2018

One of my goals for 2018 was to update this family website regularly, but when I went on in January the website was not working.  After a lot of back and forth, my amazing nephew, Joe, got it working again! But, I haven’t taken the time to do an update.

In February, we had a whirlwind trip to Frankfurt to renew passports for Kassandra and Erik.  Because they were under 16 the last time they applied for a passport, they had to appear in person (after this, passports can be renewed through the mail).  But, there are no longer appointments available anywhere in northern Germany, we could not get an appointment in Berlin, so we had to go to Frankfurt.  We ended up leaving at midnight to arrive in time for our 7:30 am appointment, and shortly before 9 am, we were on our way home.  It made for a fun day in the car as a family and fun memories!

One of my goals for 2017 was to learn how to knit entrelac.  It was a challenge but super fun and I was very pleased with the result! And, I finally finished it in March of this year.

In April we enjoyed a lengthy visit from my nephew, Joe, and his girl friend, Saragh.  I love being an aunt and it is sad that I don’t really know my nieces and nephews, so this was a super fun couple of weeks.  Saragh and Kassandra did a number of puzzles while they were here.

For Erik’s birthday, he jokingly said that he wanted a cake, topped with a big cookie, topped with donuts, topped with ice cream, topped with whipped cream.  He didn’t really expect me to go through with it, but we made him his dream cake!  Talk about sugar overload!!!

Sometime the beginning of the year, I was feeling quite overwhelmed with trying to keep up with my household, the ministries at the church, all the paper work and correspondence plus more and more counseling opportunities.  Added to that was my job teaching English.  After much prayer, we decided that I should quit my job and that Fred would look for a “mini-job.”  The beginning of July was my last day at the school.  I was honored with letters, flowers, songs and a teary good-bye.  For 12 1/2 years I taught at the grade school in Bokholt-Hanredder and I am thankful for the many memories and many good friendships that came from those years.

Travis turned 22 in July.   We spent the evening playing Cosmic Encounter with him!  And, typical for the middle child, I don’t have any pictures of his birthday! 🙁

Kassandra spent almost the entire month of July in the States and flew back with Julianna and the 3 kids arriving on July 26th.  It was such a joy to have Julianna and her family here for 4 weeks (Nathan joined them after 10 days).  It was fun to interact with the kids on a daily basis.  As always, I am grateful for memories and pictures!  And, since words cannot adequately express how wonderful the time was, here are a bunch of pictures:

And here we are almost at the end of September.  The days are getting shorter, it is turning cooler and signs of fall are all around us.  Exciting times are ahead for our family, but for today, I will enjoy the minutes, cherishing the people I love and all the good gifts God gives me!