I’m getting so behind on my updates, I need to get some of
the last month’s memories down before anything else happens.
To summarize it all: We took a bunch of trips.
The most epic was our road trip around Eastern Europe.
We visited the Neuschwanstein castle, which was filled with the
most magical, colorful charm inside.
We drove through the gorgeous green Alps to Innsbruck, Austria
where we explored churches, shops, and old, pretty buildings, drank from
fountains, and taste tested chocolates and peach mango sweet cheese tarts.
We found an impressively giant mountain peak overlooking a
lovely village where we talked to an Italian couple in our broken Spanish.
We stopped at an old wood shop to clean up a car seat full
of vomit (and search in vain for a bathroom).
We experienced Venice in all it’s gondola-riding, ice
cream-eating, gold plated-palace-admiring glory.
We stayed in a hill-side condo overlooking the Ocean in
Croatia. We played on the rocky beach and walked along the boardwalk at sunset.
That was a beautiful memory.
We nearly lost one or two of the kids to a raging (but super
beautiful) waterfall at Plitvice National Park. Okay, not really, but it was
DANGEROUS. Good thing I read this article entitled “stop making stupid selfies”
AFTER we visited, or else I would have been really unnerved knowing how many
rescues take place there every week. Despite
the danger, we managed to keep our four little hikers safe as we all trekked about 6 miles across wooden walkways lacking
hand rails, built over the most gorgeous turquoise waterfalls.
We walked all over Budapest (which has the prettiest
fortress up on the hill), and got caught in the rain in the middle of buying
delicious street food.
We had some major diaper blow-outs in the car, causing
several road-side clean-up sessions.
We got stuck in several minor traffic jams and one MAJOR
traffic jam in which we were at a complete standstill for a good 30 minutes.
That one ended up adding three hours to our 5-hour drive. When we finally got a
chance to pull off the highway and make a pitstop, I was so desperate to find a
bathroom that I ran to a construction zone port-a-potty. Here’s how it went:
Me: “Can I use this?” (points to port-a-potty)
Construction worker guy who happened to be passing by: Shakes
his head and shrugs his shoulder as if to say, “I don’t know. I don’t speak
your language.”
Me: Opens door on a different construction guy. “WUPS! Sorry!”
Also Me: Feeling panicked, sprints away without
looking around to see if anyone saw what I just did.
We visited Prague where Mike got swindled in the first 20
minutes of arrival.What Happened:
Mike: Tries to figure out how to use the money exchange
machine.
Nice, innocent-looking man: “Oh let me show you how this
works.”
Mike: Thinks to himself: “Wow, what a nice guy to help me.”
Innocent man: “Do you happen to have change for this 40?”
Mike: “Hey, you helped me, of course I have change, here you
go!”
(Walks back to me and the kids)
Also Mike: “Ok, I got some cash, a really nice guy helped me
out. Prague people are nice. I like Prague!” (Side note: words he literally
said).
…20 minutes later when we are downtown…
Me: “I’m going to buy us some water, can you give me some
cash?”
Mike: “Sure, here you go.”
Me: (Goes to buy water at a little shop. Hands cashier
the money)
Cashier: (In thick accent, pointing to money) “This money no
good. This no good.”
Me: (Takes money back to Mike and explain how it’s fake.)
Mike: “Oh, so THAT’S why that guy was so nice.”
For the rest of our Prague day, we did the regular: Walked
the streets enjoying beautiful views of churches, buildings, castles, bridges,
etc. At this point in the trip (9 days of travel), we were pretty exhausted, so
instead of saying, “Let’s go inside that pretty building over there.” We were
like, “Oh look at that pretty building over there.” (When traveling with four
kids age five and under, you’ve got to keep your expectations low).
So that was our Eastern Europe road trip in a tiny, little nutshell.
I wish I could tell you more, but in summary: It was a lot of hard work packing
around 4 kids, but it was also so incredible, amazing, and wow, wow, wow! I
cried a couple times (mostly in Venice) at just how amazing it was and how
fortunate we were to be able to see these unbelievably cool places.
Another trip we took was to the Netherlands (beautiful place on Earth) to catch the
tail end of the Tulip festivities there. While a lot of the tulip fields were
already picked, we had a beautiful time walking through Keukenhof. It was just a
heavenly, peaceful, beautiful place (particularly in the morning when the
crowds weren’t overwhelming).
In the past couple weeks, we’ve enjoyed going to local
attractions: Our city’s botanical gardens, parks, and nearby castles. One
castle visit in particular was especially enchanting. It was a fairly small,
crumbling castle, without any groundskeepers or rules about where you can’t
explore. On this rainy day, the place was almost totally empty and it was just
magical exploring the underground hidey holes, the cave-like corridors, the
dark, echoing tunnels, and tall winding staircase up to the tallest tower
overlooking distant villages. Days like that are the reason for living here.
In non-traveling news, oh there’s so much that’s been going
on, I couldn’t begin to describe it all.. In the spirit of being honest, some days I feel so blessed I think
my heart might burst. Other days I feel really burnt out and depressed. Some days,
I feel so much gratitude for all the experiences and opportunities we’ve been
given. Other days, I feel exhausted and mope over wishing certain things were easier. In short, we’ve been continuing to learn so many things through trial and
error, and answered prayers. I am filling up my personal journal all the time
with the ways God is teaching me how to be a better person, wife, mom, and
friend. I’ve learned so much about myself here, and so much about our family.
All I can say is this move to Germany has been really life-changing in a lot of
positive ways. It’s changed my perspective in many ways. It’s been a refiner’s fire. I believe it’s
been an essential step in our life’s journey. Mike and I both talk all the time how we needed to come here to learn what we've learned. While it’s been difficult on many
levels, I’m so grateful we have had this opportunity to live here. It’s taught
me that hard really is good. Hard is growth. Hard is where learning and change
happens. Hard is beyond comfort – yes, you have to cross fear to get to it, but once you trudge through hard for a good while, the
rewards and lessons learned are worth it.
Another highlight from last month was finally getting around to
this.
See this picture? This is a key element to my well-being. I’ve been
trying to get this gym membership since we moved here, and a few weeks ago, I
finally made it happen. To have somewhere to go each day, to have something to fit our daily routine around, to have a place where the kids can play without me for at worst
10 minutes, at best 60 minutes, to get some consistent exercise, has been so
wonderful! I decided a long time ago that no matter where we live, if I can
just have my gym with childcare, I can be content, and I still maintain that
today.
Other random thoughts: My kids are growing up so fast. My baby
is now seven months old. SEVEN! She’s such an angel. Always happy, always quietly
looking around, rolling all over the carpet in search of toys. Giggling with
her siblings and cooing and babbling so sweetly. She’s just a darling and I’m
so grateful for her. My two-year-old turns three in TWO MONTHS. WHAT! Her sass
and charisma and spunky humor brightens my heart every single day. What would I
do without her? My boys are turning into such handsome little guys and fill my life
with so much fun and adventure. They are at an age where we can play all sorts
of guessing games and math challenges and spelling quizzes together. They are
so smart and learning so much. With the warm weather, I’ve been taking the kids
to the park each day and I have the best time teaching them soccer and swinging
them on the swings and exploring the sandbox with them. Yesterday, we all took
turns timing each other while we ran an “obstacle course” around the
playground. It made my heart so happy to see all my kids smiling, cheering each
other on, darting up the ladder and down the slide, learning to use the timer
button on my phone. They made me do the course three times (the locals probably
think I’m a loud and crazy mom…which is true). It was just fun. I love spending quality time
and really focusing on my kids. That’s definitely been one of those positive
outcomes of living here. I think I appreciate my kids more. I feel like I see
more clearly than ever that being a good parent to them, that their well-being
and safety, that our precious time together is more important than anything
else.
Before signing off, one last classic Germany story which happened
today:
Once upon a time, I’m driving to the gym on a one-way road
(there are a LOT of one-way roads here).
Suddenly I come upon a giant parked truck, taking up the
entire space of the road for an indefinite amount of time.
“Hmm,” I think to myself, “Maybe I can just turn right and
get to the road a roundabout way.”
So I turn right. Then left. Then left again.
Here I notice the road ahead turns into a one-way (not in the
current direction).
I notice there’s a street to the left I can take (the only
street available to travel down at this point), so I turn left.
After continuing on this road awhile, I begin to notice it
getting narrower and narrower and narrower until…
I see that this road also turns into a one-way (NOT in the current
direction).
HOW DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN?
At this point an elderly man riding his bicycle stops in
front of me as if to say, “You aren’t trying to come this way are you, you
crazy American driver?”
I begin the backwards back-up drive of shame down the long,
narrow road until I’m able to turn around again (Living here has made me a
MASTER of backwards, backing-out, watch-your-side-mirrors driving).
After getting myself pointed in the “out” direction, I smile
and nod a goodbye to the elderly bicyclist (who stares suspiciously back).
With the help of my trusty GPS, I find my way to the gym at last and think: “I remember when I first got here, this kind of stuff stressed
me out A LOT. Now wrong turns are just a way of life.”
The End.
