Preparations

Greetings to you from the world’s most inconsistent blogger! I thought I’d tell you a little about what life is like for us as we prepare to move in a month-and-a-half. We are selling tons of stuff because we will move to Germany with 4 suitcases. Each additional suitcase would have cost an extra $230. So, as you can imagine, yard sales and Craigslist are our best friends right now.

 Here, Hannah Joy is celebrating the completion of another succesful yard sale yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Thanks to all of you who came and bought stuff! And while we’re on the topic of Hannah Joy, let me brag on her a little bit. People often ask how she’s handling the prospect of moving to Germany, to a country where she does not even know the language. She is thrilled. Hannah Joy has always dreamed of living overseas, so for her this is a dream-come-true. And the thought of selling everything we own is a bit daunting, but we have been anticipating this for several years. All of our clothes come from thrift stores and yard sales, as well as just about everything else we own. Hannah Joy and I were talking last night about how this process gives us a reminder that stuff is just that . . . stuff. Replaceable. Anyways, my wife is incredibly supportive, and thrilled to be moving overseas. She is pretty amazing!

Several items that sold on Craigslist were hard to let go of, including:

This aloe plant that has kept me company at work. I have been growing it for about 4 years now.

I also parted with my Vintage Peugeot bike. But by far, one of the most difficult things to leave behind will be my dog, Sophie. She is a part of the family. My wife and I got her when she was just a few weeks old, when we had just gotten married. We’ve had her for close to 5 years now. She isgreat with the baby. Although Germany is very pet friendly, we are not able to bring Sophie because the housing we have arranged does not allow dogs. I am sure I will weep when I say goodbye to Sophie. I am almost in tears now as I write this.

But, on a brighter note, things are coming together for us as our moving date approaches. We even bought our plane tickets. We fly out of Atlanta on August 3rd and arrive in Munich on August 4th. I can only imagine what the flight is going to be like with a 1-year-old! We will spend the month of July with family, which we are extremely excited about. And we are having some special times here in Louisburg in the meantime. Last week Melody got to pick strawberries for her first time. She loved the whole experience, as the pictures below will demonstrate. We anticipate a trip to my Nana’s in a couple of weeks. Then my younger sister will spend a week with us in June, yeah!!! And as I mentioned, we will be with family during July. Hopefully by the end of July, our family’s will be so tired of us that they will be begging us to leave the country!

I continue to work like crazy on practicing German. I received a big compliment last week. My conversation partner, who usually offers a steady stream of corrections, paused and said, “Andy, your German is really improving.” German has even started making its way into my dreams, but usually as soon as it does I wake up in a cold sweat. I continue to practice the language daily, and plan on only communicating in German once the plane lands in Munich on August 4.

Well, that’s about all that’s new on our end. Please pray that we will be able to sell both of our cars before our move (we have a 1990 corolla-$2,400, and a 1996 Buick-$2,900). I’m going to try to be more regular in my blogging. In the meantime, enjoy our pictures from the strawberry patch. 

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