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