7Year Anniversary Photo Essay!

Savannah Grace

8 years ago

This is NOT a joke!!! I’ve been living in The Netherlands for SEVEN YEARS! It feels like another April Fools joke because I am trying to believe that it is true….

April 1st is a special day for me for three reasons. 1: It’s the day (eight years ago) that I met this Dutch man in Ghana, West Africa 2: We official became a couple (seven years ago) and 3: It’s the same day I moved to the other side of the world when I was just 18 years old.

Eight years ago in Ghana, West Africa

Holland has been good to me. When I first arrived, I felt I’d landed in a Disney fairytale with the cobblestone streets and castle-like buildings, the horses prancing through endless green fields and swan babies floating in the sparkling canals.

Holland has treated me to the most incredible colors of spring, fans roaring at the Amsterdam Arena at Ajax football games and wearing head-to-toe orange at the World Cup games, wild outdoor summer festivals, windy bicycle rides, boat rides through the canals of Amsterdam, quad adventures on the beach and so much more.

The more years that pass, the faster they seem to go by. Time has become an ungraspable concept, constantly slipping through my fingers. Today I want to freeze time for a moment to look back at all of the incredible things I have experienced since that hot, dusty African day so long ago, that changed my life forever.

Kenya 2008

Sometimes I panic, wondering where the time has gone and feel I haven’t accomplished anything at all. But in seven years I have learned (quite a bit) of Dutch, published two books, nearly written a third book, travelled to 25 or so more countries on five continents, rebuilt houses, and fallen even deeper in love with this man who is responsible for so many of these amazing memories. I love you.