TDY en-route
TDY= Temporary Duty
We spent the first weeks of December packing up our belongings, shipping our kids to various friends' homes for their final goodbyes, and making our rounds to say goodbye to the great friends we made while there. I won't mention them all, but they know who they are and how special they are to us. We left Montgomery, Alabama on 21 December 2007. We went to Texas to visit my (Tori) family for 2 weeks. We got to Nana and PaKenny's house on the 21st, spent my birthday there with them, then drove to LaMesa, Texas to visit my brother and his family. They just moved out West and bought a beautiful, huge house. They also have a Doberman Pincher named Askim. When people say, "What is your dog's name?" my nieces and nephew can say, "Askim!" Say it out loud and you'll understand. We had a great visit and played a lot and ate a LOT. My sister in law is a great cook. I'm not jealous. :)
We got back to Mom and Dad's in time to take my Granddaddy (my Dad's Dad) out for dinner for his birthday. We took him and my Grandmother out to a steak restaurant, then went back to their house and played Pinnochle. I have no idea how to spell that. I'll look it up and edit this later. We had a great visit with them and a conversation that I never thought I would have with my Granddaddy. We left knowing they would come visit us in Germany, and feeling like they truly love our family.
We left Texas after riding horses, working on fences, and just playing in general and arrived at Fort Walton Beach, Florida on 6 January. God provided a condo for us to live in the 2 months while we were there. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath place with a full kitchen/living/dining area. When you opened the balcony doors, you saw the ocean...not the bay, the GULF and heard the waves. We slept with our windows open many, many nights. Our landlords were Tom and Kim, and again God provided them to us. We became very good friends with them. They took us out on their boat and shared their family with us. It made us feel like we were home, and made us pretty sad when we left. We also had good friends Kevin and Shulonda there. He's stationed there right now. They just got married and she's very cute. We spent as much time with them as we could. SkipBo is a great game. We also spent time with Rick and Ann. The story of how we met them is quite long, but they are the parents of our neighbors in Alabama and we took to them immediately. They've been to Germany before and gave us lots of great advice. We also played cards with them. They're the ones that taught us how to play SkipBo.
We drove electric go-carts, which were VERY fast. By the way, I got the fastest lap time of everyone that we took, including Joe, my Dad, Kevin, and Shulonda. I'm very happy with my lap time. I only spun the car out 3 times, and it was fun.
We celebrated Josh's 7th birthday by eating Japanese steakhouse food, which is his favorite. It's so funny...every time someone would wish him a happy birthday, he would respond with "Happy Valentine's Day!" I think this is the first year that he understood that his birthday is actually a national holiday, and he thought it was pretty cool. It helps that I tell him all of the decorations are for him. :)
On March 10, which is Chloe's birthday, we got news that my Granddaddy had died during surgery for an abdominal aneurism. We were shocked and so sad because he was only 72 years old. I am so thankful for that Christmas conversation with him. God took him home the way he wanted to go...no pain, no long, drawn-out suffering, and Joe and I genuinely feel that we didn't have another thing to say. We already said what we needed to say.
We took Chloe to Build-A-Bear Workshop for her birthday. It's hard to be all smiles in a situation like that, but we didn't want to ruin her birthday completely and, being a child, once she cried over his loss, she was done. We took her to eat steak, which is one of her favorite foods, and Mr. Jeff (a major that is stationed in Germany but came to take the same course Joe was taking and will work with Joe in some regard while we're here) came and gave her a present. The kids really like him, and it made Chloe's day that he came by.
My parents came to visit the following week, March 15-22 and we did our best to help them recover from a very hard week of funeral and dealing with everything that comes with the death of the patriarch of the family. We sent them home fatter and more rested and, hopefully, feeling like we love them to pieces.
We left March 22nd to go to Joe's family in Rome, Georgia. We stayed for a week and had Jana, our niece, with us. We ate merrily, as we usually do with family, and just spent a lot of good time together. They took us to the airport March 28th. When we left, after we got out of the long shoeless line, Jana started yelling, "Bye, Auntie...Auntie, bye!" over and over again. It was the sweetest thing. I felt like I was out of tears because I had cried with my Mom, with Kim and Tom, with Shulonda, and then Jana did that, I saw Joe's mom bawling harder than I've ever seen her cry, and I lost it again. We had strangers offering comfort to us. I'm sure we were a sight...crying with people yelling bye to us and our shoes off. It's funny the images that make you laugh.
God says in Proverbs (I'll edit later if I got that wrong), "Except the Lord build the house, those that build it labor in vain." The funny thing is, the "house" is where God puts you, not necessarily a building. I always tell Joe that "home" is where he and the kids are. If God doesn't want you to go somewhere, then you're going in vain. When He wants you somewhere, He blesses you immensely. We feel so blessed we're bursting and although we'll be far from family, we know that God has put us on the mission field in Germany for a reason. German women are notoriously "tough," so maybe I'll learn that I'm not so bad after all, or maybe I'll have that unique ability to communicate effectively with them once I learn their language. There is a reason that He has us here amidst all of the other places He could've sent us, and we are so excited to begin this endeavor. I'll keep you posted, y'all please keep us prayed up!
We spent the first weeks of December packing up our belongings, shipping our kids to various friends' homes for their final goodbyes, and making our rounds to say goodbye to the great friends we made while there. I won't mention them all, but they know who they are and how special they are to us. We left Montgomery, Alabama on 21 December 2007. We went to Texas to visit my (Tori) family for 2 weeks. We got to Nana and PaKenny's house on the 21st, spent my birthday there with them, then drove to LaMesa, Texas to visit my brother and his family. They just moved out West and bought a beautiful, huge house. They also have a Doberman Pincher named Askim. When people say, "What is your dog's name?" my nieces and nephew can say, "Askim!" Say it out loud and you'll understand. We had a great visit and played a lot and ate a LOT. My sister in law is a great cook. I'm not jealous. :)
We got back to Mom and Dad's in time to take my Granddaddy (my Dad's Dad) out for dinner for his birthday. We took him and my Grandmother out to a steak restaurant, then went back to their house and played Pinnochle. I have no idea how to spell that. I'll look it up and edit this later. We had a great visit with them and a conversation that I never thought I would have with my Granddaddy. We left knowing they would come visit us in Germany, and feeling like they truly love our family.
We left Texas after riding horses, working on fences, and just playing in general and arrived at Fort Walton Beach, Florida on 6 January. God provided a condo for us to live in the 2 months while we were there. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath place with a full kitchen/living/dining area. When you opened the balcony doors, you saw the ocean...not the bay, the GULF and heard the waves. We slept with our windows open many, many nights. Our landlords were Tom and Kim, and again God provided them to us. We became very good friends with them. They took us out on their boat and shared their family with us. It made us feel like we were home, and made us pretty sad when we left. We also had good friends Kevin and Shulonda there. He's stationed there right now. They just got married and she's very cute. We spent as much time with them as we could. SkipBo is a great game. We also spent time with Rick and Ann. The story of how we met them is quite long, but they are the parents of our neighbors in Alabama and we took to them immediately. They've been to Germany before and gave us lots of great advice. We also played cards with them. They're the ones that taught us how to play SkipBo.
We drove electric go-carts, which were VERY fast. By the way, I got the fastest lap time of everyone that we took, including Joe, my Dad, Kevin, and Shulonda. I'm very happy with my lap time. I only spun the car out 3 times, and it was fun.
We celebrated Josh's 7th birthday by eating Japanese steakhouse food, which is his favorite. It's so funny...every time someone would wish him a happy birthday, he would respond with "Happy Valentine's Day!" I think this is the first year that he understood that his birthday is actually a national holiday, and he thought it was pretty cool. It helps that I tell him all of the decorations are for him. :)
On March 10, which is Chloe's birthday, we got news that my Granddaddy had died during surgery for an abdominal aneurism. We were shocked and so sad because he was only 72 years old. I am so thankful for that Christmas conversation with him. God took him home the way he wanted to go...no pain, no long, drawn-out suffering, and Joe and I genuinely feel that we didn't have another thing to say. We already said what we needed to say.
We took Chloe to Build-A-Bear Workshop for her birthday. It's hard to be all smiles in a situation like that, but we didn't want to ruin her birthday completely and, being a child, once she cried over his loss, she was done. We took her to eat steak, which is one of her favorite foods, and Mr. Jeff (a major that is stationed in Germany but came to take the same course Joe was taking and will work with Joe in some regard while we're here) came and gave her a present. The kids really like him, and it made Chloe's day that he came by.
My parents came to visit the following week, March 15-22 and we did our best to help them recover from a very hard week of funeral and dealing with everything that comes with the death of the patriarch of the family. We sent them home fatter and more rested and, hopefully, feeling like we love them to pieces.
We left March 22nd to go to Joe's family in Rome, Georgia. We stayed for a week and had Jana, our niece, with us. We ate merrily, as we usually do with family, and just spent a lot of good time together. They took us to the airport March 28th. When we left, after we got out of the long shoeless line, Jana started yelling, "Bye, Auntie...Auntie, bye!" over and over again. It was the sweetest thing. I felt like I was out of tears because I had cried with my Mom, with Kim and Tom, with Shulonda, and then Jana did that, I saw Joe's mom bawling harder than I've ever seen her cry, and I lost it again. We had strangers offering comfort to us. I'm sure we were a sight...crying with people yelling bye to us and our shoes off. It's funny the images that make you laugh.
God says in Proverbs (I'll edit later if I got that wrong), "Except the Lord build the house, those that build it labor in vain." The funny thing is, the "house" is where God puts you, not necessarily a building. I always tell Joe that "home" is where he and the kids are. If God doesn't want you to go somewhere, then you're going in vain. When He wants you somewhere, He blesses you immensely. We feel so blessed we're bursting and although we'll be far from family, we know that God has put us on the mission field in Germany for a reason. German women are notoriously "tough," so maybe I'll learn that I'm not so bad after all, or maybe I'll have that unique ability to communicate effectively with them once I learn their language. There is a reason that He has us here amidst all of the other places He could've sent us, and we are so excited to begin this endeavor. I'll keep you posted, y'all please keep us prayed up!
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