Alexander Family's Big Adventure: I was feeling brave!

My first experience of driving in Germany resulted from me having to drive for work-related travel. So I got a car from work and drove about 3 hours away to Grafenwohr for a couple of nights. I left Sunday and had a decently easy drive. On the way back, I had some challenges. First, just driving out of town, a parked work truck pulled out in front of me and left me sitting in the road while I was trying to turn left. Several cars had to move around me, but they must have seen it because nobody yelled at or corrected me. A few hours into my drive back, I missed that the right lane was closing and had to stop to avoid side-swiping another car. I'm still not sure how I missed that, but the two cars behind me also did not see that it was closing and ended up in the same situation as me. Then a little while after that, probably just after my adrenaline slowed down, there was a truck dead in the right lane on the autobahn where there were only two lanes because of construction to begin with. I got home Tuesday night, and that was stressful enough that I was happy to be done driving for a while.

But the next day, I found out that my van was here! I suddenly forgot how difficult my drive home had been, even in that little car I'd had. I was able to pick up the van on Friday, and took the family to Globus about 4km away. Globus is like the Wal-Mart of Germany. Better, of course, but still. We ate there and got the kids some toys and came home without incident.

I was feeling brave and adventurous, so Dave and I decided that I would drive us to Heidelberg (since Dave doesn't have his license yet, a situation I hope to rectify tomorrow). No sweat! Except, uhh, that I am and always have been spatially challenged, and we got to a garage that I'm PRETTY SURE was intended only for Smart cars. (Which came first, really?) I made Dave take the wheel and closed my eyes, sang "Jesus Loves Me", and sucked my thumb until it was all over.

No, really.

Dave is quite good at that kind of thing and for him it was no sweat. And we parked close enough to the castle (on the second try) that we were able to walk right up to it. Steep hill! It was a good little walk and the kids did great. Must have been all that conditioning we've been doing for the past six weeks! After we walked the gartens, we went down to the Altstadt and had dinner. I wouldn't necessarily say that we enjoyed dinner, although the food was great. I had goulash and it was the best I've ever had.

But in my opinion, the kids have been acting a bit weird lately. I think it's because they've been too confined in this lodge for the past 6 weeks. At dinner, and of late, they've kind of been acting like bumbleheads, so it was hard to really enjoy the dinner. And by the time we got home, Dave and I were both pretty tired and stressed out.

Today I took Alex and Griffy to church while Dave stayed home with the girls. Lilly is sick with a cold and I didn't want her to share it with the other nursery babies. Livvy was content to stay, and I didn't argue because 2 against 1 is easier than 3 against 1. I looked at Alex today and thought he looked quite tired. I guess I would be, too, if 2 three-year-olds had been kicking my legs every night for the past 6 weeks. He is looking forward to having his own space again, I think.

Tuesday we move in! It is long overdue. And not to complain, but it cost $8400 in order to move in. I will get that reimbursed one way or another, but goodness. That's a lot up front. And, because my home station messed up my paperwork so badly, I will have to pay my October rent out of pocket as well. That will be reimbursed much more quickly, though. I hope.

I am not demoralized! I'm just trying to paint an accurate picture. It's very costly to move here and if it weren't for my job, we wouldn't be able to afford it.

I am really looking forward to our trip to the Baltic Sea in two weekends. I hope that will be fun!

Please keep us in your prayers! I don't want Lilly to get an earache, so please pray about that. And of course, for me especially, driving will be a learning curve, so I can always use prayers for that. Before too much longer, we'll be wanting visitors!