oh, family.

I'm realizing I think that the hardest part of being gone will be being away from my amazing family.  Yes, I'll miss friends and the comforts of America and normalcy of an everyday life where nothing is drastically different from the previous day...but I'll make new friends (and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold!), I'll find comforts of Korean life and normalcy will just change to a different type of normalcy in Daegu.  However, family is irreplaceable.

I have been so blessed to have family play such a prominent role in my life.  I know people who will do anything to get out of a large family get together or even detest a quiet evening with their parents. Quite the opposite of that, I look forward to holidays for the sole idea of spending a day of laughter, teasing, and love with all my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and immediate family.  While some of them may not always understand my decisions (like why I would decide to go to Korea haha), they are still the most supportive, loving family.  My cousins are not merely family members but wonderful friends of mine who I love to be with. And while a quiet evening in with my parents may not be my choice for every night, I enjoy time with them a lot.  Living at the house again these past 5 months has given me a chance to grow even closer with them and enjoy their company, support, and love so much.  I'm a lucky girl to have a family like this.

And then there's the little bundle of joy my sister, Sarah, and brother-in-law Jareb brought into the world on Sept. 3 of this year.  Little Josiah and their beautiful family will be some of the hardest to leave.  Technology will be a life saver in allowing me to see them and how Josiah continues to become a little boy, but Skype can only do so much.  I'm going to miss them. a lot.


Luckily, in the past month, I've had the joy of spending quality time with so many people of my family in so many contexts - we had the first holiday in quite a few years where the entire Milhous clan was at my grandparents' house for Christmas dinner, I was able to spend time with my cousin Cory and his family in San Diego right before new year's eve, I flew to San Antonio, TX for 5 days with my cousin Emily to visit her brother, Justin who is stationed there for the Air Force, and this past weekend I rode with my parents and grandparents to San Luis Obispo to see my cousin Sammy play basketball at Cuesta and celebrate my cousin Amanda's birthday.  When thinking of all of these trips and people, I just am reminded how lucky I am to have family I actually want to see and want to see me.

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.  ~Anthony Brandt