what does love mean to you: chelsea style

i promised you guys a treat today & here it is! meet chelsea & jeremy. they are a gorgeous couple who packed up their lives & moved to korea. koreeeea! {maybe i'm more blown away by that than you}. chelsea's also the one that does those Travel Tuesdays posts with beautiful pictures, along with some of the most inspirational quotes, that are supposed to "cure" my wanderlust but in reality it fuels it! for example, these are some of my favorites: 1 // 2 // 3

the fact that they live abroad is one of the many reasons why i asked her to be a part of this months series on love. moving can be a taxing thing on any relationship, but moving to an entirely new country as newlyweds -- i can't imagine the emotions. chelsea talks about how living abroad has shaped all forms of love in her life -- her love for jeremy, her Creator, family, & friends. 

enjoy!

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Hey there! I'm Chelsea and I blog over at Lost in Travels. After my man and I got hitched two years ago, we started getting cold sweats every time we even thought about ‘settling down’ in our hometown. We wanted to do something out of the ordinary, something adventurous. We wanted to spend our lives traveling the globe. So what did we do? Sold all of our belongings that wouldn’t fit in two 50-pound bags and took the first flight to South Korea to teach English to snot nosed adorable little kids and never looked back!

As you can imagine, living abroad can either be a blessing or a curse for a couple. In my eyes, it's the exact opposite of long distance dating. Before we were married, we spent the first ten months of our relationship long distance, on opposite ends of the country. We hardly saw each other, only talked on the phone, and heavily relied on the presence of family and friends for support and advice.

Once we moved overseas, it was quite the opposite. Starting out we were working at the same school which meant seeing each other 24/7 in the most literal way possible. Knowing very few people, we were our own support system. In addition to that, the time difference of being 15 hours ahead of our home town made it difficult to just pick up the phone and call people closest to us. We were told by friends who had paved the way for us in Korea that living abroad was the best thing they ever did for their marriage, they had grown closer together than they had ever imagined. I wish I could say that as soon as we touched Korean soil, it was marital bliss. But that would be far from the truth. The first few months were hard; in addition to trying to get used to everything new in our lives (new career path, new language, new food, the list is endless) we were also still adjusting to married life since we moved just four short months after tying the knot. I remember thinking at one point 'I thought living abroad was supposed to be easier!' Thankfully, after a few months of being in Korea, it clicked. We grew accustomed to the new culture around us and more importantly, we grew together, worked together and began reaping the benefits of living abroad as a married couple.

As hard as it can be living away from family, friends and virtually anything familiar, we have found the benefits far outweigh the hardships that we have encountered from living abroad. Here's how I've personally experience love overseas:

Marriage: While becoming our only friends overnight, in a strange land, were we lived, worked, ate and socialized together 24/7 was a challenge at first, it has turned into one of the biggest blessings I've ever had. Not only did we have more time to spend with each other than we ever did in the states but we were also our only support system for the first part of living overseas. Back in the states I had the bad habit of calling a friend or my sister when we had a fight. In Korea, I didn't have that option. It forced us to sit down and figure it out completely on our own, and quickly. Because who wants to be mad at their only friend for too long? We learned quickly how to rely completely on each other and I don't know of any situation where that would have happened for us if we lived stateside. Living abroad has taught us to love in a completely different way than I ever thought possible and I am eternally grateful for that.

God: We went to a large church back in the states and I never even thought of ever going to a smaller one. That is until we walked through the door of a local foreign church in Korea, made up of about 30 members, and felt right at home. I can honestly say that I have never been so challenged, motivated or inspired by a group of individuals before. Who knew that it would take a move to Korea for me to feel the closest to God?

Traveling: It's no secret that we have had the 'travel bug' from early on in our marriage. But the love for traveling, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people has never been stronger than it has been living overseas. We're constantly scheming on where to go next and how we can go to more places. More than that though, it's a love for people that has grown from living here. Experiencing different cultures has made us think more about the people around us, has made us understand the world better and has opened our hearts and minds to this big world around us that we so desperately want to see all of.

Thanks so much for having me Laurie! Be sure to stop by the blog or twitter (lost_in_travels) and say hi! I would love to meet you!

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be sure to stop by & say hello to chelsea, the inspiring traveler/teacher/beauty queen/sweet friend.

blog // twitter

the other posts in the love series can be found here, here, & here. thank you to all the wonderful ladies who were a part of this series. it's funny how similar, yet very different love is for from one person to the next. y'alls perspectives were greatly enjoyed. i loved having you all!

now, hello march!