We moved from England back to the States at the end of January 2015. What a crazy time! Looking back, I really wish we had moved before Gerrit was born. It would have still been stressful (overseas move + being very pregnant), but packing up and moving across an ocean is a LOT with a very young baby. Especially a high needs baby!
Settling in North Carolina was exciting though. We bought our first house, bought a second vehicle, and started learning about parenting. I honestly think the fourth trimester (newborn phase) is just a whirlwind of feeding, sleepless nights, and survival mode. You finally catch your breath and start to try to figure things out after that. And that’s really what our time in North Carolina was: learning our new way of life as parents.
When we bought the house in Pikeville, NC, we thought we would be stationed at Seymour Johnson AFB for at least a few years. Our house was brand new, so we had basically no work to do when we moved in except painting if we didn’t like the white walls. But we figured we had plenty of time for things like landscaping, so all Andrew really did was plant our little raised bed garden.
But our time in North Carolina ended up being pretty short! Andrew decided to apply for Officer Training School and got accepted in spring of 2016, just a year after we moved to Pikeville. In our 18 months of living there, we really only got to see the beach and our local area. Then in the fall of 2016, we moved to Texas for Andrew to start pilot training!
On An Even Kiel 