We found a new hiking trail which led to a pond full of frogs' eggs. We've been checking on it regularly!
We've done some of our own planting and I'm delighting in being outside digging in the dirt. We're getting chickens in the next few weeks and I can't wait for that, too!
Kathryn, Emma, David, Rob and I have joined a choir made up of Germans and Americans (and a couple of others, too, I guess) that practices every week. We're singing in four or five different languages and having a great time! We'll sing in three concerts in May, including a joint one with a choir from Munich and one for the Night of the Churches.
We'd love your prayers for continued discernment for the children we've placed in school. There are a number of things causing us to re-evaluate including a commitment to constantly consider their situations. Thank you for holding us up in this important part of our family's life.
Rob spent almost a month in the states in February and March and we had all of the adventures of a military separation, including a virus that knocked most of us out for a solid week, plus another two weeks of getting back to 100%. It was a rough one! Not many adventures during that time; we were just kind of treading water.
We got to see a good friend in Munich after Rob got back and it was quite the adventure. Rain, bolting five-year-olds, talkative waiters, and five hours driving each direction! Not every adventure goes the way you planned. But we learned some important lessons and we're glad to have made the trip!
We took David and Ian to Legoland for their birthdays last week. The trip was partly to make up for a, let's just say it, lame experience with a Legoland Discovery Center in San Antonio a few years ago. This was much cooler and we had a blast with them. They are growing into fine young men.
We helped to host a Passover Seder meal on Maundy Thursday at the local Baptist church that our friends attend. There were roughly 70 people there and we really enjoyed it.
Saturday was Tessa's birthday and she and Isaac (his birthday was earlier in the month) spent the day with Rob and I in Trier. This is an amazing city here in Germany. It was settled by the Romans around 16 BC. It was so cool to walk through a Roman gate and touch the chisel marks of someone living at the same time as Jesus! There is so much history there: Roman, Gothic, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern. Constantine lived there at one point, as did Karl Marx. We visited a Toy Museum (complete with 3rd Reich action figures) and bought fresh strawberries in the main market square. (It's strawberry and asparagus season here.) We also had lunch at an Italian restaurant complete with wood fired pizzas and a veal-tuna-sardine-arugula appetizer. The kids were great!
We're looking forward to some adventures coming up and I'll share them as soon as I can. Again, the invitation is open to anyone who wants to come see us. It's not that hard if you're headed pretty much anywhere in Europe to meet up! We know we've missed some of you already over here! Frohe Ostern!
