2005

OK, a quick recap of our life together. But then we should probably start in 2002, when our paths first crossed. We were both offered jobs in Germany, and moved there at around the same time (I beat Rob by one month). However, let's fast forward to Christmas 2004. Quick engagement and presentation to the Klarin family (somewhat of a surprise for some, I might add). March 2005, trip to South Africa for introduction to the McKnight family and one of the best memories of our life. Then we had some intense months; moving our stuff to Sweden, ending our jobs in Germany, and of course, the WEDDING on May 5th, 2005.

There's actually a funny story behind that, if you're not interested you can skip to the next paragraph. When I was around 15 or so, I went through that phase of "all men are stupid and forget important dates, that's why they have to have their wedding dates engraved in their rings. So I'll pick the easiest date in the world so he doesn't have an excuse to forget, like May 5th 2005." Come May 5th 2004; friend Adela and I are joking in our office that I'd better get a move on now if I want to stick to my date. Imagine my own surprise, and everybody else's who knew me at 15, when it turned out that May 5th 2005 was going to be The Date. It was a dream wedding (my love, it would be nice with some photos from then on the blog, hint hint?). As for the date, I now know that Rob is not the type of man who would forget about the date, even if it wasn't as easy to remember as it is. The theory has however turned out to be valid, my Pappa has admitted that he doesn't remember what year I'm born, but he does know my wedding date. (You wish you would have know that trick 40 years ago, Mamma, don't you?) If you want to use that story in a Young Women's lesson about setting righteous goals early, you may. I have. I'm only half joking.

So, back to 2005. Rob was incredibly lucky/blessed and got his Swedish residency permit in record time, 11 days, and started working right away, while I started studying Italian and linguistics at the university in Göteborg.

Then the worse times in the "for better and for worse" started. I noticed Rob didn't quite seem like himself, and after a nice Christmas during which Rob's daughter Meghan came to visit for a month with us, we went to see a doctor. It turns out he suffers from winter depression, brought on and aggravated by long, dark Swedish winters. However, the doctor seemed to think he had had it for a while but kept at bay until that point. At the same time, the company Rob was working for moved to Stockholm so he lost his job. So there we were, me with a student's allowance and Rob unemployed = no money. But there the blessings of the gospel came in - Rob's son Rogan was at the time serving his mission in Ghana, and we were supporting him fiancially. And believe it or not, despite doing our budget and calculating that our money would only last us for one more month, we kept on for 5 months, without income, but still making ends meet, one month at a time. We still thank Rogan's mission for saving us financially at that time. And when we finally did run out of money, Rob found a great job. But that you will have to read about in the 2006 post.