I remember thinking when I got braces that I could hardly stand the pain. After having a baby, I felt like I could probably do anything.
I remember thinking some things in The States were hard to do or hard to find. Now, I think, "I could do anything in English!" I am understanding a little bit more every day.
Before we sold our house, we thought our kitchen was small and our closets were tiny. When we came to Germany, our kitchen was smaller than our bathroom, and there were no closets.
Now that we've moved from that downtown apartment to our 2-bedroom apartment in a suburb, everything feels so spacious again! Although, the room for the kitchen is bigger, but we have to put everything in it. Maybe that phrase, "They took everything and the kitchen sink" originated here because when people move they literally take everything, including the kitchen sink, oven, fridge, cabinets, light fixtures... And, we thought we were wiping our hands clean of all home-improvement projects when we became renters!
Our latest date nights, besides assembling and installing things, have been translating the kids' notes from school. Words like "Zusammengehorigkietsgeful" or "Einschulungsunteruchung" are always fun. Google translate is helpful, but sometimes still leaves us wondering like when it says the kindergarten couldn't take the money out of our bank account because there was a lightning strike!
The whole school system is very different here. More on that later, but, overall, the kids have done great.
Carly is not only learning German, but also cursive because the kids already learned that last year in first grade (with a fountain pen). She's doing really well. She has the most fun at Sport (PE), Musik, recess, and English!
Robyn has really grown up, riding her bike to school and having to keep track of a different schedule with different books everyday. She's a good sport about having to translate her Latin homework into German and then into English!
Although this has been a bit challenging, we have been blessed with super friendly, helpful, and generous people from church, our neighborhood and the schools. People have shared furniture, food, and even Kleenex with us.
Just a few examples:
One family was storing their son's furniture from college, but he got married and moved to the States. They let us have it all, including a freezer, which was so nice to have when we were without a fridge! (We bought a skillet and someone else let us us a burner you can plug in). The wife helps kids with reading and has spent time helping Carly and Robyn read German.
One woman picked us up and all of our laundry so we could do it at her place before we had our own washer. (She and her friend also fed us dinner and sent us home with treats and hand-me-downs for our girls).
When the washer was delivered, the man was only supposed to leave it outside. You were supposed to pay a lot of extra money for him to bring it inside, but for no extra fee, he brought it all the way downstairs for me. Once we had the washer, Myles' wrist hurt and he didn't have much time. I called him at work to see if we should ask someone to help us hook it up. A couple hours later, a neighbor stopped by to see if we needed help with that very thing!
Macy had a great first week at kindergarten, but refused to go at the beginning of the second week. She was crying, and after awhile I started crying, too. A mother from England had her daughter play a game with her and speak English with her. Then, she invited me over to her house for tea.
Another family helped us get our apartment, which is in a great neighborhood.
The pediatrician have the girls bracelets he brought back from his vacation to Turkey.
A couple nice moms arranged for their kids to pick up Robyn for school so they could ride their bikes together. One of them is originally from Bolivia. So, we were sitting in her German kitchen, speaking Spanish, and eating cookies from Holland!
We've always said we could live anywhere, as long as we had each other. I think this is true. I also realize more than before that we all need each other, whether we're getting our braces on, having a baby, or just having one of those days.
We might not all speak the same language, but we're all human. Like I said, "It's all relative."
