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
