter testing on 18-wheeler trucks which he did again in January. While he was gone Jackie took went snowshoeing on the Skyline Trail at Steven’s Pass with good friends Jason & Jamie Morin. It was a beautiful clear blue sky day, but quite a climbing workout. 

January 26 was a big day in our house. Jackie had a positive pregnancy test, we were going to be parents! A few weeks later we officially started telling family and close friends about our little growing baby. Our first baby, Chance was now going to have additional guard dog duty with the arrival of Baby Liang in October.

Although we are big Green Bay Packers football fans, we have adopted our town favorite, Seattle Seahawks. We went to college with quarterback Russell Wilson and have always thought he was great. It was amazing to see the 12s support their local team. Jackie attended the Superbowl parade after their big win against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.

In late March and early April, we spent a week in Taiwan to visit Joe’s family and take care of some important paperwork. 

Joe had officially accepted a new position with his company. It would be an expat contract working with their European customer, DAF in Eindhoven, Netherlands. We had waited to hear for months and months whether there would be a role for him there. It was nice to finally have a decision made and be moving forward with a dream job living in Europe. Jackie would be taking a sabbatical from architecture to be a stay-at-home mom with their growing child.

In April, Jackie enjoyed one last Tulip Festival in the Skagit Valley of Washington before we moved to the Netherlands, also a land of tulips and bikes; but with the addition of wooden shoes and windmills. 

In April, we also had whirlwind house hunting trip to Eindhoven. We found a great pre-war 4 bedroom townhouse with a patio for our dog, located near the center of town within walking distance of daily needs. May brought many goodbyes and partings as we began the next chapter in our lives in Europe. We deeply enjoyed our time in the Pacific Northwest. We think it is one of the most beautiful places in the US & would move back there in a heartbeat if possible.

In mid-May we began to settle into our new home in the Netherlands. 

We took a few daytrips to Maastricht, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Kinderdijk, and Delft over the next few weeks coinciding with many Dutch religious holidays. 

In late June we were invited to Joe’s Turkish co-workers wedding so we hopped on a plane to Izmir, Turkey to relax on the Cesme coast and visit Ephesus, where Jesus’ disciples walked and preached.

The remainder of summer we took daytrips to Cologne and Antwerp. 

Before the arrival of our little girl, we took one last trip out of the country to Berlin.

Jackie labored some at home and gave birth in a local Dutch hospital. We welcomed Brooklyn Grace Liang into the world October 6, 2014. For the first week in the Netherlands, a nurse comes to your home to help take care of momma and baby, teaching you diaper changes, bathing, and helping out cleaning and doing your laundry. She was a godsend. 

Jackie’s parents arrived in the Netherlands a few days after the birth to help us first-time parents. We wished we could have shown them more of where we lived but Jackie wasn’t quite up to entertaining quite so soon. I’m sure these grandparents will be making a trip back again soon.

We didn’t let our little newborn keep us completely inside as winter set in. We visited the only Netherlands La Trappe Trappist brewery, Eindhoven’s GLOW festival, Amsterdam to get Brooklyn a US passport and a few Christmas markets in Aachen, Valkenburg, Cologne and Dordrecht. Brooklyn showed good signs for being a good traveler. We flew back to the United States to spend the Holidays in North Carolina with family and friends. We had Brooklyn baptized at Jackie’s old church in King. We had great family time at Christmas in King, Clemmons and Charlotte. We spent New Years with friends in Raleigh.

It truly was a blessed year for our little family. Three months with our baby girl have flown by. We look with forward optimism for what God has in store for us in 2015. We are beyond thankful for our life that we have because God sent His only son to Earth to die for our sins. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

All Our Love,

Joe, Jackie, Brooklyn & Chance Liang