A few new pictures

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

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.

• 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?