Dear friends,
my intention was to upload a bunch of new pictures that include our stay in Dresden (really wanted to show you some remarkable objects from that exhibition!) and some recent very cute and funny pictures of Junia from this past week. However, on Monday my cellphone/ camera was stolen and all those pictures gone. :-(
I am not sad about my cellphone being gone and actually thinking of either up- or downgrading but about the memories attached to those pictures and videos first of all, and secondly, disappointed in that one human being who was too greedy. But, as I have learned from Marian, a good and dear Canadian friend of ours, who said whenever something was stolen that "oh well, the person obviously needed the [phone] more than I do". If that person will ever be able to access my data, may he listen to the worship music and read the commentary on the book of Marc to find a true fill in for his greed. I am praying this prayer for myself as well because, after all, I am sitting in the same boat of humanity. The only difference is that I have a ticket and am travelling with my passport of being a woman of God instead of wearing the swimsuit of the sinner. God's grace is so abundant, deep and amazing, just like the deep blue ocean!
Anyway, here are some new pictures from before:
http://s1341.photobucket.com/user/CoffeeTimeWithTheMuellers/slideshow/Berlin%20October%20and%20November%202015
We love you and wish you all a blessed birthday celebration and a new year full of adventures and opportunities for you to grow and laugh. :-)
The Muellers
Saturday 19 December 2015
Sunday 6 December 2015
Thankfulness
Our dearest English speaking friends,
as Thanksgiving was passing by I had to think of all of you and our time together in that little town called Abbotsford. Suddenly, a wave of overwhelming thankfulness swept over me as I remembered all those epic, adventurous, cozy, funny, happy, sad, thoughtful moments with you. So this Thanksgiving Thankfulness is specially dedicated to: YOU!
I am thankful for all those amazing times in the outdoors, the fun laughs, playing games, eating together, going out. Oh, and all the emotional, and generous support you gave to us! Thank you also for sharing your pain and your tears with us in delicate conversations. Because this is what it means to be human. There are a lot of things we learned from you, our Canadian and American friends.
as Thanksgiving was passing by I had to think of all of you and our time together in that little town called Abbotsford. Suddenly, a wave of overwhelming thankfulness swept over me as I remembered all those epic, adventurous, cozy, funny, happy, sad, thoughtful moments with you. So this Thanksgiving Thankfulness is specially dedicated to: YOU!
I am thankful for all those amazing times in the outdoors, the fun laughs, playing games, eating together, going out. Oh, and all the emotional, and generous support you gave to us! Thank you also for sharing your pain and your tears with us in delicate conversations. Because this is what it means to be human. There are a lot of things we learned from you, our Canadian and American friends.
- Be positive and laugh often. Even if it rains most of the year.
- Be generous. A lot. Always.
- Be kind to everyone.
- Start a conversation by showing interest for the other person.
- I know, "How are you doing" is meant to be only a polite greeting most of the time but what is wrong with some decent politeness these days? Nothing!
- Family is very important.
- Invite people into your home and treat them as if they were royalty.
- High prices for alcohol and banishment of public drinking dramatically reduces the number of alcohol addiction and public problems of dirt, puke and flying fists and increases the value of a good glass of red wine or the like.
- Mennonite food is good.
So yeah, today marks a day where you can truly be proud be North American! Your culture has a precious beauty. I am sure we have not explored it well enough just yet though during our stay. There is more to unveil. :-)
So you are surely curious what we have been up to those last two months. Well well, Luna started her new work as ECE in a group for children ages 1 to 2 and so far it has been A LOT of fun with those little diaper bums! Her group consists of nine adorable little children. At least one of them is making her laugh every day. Her coworkers are also great so far but it is still a progress to become a united team. With all that sneezing and coughing right into her face, she is also experiencing slipping from one cold into the next one, which will give her an immune system of steel toward colds but is still quite annoying as well.
As for Harry's job situation we do not know anything concrete yet. There are some things in a progress but nothing is clear yet. We will write you as soon as we know some facts. Just pray for Gods guidance and wisdom there.
We celebrated our daughter's second (!!!) birthday in November. She got a balance bike as a gift and it was crazy to think about the fact that a year ago she was not even walking!!! She is now becoming a balance bike pro as well as an "I-have-my-own-will-and-that-is-the-law-here-in-this-household" pro. Still not sure if God gave us a girl with incredible leadership potential or if its just the usual terrible two fits. Curious to see her grow up and find out if this will mellow out at some point. Either way, she is an amazing girl.
These past few days we had a mini vacation near Dresden. Harry's uncle and his wife are running a vacation apartment in a small village called "Radebeul" so we were able to stay there and enjoy a short break from everyday life. If you ever plan to visit Germany as a tourist, Dresden should definitely be on your list! We visited a few relatives and went into an exhibition that was located in the old castle building. They were showing some remarkable things of the past rich royal house of "Sachsen" there. For example, a cherry pit engraved with 185 faces. Or cutlery with coral handles... or the biggest green Diamond ever found (google Dresden Green Diamond). In Germany we have a saying that goes something like this: "The best of the best is just barely good enough". That could be the title here. It was quite impressive. However, it also shows the even bigger imbalance of poor and rich people in the past. To obtain so many exquisite objects was like a chess game, played on the backs of the poor. Injustice and exploitation are still two big topics today. Maybe we should think about them more as we dive into our own Christmas shopping. If we are inhabitants of a kingdom of justice and conservation what does it mean to live those two virtues out?
Monday 5 October 2015
Tuesday 29 September 2015
One Wild Life
Howdee!!!
Howyalldoin'?
All is well here in Berlin so far. Today we were able to enjoy a warm fall day in a beautiful park of castle Charlottenburg. Get all the good old Vitamin D before winter comes!
Junia is doing fantastic. She is just growing and glowing. Every day with her is a day full of laughter because she is just too funny and cute. She is our little entertainer and doing a great job there. It is so fascinating to watch her grow and learn! Right now she uses at least one new word each day in either language (we are teaching her German and Croatian). She got used attending daycare by now and loves it!
As of October 1st, I (Luna) will be starting my work in a daycare for children. I will be in the "Seahorses" group that includes 11 children ages 1 to 2,5 years and two other ECE teachers and I am looking very much forward to it. It is only 20 hours a week and within Junias daycare time so it is a perfect job for now. I will also continue working with the young woman with Down's syndrome until at least December, which is a six hours a week add on. Harry will know soon if there will be a possibility to get employment from our church. If not, he will start looking for new work starting in January as his contract ends on December 31st. Please remember us in your prayers.
Other than that we are involved in a play called "The Mark Experiment" (http://themarkdrama.com/) which will be performed as part of our church's 115 year celebration on November 15th. Harry will be playing the leading role of Jesus. Who would have thought Jesus was so tall and had reddish brown hair and hazel eyes? I always thought he was blonde and blue eyed. :-) Check out the project for it is not a standard stage play. There is no classical text learning and no front stage and the whole gospel of Mark will be performed completely in 90 minutes without any props or costumes. Maybe also a cool project for your church? Our goal is to invite all people in the neighborhood. This week we started learning... well, no text but something else. Go check it our for yourself!
Oh and before I forget, here are some new pictures! Password's the same as always.
Much Love from the Muellers
God is good. Life is good. Or in Gungor's words:
Howyalldoin'?
All is well here in Berlin so far. Today we were able to enjoy a warm fall day in a beautiful park of castle Charlottenburg. Get all the good old Vitamin D before winter comes!
Junia is doing fantastic. She is just growing and glowing. Every day with her is a day full of laughter because she is just too funny and cute. She is our little entertainer and doing a great job there. It is so fascinating to watch her grow and learn! Right now she uses at least one new word each day in either language (we are teaching her German and Croatian). She got used attending daycare by now and loves it!
As of October 1st, I (Luna) will be starting my work in a daycare for children. I will be in the "Seahorses" group that includes 11 children ages 1 to 2,5 years and two other ECE teachers and I am looking very much forward to it. It is only 20 hours a week and within Junias daycare time so it is a perfect job for now. I will also continue working with the young woman with Down's syndrome until at least December, which is a six hours a week add on. Harry will know soon if there will be a possibility to get employment from our church. If not, he will start looking for new work starting in January as his contract ends on December 31st. Please remember us in your prayers.
Other than that we are involved in a play called "The Mark Experiment" (http://themarkdrama.com/) which will be performed as part of our church's 115 year celebration on November 15th. Harry will be playing the leading role of Jesus. Who would have thought Jesus was so tall and had reddish brown hair and hazel eyes? I always thought he was blonde and blue eyed. :-) Check out the project for it is not a standard stage play. There is no classical text learning and no front stage and the whole gospel of Mark will be performed completely in 90 minutes without any props or costumes. Maybe also a cool project for your church? Our goal is to invite all people in the neighborhood. This week we started learning... well, no text but something else. Go check it our for yourself!
Oh and before I forget, here are some new pictures! Password's the same as always.
Much Love from the Muellers
God is good. Life is good. Or in Gungor's words:
ONE WILD LIFE
Brave
the rise and fall
Go
on and feel it all
I
wanna feel it all
Love
the rise and fall
Go
on feel it all
I
wanna feel it all
See
it as a wave, particle, sun
You
could call it what you like
Could
call it light
See
it as a fight or as a gift
You
could call it circumstance
Or
call it magic
These
are the days we've been given
What
will you do with each of them
What
will you do with your one wild life?
See
it as a loss or as a chance
Is
it random chemistry
Or
is it poetry
These
are the days we've been given
What
will you do with each of them
What
will you do with your one wild life?
Brave
the rise and fall
Go
on and feel it all
I
wanna feel it all
Love
the rise and fall
Go
on feel it all
I
wanna feel it all
Lyrics
and melody
by Gungor:
Monday 24 August 2015
Daycare
Hello friends,
today marks the beginning of Junias third week in daycare. It is called "Green Rhino" and is a private daycare where ECE teachers and parents are leading together. There is only one big group of 17 children total (including Junia) from ages two to five and three of the children have special needs. One teacher is working with Montessori, which I am a big fan of. The parents have different tasks, for example washing the small towels or cleaning every few months. There is an Italian cook whose cooking is just... well you know, Italians and food is always a good combination! She also cooks mostly with organic ingredients, which is amazing. The teachers are doing a great job, it could not be better, really. They are down to earth and very open with us parents. Because we are actively involved in decision making and cleaning the place nicely, our daycare feels very homy.
The facilities were used as daycare since the 1920s. There is a small kitchen, two small toilet rooms, a lobby, two bigger rooms with each corner focusing on different activities (eg crafting, reading, cuddling into pillows, letting out energy) and a huge backyard with a nice playground, far away from any big roads. There are enough good quality toys there but not too many. It starts at 7.30 (we drop her off around 9.30) with breakfast, then at 9.45 they have their morning circle and free playing time afterwards. Lunch is at 11.45 and then nap time for the smaller ones until 3 pm. Then they are having a snack and parents have to pick up their children until 4.30 pm. On Mondays and Thursdays they usually play or craft. On Tuesdays everyone is allowed to bring one plaything from home. On Wednesdays the group enjoys musical education or a story telling by one of the grandparents. On Fridays they usually go somewhere or have gymnastics.
Our prayers were really heard here because Junia enjoys it a lot! The reasons for this are good ECE teachers, a good child-adult ratio and that I also feel welcome and comfortable being there. Latter influences her inner self to feel secure and calm, even though we are not there. After all, settling into daycare is not just a new experience for children but for parents as well! And we are getting used to it quite well and with our own pace. It really delights me to see her jumping around so happily there like a little frog and giving me her biggest, most adorable smile when I come to pick her up as well.
Today she was there by herself for the third time in a row for about 2,5 hours. On Wednesday we will start adding nap time to it so that in the end she will stay there for about 4 to 5 hours total. This will be enough time being away from us for the first year of daycare. When she gets older we may add a couple more hours to it. A few months ago I thought I would want to find a 30 hour job once Junia gets used to daycare. However, after giving it more thought and reading a very concerning article* we now think that this is the best solution for everyone. It does mean less money but all a young child really needs is being close to their comfort zone, dad and mom, from which explorations into the big world can start from. In about four years she will be going to school. Times with friends and sleepovers and more time in school and pursuing hobbies will increase so we need to celebrate that we have plenty of time with her now. Because we cannot turn back the clock.
*The article was talking about several researches being done on toddlers who were in daycare all day. They measured the stress hormones (Cortisol) in their bodies and found out that the children under two were on a stress level of a manager. They were showing the same signs as children who were abused because the chronic stress was the same in both cases. Even though they seemed to feel comfortable on the outside, they were actually very tense and crying on the inside. They also found out that this did not depend on the quality of the daycare. Then they were looking at the same children when they were 15 and found out they had several problems, including socializing, crime, chronic illness, depression, anxiety and drugs compared to peers who were not in daycare all day long too early.
The recommendations are: 1. No group care for children under the age of two. 2. Between two and three daycare possible for 20 hours per week maximum. 3. From age 3 it is okay to have the child in daycare for a longer period of time. 4. Orienting on high quality standards, on current scientific research and current studies within daycares.
http://www.univie.ac.at/wiki-projekt/texte/frankfurter_allgemeine_april_12.pdf (German, research was american though)
today marks the beginning of Junias third week in daycare. It is called "Green Rhino" and is a private daycare where ECE teachers and parents are leading together. There is only one big group of 17 children total (including Junia) from ages two to five and three of the children have special needs. One teacher is working with Montessori, which I am a big fan of. The parents have different tasks, for example washing the small towels or cleaning every few months. There is an Italian cook whose cooking is just... well you know, Italians and food is always a good combination! She also cooks mostly with organic ingredients, which is amazing. The teachers are doing a great job, it could not be better, really. They are down to earth and very open with us parents. Because we are actively involved in decision making and cleaning the place nicely, our daycare feels very homy.
The facilities were used as daycare since the 1920s. There is a small kitchen, two small toilet rooms, a lobby, two bigger rooms with each corner focusing on different activities (eg crafting, reading, cuddling into pillows, letting out energy) and a huge backyard with a nice playground, far away from any big roads. There are enough good quality toys there but not too many. It starts at 7.30 (we drop her off around 9.30) with breakfast, then at 9.45 they have their morning circle and free playing time afterwards. Lunch is at 11.45 and then nap time for the smaller ones until 3 pm. Then they are having a snack and parents have to pick up their children until 4.30 pm. On Mondays and Thursdays they usually play or craft. On Tuesdays everyone is allowed to bring one plaything from home. On Wednesdays the group enjoys musical education or a story telling by one of the grandparents. On Fridays they usually go somewhere or have gymnastics.
Our prayers were really heard here because Junia enjoys it a lot! The reasons for this are good ECE teachers, a good child-adult ratio and that I also feel welcome and comfortable being there. Latter influences her inner self to feel secure and calm, even though we are not there. After all, settling into daycare is not just a new experience for children but for parents as well! And we are getting used to it quite well and with our own pace. It really delights me to see her jumping around so happily there like a little frog and giving me her biggest, most adorable smile when I come to pick her up as well.
Today she was there by herself for the third time in a row for about 2,5 hours. On Wednesday we will start adding nap time to it so that in the end she will stay there for about 4 to 5 hours total. This will be enough time being away from us for the first year of daycare. When she gets older we may add a couple more hours to it. A few months ago I thought I would want to find a 30 hour job once Junia gets used to daycare. However, after giving it more thought and reading a very concerning article* we now think that this is the best solution for everyone. It does mean less money but all a young child really needs is being close to their comfort zone, dad and mom, from which explorations into the big world can start from. In about four years she will be going to school. Times with friends and sleepovers and more time in school and pursuing hobbies will increase so we need to celebrate that we have plenty of time with her now. Because we cannot turn back the clock.
*The article was talking about several researches being done on toddlers who were in daycare all day. They measured the stress hormones (Cortisol) in their bodies and found out that the children under two were on a stress level of a manager. They were showing the same signs as children who were abused because the chronic stress was the same in both cases. Even though they seemed to feel comfortable on the outside, they were actually very tense and crying on the inside. They also found out that this did not depend on the quality of the daycare. Then they were looking at the same children when they were 15 and found out they had several problems, including socializing, crime, chronic illness, depression, anxiety and drugs compared to peers who were not in daycare all day long too early.
The recommendations are: 1. No group care for children under the age of two. 2. Between two and three daycare possible for 20 hours per week maximum. 3. From age 3 it is okay to have the child in daycare for a longer period of time. 4. Orienting on high quality standards, on current scientific research and current studies within daycares.
http://www.univie.ac.at/wiki-projekt/texte/frankfurter_allgemeine_april_12.pdf (German, research was american though)
Saturday 1 August 2015
The reason why and some more pictures...
The reasons for why we have deleted almost all our pictures from facebook is simple. First of all facebook was used mostly to update our European people. Because we are back now, there is no need to do this anymore. We are using whatsapp now to send pictures to our Croatian family. All this has to do with privacy. We have people as contacts on facebook that do not need or want to see every bit of our lives. But the biggest reason is Junia. A while ago a friend of us had a baby and she asked us to not post any pictures of their son on facebook because they wanted him to decide later on if he wanted to be publicly present there or not. We think, it is a wise idea since facebook's development is going into a direction we can no longer support.
Password is the town we lived in Canada. ;-)
Much love and hugs from Junia and us!
Saturday 25 July 2015
And now in July...
Hi Guys,
this is Harry, and since we`re only now managing to send an E-mail round to everyone, I thought I give you just a little update to what Luna wrote 2 months ago.
With just a few nice pictures as well. ;-)
Junia is quite a girl now, understanding and responding to us, arguing with us, and basically loving attention from us or anyone else who is around. She is quite sanguine, I think. But that may just be because I am, too.
She will "attend" day care from August on, which frees Luna up to work more than the 10 hours she has been working, although she has not found a job yet that was a fit. Please pray with us for that.
I am still working in retail, selling climbing equipment and sleeping bags and starting on tents, too. It seems as though I will keep doing that until December. However, I know strongly feel that it is time working in Christian ministry, and more specifically church ministry. So, since we love our church and would hate to change it, would you please join us in praying that they will employ me? (It is not entirely unlikely, the thought has been mentioned.. ;-) )
Otherwise we are enjoying the summer with small adventures here and there. Also we are enjoying outfitting our apartment with everything that is needed and everything that is wanted - like pictures of all of you! Actually, that is one of the projects right now.
So, anyway, if you would take the 5 minutes to write us a response and let us know what we can pray for you, we would be overjoyed with joy and happiness and peace, and just a bit of sadness, too. So please do! ;-)
God bless you
Harry
this is Harry, and since we`re only now managing to send an E-mail round to everyone, I thought I give you just a little update to what Luna wrote 2 months ago.
With just a few nice pictures as well. ;-)
Junia is quite a girl now, understanding and responding to us, arguing with us, and basically loving attention from us or anyone else who is around. She is quite sanguine, I think. But that may just be because I am, too.
She will "attend" day care from August on, which frees Luna up to work more than the 10 hours she has been working, although she has not found a job yet that was a fit. Please pray with us for that.
I am still working in retail, selling climbing equipment and sleeping bags and starting on tents, too. It seems as though I will keep doing that until December. However, I know strongly feel that it is time working in Christian ministry, and more specifically church ministry. So, since we love our church and would hate to change it, would you please join us in praying that they will employ me? (It is not entirely unlikely, the thought has been mentioned.. ;-) )
Otherwise we are enjoying the summer with small adventures here and there. Also we are enjoying outfitting our apartment with everything that is needed and everything that is wanted - like pictures of all of you! Actually, that is one of the projects right now.
So, anyway, if you would take the 5 minutes to write us a response and let us know what we can pray for you, we would be overjoyed with joy and happiness and peace, and just a bit of sadness, too. So please do! ;-)
God bless you
Harry
Monday 18 May 2015
Picture Link
Picture time:
http://s1341.photobucket.com/user/CoffeeTimeWithTheMuellers/Berlin%20May%202014-May%202015/story
The password is the name of the town we used to live in Canada. :-)
Read our newest post below this one!
http://s1341.photobucket.com/user/CoffeeTimeWithTheMuellers/Berlin%20May%202014-May%202015/story
The password is the name of the town we used to live in Canada. :-)
Read our newest post below this one!
Saturday 16 May 2015
Letter from Berlin
Dear Canadian family,
we truly hope you all are doing well and beyond well. As the love of Christ connects us in unity across the big ocean, may he keep your hearts locked onto him and in his abundant love and grace for us all. It feels great to write those lines knowing you are our dear brothers and sisters in him and through his resurrection that has redeemed us all.
It has been quite a while since we last updated our english blog so this will be a XXL jumbo size letter! Enjoy. :-)
We arrived at Tegel Airport Berlin about this time last year. Spring was in full bloom and we were able to enjoy the richness of bright, green colors from all trees and plants around us. Surprisingly, apart from the horrible jet lag including a baby, it was not hard to adjust to life in Berlin again because everything felt quite familiar to come back here. We love the European lifestyle: amazing public transport, the richness of history among all those old and beautiful buildings and lots of cozy coffee shops (!!!) and supermarkets everywhere. It also feels great to have family and friends so close by again and we are thankful to be able to deepen those relationships now again before we embark onto another journey.
We were warmly welcomed by our people here and Luna's mother opened her home for us for the time while searching for an apartment. In total we stayed at her place for six weeks and during that time we were able to find an apartment and a job for Harry, which was such an incredible blessing! Apparently the housing situation here right now is quite hard and being able to find a job in just two weeks just God's amazing handiwork as well.
Those six weeks with Luna's mom had a lot of happy moments and a lot of challenging ones, too. It was not very easy for us to live so closely together in a small apartment and with quite opposite personalities as well. It was a chapter in our lives that we were happy to finish quickly but right now we do not want to reread it. Finding a "yes" to the past and looking forward is what we are doing now. And we see that God is healing this relationship little by little. Well, and there is this huge gap of four years that needs a bridge, right? After all, building relationships takes time and patience. Pray for Luna's mom to find happiness for her soul to fill all emptiness and loneliness with Jesus' healing light. Pray for us, too, to be good and compassionate but also to set clear boundaries within our relationship with her. I love my mom. :-)
Anyway, our new apartment is wonderful and we love it and the area we live in! It is still a work in progress as we are making it into our home little by little. Luna has big plans of painting and writing on big canvases that her mom saved from the dump (cannot believe someone would throw away high quality canvases!). We bought our very first amazing bed with even more amazing new mattresses as a couple. The rest of our furniture were pretty much leftovers from family members. Just as in Canada, God is providing for everything. And we are super thankful to be able to have cheap cellphone plans (compared to Canada). Our neighbors are also quite nice and we have bbq gatherings a few times a year, which is great for getting to know them. Some have been living here for over 40 years already and always share some crazy stories from the apartment building like that one time when some gangsters were the owners of the complex or how our apartment building used to be quite run down and the apartments a fireplace shelter for homeless people. This is a good picture for Berlin city, in which there is stuff happening all the time and so much wonderful diversity but also dark sadness. A place of hope and desperation at the same time. This is why we really enjoy to be able to get out into greener surroundings sometimes. We miss Canada's vastness and raw nature a lot! Right now, it satisfies us to visit Harry's parents who live in a small town near Berlin. It feels good to get away from those huge people crowds from time to time. Last June we had a Mueller family gathering at a beautiful little Inn and had tons of fun with 13 children and 14 adults in total, including ourselves (two were also still pregnant at that time). During summer, Luna had the privilege of spending three weeks with her family in Croatia and swimming in the Adriatic ocean after a very long time again. Unfortunately, Harry had to stay back because of work, which was quite hard. We hope to never be apart for such a long time ever! But for Luna, it was a great time with her family and introducing Junia to her grandpa, uncle, cousins and great-grandma.
We really missed Canadian Thanksgiving last Fall. It is a great time to think about all blessings we receive and to have a little down time there. Too bad, it is not being celebrated here. At the other hand, we enjoy that every Sunday here is quiet because all stores are closed and there is less traffic in general on that day. We do celebrate Christmas here though and it was wonderful to have spent it with both families again after four years. Last summer we also started attending the church that we will be official members of soon and are enjoying again a great life group and church service. We are making great new friendships there and are thankful for those people. Each one is a big gift to us. It was also a blessing to find a church so quickly and not having to look for one for a long time. Incredible, how church makes one feel at home and at ease anywhere in the world!
In January Luna started working as a caregiver for a young woman with down's syndrome (10 h/ week) and it is a lot of fun for her. The girl and Luna are getting along very well.
Right now, we are again in job changing season though. It is almost a bit annoying to have those changes again because all those four years in Canada felt like a very changing time for us and we never felt like we had some kind of routine as a family. There was a lot of uncertainty, upheaval from College work and trips, and lastly, the huge changes that came with Junia and moving back to Europe. To be honest, we still feel quite strained and hoped to have a phase of good old routine and settling down a bit now but it seems like God wants to close some doors and open other ones now. That's ok because he has the right to do this, after all. Anyway, Harry is working his last week as a salesperson for a big outdoor store this coming week. And then? What's then? We don't know yet! We both applied for jobs but so far there has not been a positive response yet. Harry has been applying for some office jobs and a job as youth advisor for the conference our church is a part of. The latter will be helpful for where we want to be in a few years in terms of experience but it could also mean to have family unfriendly work hours again. The salesperson job shift was mostly 11am to 8pm and working three of four Saturdays, which meant not a lot of time for Harry and Junia. She was already asleep by the time he came home. We were hoping to avoid such thing in the new job. This may be the normality for a lot of families but it really should not be (did you know that the average Japanese dad sees his children 17 minutes a day?). We don't want it to be normal for our family to see our children very little (which is exactly one of the reasons why we are building our own business here and in Canada!). For Luna, it sometimes felt like she was raising Junia on her own. So please pray that God may give us both jobs that are preparing us well for the future ministry we have in mind. And we are longing for a resting time as family... which is why we will have our first family vacation in a week's time on a farm. A whole week of reshaping, rethinking, replanning in prayer, silence and tranquility... wait, Junia is coming with us. ;-)
I (Luna) find it hilarious that one of Junias first words was "cucumber" (in German) considering I was calling her that sometimes in Canada because I find the word cute somehow. But she is using lots of other different words now and repeating a lot what we are saying in both, Croatian and German. Thinking about how little she still was when we came here to how much she has learned in only one year is incredible! Last May we started giving her solid food, which confused her at first. Now, she is eating a lot of things, even food from the ground... or sand... or soil... if she is fast enough. Last August she was sitting well and starting to crawl, two months later we participated in a crawling research. The test was supposed to last about 120 minutes. She was done in 45. Talking about speed. And applying the Pavlov principle with cheerios (no electric shocks though).
Then, at the end of December she walked her first steps unconsciously and a few weeks later she joined the world of upright walkers. Now, she climbs up the couch or runs as fast she she is able to with those short legs. At the beginning of her solid food story we had to feed her. Now she often refuses to eat when we try feeding her and wants to eat by herself. She loves Quark and dates and nibs on apple halves like a pro with her 14 teeth. No more toothless grinning. Give me something to chew on! She understands now that she is an independent individual and has her own will. She is learning to be patient and that not everything can be as she wants it to be. Some hard lessons to learn here! Delayed gratification, for example. Going up six staircases by herself on her knees because, with groceries it is just too heavy to carry her up three floors as well. Walking on the sidewalk holding our hand. Feeding animals. Loving them to pieces, all of them. Chasing birds. Playing in the park with sand and sliding and swinging. Understanding two languages and interacting and conversing with grown ups in both. Caring for her dolls but sometimes spanking them, lol. And playing hide and seek and "cooking" to feed her stuffed animals.
Sometimes, it is awesome to be a parent. It is fun, there is lots to laugh about. Junia is cute and has a happy personality. Playing together, enjoying great moments and laughs, cuddling and receiving little kisses. And just watchIng her being Junia is amazing. Other times, it is hard. The hardest job in the world. Making the right decisions in upbringing, forgiving oneself for messing up and loosing temper, tending to a sick child, changing so so so many, dirty, nasty diapers, becoming more confident as parents and being woven into a strong family of three through adversity. When Junia is grumpy and crying we often tell her: "Junia, in life you have two choices: you can choose to be happy or you can choose to be grumpy. But remember: It is always better, it is always smarter, it is always wiser to choose to be happy. So be happy!" (Skip Ross) This is the daily choice we must make as well.
So long dear friends! Those were bits and pieces of our first year back in Germany. And now the pictures.
We love you all!!!
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