Two plus Chico.

Welcome to our first blog post (and by "our" I mean Christine's). This is Christine typing and this has been a long time coming. I'm talking years of courage, over-thinking, therapy, talking myself out of it. You name it, there's a slew of reasons I haven't started blogging (or doing most things for that matter). To be quite frank, my self-esteem got in the way of me pursuing my dreams. Well I'm here today to confidently tell you I'm doing it scared and I'm showing up.

This blog is meant to provide insight to all things travel, conception, and life. Ben and I love to travel. Ben was the one who really instilled the love of travel in me. I personally didn't go far from home. I remember one time I was on a plane going back home to Minnesota from visiting family in Las Vegas, Nevada. I sat next to a man who was from the Netherlands and he asked me "where do you go when you're on holiday?". 21-year-old Christine had barely been outside of the country let alone knew what the word "holiday" could mean to someone outside of the USA. I said "on holiday? You mean like Thanksgiving, Christmas? Well I don't go anywhere. I stay home and visit family". The man looked at me in a sad and confused way. Not sad like he was going to cry, but almost a pity sad. Like, "how could this young girl not have travelled in her life?". Well fast-forward 5 years and, lucky for me, I married a man who loves to travel. Here is a list of places, outside of the United States, that we have travelled since meeting or are going to travel to in the next 3 months:

1) Costa Rice

2) Cape Town, South Africa

3) London, UK

4) Paris, France

5) Budapest, Hungary

Crazy right?! And that's not including all of the adventures held domestically! Young, naive, Christine had no idea what was in store for her life the day she introduced herself to Ben and now here we are almost 3 years later travelling the world together. Gaining new memories, experiences, and most of all a better understanding of one another. Travel is where we experience the love of God the most. How could you not when you're looking at the awe and beauty of His creation?!

Because Ben isn't exactly here to tell his life story, I'll give a brief synopsis of our story. Ben was married before me, but his wife tragically passed away in June of 2020 at the age of 26 leaving behind a young widower and a beautiful black cat named Chico Sneak Bon Bon. We met after this and, amidst deep heartache and grief, we chose to start dating and trudging through life together. Easy is the last word I would use for our relationship. I would say our relationship, and now marriage, is absolutely beautiful. It has some of the highest of highs and lowest of lows you could ever imagine. Through a strong Godly community and a lot of communication, our relationship has never been stronger. Ben and I married on December 3, 2022 at the Historic Wesley church in Downtown Minneapolis, MN. One of the coldest days yet that year with a wind chill of -11. Regardless, it was absolutely beautiful and I look back with fond memories on that day.

I am so eager and excited to blog about our life, and be able to look back at these posts, and see where God takes us. It has been such a journey. I want you to experience the highs with us and the lows with us. I want to invite you on this adventure called life and show you that even when life is hard we can have each other's backs. Ben and I are on a journey to starting a family and I'm looking forward to sharing our experiences with you.

Life is short. Have fun on the adventure.

- The Hubert's (and Chico)