I logged into this space on a whim and caught up on started-but-unpublished posts for a while. This one never was completed, but it's a pretty good 30,000 ft. flyover of the year 2020...so I'm going to go ahead an just make it public. Maybe I'll get back into writing here? (I do miss it.) Likely I'll continue to reserve most of my picture posting for Facebook, simply because it's so much faster and easier. SO, written in March of 2021, this reflects some of the ways we saw God moving and providing just *before* our family grew through guardianship and then adoption...
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I have been planning various posts in my head for weeks and weeks. I *should* have just broken it down into small chunks and posted as life was happening, but the longer I waited, the more important it seemed to include everything.
God has provided for us in some amazing ways over the past many months. (I mean, He ALWAYS does, but some seasons of life are almost like a fireworks display of miraculous grace.) Nine years ago, I went through a similar season with many unknowns and many accompanying fears. My friend (who had been through something very similar in her own life) encouraged me to just keep turning to Christ in the uncertainty and not to worry--I would see His story of grace. She was 100% right then, and I feel so grateful to have walked through another daunting (but beautiful) plot where God's glory was blazing everywhere.
2020 has been a surreal year so far for most of the world! I won't pretend I'm unique or that our family is the only one that's faced difficulties. There are so many out there who have been placed on a path darker and more treacherous than any portion of ours. But I want to share pieces of our story so that you can rejoice with me over the beauty of Christ that is sometimes most visible during seasons of trial and darkness.
At the end of September, Scott will have completed 22 years of honorable service in the United States Air Force! 2020 also would mark the end of our four year assignment at Geilenkirchen NATO Air Base in Germany and the finale to our eight years of military adventures in Europe. It would be a crossroads for him, career-wise. Advancement in the military required sacrifices that no longer were justifiable for our family; but the Air Force was also the only way of life we'd known as adults and as a family. Retiring and moving on to something else looked scary and strange. Since we knew the transition back to life in America would be a significant one even without a change of career, our plan generally settled onto the assumption that we'd take one more USAF assignment back to the U.S., then start the retirement process and start looking for work.
But then, through a neighbor friend in Germany, a civilian job in the field Scott's degree and interests fall materialized.
By February, everything looked pretty promising. We were just waiting for the official offer with specific numbers for the salary and benefits, a necessity before we officially filed all the paperwork to expedite retirement from the military. Finally, all of that came through and paperwork was filed and the waiting began...but then pandemic life brought everything to a screeching halt as Covid-19 exploded in Europe and the U.S. and the rest of the world. The base was shut down; the offices that process retirement orders in the U.S. were shut down; there was no movement, and there were no answers. We waited through the rest of March and April with no news and watched our hopes of a visit for Scott to the factory he'd be working at evaporate. There would be no househunting trip. And with orders stalled, maybe there wouldn't even be a move.
We pursued online househunting anyway, trying to be as prepared for all possible scenarios. Covid did us a solid in that all churches were streaming full services online, not just sermons. This enabled us to get a jump start on church-searching, too. We tuned into our chapel service in the morning, and then we watched 2-3 Stateside services in the afternoon/early evening. Through this, we settled on three places we knew we'd want to visit once we moved--if that should still occur.
Orders did finally come through. Two of the three churches we were interested in responded to my emails, and one of the pastors connected us with another prior Air Force family in his congregation. That family was God's hands and feet to us in so many ways. It turned out they lived just down the street from one of the houses we were looking at. (We'll call them the L family.) They knew a real estate agent who could let them into the home so they could do a video walk-through with us. They scoped out several other houses for us as well.
We found a realtor of our own in the meantime, and she did video walk-throughs of several homes for us, but we kept coming back to the first home the L family helped us look at. It had been on the market for over a year, which was incredibly odd and somewhat disconcerting in the existing housing market. (Often, we'd see a house online, call immediately, and within the hour it took for our realtor to inquire and get back to us, it would already be in contract!) We wondered what could be wrong with this house that it would be just sitting there for so long...
We made an offer, composed a letter to the owners to send along with the offer, and after some negotiations, we settled on a contract! The inspections all went well, and we set a closing date for the end of July.
In the meantime in Germany, we were navigating e-learning for the first time. Five kids all with live Google meets that overlapped, limited bandwidth with our internet, and limited places for them to spread out in our little house...all while sorting and separating all our belongings into things to sell, donate, throw away, pack to go with us, send in unaccompanied baggage, or send with our household goods. We went through two waves of packers/movers. And we continued to try to keep connections strong with our friends and our kids' friends in the meantime without being able to see any of them in person. Bible studies and prayer meetings were through zoom. The transition of the PWOC board had to be recorded through zoom and shared through email and social media. I taught piano lessons through Facebook Messenger and my students and I put together a virtual end-of-year piano recital.
The kids each chose a day of the week to be fully in charge of the kitchen--meal planning, cooking, and clean-up. I wasn't sure it would be sustainable or pleasant, but it ended up being THE BEST idea! We had so many wonderful family meals during that season of everything normal screeching to a halt. Our family drew together, and as hard as it was, I could see God's goodness so vividly through the forced stripping of everything "extra."
Goodbyes were incredibly difficult, because not all of them could be said. We didn't get to see everyone, hug their necks, or experience closure in the places that meant the most to us while Germany and the Netherlands were our home. The chapel in Brunssum was like my second home, and I still feel like I just disappeared. The children's school, where so many firsts (and lasts) were experienced, felt like it was just ripped away...although we were INCREDIBLY grateful for the few teachers and families who went so far out of their way to see us--even at a distance--before we had to leave. Never have I so tangibly felt and seen just how much of a "vapor" (Ecclesiastes) this life can be.
After many changes to our flights, we were finally transported to Amsterdam on Collin's birthday, and flew from there to Dallas the next day. We had our entire cabin on the plane to ourselves, so in many ways, it was the best flight we've ever had! So surreal, though. After a night in a hotel (which didn't feel like a night to jet-lagged us), we flew on to Fort Wayne the next day.
In the background of all the things being handled in Germany, God was at work in Indiana paving a groundwork and providing for every need. My sister's in-laws "happened" to have a minivan that we could use free of charge until our own vehicle arrived. (We had to ship it by boat from the Netherlands.) The met us with that vehicle and their own at the airport, and helped us load and transport all our 10-ish suitcases to our Airbnb in Berne, where we would stay until we closed on our house 2 1/2 weeks later.
The L family also greeted us at the airport! They'd made a sign congratulating us on our last PCS and officially became our first Indiana friends in that moment. I continue to be so thankful for them!
The family who owned the Airbnb where we stayed is a gold star family; we had no idea until we arrived and saw the pictures and plaques decorating their basement (where we stayed.) There were memorials for him all around that tiny town, and it touched us deeply.
Closing happened without a hitch on our new home, our first shipment of belongings was delivered a couple of days later, and we officially spend our first night the following week after some cleaning and basic set-up. A week or so later, the rest of our things from overseas arrived, and a few weeks after that, all the things we had in storage--from before we moved to England--were delivered. (I'm still not sure why in the world I stored some of the stuff that I did, but oh well!)
We got the older four kids enrolled in school (Julia homeschooled that school year), and they all started on time on August 5th. Their transition and the whole saga of the schools is a whole post by itself, but you can imagine. Not all the high school credits that the girls had transferred (even ones that absolutely should have since the course descriptions were basically identical to classes they were forced to retake here). We are not in a community that is used to transient families...it's a small town where generations of families have lived since it was settled; many of these families are now related to each other; and apparently to a staggering number of teens here, my children living in Germany makes them nazis. (I wish I was kidding!) We have been complimented on how good our English is. We have been asked in Germany is near Brazil. I am just amazed...but not in a good way.
We discovered that, in the last eight years, a flavor simply called "Sour Patch Kids" has infiltrated everything: cereal, yogurt, juice, snacks... There really IS high fructose corn syrup added to everything, and all food really does taste different. There is a paralyzing number of choices for every product, everything is loud, and everyone is in a hurry. Reverse culture shock is REAL. But, it was awfully nice to be able to find everything we needed quickly and simply, and to be able to ask questions in our own language.
We found and settled into our new church within just a matter of weeks and have continued to get more plugged in as time has gone on.
