Isaac will be serving a dual parish - one church in Dow City (where we'll be living) and the second, larger church in Denison. I was visiting the US with our girls (more on that later) when we found out about our placement. Since I was just an hour away in Omaha, Isaac's supervising pastor, Rev. Loeschen, invited us (myself, my girls, and my dad) out to visit the churches and see our new home!
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| Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Dow City, IA |
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| Our Savior Lutheran Church in Denison, IA |
We ended up stopping by Our Savior (accompanied by our tour guide, Rev. Loschen's wife, Debra) right as the confirmation service was finishing up, and everyone invited us to join them for the dinner immediately following. We had a lovely evening, and it was wonderful to get a sneak peek at what our life in Iowa will be like.
The current vicar was kind enough to let us walk through the vicarage house so we could get a feel for things, and it looks like it will be perfect for our family. As you know, we've lived in a 1 bedroom/300ish sq ft apartment for the past 2 years. We love it, but it's a tight squeeze with two kids. It was safe to assume we'd be moving someplace at least a bit larger, but this home is massive compared to our current place! It's a ranch style home with a full basement, and we'll have 3 bedrooms on the main level. We'll also have a guest room in the basement as well as an area for storage, and a lot of open cemented space for indoor bike riding in the winter. We'll be living "in town", but our home and backyard actually backs up to a field giving us lovely views and a great, safe place for the kids to play away from traffic.
Now, the reason I was in the US at all was because my grandpa (on my dad's side) was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer shortly before Easter. No one was/is sure if he'll make it until we're back in the US, so Isaac and I made the decision that I should make a spontaneous trip home with the girls. Unfortunately Isaac was in the middle of classes and couldn't come with us, but I'm so thankful that I was able to spend some very special time with my family. As an added blessing, we were able to find surprisingly good ticket prices considering the late notice of our travel. Flying with both girls by myself for 17+ hours went as well as could be expected, and we arrived in Indianapolis, IN tired but well.
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| Though Clara was technically a lap infant, the kind flight attendant bumped us to the only free seat on the plane so Clara wouldn't have to sit in my lap for the entirety of the very long flight. |
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| Mercifully, both girls took their nap right on schedule despite the unusual conditions. |
We spent an incredibly special week with my grandparents in Indiana before driving back to Omaha with my parents, sisters, and niece. We spent a few days in Omaha before flying back to Germany. My mom had been hoping to come and visit us in Germany again this year, and our last minute trip provided a good opportunity so she booked a ticket as soon as we figured out our travel dates, and she joined us for the flight home and spent a wonderful week with us in Germany before returning to the US herself. Her help was invaluable on the flight back since the girls both had major meltdowns after 1.5 weeks of jetlag, travel, and all around craziness. Let's just say the Lord provides, and the Lord knew I wasn't going to be able to do that flight on my own.
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| A fro-yo date with Nana in Oberursel. |
In addition to my US trip, we've squeezed in a few final European adventures. It's incredibly inexpensive to travel within Europe, and we've been very thankful for the travel opportunities we've had during the past two years that we've lived in Germany.
Isaac and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in Venice, Italy thanks to the generous weekend babysitting gift of our dear friend, Amy Johnson - well, and to Ryanair's €40/per person round trip tickets. Like I said, travel is crazy cheap here.
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Then we toured several cities in Germany (Rothenberg, Wittenberg, Munich, and Cologne) as well as a quick jaunt over to Salzburg, Austria while Isaac's parents were visiting us in March.
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| Salzburg, Austria |
Isaac sent me off for two different girls' weekends. One to Madrid with my dear German friend (and Clara's godmother), Christina.
In May (on Clara's 1st birthday, actually!), we flew to the UK for a seminary-sponsored trip to our seminary's sister-school in Cambridge. Every year the students from both schools take turns visiting campus', and this was Germany's year to go to Cambridge. There's always the traditional soccer (excuse me, football) game followed by a grill out. We had a great time, and the girls were really troopers with our late night/early morning flights (sometimes those cheap tickets do come at a price).
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| Punting on the Cam. |
As I mentioned - Clara is ONE now!! Our little German-born baby isn't so little now, and she's about to get her first real taste (literally and figuratively) of the USA. Clara is walking, talking, climbing, and all around doing her best to keep up with her big sister. She's unbelievably sweet, and she brings so much joy and laughter to our lives.
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| Clara's 1st birthday party. |
