Wir wohnen in Deutschland! (We live in Germany!)

 Hallo Freunde!

Hello Friends!

I'll be trying to write in English more than German, but I find myself using more and more German every day.  It's great!  Actually it's an answer to prayer, but more on that later.  We have been in country for two and a half weeks now.  Yesterday, I confirmed that with Rob because it feels like so much longer.  We think it's because we've been on the road for a month and out of a "permanent" home for four months.  We're still in temporary digs and that's making it feel like we've been "on the way" for a very long time.  Our trip here went very smoothly and we even met one of the other chaplains and his family on the plane to Ramstein.  

We are staying for now in a little village called Schwedelbach and it is adorable.  I wake up most mornings, look out my window, and wonder if this is a movie set!  The fog rolls over the fields which have either brown cows or small deer feeding in them.  I walk to the little bakery in the center of town, past the flower store run out of a person's home, the ice cream vending machine next to the fountain, and the walking pool (think knee deep cold water for after a long hike or bike ride) surrounded by cafe tables and chairs.  The streets are narrow and the traffic is fast.  Roundabouts everywhere!  But our driving is improving and I can get from our home to the shops in the next town or the base or the flower field where you cut your own flowers and pay per stem on an honor system.  

(We've been doing a lot of puzzles.  This isn't our village, but it kind of looks like it!)

We don't have enough seats in our car to get everyone around yet, so we're taking a lot of walks.  There are fairy tale woods and it's delightful to see my children playing in them.  Getting out of the house is good, too, as it is quite small and it's easy to step on  each other.  The older children (Elliott and up) often walk 650 meters to the Spielplatz (playground) in town.  

(Fairy tale woods; the snails are huge! Golf ball sized shells)

Rob is figuring out work and what that will look like.  He is glad to be back in regular Air Force ministry again and is looking forward to working with the most diverse group of chaplains ever.  The office is about 20 minutes from the house that we will move into in two weeks.  Which brings me to the many answered prayers we've seen so far.  I had three concerns about moving to Germany.  The first was finding the right place to live.  Our family is pretty good at being content with less than people might think we need.  But we are 12 people.  The second concern was with the language.  I don't want to live here for three years and rarely speak German.  Or have my children rarely speak it.  And I don't want to be stuck in a situation because I don't know or can't speak the language.  Finally, and this is a smaller one, whenever I move to a new place, I'm quite disoriented for a while.  And it's upsetting not to know how to get home from wherever I am.  Google Maps aside, I like to know how to get to my most common destinations and to have a general sense of direction.  

(Today's Five Guys fries farm location)

So, praises:  1) We have a contract signed for a lease!  The house in Jettenbach has four bedrooms in the main house and one more in the guest house, which also has two kitchens and an entertaining space in it!  It's an old restaurant, so the kitchen is larger than most German kitchens, and the landlord has a full-size refrigerator in it already!  He's leaving us the trampoline and all of the outdoor furniture for the property.  The lot is probably an acre in size and has a small orchard of apple and pear trees and blackberry bushes!  He wants us to enjoy and plant in the garden and though he's amazed by our family size (zehn kinder!!!), he says he's happy there will be children in the home.  

(Coming into Jettenbach)

2) I am finding that my German improves every day and the miracle is that I'm not afraid to use it!  I've had interactions with people in multiple shops and gas stations and even at the park.  I just speak German until I run out of things I know to say!  I understand most of what I hear, even if I couldn't translate it back to you.  I don't know what has given me the boldness to risk embarrassment when I've frozen in the past, but I'm just giving thanks for it.  We're speaking as much at home as we can, too.  Well, at least I am.  The kids are still kind of rolling their eyes at me, but I don't care and they're coming along.

3) And as a reminder that our God cares even about our small fears, I'm not having any anxiety about navigating the area.  Not with tiny streets, unfamiliar signs, or even driving a stick shift again!  Praise God!

Okay, that was a long update.  I'm hoping to write more regularly, or at least only when really interesting things happen.  I'll probably even have the kids write occasionally for practice.  We love and miss our dear ones in the States!

Sarah