October- Part 2

Haircut



As you can see on my new profile picture, I got a haircut. I decided I would try out a short cut to see if I liked it and also for the fact that it is easier to deal with. I figured it was about time to go to a "Mom haircut". I like it a lot and it is easier to deal with so that will be nice. Of course I will have to get it cut again before the baby comes, but it's nice to know that I like it already. So, recently my friend Amanda wrote about her hair changes during pregnancy. I hadn't really noticed or thought about it until the other day when I was looking at some older pictures. I will let you see for yourself the difference in my hair.


(Me and my very curly hair in 2004 in Austria)



(Here is a recent picture of me after my hair cut when I tried to do it curly)


Ok, so maybe the very different hair cut has something to do with it, but I do think some of the curl in my hair has gone away since I have been pregnant. I think today my hair had a little more curl in it than in this photo, but it sure does seem like such a difference comparing it to 3 years ago.

Katrin's Baptism




We have a new sister in Christ! Katrin Fiebig was baptized on October 26th! Praise God for this new addition to our family!


Meeting with a Friend





After more than a year of not seeing each other, my friend Conny and I got together and had lunch. It was good to get caught up with each other. I hope that I will see her more often in the future!

Visit From a Friend


Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our visitor... I think that weekend was so busy that I didn't think to get one of her. One of the girls who came this past summer on the LST (Let's Start Talking) team is living in London right now. Erin missed us so much that she decided to come back and visit while she is still on this side of the ocean. :) She stayed with us for 2 nights and joined in with all the activities for the weekend. We had a good time getting caught up with her and we were sad she could only stay such a short time, but we enjoyed the time we had with her.


Saying Goodbye




On Sunday, October 28th we had our usual pot luck meal after worship service. However, this day was special. We wanted to say goodbye to two great friends and co-workers: Ed and Courtney Cantrell. They have lived in Chemnitz and served the church here for 6 years. They have now made the decision to return to the States. It was not an easy decision for them or for any of us who live here and have come to love them and work side-by-side with them for so long. However, God is leading them in a different direction right now and it was time for them to start a new chapter of their lives. After the pot luck, we also had coffee and cake and more people joined us to say goodbye and wish them all the best for their future. Our group, The Chemnitz Acappella Singers, sang a couple of songs for them. This was the most difficult thing to do for me. I thought I would be ok and could sing, but on the second song, "Geh unter der Gnade", I lost it and began to cry. This song is basically saying, "go with God's grace". Anyway, it's a difficult one to sing when you are seeing good friends off. I want to ask you to please pray for Ed and Courtney at this time of transition for them. They have made Chemnitz their home and it will be challenging for them to adjust to another life, but I know that God will see them through this adjustment. Ed and Courtney, I just want to say that I already miss you and will always love you. I pray God continues to bless you both!

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!

Singing

Two days after we arrived back from the States we had a Liederabend at the church in Zwickau. Basically our group- we have named ourselves the "Chemnitz Acapella Singers"- sang for about 45 minutes to 1 hour with a couple of descriptions of the songs we were singing as well as two short talks by Steffen and Alex about what the songs mean to us. It was a good evening with fellow Christians and I believe a few visitors. Everyone said it was so encouraging! Here are some photos.





Then on September 22nd we did another Liederabend in Oelsnitz.



Here is a picture of me right before we went to Oelsnitz. I was 23 weeks then.

Tagged

Here are the rules: (1)Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. (2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose people to get tagged and list their names.

1. I've always loved music and thought I would love to be a music teacher but in the last few years I think my main goal in life has shifted to wanting to be a good wife and mother. Of course I will always love music and will always be involved in it in some way... who knows... maybe one day I will teach as well.

2. I'm not one to have perfect grammar, but it really bugs me when I read simple words that are misspelled. For example: the past tense of lead is led. It seems like I constantly read simple words like these misspelled by intelligent people. What is up with that?

3. Lately I have been addicted to eating bread with oil and balsamic vinegar like those nice Italian restaurants serve. Clint has always liked to eat that so we have eaten it with a meal from time to time, but lately I want it all the time.

4. I'm an introvert and somewhat shy especially when I just meet people, but after I get to know someone pretty well it may seem like I am an extrovert. :)

5. Clint and I have started watching Gilmore Girls on a regular basis and started on season 1 and are now on season 4.

6. I have never been a morning person. A lot of times I stay up way too late and then I don't want to wake up early. I am working really hard on that one and try to set my goal at getting in bed and reading at 10:00 p.m. but it doesn't always work out that way.

7. I like going about my daily activities in a specific order when I can. I have somewhat of a routine and try to follow it unless I have other appointments or things going on.

8. I try to remember to send a card or note to people on their birthday. Lately I haven't been as good about that, but it is something I try to do.

Baby Update- Week 22

On September 13th, we had an appointment with a specialist to check on the baby's development and see how everything was going. They were able to see all the organs and see if everything was working properly. They also measured different parts of the body to see if it was on schedule size-wise. My regular doctor, Dr. Ruppert, said that we should be able to find out the sex at this appointment since the equipment is very high tech and everything. We were so excited to go to this appointment since it had been about 5 weeks since we had seen a doctor at all and we hadn't been able to see any ultrasounds for awhile or find out the sex yet. When we arrived there, we were excited to find out that they also do the 3D pictures during the ultrasound and we had the choice of buying the 3D pictures alone, buying a full video of the entire ultrasound plus the 3D pictures, or just a CD with clips of the ultrasound plus the 3D pictures. We went for the full video and 3D pictures. We went in there and it was really fun to get to see how much Eby had grown and see "him" moving around. Then it was really amazing to get to see the 3D pictures. To actually see a little face was amazing! Before we had started she asked us if we wanted to know the sex and we told her "yes!" Well, the doctor went through the whole ultrasound and checked everything and it all was on schedule and looked good and healthy. We also were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! That was really neat.
Then at the end she said something to the effect of, "Well, I guess we are not going to be able to tell what the sex is. You will have to see at your next appointment." Talk about being disappointed. I know we had told everyone that we would find out as soon as we got back from Germany and here our doctor is saying she doesn't know! But the main point is that the baby is healthy and we realize it isn't so important to know right now. We would love to know and it would be convenient for us so that we can do some planning, but we can do that all without knowing anyway. One bad thing about the video is that it is a German VHS tape which does not work on our American one. So we think we will ask a friend to put it on a DVD and then I can post it on here hopefully. Here are the 3D pictures that we got.




This is the profile.



This is the head and face. You can really see the face in the top picture. How cool! In the bottom picture, Eby had put his arms up over his face. That's our cutie!

What Haaappened??

Knowing that I am so behind on the goings-on around here, I will attempt to do some short* (of course they never end up short) updates on what happened the past couple of months.

After the whole deal with the hospital, Clint's family came to visit us! I was hoping to join them on all their site-seeing, but unfortunately didn't have the energy at the time. I was thankfully able to go to Prague but then I mainly stayed home and got to see them in the evenings.

Sorry I don't really have any good pictures of the whole family since I wasn't with them most of the time. Maybe I can get some pics from Stephanie... hint hint. ;)



They were here for 2 weeks and then 6 days after they left we went to the States.

Right before we left we celebrated our 2 year anniversary! We went out to dinner and then enjoyed a relaxing evening at home watching a movie. Honestly we were both tired and needing just some relaxing time at home so it was perfect for us.



On August 9th we fly to the States and were in Ohio for a few days. We had a good time visiting with Clint's family there. Clint was able to make a presentation of the work we are doing on Sunday morning in Louisville. He did a great job on the presentation and it was nice getting to talk with some of our friends there.

On August 14th we flew to Oklahoma City and from that point on we stayed with my parents when we weren't traveling to other churches or cities.

A couple of days later we drove to Houston and were able to visit my sister, brother-in-law and niece as well as meet the members of the Church of Christ in Champions. They are helping support our work so it was great to get to meet a lot of people. They planned a fish fry for us and Clint was also able to make a presentation on Sunday night there. What a wonderful congregation it was and it was such a blessing to spend some time with them! Here is a picture of Troy, the deacon in charge of missions, frying the fish!



The following weekend we drove to Amarillo and worshiped with the Golden Plains Church of Christ. It was also so encouraging as we were able to meet so many wonderful Christians. Clint gave a presentation there and everyone was so supportive and encouraging to us! They also took a special contribution for us that day and we were so overwhelmed by their generosity and support!





On this trip my parents went with us to Amarillo and then we drove on to Snyder, Texas to see my grandparents. While we were there we met with the Elders at Eastside Church of Christ and talked with them about our work in Germany. It was great to get to visit with my grandparents as well as aunts and uncles and cousins. Here are a few pictures of me with my family.







One of the highlights of being in the States of course was getting to spend time with family. Amy and Ashlyn flew from Houston to spend a week or so with us and so we had lots of good times with everyone, especially those two sweet nieces of mine!











We also took trips to Tulsa and Coffeyville, Kansas which also went really well and were encouraging. We got to see some friends and were also excited about the connections we are making with people who care so much about mission work!

As well as visiting with family, we got to see a lot of great friends. One evening I got to see some of my best friends! We went to dinner with Josh and Amanda and then hung out at the Nowlin Center at OC to chat for a while. Amanda and I are both expecting around the same time in January so it was fun to see each other pregnant and discuss our experiences.



Before we left, South Yukon Church of Christ held a baby shower for us. It was really nice and so many people made monetary donations so that we can buy the things that we need over here in Germany. It was really overwhelming the love and support they showed us!







We flew back to Germany on September 11th and then arrived on the 12th. It was a whirlwind trip but it went really well and we are happy to say that God really blessed us by giving us many opportunities to share our work with others. One of the last meetings we had before we left was with Soldier Creek Church of Christ and we are happy to say that they have agreed to be our sponsoring congregation from July 2008 to August 2009. Praise God for always looking out for us!

Return

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of months. Sorry about those of you who have waited for post on here for a while. Our trip to the States went really well. It was tiring, but encouraging to meet so many wonderful Christians who are supporting us in the work we are doing here in Chemnitz. We arrived back on Wednesday and have been struggling to get over jet lag ever since. Today I am actually going to attempt to unpack the suitcases!

On Thursday we had an appointment to check on the baby and see how things were going in the development. It was really amazing. They had the 3-D ability so we got to see some amazing pictures of our little one! As soon as I get around to it I will put those pictures on here for you to see. The great news is that Eby is healthy and normal. The bad news is that little Eby didn't want to cooperate and show us "the stuff" so that we can know whether to buy pink or blue. We will have to wait 4 weeks until our next appointment to find out.

Our Travel Plans

As many of you know, we are making a trip to the States in August/September. We will be raising funds so that we can stay in Chemnitz for the next 2 years. Please pray that we are successful at finding the support we need to continue the work we are doing. Below is an itinerary of where we will be during our travels. If you would like to see us and we are in your area, please e-mail us and let us know so that we can see as many of you as we can.

Thursday, August 9th- Leave Germany/ Arrive in Louisville, Ohio.
Tuesday, August 14th- Leave Ohio/ Arrive in Oklahoma City
Thursday, August 16th- Leave OKC/ Arrive in Houston, TX
Monday, August 20th- Leave Houston/ Possibly stop in Dallas/Ft. Worth area/ Arrive in OKC
Saturday, August 25th- Leave OKC/ Arrive in Amarillo, TX
Sunday, August 26th- Leave Amarillo/ Arrive in Snyder, TX
Wednesday, August 29th- Leave Snyder/ Arrive in OKC
Sunday, September 2nd- Leave OKC/ Arrive in Coffeyville, KS
Monday, September 3rd- Leave Coffeyville/ Arrive OKC
Tuesday, September 11th- Leave OKC
Wednesday, September 12th- Arrive in Germany

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart! It has been the most amazing 2 years! I am looking forward to many more years and the joy of starting a family with you! I love you!

Week 16

This was taken week 14. You can actually see a pretty good profile on this one as well as an arm and the legs stretched out to the left.

This is also week 14. You can kind of see a little hand sticking up.

Week 14- another good profile of the baby's face.

Week 14- This one was taken in the hospital but is kind of hard to make out.

Week 15- Little Eby was making "himself" comfortable on "his" tummy. You can see the legs and feet sticking up on top. (I say "he" but only because I really don't want to say "it".

Week 16- Eby is facing down and you can get a good look at the spine.


Here's me week 16. Eby truly is growing quickly!

Thank You

I just wanted to post a quick note on here to say thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and my pregnancy. Thank you also for all the e-mails, calls, visits and words of encouragement. It has been a very stressful time with being in the hospital and not really knowing what is going on. Just in case some of you didn't know what was going on, I spent 4 days in the hospital recently due to some severe bleeding. I went in and they were able to tell me immediately that everything with the baby was fine and there were no problems there. There really isn't an answer as to why I had the problem, but the Lord has taken care of me and the baby. Please continue to pray for us and especially our emotional stability through this. It has been a very scary and trying time, but thanks to all the prayers and support I am already feeling God's peace that He is in control. I will be updating soon with lots of new ultrasound pictures! Our baby is growing quickly and it is more amazing every time to see how God is forming little "Eby". (Short for Eberhard) It's only a funny nickname we are calling it (I hate saying "it" so Eby's much better).

Baby Update- Week 11

Here is our baby at week 10. This was taken on June 22nd. You can see the head at the top and if you look carefully, you can see arms on the sides.











This is also from week 10.














Here is one taken from the outside. You can see the legs stretched out to the left and the head to the right. At one point we got to watch the baby kicking its legs and moving its arms all around. It was really amazing!









This is the last one we had done on June 25th when we went in to check if everything was alright. By this time it was already in week 11. I think you can kind of see the arms sticking up a little bit.









Me at 11 weeks. I am starting to get a little bit of a belly. :)

Day 3 of Family's Trip to Germany

Day 3 we took a boat trip down the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany. It was beautiful and relaxing and the weather was so nice and sunny. I think everyone enjoyed it. I had really wanted to take them on a boat trip from Dresden to the Sächsische Schweiz (Saxony Switzerland). The Elbe River goes through what is called the Elbsandsteingebirge (Elbe Sandstone Mountains) and it is a beautiful area. However, since it wasn't the main summer season yet there weren't any good time frames that we could take the trip from Dresden to that area without being on the boat all day long and we really didn't want to do that. But we were able to see some really pretty sights including castles and a famous bridge called the Blue Wonder (Blaues Wunder). We also got to ride on one of the oldest paddle steamer ships in the world.