Lebensfroh

The youngest of the kiddies

Today was awesome. I woke up at the crack of dawn to the kiddies runnning around upstairs getting ready for the school day. We ate breakfast and I joined the family for family devos before Jeff left for work. We biked with Esteban (the youngest) to his kindergarten and then Vera showed me the town around where they live. It was a beautiful and the weather was perfect. Then we did some household chores and began our first english lesson! It was so funny. We both don´t know what we are doing and that makes it even better. I told her about the time Leah cracked up at my Die Mikrowelle sign (she thought it said die, as in kill, microwave when it is really pronounce (dee) with a long e and silent i. Vera thought that was hilarious. Afterwards we both did our own things and she made lunch. The kids come home so early! Which is great, never later than 1:30 for the older two and 3 for the youngest. So we drew pictures...I made each of them a soccer poster with the German flag and their name (they are all really into the Europacup right now). That was great time with them, something we can do where I don`t have to know that much German to entertain them.

I left for Karlsruhe with the train and met Christoph and we made a delicious dinner and enjoyed some time before we had our first Asyl evening togther. (The international ministry he volunteers with). And it was a memorable night.

The first guy we sat with didn`t say much at first but finally started speaking more. He was from Pakistan and was eager to learn German quick and hopefully have a better chance at getting a Visa. The next was two Afghani guys who were hilarious. One understood little to no english and the other little to no Deutsch. We were always talking in two languages at once. Good thing Christoph was there! And the last was the most crazy. An natural born Algerian who had now lived for the past 6 or maybe longer years between Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Algeria. He was fluent in Arabic, French, Swedish, Spanish and pretty good with english and learning German. So...now we were talking, him and Christoph in French, me in english and german, and the one afghani needed everything translate back to German. It was hilarious, and so much fun! We ate three entire plates of cookies together (stealing from the other tables each time we emptied one) and lots of yummy tea.

Everyone packed up and we left and Christoph showed me a few more things around the city and then we headed home for game night before I head back to Blankenloch.

These are my rants for today, and though we didn`t share them all...I have them all because of Christoph. I am so thankful for all he has done to get us to this point and to support me and our relationship. I have so many joys today, even small joys, through him. Thank you Jesus for this incredible man in my life.