Exciting Times

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We have started slowing down on our adventures but that doesn't mean things are any less exciting for us. This week there were two big events in our lives. First, we had our most exciting earthquake yet. It was a 6.1 and was centered about 30 miles east of our house. It was very frightening for us because we are not used to the earthquake experience. Also it felt like it was moving up and down instead of side to side. The up and down earthquakes do more damage than the others.

One of the reasons we chose to travel abroad was to experience another culture, to live like they live and do what they do. This was very important to us because when you live in the same town your entire life and have the same routine day after day it is easy to forget how big the world is. We wanted Noah to experience other cultures while he is still young and can enjoy it. Living with earthquakes is something the Taiwanese people do every day. It is so common here that many people don't even feel them unless they are pretty big. This was an experience that we will never forget and we have grown to appreciate the power of nature.

We live around point B on the Taiwan map. The earthquake was centered at point A.

The second exciting event to happen this week was that, we purchased a house! This has been a long process, three full months, and I would never suggest buying a house while out of the country. The banks are hard to work with and the time difference makes it very difficult to contact them by phone. Thankfully for us Justin's father has been super helpful and taken care of so much for us. We have not seen the house in person but we have seen pictures. The house is going to require lots of work but what we really fell in love with was the property. We are anxiously waiting to see our new house. The picture below shoes the property! All wooded and the neighbors are pretty far away.