Fiona's been busy, too!

Comforting mom after a long day at church

reading the Christmas toy advertisements

making mommy feel good by playing with her old "lamby"

And helping cheer up our friend and neighbor, Rita. She'd been having a rough day, but as the picture suggests, my girls made her feel loved and appreciated. This picture is from today. Brett isn't in it because he is sick and resting. I knew it was serious when he said, and i quote, "Coffee doesn't even sound good."

And the angels rejoiced...

As did we when Uwe was buried with Christ and rose, a new man vested in a glorious eternity.

Upper Room

So we decided to do the Upper Room a little more sporadically in the hopes of making it more of a novelty. This was the first one since we've been back.

Brett thought up the best ice breaker ever!! Speed-get-to-know-you, something very similar to the more popular speed dating. We thought up crazy questions that each pair had to talk about for a minute and then everyone rotated to the left.

Fiona started out well, but by 8:30 (we got there at 5) she was half asleep on her father's shoulder. When it was time for him to preach, she switched to my shoulder. The cuddling was nice, but if you've ever met Fiona, it's not something she does. She had the I'm-tired-of-being-touched-and-I-want-to-go-home bug, and it was gone the next morning.

Thanksgiving

I know, it looks like a lot of vegetables, right. I assure you, there were plenty of carbs to make it an official Thanksgiving dinner (the rolls were on the table).

I think there were 23 of us, one US American passport per family is required.

It was quite a full holiday, though. Sven came over for breakfast and witnessed my yearly nervous breakdown when my pie crust fails (I have since learned that the key is a cold dough, and not to be touched by the hand). Brett helped set and clean everything up. I had band practice after dinner (and missed clean up--what a cryin' shame) and then Brett helped the band set everything up for the Upper Room (which I also missed out on because I had to bring Fiona home to go to bed, I know how to plan, huh?).

A band, ein Tafel and Faith...

So, I'm in a band. We have no name and we like it that way. We have no leader and also like it that way. We come together because we love Jesus and want to sing His praise. We don't all go to the same church and our age is varied. Sunday's gig was my first, and let me tell you, this is much harder than it looks. We sang 14 songs, I think, and I knew about half of them.

I also volunteer with Catja at the Peiner Tafel, a "store" people come to when they just can't make ends meet. They don't charge for the groceries, since the goods there are donated by the big grocery stores in the area. I've been there twice so far and it is nice to be anonymous. I'm just a volunteer, and do whatever needs to be done; I don't have to make decisions about how to run the store. Completely new rolls for me. Not to be in charge or even know what's going on. I'm just along for the ride. And I'll tell you something else, that's not just how I feel in the band or at the Peiner Tafel. Life is so unpredictable. The dollar reached an all-time low against the euro (lower than it ever was against the mark) this week--$1.47=1 euro. So our finances seem completely out of our control, and they are. We know in our hearts that He'll take care of us, but it just doesn't add up. I guess that's why it's called Faith.

Purzelbaum

So we were invited to lunch after church on Sunday. The Sutojo's have what we have come to call "fat boy". It is a square bean bag and very big. Fiona was jumping on it and what not when Sara asked me if Fiona can do somersaults. I said only with my help. And as if she understood every word of our conversation (in German) she did a somersault and kept doing them. It's like she wanted to tell me, "you have no idea what I am truly capable of." And that's the way I felt.

And yes, we are trying the potty training thing. Don't ask, it is not going according to my plan, what does?

May we be clay?

I don't know how you feel about weekends, but I feel much busier on the weekends than I do during the week. Last weekend, for example...



After cleaning the church (families rotate each month, November is our month), the youth group met to pick up trash on friday night. We got them to come by promising pizza (that we did not find while picking up litter). It was pouring down rain and pretty dark when we started. We also made cards for Sara and Isabella, who are in the hospital.




On Saturday, they (fiona and I were not invited, wonder why?) got together to play Risk. And then Catja invited us over for a three course meal. I helped prepare it and I must say, it was very little work for such an amazing culinary experience.


This weekend will be even more packed, including some volunteer work, a combined worship service with the church from hildesheim, a basketball game and my debut with a youth worship band. "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." May we be clay.