February 29th, 2016

We experienced technical difficulties with our computer the past few days that put blogging on a standstill for me while amazing hubby tried to figure out what was going on. Thankfully, he was able to fix things and we are up and going again. Yay!

Our village has a community center. We have been there a few times now and continue to learn about the services offered within the building. We went there when we were first moving into the village to set up our utilities and internet. S and I walked over there this past week and perused the tourist brochures for our area. Though most were in German, I was surprised to find some in English. One of the brochures I picked up was for a nature trail called the Naturerlebnispfad. Seeing the pictures, I knew it would be a hit with our boys.

The sun came out on Saturday for the ENTIRE day! After doing some painting and cleaning (we are still at it), we decided to explore the nature trail. I’m glad we did! The Naturerlebnispfad is a circular route with a length of approximately 1,100 meters. It has five thematic areas; natural touch, sensing, hearing, seeing and comprehending. There are several stops along the way to experience each of the themes. We liked some more than others and a couple were in disrepair. However, the nature path is free to the public and still worth the trip.

When we first walked up, we came to this map…

We then followed paintings of ants on trees to show us the way through the woods. The first station had an awesome net swing. Another family was already enjoying it so we moved on to the next swing and then ran down the path.

 

We practiced our long jumps at the animal jumping station

 

played music on this huge xylophone

viewed the “animals” out in the distance from the watch tower before making friends with them

 

learned about the rings inside trees

tested our agility

 

relaxed

 

threw rocks into the pond

and slowly made our way to the beginning again.

By the time we walked back, the web swing was free. We lingered there for awhile so everyone could get a turn to swing!

 

 

 

The boys enjoyed riding in the swing and pushing their parents…big kids at heart! If you come visit, they might give you a ride and maybe even rock you to sleep.

 

 

 

February 23rd, 2016

Yesterday, E’s school celebrated their 100th day of Learning by encouraging the students and staff to dress up as 100 year olds. He was very excited to participate! As part of our endeavor to age our seven year old an additional ninety three years, we purchased some babypuder and shook copious amounts into his hair. When we were leaving the house, a strong wind met us at the door creating a cloud of baby powder around E’s head!

 

 

A little later that morning, S and I met up with Amy and her son. We went exploring along a trail that hubby had told me about. Eventually, we came upon this carved rock, cross and labyrinth. The rock is engraved with the verse, John 14:6…”I am the way, and the truth and the life.”

 

 

The labyrinth is one of several stops along a 4.5km Life Path created to encourage wandering and reflection. According to a description I read, the labyrinth is 24 meters in diameter with a path length of about one kilometer. Throughout the labyrinth, tree stumps have been carved into pieces of art. S became invigorated as he entered, turned each corner, and eventually found the center first. He thought he had won the race!

 

 

I found this picture online that gives a better overall view of the labyrinth.

I’m interested in walking the entire Life Path with the family one of these days.

We picked up E from school later that afternoon. Here he is with his wonderful teacher who had also aged for the day. She’s great!

and with his friend, Kaelin…

 

…and Mrs. Amy, who loves a good photo bomb. She works at E’s school, is part of the PTO and adds a lot of cheer to the place! Mrs. Amy has reached out to us since we first came and quickly learned E’s name, helping him feel at home.

 

 

 

February 22nd, 2016

Its early Monday morning as I sit here to write down a few thoughts and gather some pictures to share with you. I’m enjoying keeping this blog and the rhythm of journaling again. Thank you for following our journey and staying connected with us. At the start of a new week, here’s a look back at our last one.

These wooden animals are on the grounds of our village Grundschule (Elementary school). Can you see the two pigs?

 

The sun came out one day last week and filled our home with a soft glow. I treasured it!

 

Little S got a “dinosaur egg” at the Museum of Natural History in Frankfurt. He put it in water and had to wait for it to crack. He watched the progress over a few days and was so excited when his dinosaur cracked through!

 

One of my new job titles is “Family Travel Agent.” Traveling around Europe was one of our reasons in seeking out this opportunity to live here so we definitely want to take advantage of it. I’m working on planning a couple of upcoming trips. I spent a few hours doing research and booking plane tickets on a discount airline called Ryanair. I’m also reading books I checked out from the library’s travel section. I have a lot to learn! Here are some clues to places we hope to visit in the near future.

 

 

In light of traveling, lil S and I took a French lesson together using a DVD I checked out from the library. We were instructed to touch our head in French. S loves playing the games.

 

We got two care packages last week! One was full of Valentine cookies and treats from Momo and Popo! The second had Girl Scout cookies from my old (but still young!) college friend, Holly. We felt incredibly loved!

 

As we continue to search for a church home, I’m desiring some spiritual encouragement/direction. I listened to a podcast a couple of weeks ago and learned about the recent devotional Shauna Niequist wrote called “Savor.”  I’m already a fan of her writing style and deeply enjoyed another one of her books, “Bread and Wine”. I ordered this one to give me some daily thoughts to reflect on. I was excited when it arrived! The devotions are short but still flavorful for my appetite right now.

 

On Thursday evening, I watched S play ball with his Daddy while E played mechanic in our garage. We are continually grateful for the space they have to play and get their energy out.

 

 

 

E was fighting a cold on Sunday and took two different naps during the day…a definite sign that he was under the weather. While he relaxed at home, Hubby took S out on a bike ride in the afternoon. They were gone for awhile. I’m continually amazed with the stamina our youngest has. He may be small but he is mighty!

 

 

I stepped away for a short time later in the day to walk over to our favorite coffee shop. The minutes quickly slipped by as I sat, sipped and read. A treat! How I wish I could invite my dearest friends and family from home to pull up a chair. I miss you all!

 

 

 

February 21st, 2016

We had our first car issue this past week. Our Honda started making an intermittent scratchy/grinding/squeaky sound on Tuesday morning as I was driving E to school. Hubby got a recommendation of a mechanic near E’s school that worked on Hondas and spoke English. On Wednesday morning, I took the car in.

I’m not a fan of dealing with car issues and was nervous about having to explain car sounds to a German mechanic. Its awkward in my own culture! After describing what I was hearing, the owner of the shop had one of his mechanics take a test drive with me. Of course, the car barely made the sound that I had heard so loudly minutes before. Classic! Thankfully, he told us to make an appointment for the following morning to drop off the car. He would try to figure out what was going on. I asked him if he thought the car was safe to drive. He said, “I hope so.” Great…

Before I left the shop, I asked if they had a shuttle service. They did not. Since we are a one car family, I wasn’t quite sure how to get home but told them I would try to figure something out and left. Once home, I asked my friend Amy if she could give me a ride. However, that afternoon, their car broke down! We heard there was a bus option but had a difficult time figuring it out. Later, hubby was told by a German national that the mechanic should be able to call a taxi. It was our only option at the time and I was hoping it would work. That evening, the car was making so much noise that it confirmed there was definitely something wrong.

Thursday morning, I attached E’s little red bus pass to his backpack. We had applied for this bus pass as a backup option if we ever needed it. All children who ride the buses are required to have one. Since I wasn’t sure if I would get the car back before school got out, E and I went through bus protocol and how many stops he needed to count before he would arrive in our village. I was told the bus driver would be a German national and may/may not speak English. He would not be alerting kids as to when they needed to exit the bus. However, since I would be at the bus stop, I reassured E that I would not let the bus leave with him. With our plan in place, I dropped E off at school and then drove over to the mechanic.

As I waited in line to drop off the car, the owner came over to me. He informed me that the mechanic would drive back to our house with us, return the car to the shop and then come and get us once the car was fixed. I didn’t even have a chance to ask him about calling a taxi and he had a plan! I was grateful and relieved. The same mechanic I took the test drive with the day before met us outside. I formally introduced myself. His name was Ralph. He spoke English allowing us to chat a bit on the way to the house. Lil S made him laugh.

By early afternoon, we learned our car would need another day in the shop. I contacted E’s teacher confirming his need to ride the bus home. Since I had always picked him up from school, I had sent her a message that morning to explain our car situation and tentative bus plan. She messaged me after she got him on the bus. Besides the fact that E was starving when he got off the bus, he was pretty excited about getting to ride it.

Later, the boys and I were outside playing on our driveway when hubby walked up to the house. He had taken the train home from work. I’m so grateful that we live in a place where we can use public transportation. There are definitely tradeoffs but its helpful to have options.

 

The following morning, we were out of the house much earlier than our norm in order to get E back to the bus stop. I wore our German safety vest as we walked in the darkness of the early morning. Thankfully, another woman was also walking to a nearby bus stop so we weren’t alone. As we walked through our village, we also passed a few others. The bus arrived several minutes early which left a couple of boys chasing it down the street when it pulled away from the stop.

 

Our car was ready that afternoon.The culprit was a rusted ball joint. Ralph came back and picked S and I up at the house. I was about 27 Euros short to pay our bill in cash and offered to pay the rest on my credit card. The owner told me to bring the remaining balance on Monday. He said I was a nice person. I thought the same of him! Here’s our bill of service in German and our old ball joint that Ralph sent us home with.

  

We navigated our first car issue, learned the school bus system and found a good mechanic in the process. Phew! I was honestly intimidated about figuring this all out on the front end with the various new experiences included. By God’s grace, it all worked out. And, now I know what makes “THAT” sound. =)

 

 

 

 

 

February 17th, 2016

Three months ago today, we flew into the Frankfurt Airport to begin our Germany adventure. A few days ago, our youngest asked me how long we will be here. I told him the plan was for another two years and nine months. He said, “I thought we were going to be here for three years.” The clock is ticking!

We decided to return to Frankfurt this past Sunday. We heard The Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt’s Museum of Natural History, had a fantastic dinosaur display. Its actually the largest exhibition of large dinosaurs in Europe. In their excitement, the boys wanted to wear dinosaur shirts to gear up. S wore the one his Dear gave him and E had a great hand-me-down from either the Brandts or Whites. We were good to go!

On our drive into the city that afternoon, we passed the airport. Memories of going through customs, gathering our luggage, being reunited with Adi and driving to Kaiserslautern for the first time all came flooding back. I remember riding in the back of the van, taking in the unfamiliar sites and thinking how surreal it all felt. Now, looking out the window, I was struck by the size of Frankfurt and the high rise buildings. I later learned Its the fifth largest city in Germany.

We managed to find a parking spot on a crowded residential street. Hubby got the opportunity to practice his parallel parking skills with his wife standing on the sidewalk trying to be an extra set of eyes (picture me yelling at a really sharp pitch when I thought our car was going to smash the one behind it!). Once parked, we bundled up and began to walk. As we neared the museum, we noticed the art on display across the street. Perfect for Valentine’s Day…and everyday!

E made a beeline for this guy first…

When we walked into the museum, there was a display of brochures/maps in several different languages. We now know to look for the British flag to find content in English. The museum was full of families and patrons of all ages. I quickly noticed how loud it seemed. It was actually comforting to be in a noisy place. We got swept up in the  excitement to see the dinosaurs and everything else this wonderful museum had to offer. The boys LOVED it! Its worth the trip if you find yourself in the area. Super kid-friendly and easy to navigate. It got me wanting to see the movie “Night at the Museum” again.

 

 

 

We fueled up at the bistro in the museum. Hubby ordered a large bottle of water for 5.50 Euros. Water is often more expensive than other beverages so we try to economize by ordering a large quantity. We enjoyed warm coffee drinks while the boys enjoyed a cold treat.

 

Afterwards, we got a couple of dinosaur momentos in the gift shop before heading out. It started to drizzle as we walked. I pulled out my umbrella that I had tucked away in my purse. Even the rain didn’t damper the wonderful afternoon. We found our car and admired how snug hubby managed to get our car against the curb.

On our drive home, I thanked hubby for suggesting that we take this adventure. Its both hard and good for us at the same time. I’m thankful we get to do it together!

 

 

 

February 16th, 2016

Hubby is becoming quite competent in navigating the public transportation system here. His daily use for work and his sense of adventure has accelerated the learning curve. He just invested in a year pass to use both the buses and regional train system.

On Saturday morning, hubby suggested taking the train downtown to the Farmers Market. S was feeling better so we decided to venture out for a bit. We had heard good things about the market and the train would allow us to avoid the hassle of finding parking. After breakfast, we layered up and headed out the door to catch our train. One of the boys was not as game as we were to this idea. And so, in good parenting fashion, hubby carried our arguing kiddo down the street. Yes, we still have our fair share of challenging moments just a different cultural audience. Sigh… Thankfully, smiles returned by the time we boarded.

 

When we arrived at the train station, our Family Navigator got us to the right bus to take us to the market. My train ticket allowed me one bus ride, hubby used his pass and the boys were free. Score!

The Farmer’s Market was in a large, open plaza area. There were numerous vendors selling fruits, vegetables, cheese, flowers, local honey, meat, and more.

 

 

As we walked around, it began to drizzle. We layered our rain jackets over our coats which is our m.o. here. One of the vendors had a machine that made freshly squeezed orange juice using oranges from the crates stacked around it. The boys loved watching the oranges getting squeezed. The end result was nothing short than nectar from the gods. OH soooooo DELICIOUS!

After purchasing some honey, potatoes, onions, apples, and OJ, we took a short lunch break.

The rain was intermittent so we did a little more shopping before calling it good. Hubby treated me to some lovely tulips…a sweet sign of Spring.

We left the market to enjoy some beautiful music being played by a street musician. The boys and I listened as Hubby worked on navigating us back home. Little S and I even danced for a bit. To my surprise, Hubby captured the moment. A treat for me.

 

We walked the crowded, yet relatively quiet streets from downtown back to the train station. E and I played I Spy to help the time pass. After buying some train tickets for a future trip we are planning, we walked over to our platform and boarded our waiting train. We made it! Our ride home was short. Thankfully, so was the walk to our house.

 

 

 

 

 

February 15th, 2016

One of my desires in keeping this Blog is to turn it into a family photo album each year, chronicling the unique and the mundane of our life here in Germany. I want to remember both. Though our ordinary still feels strange and new on most days, there are a few aspects of life that are becoming our new familiars. Here are glimpses of both from this past week.

Ninja Boy…

 

Super Bowl 50…

With the time difference, kick-off was sometime around 12:30am on Monday morning. I attempted to stay awake straight through and made it until 1am. Hubby went to sleep after we put the boys down and then awoke for the game, watched it and eventually went back to sleep sometime around 4am. He wins the die-hard fan award!

Extended play time…

E had this past Monday and Tuesday off of school because of the changing of quarters. He was absolutely DELIGHTED with the extra play time he got at home with his brother. They can spend hours playing cars, airplanes and trains.

 

A Dinner Invite…

My new friend, Amy, invited our family to join hers for dinner on Monday night. It was our first time sitting at someone else’s table for a meal since we left home. I enjoyed hearing more of Amy’s story and sharing pieces of ours. What a gift it is to open your home and your life to another.

Parent/Teacher Conferences…

We met with E’s teacher on Tuesday morning to talk through his report card and progress thus far. She feels like he is transitioning well and has made friends with his eleven classmates. She called him a “peace-maker” in class which was a new name for me to hear someone use for our little guy. Along with his core subjects, he also has Host Nation (a German culture class), Spanish, Gym, Computers, Library and Music on a rotating basis. He continues to be strong in Math and needs to develop his skills in reading and writing (no surprise to us). E practices reading twenty minutes on school nights as homework before Mama takes over with bedtime stories. We celebrated when he read this book during one of our evening reading times this past week…

Ash Wednesday Service…

I joined a large group of folks from our village on Wednesday evening at the local Catholic Church to start the Lenten season. The service was spoken in German. However, I could still follow along a little because of my Catholic roots. Thanks Mom and Dad! To my left sat an elderly woman with a kind smile. To my right sat a woman that looked to be in her twenties. We sang, received our ashes, passed the peace and took communion together. The gathering of people outside the church afterwards felt warm and lively. The body of Christ is becoming bigger to me as I quietly observe others living out their faith in my midst.

More unpacking…

We pushed to get as many of our boxes unpacked and cleared out as possible. We have been storing all the unpacked boxes in our garage. It was filled from end to end and floor to ceiling. The movers came back and took all the boxes away on Friday. Now our house is messier than ever! My next mission is to figure out some organizational systems. This “no closet” house continues to challenge me on this front. Here is our cleared out garage…the cleanest “room” of the house.

Hotdogs for dinner…

Navigating the medical system…

Our littlest awoke Thursday night/early Friday morning with incredibly hot hands. I have never felt hands so warm before. They hurt him and brought tears to his eyes. His whole body was warm. However, his hands were definitely the hottest. We gave him Tylenol, some ice packs for his hands and began to google his symptoms. Eventually, we all fell back to sleep. When he awoke Friday morning, his hands were still warm and he was complaining about a tummy ache. With the weekend approaching, I called the English-speaking medical facility to get him a doctor’s appointment. Its on the westside of Kaiserslautern, about thirty minutes away. In the case of an emergency, we will need to use the German system. Otherwise, this medical facility is our best option. The doctor examined him out and diagnosed him with an all encompassing “virus.” As we checked out, I paid our copay in Euros. He is feeling better now though we are keeping a watchful eye on him and will return later this week if need be. How I hope and pray for good health!

When I picked E up from school later that afternoon, he had a valentine for me. He wrote out my name and his initials on the backside. I know I may not always be on the receiving end of his valentines so I’ll treasure them now!

We hope you had a good week!

 

 

February 9th, 2016

Hubby and I dated long distance. At the time, he lived in a climate where it rained almost consistently for nine months of the year. I was in the land of vast blue skies, enjoying sunshine on a pretty consistent basis. As we talked through how to close our gap in distance, weather played into the decision making. I also have naturally curly hair and temperamental joints…enough said.

Interestingly, weather did not come up in our conversations as we talked about moving overseas. I did not connect the dots when hubby insisted that we all have good rain jackets before moving here to Germany. How my curly hair behaves in humidity wasn’t even on my radar. I knew I was going to miss my massage therapist but I didn’t consider how my joints would fair. The reality of gray skies and airing out your house daily to help prevent mold didn’t sink in until we were here.

Thus, when the weather report shows a day of sunshine followed by rain clouds for five days and snow for another four days, we make it a priority to get outside. This past Saturday was one of those amazingly, beautiful sunny days. The boys grabbed their scooters, we slung our backpacks on our backs and headed out on foot around our village. It was time to do some exploring with hopes of becoming more familiar with our neighborhood.

Our first stop was the little market where we filled our bag with fresh fruits and veggies. Hubby ran those home as we continued on our way. He met back up with us near the train station. There is a ramp that goes over the tracks allowing us to cross from one side of our village to the other. We stopped in the bigger grocery store for a few more items before continuing along our way.

We took our now familiar trail through the fields, across the train tracks again and over to the Catholic church. The boys and I had wandered over here one day but turned around shortly after. There is an interesting watering area near the church where a little girl was playing in the company of an older gentleman that could have been her father. The boys joined her as they all moved the water with sticks they had found nearby. The sun was warm with temperatures in the low 50’s. We tried to read a sign to learn more about the area but Google translate was not being helpful. We eventually moved on.

 

 

We walked over to the church and found the doors open. How inviting! We accepted the open invitation and attempted to quietly enter. The light shone through the stain glass windows, giving the interior a soft glow. It was beautiful inside! The church, built back in the 1100’s, was originally a monastery. A sweet poster, showing pictures of children with Jesus, was propped up near the altar. After lingering for awhile and lighting some candles, we left the sacred space. Ash Wednesday is this week and there will be a service here in the evening. I want to go.

 

 

As we explored around the grounds of the church, we found these little purple flowers growing through the cobblestone paths and covering one area like snow. I was amazed to see such vibrant color in the middle of winter. With the rain and moisture comes unexpected beauty. I need to remember this.

 

Before we knew it, we were back near the little market. We saw an older gentleman giving his dog a ride in a basket on the back of his bike. The boys started brainstorming how to bring Adi out on one of our adventures.

 

One of Hubby’s coworkers, Liz and her daughter, joined us at the house shortly after we got home. We had invited them over to play and stay for dinner. Our paths have crossed a few times now but this was the first time we had them over to our home. We were glad we did! It was good to connect over a shared meal and our experiences of parenthood and adjusting to life in a new country. I like Liz and her authenticity. The warmth of the day lingered well into the night.

How grateful we are for this village, our home, time spent together as a family, new friends, sacred spaces, the slower pace, rain that brings flowers in wintertime and sunny days. I have been told several times that family and friends back home are praying for us. Thank you for prayers spoken on our behalf. We are slowly growing roots.

February 8th, 2016

While Anna was visiting us, we wanted to share our everyday life around our village and also play tourist. Thankfully, she is both adventurous and easy going which turned out to be a great combination when you are new to a city yourself. E had school during the day, so S and I became her tour guides. We walked around our village and ventured further out as well. Anna even helped us learn a few new sites. Thanks to Anna, we now know where the butcher is!

On Wednesday, we drove to Landstuhl to tour the Nanstein Castle. According to Wikipedia, Nanstein Burg originally dates back to around the year 1162. Emperor Frederick I demanded its construction as additional defense for the Palatinate. A portion of the castle was eventually inherited by a German Knight, Franz Von Sickingen, in 1504. He acquired the entire castle in 1518. Its crazy to see places so rich in history!

When we arrived, a group was just leaving. As we walked up, the rain started but we came prepared with rain jackets and our sunshine umbrella. Other than one other tourist and the ticket man, I think we had the castle to ourselves. This gave us the freedom to roam wherever our four year old wanted to explore. Perfect!

When we left the castle that afternoon, it started to snow. We hit a Stau (traffic jam) on the Autobahn. Thankfully, it cleared quickly and we headed home. I dropped Anna and S off at our house and drove to E’s school to pick him up. Here’s a picture of the scenery on the way to his school…

On Thursday, we met up with Cassie, our mutual friend from back home. Cassie was part of the High School youth group at our church when hubby and I were volunteer leaders, back in the day. She has since graduated, gotten married to a pilot and has lived in Germany for a year now. It felt very surreal to hang out at our favorite coffee shop with Cassie and Anna…HERE…in Germany! Surreal yet sweet. I loved catching up as the hours slipped by.

On Friday, we headed to downtown Kaiserslautern. After we figured out the parking ticket machine, we strolled down the streets. The official city symbol of Kaiserslautern is the carp which makes appearances all throughout the city. S was motivated to keep his little legs moving by finding pictures of fish in the streets. He also found a map of the city that he used to show us where we were. Before we knew it, we needed to head home, pick up E from school and take Anna to the train station. Sad…

The more we learn about our surroundings, the better we are going to get at this tour guide gig! Would you like to sign up for one of our tours? You can get the Bed & Breakfast package deal that Anna took advantage of. Our rates can’t be beat and our schedule is pretty open right now. Just let us know! =)

February 7th, 2016

At the beginning of December, I received a message from our friend, Anna. She asked how far the Frankfurt Airport was from our home and if we would be up for a visit. She was teaching in Bangladesh at the end of January and had the idea of trying to swing into Germany on her way home to see her exchange student “son” and our family. She didn’t know if it would work at the time but wanted to put feelers out. We have known Anna for years through our church and our boys have a sweet affinity towards her, especially our youngest. Just the idea of a visit from Anna got me excited. A couple of weeks later, the pieces came together and her tickets were booked!

Fast forward almost two months…

We just had the deep pleasure of hosting Anna here in our home this past week. She spent a few days in Berlin before taking the train to see us. We planned for Hubby to meet her at her last train transfer in Mannheim on Tuesday afternoon so they could ride in on the train together. By the grace of God, they found each other in the crowds of people and just barely caught their next train as they boarded with the doors closing. They took the bus for the last leg into our village on Tuesday evening. It was so surreal to have her walk through our front door when they arrived. Anna was actually HERE in Germany! These two were reunited at last.

Anna stayed through Friday afternoon. We wish we could have had her even longer. Her presence was an incredible gift to our entire family! She brought the familiarity of home and community, spent hours playing with the boys, 
 

 

stayed up for late night conversations, helped out with reading homework and insisted on giving us a date night…our first since we arrived back in November! Hubby and I got to catch up over coffee at our favorite coffee shop and then walked to one of the local restaurants in our village.

 

The maître D’ of the restaurant was an older gentlemen. He impressed us with his kindness and offered to help us navigate the menu. His recommendations were wonderful. We enjoyed our dinner immensely! One of the portions was a sample of sausage and mashed potatoes, compliments of the chef. We were told that the name of the sausage would not be translated for us in English as we would probably not eat it then! It was quite tasty and led to a guessing game of what we were dining on…perhaps it was better that we didn’t know.  As we were leaving, the maître D’ introduced himself. His name was Arnold. We gave our compliments to the chef (and owner) and Arnold invited us back to the kitchen to talk to him in person. The evening was a real treat!

Anna stepped right into our everyday lives helping out with dishes and laundry too. She spoiled us BIG TIME! Though we made an effort to be good hosts and show her around a bit (more on that in the next post), we still feel like we got the sweeter end of the deal. When we took her back to the train station on Friday afternoon, I couldn’t help but feel my cup overflowing with gratitude and the many blessings Anna showered upon us.

Thank you, dear Anna, THANK YOU!!!!!