Facts and Funnies

Heidelberg Castle

We have been living in Germany for ten days now and we are beginning to get a steady "normal" in our new home for the next three months.  It is Sunday and our first real week of treatment will begin tomorrow.  We have seen some beautiful sights and some amazing places; Heidelburg Castle, Dachau concentration camp, countless little towns and vast fields of grass and produce.  The area around us is rich in farmland and it warms my heart to often see a green tractor on the road, outfitted with plows and harvester fittings.  Trees are heavy with apples and we buy many at the farmers market.  The weather was still in the mid 80's when we got here and the fall finally came upon us three days ago.  As we go through treatment, we will watch green trees turn vibrant colors, and welcome in the chill of winter.

For this post, I am just going to share a few funnies and facts about Germany and what we have learned so far!

-When you get on the autobahn you DRIVE. Nothing else. No phone. No distractions.  There is no time, aside from it being illegal.  I drive a comfortable 160 kmh (which translates to 99.41 mph), yet all manner of cars will pass me on the left with a wind that draws your car toward their lane.   Sometimes you hear a loud rumble as a Porsche flies past, or sometimes it's a humble little VW or Audi that puts us to shame.  People don't lane hog and road construction creates narrow strips of road that would be a one-way in America.  Gripping the steering wheel is common.  Tunnels are not uncommon in our area and every car slows down to go through them.  In America, signs warning of lane merging due to construction gives ample and sometimes redundant warning - here, you see it once and you are moving over.  They are serious. And I kind of like it.  On the autobahn- we drive, baby.

-Road lights are different here. Like a road racer, there is a "get set" light (green and yellow light together) before there is a green light.  Presumably it allows drivers time to shift into first (manuals are most popular), but also allows the car to start again.  Most cars here are very efficient and shut down upon stopping, restarting as your foot releases the brake like an electric car.

-They do not refrigerate their eggs.  If anyone knows Levi, you would know how much of a problem this is for him.  While I find it delightfully "farm-ish" that they buy local eggs from local chickens and set them on shelves in cardboard boxes with some feathers still attached...Levi finds it appalling.  He is thankful for refrigerators, does not love left-overs and for heavens sake, will not eat at potlucks.  Food poisoning is on his top three list of most terrifying life events.  I laugh, he tries not to think about it.  I don't think he has knowingly eaten anything with eggs in it yet.  

-Architecture is a stunning contrast of clean lines, sharp sillouettes against the sky and intricate detail.  Cathedrals competed during the building years to stretch higher than the next.  Houses built upon hills seem all the higher with their immense height soaring into the sky, window upon window tall.  Timbers make straight lines between stucco and stone.  Buildings from thousands of years ago are not only standing and inhabited, but still cause people to stare in admiration at the design.  It is a sight for the soul, especially Schwabish Hall, set against the backdrop of hills, a small river, quaint bridges and trees.  I stare often at the buildings and never tire of it.  Doors with their gothic steel detail are my favorite.  I wonder at the creators of it, most of whom must have been very inspired by artists past.  And that's the heart of what I am trying to explain...the buildings here are art and you walk through a canvas of it every day.

-People have community here.  Levi and I noticed far more conversations at coffee shops, in parks, on the street in groups and individually than what we would typically expect.  It was a rare occasion to see someones head buried in a phone.  I have been inspired to take more time to just "be" with others, aside from the busyness of life.

-People walk.  For groceries, for their piano lessons, to the butcher, the dry cleaners.  They carry bags or roll them behind filled with produce and such.  People ride; trails up and down small country roads are dispersed with walkers and bikers as people exercise to get to their destination.  These trails just beg to be run on.  But I don't see runners.  The few runs I went on I felt like people wondered why I was running...like maybe they all don't need to run? LOL.  I do.  I went off my gluten-free diet to indulge in chocolate stuffed croissants.  They are as decadent as they sound and all the walking in the world is not enough to compensate.  But so worth it. (Back on the gluten free diet as we speak...yay.)

-I am still so grateful for America.  There is beauty here that is unmatched by anything I have seen before.  It is not a wild beauty like many parts of the states but I love this place, aside from the reason why we are here.  I never expected to be a mother needing to seek medical care outside the United States and I hope with all my heart that something changes in the states to make this kind of treatment possible.  To date, the treatment we are seeking here is still not offered in it's entirety stateside, and beyond that, this doctor has the best success rates to eliminate Lyme Spirochetes (with longevity) that we have found.  I will always be grateful for this place and this path God has provided, even though it's not what I would have chosen out of 100 other multiple choice options.  I know God will use this and we are only at the beginning. We are done with our drives in the countryside, as treatment begins in it's entirety tomorrow and rest will be of necessity. The start of treatment typically brings hard days but we are prepared and have our eyes set on the goal.

-Cheers and as Germans would say with a smile, "Ciao!"

Wyatt's dreams of buying a ukulele came true. 

And who doesn't love a giant pretzel? 

(They are going back on their gluten free diet too...)

There is beauty in the simplest of things.

And so it begins

Our journey begins.  With hilarity, some desperation and definitely without fanfare or polish!  We are just a crazy American family, getting our land legs in Germany. 

We landed in Frankfurt around midnight Pacific time, 9 am Germany time.  The flight was pretty easy and we went through customs with ease.  Our bags were the very first ones at baggage claim, due to the fact that they barely made it on the plane because we barely made it on the plane after our delayed flight out of MFR. 

Off to the rental car, which Levi got a great deal on.  It was claimed that a volvo SUV size car could hold five luggages.  Woohoo!  Sounds awesome, but I was skeptical and wondered if we should just rent a van…?  Levi, being the trusting soul he is, did not entertain the idea and so we solidly planned on this great priced volvo carrying us and our fifty pound each rolling luggage plus five carry-on’s to our destination in Schwabish Hall.  As it turns out, there must have been some fine print detail that stated it could carry five large luggages…minus the three children in the back seat.    I may have muttered some things under my breath as I stood watching Levi sweating in the parking garage, it being far too hot for the Germany I remember, him fully hoping and planning on fitting the next two suitcases in when three allowed the car back to barely close upon full force shutting the door.  (insert unrestrained laugher) I love him for so many reasons, but one being…he just does not get flustered.  Sweating profusely, he calmly walked to the car rental agent and asked for a van.  God smiled down on us and we got it for no extra cost, even though the rental should have been twice as much.  I think maybe they were just all done with us and tried to shove us out as quickly and painlessly as possible, to which we were in complete agreement.  Needless to say, we smashed our stuff in, got the GPS loaded and were content with some peaceful silence on the way to our destination while Eli, Wyatt and Ben slept in the back seat. 

The drive got prettier the closer we got to Schwabish Hall.  We passed fields and mountains and trees that reminded me of home.  It is comforting to be in a town with so much country around it. I was here two years ago and remembered which street to turn down to get to a parking garage, as we had to walk the rest of the short ways to our destination.  We unloaded luggages, tired kids and bags and got a tour of our apartment.  It is an amazing place for its beauty and historical significance.  And it is more space than I expected or could have hoped for!

As God would have it, I am able to walk through the very same doors that I walked through two years ago when I came to visit Stephanie with Ryan for treatment.  Our house here has four stories, and the apartment we are renting is on the second level.  The bottom level used to be a horse carriage barn and the very top level is the place I stayed at two years ago.  The gift of familiarity is profound.  Leaving home and all that I know has felt akin to walking off a cliff…in so many ways.  The peace from the Lord is with me, yes, but visiting Germany briefly is so different than bringing your kids to treatment in Germany and knowing you will live there three months, holding down the fort mostly alone.  God has allowed time and again His kind confirmation upon our shoulders as time and again He opened doors that only He could.  His stamp is solidly upon this journey and that knowledge brings peace to my soul, even in the midst of fear.

Before leaving the house, I got on my knees and confessed my fears…over watching the boys go through excruciating treatment day after day- over the little things like finding groceries in German language and knowing what to do in split second decision making without Levi’s help when he is stateside.  I somehow worried that as I went, that God would not be here…It sounds so silly but like I said, it felt like walking off a cliff.  There was so much unknown and so much I couldn’t emotionally fully process.  I prayed out loud that God would remind me that He is a God of the universe, and of course He would go with me! 

It is early morning here and I sit and look at the four walls around me…I have wondered more than once who lived here years past and what their stories looked like.  I love history because it is full of real lives, journeys and life that was lived.  I wondered at the families and the ups and downs that life took them through.  I wondered who had lived within these four walls that loved my Jesus and what their trials looked like.  I thought about the era of knighthood, Kings, Queens and peasants.  Yes, this building is that old, built in the 1300’s.  I thought about the reformation age and protestants.  I thought about who in this house walked just steps away to the massive cathedral that lights up the town square, ringing bells and welcoming the community to gather.  Who lived here during World War II, watching soldiers drive through cobbled streets and seeing Jewish neighbors disappear?  There is a historical Jewish prayer house just two doors down…what must the eyes have seen that resided within these four walls?  It helps put our story into perspective.  It helps this mommy heart to remember that God truly is faithful throughout generations of history, through times of joy and sorrow.  As we walk this road, it is mingled with trial and yet…yes, joy.  It is a strange mixture of intense gratefulness that healing is ahead for my boys, yet guilt at what they will have to go through to get there. 

As our family sat at the very top of stone steps leading to the cathedral, our landlord told us of the protestant chapel.  In the reformation era, many catholic cathedrals were getting emptied and laid barren in an effort to seek Christ aside from catholic rule.  The cathedral in Schwabish Hall is one of the more historically accurate ones, helped in part years later because a man by the name of Dietrich Boenhoffer who pastored here.  Levi and I were both taken aback, because we know of this mans’ story and his writings. 

Dietrich Boenhoffer taught that it was okay to leave the art…that it wasn’t about the building, it was about the heart. At the age of 21 he had graduated from the University of Berlin and by 1937 he had written The Cost of Discipleship.  He was calling for genuine faith and a walk with Christ. He was a vocal anti-nazist in 1933 as Hitlers rise to power was taking place.  Though he pastored other places, Schwabish Hall was a place he resided in as well.    He went on to teach pastors in an underground seminary as the war heated up.  April of 1943 Bonhoeffer was arrested, accused of involvement in a plot to overthrow and assassinate Hiltler.  He lived in various concentration camps and then transferred to an extermination camp.  One month before Germany surrendered, Boenhoffer was hanged and went to be with Jesus.  He wrote from prison, “To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to make something of oneself (a sinner, a penitent, or a saint) on the basis of some method or other, but to be a man – not a type of man, but the man that Christ creates in us.  It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but the participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life.”

As life would have it, Dietrich’s niece resided in the very apartment we are living in for the next three months.  What rich spiritual heritage we are surrounded by…in a place that has seen such trial and suffering.  In a place where the war that raged on was waged in the heavenlies as well.  The spiritual oppression in this place must have been profound…but so was the light that was held out by those who carried the light of Life in their hearts.  A light that cannot be extinguished.  It is that very light that we carry through our journey of faith.  I feel God’s hand so mightily and clearly upon us.  Life does not have to be easy to be blessed, He has taught me this.  And often, it is in the hard that we grow the most…through the parched desert that we are most grateful for water that only He could provide.  God is teaching me to see Germany through the eyes of his faithfulness that never leaves. How blessed we are to serve this God of love and mercy.  How much it makes me want to do this well for my children, my husband and to the glory of my God. 

Treatment will start soon and we have only just begun, but God has already been ahead and behind us!  And as Boenhoffer so eloquently wrote, may our prayer be that in all things- whether good or bad – that our goal wouldn’t be to make ourselves something based on man’s image, but that we would be made into the man Christ creates in us. 

Psalms 12:5-6

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”

This is a traditional iconic view of Schwabish Hall.  

This is looking out our door and to the left; 

following the cobblestone straight ahead

 leads to a foot bridge and the parking garage.

The front doors that we will call home for the next twelve weeks.

These army vehicles from WWII were parked for a short while to advertise

a peace festival, celebrating the times after the war.

Beautiful l doors- in love with the architecture.