Homeless

It wasn't really apparent to me, until Ashlynn said today, "I want to go home." A simple statement, but how did I answer that? We don't have a home right now! Let's try getting an almost 3 year old to understand that! Not as easy as it sounds! We are still praying God has the perfect home prepared for us to live in once we finally arrive at our new base. For now, we are hotel living! Which, that's fun enough, but I know it'd be more fun if we had time to use the pool. Hopefully when we get to our hotel in Dallas we will. We are currently in Baltimore and headed out to Dallas later today. We will stay the night there and pick up our van tomorrow! Praise God! We are SO EXCITED to have our van back!

Cleaning Time!

We have spent much of the last week cleaning our house and today is the REALLY BIG cleaning day before our final out of our house here in Germany.(So what if I'm taking a break) And let me tell you, I am sick of scrubbing and sick of the smell of bleach and oven cleaner....Oh well, this time tomorrow we'll be out of the house and sitting in TLF(for those who don't know, Temporary Living Facility). I can only pray our transition back to America is better than our first few days in Germany. If you want to take a walk down memory lane, let's remember...board plane to Germany...sit on plane for 2 hours before take off for a 10 hour flight...could have been worse...get picked up from the airport in a dodge neon...we were oh so comfy with our 2 carseats and 10 bags shoved all around us, but I suppose it could have been worse...arrive at TLF...3rd floor...could have been worse, no phone in our unit....could have been worse...no phone in our BUILDING...could have been worse...no play pen for Ethan to sleep in...could have been worse....find play pen...things are looking up...drink nasty tap water...could have been worse, we didn't get sick after all...call sponsor for ride to the store...he tells us to walk...grrrr...could have been worse...find out one of the movers stole and maxed out a Credit Card...could have been much worse, I guess God was looking out for us, but the list goes on with the things that went wrong or poorly for us. By our 3rd day here I was crying telling Travis I didn't want to move here any more...let's just go back home...It was a rough start! As I take my break from cleaning I am now thinking about all the growth we have done here. For starters, one more child, our family is complete. But, I am really talking about our hearts our spiritual growth. God has been good in changing us and strengthening us. I can't even begin to tell you all we've experienced here that has brought us from who we were then to who we are today. We are so thankful for those of you who have helped us along the way and contributed to our life. It has been an incredible 4 years and we are so blessed to have shared it with those of you over here and those of you over the phone/computer. We can only pray our next 4 years are just as amazing. Thank you God for our time here in Germany!

I thought it due time for Easter pictures, so here are a few...We had a grand time dying eggs the Friday before. I drug the kids out for some pictures one day that week...And, we had a very blessed Easter Sunday. We spent the day at our church for a wonderful breakfast and fellowship time, then we attended the church service, and afterwards we were so lucky to spend our time with our dear friends at their home in Dudeldorf, we all over dosed on Chocolate, and enjoyed NO RAIN! It was a mellow day of remembering why Jesus died for us too and fellowship with friends.

2 Weeks 'Til Take Off

We have 2 weeks until we will be leaving Germany. We will probably be at the terminal ready to fly out almost exactly 2 weeks from the moment I am typing this (give or take an hour or 2). Our unaccompanied baggage just left out our front door. Earlier in the week we got e-mail confirmation that our Household Goods shipment arrived in TX and just needs us to be there and get a house to put it in. Our van at last check had made it to the Port in Georgia, and was headed to TX, so as luck, or God rather, would have it, nothing sunk in the ocean! Praise God!

In other news, we are still really praying on where we are going to be living. Our prayers continue that once we arrive and look at some houses we will know just where to call home. I will REALLY try to upload some Easter pictures soon, I don't know where this week has gone, but it seems as though time is flying by and we will be on to our next adventure in life sooner than we think!

Movie Park Germany

We were trying to come up with a fun day trip to do on our first day of Spring Break. We ran into dead end after dead end. Finally someone gave me some good info on the Movie Park Germany. They were having a special where kids get in for the price of their age instead of 27 Euro Each. We got everything lined up and packed up and headed out on our adventure Friday morning.

We were so surprised how wonderful the place really was. Even Ashlynn could go on most of the rides. We were able to go on roller coasters, water rides, spinning rides, and trains. Ashlynn and Ethan were too short to go on the Dora Star Mountain River Ride and Ashlynn was NOT happy about that one. But Travis and Kalib were able to go and had a blast! We each had our favorite ride, but I think we liked almost all of them. There was an alien one that was a bad choice by mom and dad...a little creepy, but we all made it through. Most of the rides were Nick themed rides and Nick Characters were all over the place. We thought Ashlynn would be so excited to meet Dora, but she hated all of the characters if they got to close she cried. Oh well, the boys were more than happy to be meeting SpongeBob, Dora, Diego, Patrick, Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, the Pink Panther, and Jimmy Neutron. As a matter of fact, every time we would see any of them they would have to give them a hug and say hello! When it was time to sit and have lunch there was a great park the kids could climb and play on. We were able to walk around and see some neat things. It was one of the most fun days we have had in quite some time. We are so blessed to have such amazing family time!

Spring is in the air

I don't know what it is, the sunny weather? The Easter Egg hunts? School let out for Spring Break today? Whatever it is...Spring is HERE and I feel great! I feel God calling our family to a season of change and growth once again.

We will say goodbye to Germany in LESS than a month and begin our adventure in TX. The butterflies are brewing in my belly, but it's not nerves this time, it's excitement! A new base, a new house, we'll be living closer to family. Travis will be doing something different for his job, we're excited to see what that holds for him. While I can't say the kids are happy to be going to a new school, they'll miss Bitburg Elementary and their friends here so much. But, I know they are going to adjust well. We are so lucky to have such wonderful children. They bless us each day...even the tough days we learn something from them and are blessed by them!

God is so good to have brought us from where we were to where we are today. He continues to work in us and grow us everyday. He pushes us beyond our limits and after the test we ALWAYS come out better and stronger. We are so excited to begin our next new phase in life and the blooming flowers of spring are an ever preset reminder that we too are heading into a new season of our life.

Oh and PS I know this layout with the photos and everything is a little odd...I couldn't get it to agree with me and what I wanted it to do!!

Moving Life...

We just wanted to give you and update on our moving status.
The movers were here Monday and Tuesday and got everything packed nicely. They tried to say my Polish Pottery didn’t count as a high value item, tried to take some stuff away un-crated, and packed some Mayo and Mustard packets that weren’t intended to go, but these are all small matters. Everything went really smoothly. Even when FMO (our loaner furniture) got delivered before the packers got here on day one, we managed to find room for it all, and none of it got packed. We feel so blessed to have a smooth move so far!
Yesterday I spent 2 ½ hours cleaning the van...let’s rephrase that and say detailing the van, for shipping. Since they are so strict on shipping regulations regarding the cleanliness of the car, I was afraid to go to the appointment with Travis for fear they would pick it apart and be negative after all the work I’d put into it. But, he asked me to stay and I did. I am so glad I did, the lady that inspected it had nothing but nice things to say about how clean and well taken care of our van is. (She didn’t see it when there were french fries and Cheetos under the seats though! lol) And, after all our hard work, Travis and I have decided there will be no more eating in the van...few exceptions for road trips and such.
All in all everything has gone wonderfully. Travis is supposed to go today to fix a few things on our Port Call dates and flight itinerary, and then either today or tomorrow he’ll go to housing and give our intent to vacate our apartment here. We’ll then be able to make our TLF (hotel) reservations in both Germany and Texas.
We still can’t believe how quickly this is all happening. In just a few short months we will bid farewell to our wonderful friends here ( this is something I’m still not thinking about :( or looking forward to!) And then we’ll be facing the adventures that wait for us in Texas!