And so it begins

Today is our first full day in England. I am writing this at 1:27pm England time and 6:27am America time. That's right. SEVEN hours time difference. That's not all that is different. Ever since I got off the plane I have been counting all the things that are different. I got to 14 by the airport parking lot and gave up because it became too overwhelming.

I met a copious amount of future family yesterday. They were all so kind, they didn't even tease me about being American very much. My favorite part was listening to the little girls accents. They sound so precious.

We (Nathan, his sister-Rachel, her boys-Logan and Jacob, Ashley-the baby, and I) left the SLC airport at about 5pm a.t. (America time) we flew until about 3am a.t. all the way to Paris. Of which we slept none of the way. I loved looking out the window as we flew into Paris. There were lots of rivers and bridges. There were little towns randomly with lots of curvy roads, so different from the perfect grid system of Salt Lake. The best part: I could see the Eiffle Tower from the window!!!! It was so amazing to see it all in real life. It was surreal. I can't wait to go back to France for the honeymoon and see it all up close!

We left Paris at about 5:00am a.t. for Birmingham and landed about 7:00am a.t. so it was about 2pm e.t. My goodness, what a long day and we slept for none of it! After we arrived we were kept awake against our will until a decent time for sleeping here in England to get rid of the jet lag as soon as possible. We stayed up until about 8pm here. Success! I was out cold all night but the others were not so lucky. Nathan had a very restless sleep, where he dreamed about making things all night. Rachel's boys were up from 12am-3am wondering why Auntie Marie was depriving them of breakfast until they fell asleep again, and Ashely was up all night meaning so was Rachel.

This morning Nath woke up not feeling so well. Finally I had someone on my side telling him to go to the doctor... his MUM! She made him an appointment for the low, low price of nothing! Something about a National Health System... Anyway, he should be fine. We think he is suffering from malnutrition and lack of sleep.

We went for a walk around his sisters neighborhood. The houses are all brick and fabulous. They look just like I thought classic England would. It is still pretty overwhelming because everywhere I look there is something very English looking back at me. The houses, roads, cars, people, and even the wall sockets. I look at these people and think, they should talk like me... but they don't.

Though the differences are many, the similarities out weigh. In the end, everyone is just living life and doing the best they can. I find it best to keep an eternal perspective.We are all connected through our Heavenly Father. There are families who love, talk, and EAT. (Fish and chips tonight!) Life is good, fun, and full of twist, turns, and surprises that we all just have to roll with. Same as anywhere on this place we call Earth.