March 15th, 2016

We just finished week one of visits from family and friends. What a gift! Last week, Danny’s sister, Grace came with her daughter. Yesterday evening, we welcomed our dear friend, Andy from back home. Tomorrow, my parents arrive for ten days. These faces bring with them comforting familiarity, shared stories, news from home and lots of love. Its been a true gift to our spirits!

Grace and her daughter arrived by train last Tuesday afternoon. It was so surreal to see the train doors open and watch them walk onto the platform where I was standing with the boys.

 

 

Suddenly, they were here…in Germany…to visit our family…because we live here…its our home! Weird!! Our old world collided with our new world, putting me in a strange, dream-like state. I wonder when this will feel common or if it ever will?

Grace took the train back to Paris Wednesday morning after a quick overnight at our home. She had meetings for work that evening and Thursday. We kept our niece busy showing her some of our favorite local sites; Nanstein Castle, our village, the Nature trail, “our” coffee shop, the labyrinth and a couple of stops on the Life Path. The sun came out both days which was a HUGE treat!

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

On Thursday evening, we all traveled by train to Paris to reunite with Grace. It was the first time our family has traveled out of Germany since we arrived last November. The train had two levels. Our seats were on the bottom level which disappointed the boys. However, we got a foldout table that helped make up for it! E enjoyed checking out the food car on the second level about half way through the trip. It was very cool and had yummy snacks!

 

 

Our train ride took about two and half hours. We arrived in Paris around 9pm, stood in the taxi line outside the train station and lucked out with an English speaking taxi driver. He took us to the flat we rented and stopped the traffic so we could all cross the street. We were exhausted and excited to be in La Ville Lumière…the City of Lights! I’ll write more on Paris in the next couple of posts.

Au revoir!