Hallo! Its been almost a week since we've moved to Germany, and time has certainly zoomed by! We had really nice weather when we arrived, with blue skies and everything starting to burst into bloom... but its been rather cold the past few days (we're looking at lows of -2 degree Celsius this weekend).
So thus far, we've been so thankful to God for:
:: His providence and protection!
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| That Trunki from Junior J's godma was a life-saver for parts of the trip, since it meant we didn't need to carry the big boy on top of all that baggage! |
:: A safe journey all the way to our new home: Both flights were rather uneventful, and we made it through with our sanity, and all our cabin and checked luggage intact (We had 7 huge check-in luggages for the 4 of us, plus my mum. The hubby was a tad unhappy about the amount of cabin luggage I had packed, since we had 3 backpacks and 1 shoulder bag between 3 adults, apart from the suitcases!) Junior J had a night terror and screamed the plane down for awhile, and he took up two seats to sleep, which meant hubby ended up sitting on the floor for part of the flight... otherwise we all managed to catch some sleep. Our friend helped us to book a van to drop us off at our new place, so the journey was more or less quite smooth-sailing (save for all the heavy-lifting we had to do!).
:: Thoughtful family and friends: Who showered us with thoughtful little gifts, covered us in prayer, helped us to baby-sit, car-sit and house-sit and gave us encouragement. Who helped us lug our stuff to the airport and turned up to see us off even though it was late. We are so blessed to have you!
:: Lovely new friends and a place to call home for a year or so: Our friends over here were amazing. They helped us to find an apartment (which turned out to be such a nice place in a lovely location), loaned us a mattress, pillows, lights (the place was unfurnished and didn't have lights, which supposedly is common over here for rental apartments!), and even their car. They even helped us to get plates and cutlery to use, and passed us their old dining table and chairs! The apartment is just about perfect for our family of 4, and Junior J has been having a good time running through all that space and has not asked to go home to SG even once! Perhaps having these little companions in the bathroom does help:
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| The boy loves ladybugs, and we keep finding them wandering around the tub! |
:: A fruitful first week settling in: We spent the past few days trying to sort out admin (like registering at the Rathouse), and hunting for furniture and other stuff. Two days were spent wandering around Ikea in a nearby city buying some basic furniture and lights (which we have yet to put up!). Poor hubby had to lug home the vacuum cleaner (big boy refused to get out of the pram) and also nearly broke his back carrying the washing machine up the stairs today (seems like the Germans really encourage you to DIY everything!).
:: My mum: She does give us a heart attack every time we step into a supermarket since she tends to go berserk (we had to verbally restrain her many times from running off when she found out that the frozen meatballs at Ikea were waaay cheaper than back in SG)... but she's been a great help with the cooking and helping us to settle in!
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| Ok, this was taken in SG, but I love this shot. According to Junior J, the pebbles represent the Great Wall, and he declared that "we are now in China!" |
:: These two little boys, who are settling in pretty well: We all had minimal jet-lag since the adults were exhausted from the pre-trip prep, and the kids from the plane rides, so we just slept in and woke up late the morning after. Baby J is more or less back to his usual schedule, except that the dry air has made his eczema flare up. Junior J seems to be enjoying himself, and has been eating quite well since he does love bread and cheese and salad:
Lots to be thankful for. What are you thankful for this week?
