Engagement photos

Today Hendrik's sister took some engagement pictures of us for our wedding invitation. So, I want to share them of course. Aren't we cute?

 They were taken in the town were hendrik grew up (which is next to the town where I grew up). They have got that old tower there which served as a background for a lot of pictures in my life. Interestingly enough, I took a walk up there minutes before I met H for the first time.

 Getting engaged after 9 years is weird. In a lot of ways we are like best friends. Constantly teasing each other and long past that all-over-each-other-phase. But then you are supposed to be best friends first and lovers second, right? I honestly feel like H is part of my body, because he has been there for so long. So I take care of him, because if he hurts, I hurt. Sounds stupid. But it really is that way.

 Some of my friends asked what would change when we get married. Everything! It means that H is truly mine FOREVER. That we will grow old together (hopefully) and have a family together. That my future is his and we are a team. It also means officially asking God for his blessing. But I believe He already gave this to us. Meeting H was no coincidence 9 years ago.

                                     Playing with the leaves! Yeah!!!!

 When I am with Hendrik, I get so calm. At night I cannot sleep when he is not there. He puts my soul to rest. He makes everything ok. I cannot wait for forever with you, babe!

 Of course we also had to take some pics of Henrik's sis with us. Climbing the tower's wall. Haha!

My Mexican birthday (and a surprise in the rain)

ok, so this blogging thing apparently does not work  for me right now. Not even blogging about holidays. Still, there is one day in Mexico I have to share, because I love  to go back and read about my life sometimes :)  My Birthday. I turned 21. For the seventh time.
I had always wanted to swim with dolphins. Our holiday offered this, but I wasn't entirely sure about it. Undecisive me. So, Hendrik just went ahead and booked it for my birthday.

I clearly loved it. 

After our morning swim with the  dolphins it started thundering and raining. All the roads were flooded and it kept raining on and off for the rest of the day.

Part of the concept of our amazing hotel was that you could book restaurants some nights of your stay. We booked the Italian that night and we were not disapointed, like every night. The food in all their restaurants was amazing.

 I clearly knew something was up that night....

After our dinner, Hendrik asked me to go on a walk. It was drizzling again. So, I clearly knew what was about to come. You don't just go for a walk in the rain. So , we went to the beach where Hendrik hugged me really tight and asked me to marry him.

 I never answered, because we were holding each other so tight. But I took his ring, so that counts as a yes. 

 Clearly excited about being engaged.

 The next morning we did our usual routine of walking around at the beach and took some photos.

                                         This time we had a new object to take photos of.

A few days later we arrived safely back home. Can we just acknowledge how tanned my boyfriend/fiancé is? It's seriously unfair. 

Keep tuned. We are already planning our next adventure. And a weddding...oh my... don't even get me started on wedding planning. At this rate we will be married in a retirement home.

Mexico Part 1

Helllooooo,

so the crazy guy and I went to Mexico. Why? Because we can. Or because we wanted to get as far away from all the stress and craziness as possible (being an adult with a grown up job is tough).

So we set out on yet another adventure: 

                                                  We rode in Mexican taxis.

                                                  Took pictures by the ocen

                                                 Had tequilas

                                                  Took pictures of the beach at night

                                                    Visited the Mayan ruins in Coba

      Apparently the winners of the ball game (the ball has to go through the loop up there) were killed.

Interesting tree

                                        One of the few ruins you can still climb.

                                                        The view over the jungle.

Me on top of the world

hendrik was OBSESSED with water polo. He gave the animation team a tip when they played it. :)

We also went on a nice bike tour around the resort. All the resorts were huge. Entire towns. Ours had 2000 employees

Hugging the tree appartently gets you pregnant. I did not see the effects so far.

                               

                                                                     snorkeling

Stay tuned for part 2, especially my birthday ;)

8 years

Happy anniversary to my crazy, loving, supporting , hard working boyfriend! I cannot believe it has been eight years since we started on this journey. Oh, how much we have grown together and each individually. I hope to get  eighty more with you. One day we will sit on a porch, blind and deaf and watch our children and grandchildren play. I cannot wait.

Love you more than you will ever know.

PS: Cancer, it has been 13 years. F**k you!

Do you believe in coincidences?

January is a peculiar month for me. It is the month after Christmas. The month after all the stress in school ends. It means a new year and new beginnings. The days finally get longer again which means that there might be spring not to long away. If I had to match one word to this month it would be hope. This is not only because of the things above, but due to two more stories you might already know, but might not be aware of how they are linked.

January 30 2002. I walked my thirteen year old self into my pediatrician's office. It was close to closing time, because I was embarassed to be going to a pediatrician. I was almost an adult after all. So my mom got me a late appointment. The rest is history. The doctor told me I had leukemia and the longest and hardest months of my life began. Nothing ever was as it had been before. I fought for my life and still do to this day. 13 years later (I doubled my age. Yeah!) people still look at me like I might drop dead this very second when I tell them about my disease. On January 30 2002 I thought I might never be happy again or live at all. I was at my lowest point in life.

Luckily, my cancer had been caught early so I had a good  chance to survive and I was declared cancer free. But you are not considered to be cured until the fifth anniversary of your diagnosis. So January 30th 2007 became my goal.

January 30th 2007  I was 18, in 12th grade and a very good student. I swam almost every day and had lots of friends. I had so much to be thankful for. And I was. And everybody around me. But this day was about to become more magical. Since a few days I was holding my phone very close to me because I was non stop texting with  boy. A few weeks before I had come back to Germany after my 6 week stay in South Africa. On New Years eve, while sitting on a hay ball at a South African pig farm, I had decided that I finally needed a boyfriend. That it was time to really start living. The said boy later picked me up for our first official date. Before that we had just hung out with our friends. So we had pizza, then drove around while he told me every bit of history to the area we live in. Then we went to the parling lot in front of the swimming pool and after a long conversation he kissed me (best kiss ever!!!). In a few days we will do exactly the same for our 8 year anniversary. Same procedure as every year.
Do you think that was coincidence?

A few days ago we were lying in bed talking about the big stuff. Like buying houses and cars and questioning how we would ever be able to afford this. We were not exactly complaining, because we know we are blessed with everything we have and somehow we believe everything will work out. But we were kind of questioning how.

Then I got home on Friday. Tired after my first week back at school. The door bell rings. It was the mailman. As he walked up the stairs I saw a big box. He was breathing hard because we live on the third floor. I got confused as I had not ordered anything. I thought it must be Hendrik's. And in the same moment I got almost a bit angry because I thought he was wasting money. (Sorry!) To confuse me even more the mailman asked me to come down to his car because he had two more of these boxes. What???? So I went down and carried a box upstairs. It was not light, but not heavy either. They were for Hendrik so I waited for him to come home to open them. Meanwhile I almost could not reach the bathroom because they were blocking the hallway.

When we opened them they were FULL of TOILET PAPER!!!

Hendrik, like he sometimes does, had entered a competition at a store and, of course had not won the first prize, but the 10th which was a years supply of toilet paper.... In my mind God was laughing hysterically at this moment. Thanks God, now we have enough! At least toilet paper.

Coincidence?