{A German Year in Snapshots}

It's been one whole year of German living for the Frinsel family... can this be?

This year found us moving from the flat lands to southern Germany with no job, apartment, language skills or furniture, with our cat and keyboard to: finding an apartment with the best landlords in all of Germany ~ working with a friend until a great job was provided ~ free furniture ~ health care taken care of ~ kind people who helped us in the beginning to get settled ~ a German/Russian/Canadian wedding ~ tooth infection and root canal for the Dutchman ~ a European residency card, the ability to log several hundreds of hours in German class, a week at a youth camp as a tent leader and the beginning of midwifery studies for Mrs. Frinsel ~ a couple visits back to Holland to visit family & friends ~ exploring flea markets and local sites and festivals ~ three weeks quarantine due to eye infection for yours truly ~ business training trips to Holland & England for Mr. Frinsel ~ a job at a local bakery ~ Monday evening soccer for the Dutchman ~ to Spain for our belated honeymoon ~ visits from Dutch, French and American guests ~ a long-awaited trip State-side ~ the exciting, glorious discovery of Baby Frinsel's existence ~ the Dutchman's introduction to Florida ~ hard, winter months of morning sickness ~ lots of walks & hikes in the German countryside ~ and a trip to the ER for six stiches... to name a few!

It has been a challenging year. It's hard to move to a new country when you are just settling into another, and to have to learn another language and culture when you are in the midst of discovering those that are close to you and yours. But we are going to keep trusting that we are going to use what we have learned someday even as we use it now, as residents of big, beautiful Deutschland. We have learned so much... lovely, experiential learning that cannot be measured but that shows itself slowly, over time.

Being apart from friends and family is also difficult. The beauty of this is, however, that this situation has only brought us closer together! Spare time is usually spent in each other's company and oh, the adventures we have had! (for better or worse!) And we are beyond excited and impatient for the coming of our newest family addition and a new dimension to life he/she shall bring.

So dear folks, below is our year in photos... may it display the grace that has been shown to us and how we have been taken care of in every way. We don't know where we will be this time next year, or what this next year holds (does anyone of you?) but we look forward to it with open arms and full hearts.

Ready to country-hop

A rainbow over the Kocher river, our first evening in Germany: a sign of promise

A German spring-time

Celebrating May Day

From fields of tulips to fields of dandelions

The May Pole

A plethora of glorious cheeses at a German cheese festival

A summer hike

Cheering on the motherland from Deutschland

Summer time in Schwäbisch Hall

Picnic dance

Comburg monastery at sunset

German class

Powercamp: getting some sleep after a night walking through the countryside

Zelt 8: My tent

The Dutchman in Heidelberg's castle ruins

Mrs. Frinsel in Heidelberg

At the local Light Festival: nothing short of stunning

Picnic birthday celebration

A favourite summer activity: trips to a local lake

A camping trip with friends

Ringing in the autumn with sweaters

Spain: a beautiful five days for our belated honeymoon

A visit from a very good friend

Schloß Hohenzollern at dusk

With Charlotte, remembering in Dachau

Thanksgiving

After 15 months, America and family

An early Christmas surprise

Celebrating our new discovery while visiting the grandparents on Florida's beaches

Introducing Zwarte Piet to Kentucky

Christmas bonfire

Christmastide + family = beauty

Back in Germany: a kaffee celebration in honor of our first sight of Baby F.

A snowy valentine

First baby "bump" photo

Announcing our addition to the world and savouring the joy

Another spring comes...

The Frinsel threesome

The people we live among and the land we live in

Gott aber ist mächtig, jede Gnade gegen euch überströmen zu lassen, auf daß ihr in allem, allezeit alle Genüge habend, überströmend seid zu jedem guten Werke

2 Korinther 9:8

God heeft de macht u te overstelpen met al zijn gaven, zodat u altijd en in alle opzichten voldoende voor uzelf hebt en ook nog ruimschoots kunt bijdragen aan allerlei goed werk

2 Korintiërs 9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work

2 Corinthians 9:8

{Week 24}

Week 24

A belly, bare feet & the German countryside

Pregnant Pilates instructor imitation by the Dutchman. Resemblance = uncanny

cranberry |ˈkranˌberē; -bərē|noun ( pl. -ries)1 a small, red, acid berry used in cooking.2 the evergreen dwarf shrub of the heath family that yields this fruit3 the true nickname of Baby Frinsel given by his/her aunts and uncles due to the stage of gestation Baby was when said child's existence was discovered

 This week, the 24th of Baby Frinsel, was all about sun and our vitamin D is up again along with a bounteous supply of freckles. (It is a fond wish that Little will also inherit freckled beauty... we can't get enough of them around here!)

At present, one of the best moments of the day (although sadly, the Handsome Husband is usually sleeping when this occurs) is late at night, when Cranberry is active and happy. In the darkness, there is time and quiet to just savour the small kicks and brushes while applying my own little taps in the hopes of communicating a great, great love.

{Torn}

I am a torn human being. Torn between worlds, that is... the East and the West.

As a girl, I had a complete and perfect picture of what my grown-up life would be like:

I would live in a stilt house beside a red dirt road. It would be me and my best friend. Our kitchen would be full of garlic, red peppers, mangoes, and rice. Our sugar would be kept in an old Milo (hot chocolate mix) jar. We would be plagued by rain flies, mosquitoes, dust and mold by the seasons and be perfectly happy. Our feet would be orange, and our clothes... well, it wouldn't really matter what we wore, plaid on stripes, polka dot with paisley. In our garden, jasmine, gardenias, bouganvillas, jack fruit and guava trees would grow. Butterflies would flock to our lantanas. We would stick candles to our wooden floors with hot wax when the electricity would go out and dipper baths would be the norm. Roosters, neighbours' gossip and karaoke would wake us in the mornings and the cries of playing children, fighting dogs, and moto beeps would serenade us through the day. And always, always we would have the Cambodian sky.

That's what I thought my life would be like.

As the Cambodians of the world celebrate their new year, I find again in my heart that old ache for the place I called (and still like to call) home.

I have been told that it is strange that I would still look upon it as such, or that I would hold it in my heart as I do... this is not for me to explain to those who can't understand. But for every third culture kid, especially those who have had to move away from the place they love, you know why I still long to be back with my dirty flip flops and kittens with crooked tails.

Yet here I am... a true Westerner, sitting in our little basement apartment on our big, blue couch here in the rolling hills of Germany, with my Dutch husband on the guitar and our baby sleeping inside of me, a blessed woman... thinking of my old home. Many years, five countries, and three languages have separated me from my "perfect picture". How different God's perfect picture is and how beautiful... just in a different way from my twelve year old imaginings.

I will eat some green mangoes today, watch some karaoke and be thankful for every part of my life. The ache is still there but how deep it runs reminds me of all the experiences and love that made it... which make it so very worth it.

Someday, my Dutchman, our Little and I will return and drink ice coffees in a dusty roadside shop together, listen to monsoon rains on tin roofs and sweat in busy marketplaces together. Till then...

Happy New Year, Cambodia!

{Week 22 & Week 23}

Week 23

Week 22 included: lots of walks in the sunny Dutch woods

and the purchase of Baby's first book: in both Dutch and English -  Daddy had it wrapped to be opened in August

Week 23 included: experiencing the first tastes of Spring back in Germany...

and enjoying the growth of this second trimester

Busy with family and friends in the flat lands, we missed a Week 22 update... but what a lovely week it was.

This week, the 23rd of Baby Frinsel has held:

- Baby's first kiss (from someone other than Dad) from a sweet two year old who believes that he too has a baby in his tummy

- Enjoying lots of activity from the inside and out... we can watch now as bumps and kicks shake my middle (and the Dutchman wishes in vain that he too could feel the moves from within)

- Reaching past the one pound (0.45 kg) mark and stretching almost a foot (0.3 m) from head to toe

{A Wee Holiday & Update}

It is so terribly easy to just post pictures... we shan't get too cliché, but they do say an awful lot! However, they can only communicate so much...

The Frinsels, (including Pippin-cat) just enjoyed a trip back to the homeland, to family and friends and a bit of sunshine. It was a lovely, lovely time. To be back among familiar faces, in the same little vacation house that we stayed in two years ago with Peter's parents as an engaged couple... who would've thought we would be back, married and pregnant? It is a place full of beautiful memories, shaded by pines, filled with birds' songs and loaded with Dutch goodness, thanks to Ma Frinsel. Hours of games, long walks in the woods, talks over breakfast foods, visits to extended family, afternoon naps, and a birthday celebration for the best Dutchman that ever lived, filled our agenda. We needed the break...

My Dutchman is still working with his beautifully provided job and he is doing excellently well as I have his bosses' words for it! But did I say bosses plural? He is in a difficult situation within the company as they move his position to another country and move him to another job within the company so he has four bosses at the moment from three different nationalities. Going away to the flat lands for a bit was a respite and a blessing! Aside from work, he is also busy learning about pregnant women (one in particular!) and babies and is a complete natural already. And those Dutch feet are itching to get out on some green grass to play out-door soccer again... soon!

I am finishing up my second semester of midwifery. It is thing of beauty and joy forever to learn from my courses and apply my new-found knowledge to my own pregnancy (well, Medical Terminology wasn't that helpful personally...). I have a smaller semester coming up in May as I begin to prepare for Baby's arrival. My English-teaching job contract with the local school never came to fruition as there weren't enough people signed up... but we are going to try again come the fall semester! This will also give me more time to focus on school work, creativity, and my own language studies. Aside from that, there is so much to think about and so much to do before the end of summer... I have to keep from thinking that sunlight would help with motivation as this German winter drags on. May I state that this is the greyest one since 1951 for this lovely land? However! We shall all enjoy the warmth so much the better because of our present deprivation and despite my skepticism (that could also be called cynicism!), the forecast sees warmer weather ahead for this weekend... And they all rejoiced!

Road-tripping with Pippin-cat

Elburg-town on an April evening

Many walks in the Dutch air (because it is different than all others!)

Time with friends

Celebrating a family member... Dutch style

                         

Resurrection Sunday with family:

Baby fingers

Golden curls

An afternoon outing in the woods

and an Opa with his meisje

Becoming reacquainted with an old friend...

Contented kitty

A visit to Oma and Opa: beautiful 92 year old hands

Back in the house of happy memories

And finally, back to Deutschland...

{Week 21}

Week 21

A lovely tea shelf... that shall be missed come September

Birthing coach in-training - lots of learning all around

This week held the second ultrasound and check-up of a healthy, happy baby... With hands waved on the screen, lots of lip movement and a busy little heart. No: We don't know the gender... we looked away at a strategic point! The birth registry is almost complete, the blanket continues to be knit, raspberry tea is being drunk, and birth education now begins for both of us parents-to-be.