Hello friends and family,

Shawn and Sarah here. This past year has taught us a lot about our relationship and ourselves - although COVID has been hard for us all, it helped us also realize how truly lucky we are to have each other. Together, we've had an extremely successful and enjoyable move across the country, made many wonderful new friends and strengthened relationships with old friends, experienced the explosion of our band Smoulder, have travelled to multiple countries for performances and travel, hiked thousands of kilometres, been cat-parents to our fluffy baby Odin, and truly, made a beautiful life and home together... as well as made a few mistakes together (like that time we almost got trapped in Greece when the travel ban was implemented)! Regardless of what we've experienced, we've grown together throughout it all.

After we celebrated our sixth anniversary this summer, we began to further consider what our future together will look like and how we can achieve more of our goals. Shawn has been interested in university for some time; Sarah has always been interested in living in Finland, where she has dual citizenship. After the two of us travelled to Helsinki and Virrat in October of 2018 to spend time with friends and family, it felt likely that we would eventually relocate: we had an absolutely wonderful time and both of us have a strong support network in the country. Around that same time, Sarah started her new position at Bandcamp, which enables her to work anywhere in the world, further making that move possible.

Together, we decided it was time to make several changes: first up, we got engaged! We then decided to get married in our own simple and beautiful way: in an extremely intimate ceremony on November 21 in Yellow Creek, a ravine in Toronto where we frequently hike. We've spent a good portion of 2020 hiking, swimming, biking and paddling across the province, and it was the perfect space for us to share our vows. If you'd like to watch the video of our ceremony (complete with ample crunching leaves!), you may do so here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6b2sgcyd60amadu/Sarah%20and%20Shawn%27s%20Wedding.mov?dl=0

Now, for our second piece of big news: as soon as our marriage certificate arrives, we'll be applying for Shawn's residency permit to Finland and will be relocating as COVID permits! Once we arrive, Shawn will start university and Sarah will receive healthcare from the state, which will help tremendously with her chronic illness. We've been taking Finnish language lessons for over a month now, and are practising daily in preparation to live in the country.

We're very lucky to already have a home full of everything we need (and indeed, will be parting with most of our possessions in the move), so instead, we've registered with Honeyfund, where (if you'd like) you can contribute funds to our international relocation! Feel free to contact us via the link below if you need more info about how it works.

Thanks for visiting and we love you very much!

Rakastamme sinua (we love you!),

Sarah, Shawn & Odin