"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference."
-Robert Frost
Where do I start?
I guess with the sad part. Remember how I wrote about my grandma with Alzheimer-Dementia? Well, she passed away just a few days after our blog update. Actually, she was already gone when we were visiting her for her birthday on June 12 (same day as Harrys birthday) because she was only a mere shadow of herself then. It is quite sad, but at the same time one is slowly letting her go instead of experiencing the shock of a sudden death. One nice thing in this sadness was to see family a week earlier due to their coming to the funeral. We got to spend a nice day with my dad, stepmom and brother, which was great.
About 10 days later we started our road trip to Croatia! Thank you for your prayers, because we were protected the whole time while driving through the night and Junia was able to sleep quite well in her seat and all those things we took with us. We literally looked like we were moving, the whole car was packed to the roof!!! We stayed in Zagreb for a few days spending time with grandma, brother, and uncles family before dropping my mom off at the beach where her partner lives and spending a very nice day on Croatias Copa Cabana Bacardi Beach in Baska (google it!) on island Krk. Then we took the ferry to Croatias biggest island Cres to reach our final Camping destination Valun.
Oh. my. goodness. What a gorgeous place. It is a super small place along the coast, no cars allowed (there is actually no road). There are only roads going up the mountain to the parking lot. We had a superb ocean view from our terrace camp ground, two amazing beaches, listened to the cicadas, ate some wonderful fresh fish. It was a paradise. We had only one storm lasting for a few hours before the sun came back drying everything and stenching us again.
From there we visited two smaller islands, bought fish there, cooked it illegally on our stove at the beach. We forgot the salt but washing the fish in the ocean after cleaning was enough. Then a little lemon, parsley and some wild garlic we dug out there along with bread. Perfect. We also visited a small viallage called "Lubenice" (water melon) on top of the mountain whose people specialized on wool and pretty much anything that can be made of it. The view from up there was breathtaking and I have to say once more that Croatia has such an incredible diversity of flora and fauna even though it is such a small country.
After a good week in Valun we went back to Krk and spent a beach day with my uncle and his family, which was so nice and too short unfortunately. But we had to go back to the main land to Rijeka because we went to see my dad and stepmom. Had a good time there, also with lots of sun, salt and beach. A couple of days before we left my auntie and her daughters came from Berlin and so we had this huge family party going on there, including the neighbors cats. It was nice to be together after two years. Junia learned how to "shuush" a cat with a broom, which was hilarious to watch. Oh, aaaand she "drums beating" became a human of the toilet two weeks before our vacaion!!! By now she is a pro. So, after we left my dad and stepmom we came back to Zagreb and went to Zagorje with my grandma. It's farmers land with rich, fertile farmer's hills and vineyards anywhere the eye is looking. Beautiful. And our house happens to be on top of one hill, which makes the view even more
amazing. Everything was blooming and growing and in a thousand colors. Oh the joys of summer... back in Zagreb we spent another awesome day with my beloved brother and having quality time with him was one of the biggest blessings of this journey because it is such a rare opportunity. He is an amazing young man. I love you, bro!
Well, and on the same day we had to go back to Berlin. :-( Back to work. Back to stress, back to schedule. We did not know then what crazy adventure of God's perfect timing was waiting there for us.
So before the end of August Harry gets about a thousand messages of the same content from one of his friends: "Contact me immediately, I may have an interesting job offer for you!" Since we are curious creatures we read the job offer. It was a position as high school advisor/counsellor/youth worker for a Christian high school in a little city called "Doberlug-Kirchhain". Since the job description fuelled further interest, Harry decided to go to an interview. And so did Junia and I. Remember how unhappy Harry was in some ways with his job in the refugee camp? Well, this new job would basically perfectly suit his passions of good biblical teaching/ theology, mission focused environment and a dash of whipped cream outdoors. Now, you gotta understand something about German "Christian" high schools here. There are only about 5 to 10% believers attaneding there, on top of that, this high school is located in the most atheist part of Germany (so they say... statistics actually show an increase in people joining some kind of faith all over the world). Harry grew up in this province while being almost the only believer in his own (not Christian) school. He is familiar with the flow of life there. For him, this is a clear step into something new that would suit his strengths perfectly and a healthier area outside the big city for us as a family (something we always wanted anyway). For me... it was harder to accept at first but I realized that it was the right direction to take even though we actually wanted to start expanding our family and I had a veeeery nice job with amazing colleagues and boss. So I said: "Okay God, here you have it all. It's kind of crazy
to move right now, so unplanned by us, but we want to trust you in your guidance and perfect timing." And perfect timing he has. And so he decides that its time for me to go on fully paid "sick" leave from work...
Because we are pregnant! (due date May 24th)! :-) So, let me rewind: I did not have to quit my work place. Instead, he gave us another little one to take care of, and lots of time to pack and wrap things up (since I am on sick leave and all). On top of that,it was not too hard to leave my work place in the end because I had to start working in a different group with different colleagues, which had a different understanding of working with children than I, so working together would have been a bit more challenging than before. Therefore, I was not too sad to leave. And I am so thankful to live in a country where government decided to protect unborn babies and pregnant ladies of hazardous work environment without taking away their money but actually still paying them!!! I had to go see a special "government" doctor for that and it turns out that I am one part of those 4-5 % of women in Germany who are still not immune against the common chickenpox. Whoops! Even though my mom sent me to every child who had them when I was little to get a little immunity booster! Well, at least I can't get shingles when I am old, haha!
But this story of God's perfect timing and planning does not end here. So, we have to look for an apartment obiously. And so far, we only found some we liked in other cities closeby but it would mean taking the bus or driving to work for Harry. Bummer. We found this really cute place that we liked a lot, but still asked the people we knew around Doberlug-Kirchhain if they knew of any apartments becoming free around there. And we get a yes. Turns out, this apartment is more than double the size of our old one, has a huge garden, the wooden flooring that we love so much, windows to the east, south and west, and costs about 60 € less than our current one. And it is about two minutes away from Harry's workplace. Walking distance. We walk in and the first thing we see is this huge trampoline standing in the garden. Junia was sold. And so were we. By now I can say that God is literelly breathtaking. He had everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING here, so perfectly lined up in a beautiful pearl necklace for us to move. We are in awe and wonder, pondering over what else God is going to reveal to us this year.
The soother fairy came by on October 6th... one night we could not find any soothers as Junia lost them somewhere in the house. So she slept without it and quite well. On the next morning there was glitter and a little gift with a letter in her room. The fairy said she was watching how well Junia slept without a soother last night so she promised to come by the following night to take the soothers to little babies that need them more but leave a gift for Junia behind. And she kept her promise. So our daughter made another big step into becoming a big girl and she did really well. There were some problems at daycare for a few days but in the end she conquered them as well. I know, people have different opinions about lying to their children telling them about Santa, fairies and so on. So do I. We don't have Santa here in our house. We bring the gifts because we love Junia and want to emphasize the big gift that God gave us with Jesus by celebrating Christmas with gifts. However, she was so addicted to her soothers for falling asleep that it was slowly becoming a problem for her teeth. So we made the decision to take the road of fairy dust (Who is saying fairies do not exist by the way? I mean we all know Santa was an invention of Coca Cola but fairies are old legendary creatures. Who knows?...). Anyway, next time we are going to just take away the soothers before the child is able argue by logical arguments saying we can just buy new ones if we throw the old ones away.
On October 22nd we moved from Berlin to Doberlug-Kirchhain and were again blessed with a very smooth move and lots of loving helping hands. Then we were blessed with an affordable used kitchen that had everything we needed (there was a kitchen in our old apartment, so we did not have our own. Having a kitchen in an apartment is not a standard here in Germany). The stove brand is the same my granny had back when I was a child in Croatia, which brings back lots of fond (and yummy) memories. No matter, from which window we look outside we see trees in their beautiful and colorful fall garment, cute little red rooftop houses, the horizon and its amazing sky. We breathe in cleaner air and enjoy less traffic. Now we are looking forward to meet new people here and to forge some real and deep friendships with some of them. Some fellow Christians here say that God is moving something here, something is stirring up, awakening, being renewed, and if we can be part of something that draws people closer to God, we would feel very honored and grateful. Looking forward to serve, to be served, to love, and to be loved.
November 12th marks the third birthday of our little princess Junia I. of Abbotsfordshire. It was a blast to sneak into her bedroom and to place all the gifts in there while she was sleeping (one of them was a kids trampoline). She loved every minute of her day, especially all the Smarties on her cake! Two days ago we celebrated Lunas birthday by taking a break from winter at Tropical Islands (google it, its awesome there). It was also a highlight day for all of us and so much fun!!!
And now we are looking forward to the nice time of Advent as we are slowly approaching the birthday of the man who changed human history and destiny forever.
Sending you all lots of greetings and hugs while Still in wonder,
The four Muellers :-)
Here are some new pictures from the second half of 2016. Enjoy!!! :+)
(There are captions on most of the picture, just gotta klick them. Password required and same as every time)
Wednesday 7 December 2016
Wednesday 29 June 2016
A li'lle somethin'
Hey dear friends,
time has progressed very quickly these past months, don't ya think? Since we are both very busy right now I will take advantage of mine being a bit sick and staying at home for today. Some nasty cold has been dragging on for about two weeks already but I have been constantly feeling better. However, yesterday my body just shut down in a feverish fashion. Done. Time for you to rest. You know what's funny? We've been just going and going and even though I am home now I cannot get myself to truly rest in solitude and nothingness. So I did the dishes. Sorted out Junias clothes. Tidied up her and our wardrobe, brought out the trash and the small clothes into our cellar.
Well, I did "rest" for a bit by reading a little and doing some stuff while sitting. Now the fever's back of course. So much for that. It just seems that if I go and go sometimes I can't stop by myself anymore to take a nap in God's presence. Harry's boss just went on sick leave for a month. Probably a burn out. And there we have the good old theme of balance again. Why is it so hard for us to live a balanced life and so easy to live in either extreme? Is it because we don't know ourselves and our boundaries enough? Possibly. A part of our basic personality attributes? Yup.
Anyway, you wanna improve your immune system? Work in daycare and delight yourself to constantly be sneezed, coughed and pooped on by those little bodies! Best way to do it, I tell you.
So what have we been up to these past months?
Harry's job is quite demanding and even though he works for a Christian organization, there are so many verbally unexpressed expectations in the air, which puts Harry and his team under pressure. They feel like having to prove themselves and the quality of their work constantly, but also need to learn to stay firm as one team and defend their ground. And then there is the crazyness of working with refugees. People who went through hell, who's future is so incredibly uncertain and vulnerable. People with dreams, hopes and goals but also people with trauma, depression and exhaustion. Children who are role playing the executions they had to watch with their very little cute eyes to cope with those experiences. The constant clash of cultures and, again, unspoken expectations from both sides. One may think once the refugees are arriving into a country without war that everything will be OK. They are safe after all, aren't they? Thats what we think. Thats what the refugees may think. Unfortunately this is a delusion and reality does not just stop. There are big challenges waiting for every person who moved into a different culture and has been torn from their own and from what they know. Then there is also the expectation that we "westerners" have power over enerything and can make all their wishes come true. But we don't. We can only help so much. They need to be motivated out of their own hearts to move forward. They need to learn that it is not our fault what happened in their home country and that a little Christian organization does not have power to remove all obstacles for them. But God has. Prayer can move mountains. It is a rocky road. It is hard work and, as always, there is no immediate gratification while working with people. But it is meaningful. And still, every morning my man is jumping into the trenches and this is one of the many qualities I truly admire in Harry.
We went on an amazing vacation to Binz (on island Rügen) in April and had a wonderful time there. It was so relaxing being near the ocean and spending so much family time together! You can take a look on our happy faces on the pictures and we will convince you that you gotta visit there someday!!! There are also other pictures here: The Muellers past six months in pictures
Pasword, as always, is the town in which we used to live in Canada.
Harry's grandma passed away after a long life in May so we went to the funeral and celebrated her life afterwards with the clan. It was a good time for Harry to also say good bye to his grandfather who passed away two years ago when we were still in Canada.
For our 6th wedding anniversary we went to a high rope course and had a blast there. It was so much fun climbing between trees although it took a lot of energy since this was not the classic climbing like rock climbing. For a lot of obstacles there was quite a bit of arm and core strength required! Still, it was a lot of fun and I cant wait to go back and do the other climbing parts we had no time and strength for. The best is still just sliding down the metal cable as fast as possible like batman.
We celebrated my mom's 50th birthday and Harry's 27th. For his birthday we went camping at a beautiful lake and tried out our Christmas presents there. Then we had bbq with friends, watched soccer and played viking chess.
My grandma in Germany fell a few weeks ago and the condition of her Alzheimer-Dementia worsened a lot since then. We are not sure how much longer she is going to be with us. If she has not yet, I pray that she will find peace with God in some way.
We had a Mueller family reunion in June with 14 adults and 15 children, which was a lot of fun and went by too quickly. So you see, year 2016 is still as crazy as it started for us!
For my part I am involved in many things right now. Working two jobs, which are fun most of the time (ECE for the little ones between one and two years of age and caregiver for a young woman with Down's). After summer break in August I will be switching into a group for children ages two to four, which I am looking forward to. I am also finally on my driver's license at age 31. Wow, in the States and Canada one would probably be dead by now without a license. There is a saying that goes like this: if you learn driving in Berlin you can drive anywhere in the world. I firmly believe this because coping with that much traffic is really a challenge! And on top of that I am learning the clutch. I am very thankful for my choleric-sanguine guarding angel who is constantly nagging me but also helping to not get involved in an accident every two seconds (my driving teacher). Apart from those things I am also one of the chairwomen at Junias daycare. In Germany we call such daycares "Elterninitiative" (parents initiative) where parents are chair(wo)men and also do some laundry, cleaning, cooking and are more involved in daycare of their children. It is basically a great idea because we don't feel like just dropping her off at some place but actually participating in her daycare life. At the same time being a parent and the ECEs boss is also a bit of an unlucky combination in more than one way. Since I am responsible for the personnel part and things have been just a mess in that part recently, it actually feels like a third job to me right now! We had one person becoming pregnant and having to go on "sick" leave (in Germany ECE's get a prohibition from work for the whole length of the pregnancy due to the higher infection rate in daycare but are receiving full pay from healthcare). Another person quit because she had some problems with a parent. Then we employed two new people but the woman who was still there did not like them so this week we found out through other parents that she had three job offers and is planning to leave! It was all quite nasty and a real emotional and relationship mess of injuries on both sides. I am very sad having to see two excellent people leave the daycare and do not feel trust toward the two new people yet. I feel a bit uncomfortable leaving Junia there and am somewhat desperate. We are also looking for another new person now and are getting six new children in August! Not sure how all that will work out with three completely new people, two of them not having a lot of experience with the very young ages and settling them in to daycare... so yeah, there is your big prayer request!
Apart from day to day crazyness we are planning our three week vacation in Croatia and are looking so much forward to it (did I mention that I love having six weeks of paid vacation plus receiving extra vacation money for going on vacation here in Germany? I know, it's awesome)!!! We will be travelling by car and are going to visit family but also family camping on one or some of Croatias many beautiful islands. Harry will be doing all the driving since I won't be finished with the license yet. We are going to drive through the night twice so please pray that all goes well there too! Harry will be doing some climbing or hiking in southern Germany this weekend. We are going to attend the wedding of a friend from life group who is getting married to her Egyptian fiancée (they have a crazy story btw). Summer festivals in Junias daycare and at work. And then there's end of July which marks the beginning of our vacation. This year has just been like a roller coaster ride! Oh, did I mention my friend who fell in love with a young Afghan refugee while helping out in a church in Greece? He already had asylum there but wanted to move here because of my friend. Now it is really hard to switch asylum countries once one has it somewhere. But since God is in control and all, they got married a few weeks ago with German asylum!!! God is good, ALL the time.
And what is our little one doing besides growing like crazy? Well, she has questions and themes of her own. Right now we started potty training because, praise God, she finally decided that she wants to go onto the big toilet out of her own free will. Hallelujah! I can see the end of the diaper tunnel. She has been doing funny rhymes (Simone Zitrone) and recreating song texts. She is a little climbing monkey and climbs onto everything (and everyone). She loves to take care of her dolls and stuffed animals but also loves to kick the ball and playing with cars (she wants to become a firewoman since the time we saw a couple including a tour on the fire truck). She can tell her name and her age when asked and is able to count to 20 in both languages. She is constantly using new words and has a lot of humor (I know I am bragging). Well, of course there are also those typical "terrible twos" moments from time to time and sometimes we are dealing well with them and other times not. It has been hard for us to go 100% bilingual since Junia mostly speaks German (understands both languages) she does use a few Croatian words though, just to throw off her dad. :-) Anyway, I hope our long stay in Croatia this summer will motivate her to talk Croatian with me and grandma and myself to only talk Croatian with her. If you are planning to raise your child bilingually beware: at first it all sounds totally cool and hipster-like but it takes one truckload piece of work and determination!
Of course, we are all in European soccer cup fever right now!!! Go Germany - or a country who has not won yet!!!
See ya next time folks!
Big hugs, greetings and love from your Muellers in Berlin :-)
time has progressed very quickly these past months, don't ya think? Since we are both very busy right now I will take advantage of mine being a bit sick and staying at home for today. Some nasty cold has been dragging on for about two weeks already but I have been constantly feeling better. However, yesterday my body just shut down in a feverish fashion. Done. Time for you to rest. You know what's funny? We've been just going and going and even though I am home now I cannot get myself to truly rest in solitude and nothingness. So I did the dishes. Sorted out Junias clothes. Tidied up her and our wardrobe, brought out the trash and the small clothes into our cellar.
Well, I did "rest" for a bit by reading a little and doing some stuff while sitting. Now the fever's back of course. So much for that. It just seems that if I go and go sometimes I can't stop by myself anymore to take a nap in God's presence. Harry's boss just went on sick leave for a month. Probably a burn out. And there we have the good old theme of balance again. Why is it so hard for us to live a balanced life and so easy to live in either extreme? Is it because we don't know ourselves and our boundaries enough? Possibly. A part of our basic personality attributes? Yup.
Anyway, you wanna improve your immune system? Work in daycare and delight yourself to constantly be sneezed, coughed and pooped on by those little bodies! Best way to do it, I tell you.
So what have we been up to these past months?
Harry's job is quite demanding and even though he works for a Christian organization, there are so many verbally unexpressed expectations in the air, which puts Harry and his team under pressure. They feel like having to prove themselves and the quality of their work constantly, but also need to learn to stay firm as one team and defend their ground. And then there is the crazyness of working with refugees. People who went through hell, who's future is so incredibly uncertain and vulnerable. People with dreams, hopes and goals but also people with trauma, depression and exhaustion. Children who are role playing the executions they had to watch with their very little cute eyes to cope with those experiences. The constant clash of cultures and, again, unspoken expectations from both sides. One may think once the refugees are arriving into a country without war that everything will be OK. They are safe after all, aren't they? Thats what we think. Thats what the refugees may think. Unfortunately this is a delusion and reality does not just stop. There are big challenges waiting for every person who moved into a different culture and has been torn from their own and from what they know. Then there is also the expectation that we "westerners" have power over enerything and can make all their wishes come true. But we don't. We can only help so much. They need to be motivated out of their own hearts to move forward. They need to learn that it is not our fault what happened in their home country and that a little Christian organization does not have power to remove all obstacles for them. But God has. Prayer can move mountains. It is a rocky road. It is hard work and, as always, there is no immediate gratification while working with people. But it is meaningful. And still, every morning my man is jumping into the trenches and this is one of the many qualities I truly admire in Harry.
We went on an amazing vacation to Binz (on island Rügen) in April and had a wonderful time there. It was so relaxing being near the ocean and spending so much family time together! You can take a look on our happy faces on the pictures and we will convince you that you gotta visit there someday!!! There are also other pictures here: The Muellers past six months in pictures
Pasword, as always, is the town in which we used to live in Canada.
Harry's grandma passed away after a long life in May so we went to the funeral and celebrated her life afterwards with the clan. It was a good time for Harry to also say good bye to his grandfather who passed away two years ago when we were still in Canada.
For our 6th wedding anniversary we went to a high rope course and had a blast there. It was so much fun climbing between trees although it took a lot of energy since this was not the classic climbing like rock climbing. For a lot of obstacles there was quite a bit of arm and core strength required! Still, it was a lot of fun and I cant wait to go back and do the other climbing parts we had no time and strength for. The best is still just sliding down the metal cable as fast as possible like batman.
We celebrated my mom's 50th birthday and Harry's 27th. For his birthday we went camping at a beautiful lake and tried out our Christmas presents there. Then we had bbq with friends, watched soccer and played viking chess.
My grandma in Germany fell a few weeks ago and the condition of her Alzheimer-Dementia worsened a lot since then. We are not sure how much longer she is going to be with us. If she has not yet, I pray that she will find peace with God in some way.
We had a Mueller family reunion in June with 14 adults and 15 children, which was a lot of fun and went by too quickly. So you see, year 2016 is still as crazy as it started for us!
For my part I am involved in many things right now. Working two jobs, which are fun most of the time (ECE for the little ones between one and two years of age and caregiver for a young woman with Down's). After summer break in August I will be switching into a group for children ages two to four, which I am looking forward to. I am also finally on my driver's license at age 31. Wow, in the States and Canada one would probably be dead by now without a license. There is a saying that goes like this: if you learn driving in Berlin you can drive anywhere in the world. I firmly believe this because coping with that much traffic is really a challenge! And on top of that I am learning the clutch. I am very thankful for my choleric-sanguine guarding angel who is constantly nagging me but also helping to not get involved in an accident every two seconds (my driving teacher). Apart from those things I am also one of the chairwomen at Junias daycare. In Germany we call such daycares "Elterninitiative" (parents initiative) where parents are chair(wo)men and also do some laundry, cleaning, cooking and are more involved in daycare of their children. It is basically a great idea because we don't feel like just dropping her off at some place but actually participating in her daycare life. At the same time being a parent and the ECEs boss is also a bit of an unlucky combination in more than one way. Since I am responsible for the personnel part and things have been just a mess in that part recently, it actually feels like a third job to me right now! We had one person becoming pregnant and having to go on "sick" leave (in Germany ECE's get a prohibition from work for the whole length of the pregnancy due to the higher infection rate in daycare but are receiving full pay from healthcare). Another person quit because she had some problems with a parent. Then we employed two new people but the woman who was still there did not like them so this week we found out through other parents that she had three job offers and is planning to leave! It was all quite nasty and a real emotional and relationship mess of injuries on both sides. I am very sad having to see two excellent people leave the daycare and do not feel trust toward the two new people yet. I feel a bit uncomfortable leaving Junia there and am somewhat desperate. We are also looking for another new person now and are getting six new children in August! Not sure how all that will work out with three completely new people, two of them not having a lot of experience with the very young ages and settling them in to daycare... so yeah, there is your big prayer request!
Apart from day to day crazyness we are planning our three week vacation in Croatia and are looking so much forward to it (did I mention that I love having six weeks of paid vacation plus receiving extra vacation money for going on vacation here in Germany? I know, it's awesome)!!! We will be travelling by car and are going to visit family but also family camping on one or some of Croatias many beautiful islands. Harry will be doing all the driving since I won't be finished with the license yet. We are going to drive through the night twice so please pray that all goes well there too! Harry will be doing some climbing or hiking in southern Germany this weekend. We are going to attend the wedding of a friend from life group who is getting married to her Egyptian fiancée (they have a crazy story btw). Summer festivals in Junias daycare and at work. And then there's end of July which marks the beginning of our vacation. This year has just been like a roller coaster ride! Oh, did I mention my friend who fell in love with a young Afghan refugee while helping out in a church in Greece? He already had asylum there but wanted to move here because of my friend. Now it is really hard to switch asylum countries once one has it somewhere. But since God is in control and all, they got married a few weeks ago with German asylum!!! God is good, ALL the time.
And what is our little one doing besides growing like crazy? Well, she has questions and themes of her own. Right now we started potty training because, praise God, she finally decided that she wants to go onto the big toilet out of her own free will. Hallelujah! I can see the end of the diaper tunnel. She has been doing funny rhymes (Simone Zitrone) and recreating song texts. She is a little climbing monkey and climbs onto everything (and everyone). She loves to take care of her dolls and stuffed animals but also loves to kick the ball and playing with cars (she wants to become a firewoman since the time we saw a couple including a tour on the fire truck). She can tell her name and her age when asked and is able to count to 20 in both languages. She is constantly using new words and has a lot of humor (I know I am bragging). Well, of course there are also those typical "terrible twos" moments from time to time and sometimes we are dealing well with them and other times not. It has been hard for us to go 100% bilingual since Junia mostly speaks German (understands both languages) she does use a few Croatian words though, just to throw off her dad. :-) Anyway, I hope our long stay in Croatia this summer will motivate her to talk Croatian with me and grandma and myself to only talk Croatian with her. If you are planning to raise your child bilingually beware: at first it all sounds totally cool and hipster-like but it takes one truckload piece of work and determination!
Of course, we are all in European soccer cup fever right now!!! Go Germany - or a country who has not won yet!!!
See ya next time folks!
Big hugs, greetings and love from your Muellers in Berlin :-)
Thursday 24 March 2016
"Hmph, what's 'truth?' "
As I was deep cleaning our kitchen in all quietness of husbands and childs peaceful slumber, I rethought some things that touched me deeply this past week. Yes people, I was cleaning our kitchen about the same time the saviour of our universe was captured and reflecting on those consequential events in my mind. Only about 2000 years later.
Pontius Pilate and Jesus had this crazy conversation about identity and truth just before Jesus' painful and bloody crucifixion.
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
"Was it your idea to ask that or did other people tell you about me?"
"I am not a jew, am I? Your own people and the chief priests handed you over to me! What have you done?"
"My kingdom isn't the sort that grows in this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my supporters would have fought to stop me being handed over to the Judaeans. So, then, my kingdom is not the sort that comes from here."
Boom! Now tell this to any ruler of nowadays and you will have to deal with some queer looks and the following question:
"So! You are a king, are you?"
"You're the one who's calling me a king. I was born for this; I've come to the world for this: to give evidence about the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
"Truth! What's that?"
Well yeah, what's truth? More than a decade ago I was often watching the X files and one of the FBI agents had this poster on his wall: "The truth is out there." And it truly is!!! Jesus claims to be the truth, the way and the life (John 14:6). He claims to give evidence about her... so what kind of evidence do we see when we read about his life and actions?
A truth that is bold.
A truth full of love.
A truth that dies and rises for us.
A truth that tells us that after death and mourning comes eternity and laughter.
A truth about God's kingdom to be absent of any violence and oppression and full of peace, of Shalom.
This is the truth we are destined to belong to. This is how everything ought to be. This is how to separate God's truth from lies. This is a truth worth fighting for within every day of our lives. In all big and small moments and events.
Now look onto this Good Friday as a chance to answer Pilates question of "What is truth?". It is truly a Good day. Because this is the day when we are in festivity touch with the ultimate and wonderful truth of God and once more remember her, reconnect with her, embrace her, celebrate her and follow her.
These days, we seem to be lost in deillusions about what is true and real and which things are only masks and masquerade. God's truth, however, removes the make up and costumes of our day and shows us the real, refreshing and beautiful face of his truth in life.
Now, ain't that a reason to celebrate? Absolutely!
Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Der Herr ist auferstanden! Er is wahrlich auferstanden!
The truth is risen! She is risen indeed!
Pontius Pilate and Jesus had this crazy conversation about identity and truth just before Jesus' painful and bloody crucifixion.
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
"Was it your idea to ask that or did other people tell you about me?"
"I am not a jew, am I? Your own people and the chief priests handed you over to me! What have you done?"
"My kingdom isn't the sort that grows in this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my supporters would have fought to stop me being handed over to the Judaeans. So, then, my kingdom is not the sort that comes from here."
Boom! Now tell this to any ruler of nowadays and you will have to deal with some queer looks and the following question:
"So! You are a king, are you?"
"You're the one who's calling me a king. I was born for this; I've come to the world for this: to give evidence about the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
"Truth! What's that?"
Well yeah, what's truth? More than a decade ago I was often watching the X files and one of the FBI agents had this poster on his wall: "The truth is out there." And it truly is!!! Jesus claims to be the truth, the way and the life (John 14:6). He claims to give evidence about her... so what kind of evidence do we see when we read about his life and actions?
A truth that is bold.
A truth full of love.
A truth that dies and rises for us.
A truth that tells us that after death and mourning comes eternity and laughter.
A truth about God's kingdom to be absent of any violence and oppression and full of peace, of Shalom.
This is the truth we are destined to belong to. This is how everything ought to be. This is how to separate God's truth from lies. This is a truth worth fighting for within every day of our lives. In all big and small moments and events.
Now look onto this Good Friday as a chance to answer Pilates question of "What is truth?". It is truly a Good day. Because this is the day when we are in festivity touch with the ultimate and wonderful truth of God and once more remember her, reconnect with her, embrace her, celebrate her and follow her.
These days, we seem to be lost in deillusions about what is true and real and which things are only masks and masquerade. God's truth, however, removes the make up and costumes of our day and shows us the real, refreshing and beautiful face of his truth in life.
Now, ain't that a reason to celebrate? Absolutely!
Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Der Herr ist auferstanden! Er is wahrlich auferstanden!
The truth is risen! She is risen indeed!
Sunday 31 January 2016
Is it already just Febuary??!
Hello dear friends,
Is it already but also just February of 2016? Because our new year started off rather adventurously and to us it feels like a whole year passed already again. On January 5th, Lunas mom had a heart attack and just four days later Junia got some first and second degree burns. All that happened during the same week of Harrys start in his new job. Whew! Breathe in. Breathe out. Stay calm and feel Gods overwhelming presence and peace in all of it. And that is what we actually felt. Amazing, isn't it? How Gods peace calms our heart in the middle of a life Hurricane.
Lunas mom is doing okay again. She got out only five days after the attack and will start a rehabilitation course this Monday. Pray for her recovery, inside and outside and her soul renewal. Junias right lower arm (about 2% 2nd degree burn) and her left fingers (blisters) are also almost healed. To people with small children I (Luna) can only say that no matter how much you think you are smart and careful, there can never be a careful enough. Of course, I am not saying, we ought to walk around in fear something awful is going to jump onto our children from some dark corner the second we are not watching out. However, if you think your setup of situation will be safe, there will come a moment of stress and distraction and this is when injuries happen. Before this accident happened, we told Junia many times that stove is hot, hot is stove, and let her climb up on a chair to "help" with cooking (=doing experiments with spices and other harmless things) far away from the stove. However, it happened to her as it happened to me. The only difference is that I was already a (daydreaming?) teenager: one thoughtless moment here and a burn mark in the next moment. As a teenager, who knew better, I knew that the ceran stove was still hot from cooking but still supported my weight on it with my right hand anyway in a thoughtless moment. Junia saw and knew that up there was a hot place and still climbed up the chair and supported herself on it to lean over for some reason anyway while I was distracted for one second. One second. Only one second. So much about that feeling completely guilty of being the reason for your childs injuries while visiting the childrens emergency and having to explain to strangers that I, as a parent, failed miserably.
It is not so much the accident itself that bothered me. Accidents happen all the time every second. What concerns me far more is how they happen. Exactly in that one and only second of thoughtlessness and distraction. This is why I am saying that, no matter how much cotton wool we put around our children, there could be always this one second of thoughtlessness where an accident happens anyway. And there are not enough safety barriers and gadgets to prevent them. This is why it does not make sense to become frantically fearful about the safety of our little ones. They are in Gods hands and if something awful happens, they still are. And so are we (not to push away our responsibility here though).
Luckily, for most of the time, we do learn from mistakes, don't we? Hopefully...
This month was also Harrys first month of working a new and exciting job! He is no longer employed by his Outdoor retail store. We are sad for all those discounts we are no longer able to get through his employment status, which is why we did "a bit" of shopping in December. ;-P Now we are almost set up for family camping and are looking forward to warmer days.
Despite this sad truth of no discounts on outdoor gear, Harrys new job fits his personality and strengths much better. He is the head of the adult program department in a large refugee home (1000 people right now, will increase to 1800). He is responsible to create a recreational/spiritual program for the adult guests (we call the refugees guests here) and focuses on sports. But things like sewing and gardening will also be implemented. He enjoys working with and for other people, building relationships and friendships with the guests and with his co-workers. And he is doing a great job in all areas (is what his wife and his boss say). This job change was also a big change for our daily life schedule and we are still adjusting. It is a full time job with 39 hours per week but he has flexible hours and almost no weekend shifts. This means, he is home in the evenings now and it is very beneficial to us as a family and for Junia to spend our evenings together (his previous jobs shifts were mostly from 11am to 8 pm). We now also have two days of weekend rest together, with some occasional weekends where Harry works about half a working day to do some activities, like going bouldering with some guests yesterday. Starting on Monday, Luna will raise her hours up to 25 hours per week in day care until summer break besides her weekly 5 to 6 hours of case working . We are still adjusting to those changes and trying to figure out a healthy work-life balance for our family. Since January has been so adventurous, we still feel a bit overwhelmed. The days are going by so fast when both grown ups work 39 and 30 hours and the little one attends day care as well! Time, time is precious. What will YOU do with your one wild life?
How was your first month of this new year so far? Did everything go as planned or hoped? Did you have any surprises?
We do miss you all and are thankful to call you our dear friends.
As our friend Marcie always writes: Much Love from
Harry, Luna and Junia
Is it already but also just February of 2016? Because our new year started off rather adventurously and to us it feels like a whole year passed already again. On January 5th, Lunas mom had a heart attack and just four days later Junia got some first and second degree burns. All that happened during the same week of Harrys start in his new job. Whew! Breathe in. Breathe out. Stay calm and feel Gods overwhelming presence and peace in all of it. And that is what we actually felt. Amazing, isn't it? How Gods peace calms our heart in the middle of a life Hurricane.
Lunas mom is doing okay again. She got out only five days after the attack and will start a rehabilitation course this Monday. Pray for her recovery, inside and outside and her soul renewal. Junias right lower arm (about 2% 2nd degree burn) and her left fingers (blisters) are also almost healed. To people with small children I (Luna) can only say that no matter how much you think you are smart and careful, there can never be a careful enough. Of course, I am not saying, we ought to walk around in fear something awful is going to jump onto our children from some dark corner the second we are not watching out. However, if you think your setup of situation will be safe, there will come a moment of stress and distraction and this is when injuries happen. Before this accident happened, we told Junia many times that stove is hot, hot is stove, and let her climb up on a chair to "help" with cooking (=doing experiments with spices and other harmless things) far away from the stove. However, it happened to her as it happened to me. The only difference is that I was already a (daydreaming?) teenager: one thoughtless moment here and a burn mark in the next moment. As a teenager, who knew better, I knew that the ceran stove was still hot from cooking but still supported my weight on it with my right hand anyway in a thoughtless moment. Junia saw and knew that up there was a hot place and still climbed up the chair and supported herself on it to lean over for some reason anyway while I was distracted for one second. One second. Only one second. So much about that feeling completely guilty of being the reason for your childs injuries while visiting the childrens emergency and having to explain to strangers that I, as a parent, failed miserably.
It is not so much the accident itself that bothered me. Accidents happen all the time every second. What concerns me far more is how they happen. Exactly in that one and only second of thoughtlessness and distraction. This is why I am saying that, no matter how much cotton wool we put around our children, there could be always this one second of thoughtlessness where an accident happens anyway. And there are not enough safety barriers and gadgets to prevent them. This is why it does not make sense to become frantically fearful about the safety of our little ones. They are in Gods hands and if something awful happens, they still are. And so are we (not to push away our responsibility here though).
Luckily, for most of the time, we do learn from mistakes, don't we? Hopefully...
This month was also Harrys first month of working a new and exciting job! He is no longer employed by his Outdoor retail store. We are sad for all those discounts we are no longer able to get through his employment status, which is why we did "a bit" of shopping in December. ;-P Now we are almost set up for family camping and are looking forward to warmer days.
Despite this sad truth of no discounts on outdoor gear, Harrys new job fits his personality and strengths much better. He is the head of the adult program department in a large refugee home (1000 people right now, will increase to 1800). He is responsible to create a recreational/spiritual program for the adult guests (we call the refugees guests here) and focuses on sports. But things like sewing and gardening will also be implemented. He enjoys working with and for other people, building relationships and friendships with the guests and with his co-workers. And he is doing a great job in all areas (is what his wife and his boss say). This job change was also a big change for our daily life schedule and we are still adjusting. It is a full time job with 39 hours per week but he has flexible hours and almost no weekend shifts. This means, he is home in the evenings now and it is very beneficial to us as a family and for Junia to spend our evenings together (his previous jobs shifts were mostly from 11am to 8 pm). We now also have two days of weekend rest together, with some occasional weekends where Harry works about half a working day to do some activities, like going bouldering with some guests yesterday. Starting on Monday, Luna will raise her hours up to 25 hours per week in day care until summer break besides her weekly 5 to 6 hours of case working . We are still adjusting to those changes and trying to figure out a healthy work-life balance for our family. Since January has been so adventurous, we still feel a bit overwhelmed. The days are going by so fast when both grown ups work 39 and 30 hours and the little one attends day care as well! Time, time is precious. What will YOU do with your one wild life?
How was your first month of this new year so far? Did everything go as planned or hoped? Did you have any surprises?
We do miss you all and are thankful to call you our dear friends.
As our friend Marcie always writes: Much Love from
Harry, Luna and Junia
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