October- Part 1

October was a good month. I wanted to write more in depth about all the activities that took place, but seeing as though it is already November and I would like to get caught up, I will try to just hit the highlights.

Filzmoos, Austria


(Me, Amanda and Courtney enjoying the beautiful scenery after a hike in Filzmoos, Austria)

The first week of October was the annual Ladies' Retreat in Filzmoos, Austria. For those of you who don't remember hearing about it in the past couple of years, it takes place in the Alps. It is probably one of my most favorite places. It is so beautiful and I look forward to going there every year. I even hope I can go with the baby next year. It is fun getting to see the other ladies from around Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A lot of these women I only see once a year at the retreat so it is fun to get caught up with them. This year was fun getting to see everyone for the first time because when they saw me and saw my tummy it was a surprise and everyone was very excited for me! It was kind of fun to see their expressions when they actually looked down and noticed that I was pregnant! :) It felt so good to go out and do some walking as well. I wasn't sure how well I would be able to do on those mountains, but it actually felt really good to get out and get some exercise. It has been a while since I have done anything like that so I felt energized. Of course, I didn't overdo it and took it at my own pace, but it was really nice. Also, one of the things that I really look forward to is the strudel. They usually have some really good blueberry strudel, but unfortunately they didn't have any this year. The one place that we usually ate that was closed due to renovations so that was a little disappointing, but I still got some apple strudel so that made up for it.


(Clint and me in front of Mozart's Birth House in Salzburg, Austria)

On Thursday of that week Clint took a train from Chemnitz to Salzburg, which isn't too far away from Filzmoos. Pam, Courtney and I met him and picked him up at the train station and spent the afternoon in Salzburg. I was really excited about this because I had never been there so we got to see Mozart's birth house and do a little shopping. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to sight-see but we had some amazing cake and coffee/ hot chocolate before we left to go back to Filzmoos.

Miskolc, Hungary


(Barbara and Alex saying their vows)

The next day, Pam, Courtney, Clint and I drove to Miskolc, Hungary for Alex and Barbara's wedding. We met some of the other Chemnitzers there. Alex is one of the members of the church in Chemnitz. He preaches and teaches a lot and is one of the leaders of the church. He met Barbara, who is from Miskolc, at a Single's Retreat in Germany a couple of years ago and they have been dating for a while. It's exciting that she is now living in Chemnitz and a part of our family here! The wedding was really nice. We helped a little bit with decorating for the reception and also sang at the wedding which was fun. We even learned a song in Hungarian to sing! It was interesting. The wedding was done in Hungarian and German. That weekend was really interesting with usually 3 languages being spoken: English, German and Hungarian. On Sunday, some of us stayed for worship and it was preached in English with two translators for German and Hungarian. I have to say that it was my first trilingual worship service! :)

Baby Appointment

(Me at 27 weeks)

On October 12th we had our last baby appointment. I was at the end of my 26th week at the time. So this time we were still hoping we might find out about the baby's sex, but we weren't getting our hopes up too high. We were actually preparing ourselves to just have to wait it out. Anyway, we got there and the Dr. said he would see if he could tell us anything. He was doing an ultrasound and basically said he could not be sure, but asked if we would want to know his opinion. I said of course yes and he said he thought it could be a girl. Then not even a minute later (no exaggeration) he was looking at the ultrasound and saw something that he thought could belong to a boy... so basically we were left with a... "well, I just can't be sure." So, thankfully we weren't really expecting an answer, but little Eby continues to keep us in suspense. Clint and I had already decided that at this point if we still didn't know we would start working on picking a girl name and a boy name and just be prepared for anything! We actually have a pretty good list of names that are our favorites and we just have to narrow it down. We think we will probably keep the name a surprise until the baby is born though. But, if we do happen to find out if it's a girl or boy we will make sure to tell everyone! Our next appointment is on Friday, November 9th.

Vienna Students

(Vienna students helped us sort clothes to take to Bulgaria for the winter)

On October 14th and 15th we had students and sponsors arrive from Vienna. These are the students who attend Oklahoma Christian University and Rochester College in Michigan. This is the 3rd year in a row we have had a group come from Vienna to help us sort clothes into men's, women's etc. and pack them so that we can transport them to Sofia, Bulgaria in November. As you can see from the photo (which by the way is stolen... I mean... courtesy of Karen Neel... thanks Karen!) we had a good time sorting the clothes and getting them ready for the trip to Bulgaria. They were a big help and got the work done in one day! We were able to enjoy the rest of the weekend getting to know them and just enjoying the company. We had two girls stay with us in our apartment: Laura and Kendal. They were really sweet and we were glad to get to know them!