We arrived! Week #1

We are HERE!!!!! After months of thinking about, talking about, and planning for, we have finally arrived. We have been in Germany for one whole week (feels way longer). So, I will give you a little recap of our week and new life here in Wiesbaden. I know I told so many people how worried I was about the flight, especially because of Micah (anyone who knows Micah, knows why). So we tearfully left my parents and walked on through security at the airport. We got the girls all dressed in their pajamas and ready for bed. Peyton walked around the airport with her new baby carrier (made by Grandma) and got many laughs and points in her direction. She got her baby, Sally, ready for the flight. Micah continued to scream until she was let down to crawl around the dirty floor or do whatever she wanted to do. I could feel the inner groans from the people sitting around our gate knowing that they had to endure a 10 hour flight with my girls! However, this was not the case. We had prayed about the flight and the girls were amazing. We got on and Peyton played with toys and Micah fussed a little. During take off neither of them reacted at all. Once we got to the point of the seatbelt sign being taken off, Micah was leaning against me asleep. Peyton happily watched her new obsession aka The Bubble Guppies on the iPad quietly. After about 2.5 hours of flying, Peyton passed out top of the iPad.  This was the last we heard from either child until half an hour to landing. Robb and I had trouble sleeping as Micah was sleeping on either of us and Peyton continued to kick us in her sleep. So, we landed and again no issues from the girls. Dream flight and major answer to prayer.

When we landed in Frankfurt, we had difficulty carrying 10 bags and 2 kids who refused to be put down. We got our stroller back… It was broken. The front protective barrier (or whatever it is called) was snapped off. We figured that out and then finally got out the front door to find our German counterparts waiting for us. We took a 25 minute drive to our new home, Wiesbaden. We were exhausted and I felt ready to cry at any moment. We got to our new apartment, which by the way is up three flights of stairs (hopefully we will look fit next time you see us). The apartment is so different then anything we have been used to back home. I will post some more pictures of it later when the girls are awake and it is daytime. So we had a 16 hour cross over time with our exchange family. They were very welcoming and we sat down to German cakes and pastries. They were finishing up last minute details to head to our home and feeling a little stressed, so the whole thing was a blur. Claudia showed me how to work their washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, oven, and everything else. I was so tired I could barely pay attention and we are now still trying to figure some things out that we of course forgot. We all slept in one room and Micah and Peyton took turns crying and waking each other up all night. I am pretty sure we slept maybe 3 hours that night combined with zero sleep the day before. Peyton and Micah do not do well in the same room and we were all tired and frustrated. In the morning, our exchange family left for our home (I felt a little sad about this, as I had no sleep for two nights and little to eat). Robb has been dealing with my tears for the last week.

Ready to go!

Bye to Grandma and Papa

Sally is ready to go!

In Frankfurt finally!

Our first day in our official new home, we stayed around the home mostly. We did walk around Wiesbaden a little and went to the grocery store for some food. We are located right downtown, so we are about a ten to fifteen minute walk from the main downtown shopping core. We have done a ton of walking in the last week. The architecture is beautiful, and many of the roads are cobblestone. We are trying to get used to city/apartment life. There is a park about a 30 second walk from our place, which is great for the girls. The playground equipment is very different than ours and doesn’t feel as safe, but maybe the girls need to get more brave.

A friend of our exchange family, Janet, has been helping us and showing us around. She took us on a walking tour of downtown and all of the shops we will need to access. There is a walking district downtown that is really cool with tons of restaurants, stores, and shopping. We do recognize some things there like Starbucks, H&M, McDonalds, and Subway, other than that everything is new.

Everyday we walk down all of those stairs with our stroller, which is pretty heavy  (it also has an extra seat we carry with us), Micah who needs to be carried, and Peyton who takes like ten minutes to get down them all. By the time we reach the street, we already feel like train wrecks. We will see how I manage this without Robb. Everyone keeps their strollers just out side of their apartment doors. Micah usually only lasts in the stroller for 30 minutes until she is screaming to get out and be held. Then when she is tired of being held (or in the Ergo wrap), she tries to jump out of our arms, so she can get down. Then we try to hold her hands and walk with her to get her energy out, this lasts 2 minutes and then she is trying to crawl on the streets. When we pick her back up, because it’s really dirty, she thinks we are trying to wreck her life. This should give you a little taste of Micah’s “fun” age.

Micah eating some pasteries!

Our apartment building.

Protestant Church

Walking district!

Apparently the world's largest coo coo clock.

Micah cross fitting at the park. 

Some comfort from home!

The dreaded stairs!

Our neighbourhood. 

What else have we done? We went to two English churches on Sunday. They were both very small, but most people are vacationing still. Both churches have a lot of American Army families that live at the army base in town. One thing I have been missing here is coffee creamers. There is no coffee cream here and definitely not the flavored creamers that I like. So, while we were at one of the churches they had coffee and flavored CoffeeMate. One of the ladies offered to buy it for me at the Army Base store, so I am very grateful, as this gives me a little comfort from home!

Today we went to the Fasanerie, which is a little like our wildlife park. It is free, which is a bonus. The girls had a good time. Peyton always gets really excited to see all of the animals and then later told Tara on FaceTime that she saw lions, elephants, and tigers (all of which were not at the zoo). So, maybe in her head it was much more spectacular than it was in reality. All of the enclosures had warnings of an electric shock fence around them, right in the reach of all of the children, so that was nice and reassuring! Definitely, not at home. Our stroller (thank you to Jordan Smith) is a Phil and Teds with one seat in the front and a little seat directly behind the front. We constantly see people nudging others and pointing to look at the stroller. Apparently it is a hit here. I had women asking about it today at the animal park and asking if I got it here. Seriously, it is funny how often we see people talk about it. We are making a splash for ourselves with this stroller apparently. It is still broken from the airport, and yesterday we punctured the tire. Robb spent three hours this morning trying to manage with his German and find a place to get it repaired. He eventually did and learned his way around after going back and forth to different stores.

Family selfie. Girls were having fun despite their frowns!

Going to the animal park. 

So, recap of our week. It was very difficult as far as sleep. The girls are waking up and screaming. Peyton got used to the time change and started sleeping through the night on the third night. Micah on the other hand, continues to get up to nurse (which is normal), but then refuses to go back in her crib and will scream and scream. Last night, she didn’t do this, so we are praying this continues. I have been fairly homesick this week and having a tough transition, but am starting to feel better. Maybe culture shock is wearing off.  Robb has not missed a beat. You can put him anywhere and he is fine. How annoying is that?? Micah and Peyton are doing really well. Every once in awhile Peyton will ask if we will be seeing Isla at church or at the animal park and that makes me sad, but she is having fun here. She says she likes Germany (though I am pretty sure she thinks we still live in Kamloops). Micah is hilarious and getting more of a personality. She tries to copy everything Peyton does. The two fight a lot and cry a lot. I think we will soon be the outcasts of the building and people will be counting down the days until we leave. Apparently, Sundays are supposed to be quiet days, but not so much on the third floor! Parking is a problem here, we park on the street, but if we are not home by 6 it is unlikely we will get a spot. A woman told us if they can’t find parking they just park on the sidewalk and get a ticket, so they have somewhere to park. The fine is 20 Euros. She said she just budgets for an extra 100 Euros or so every month, so she can go out at night.

Okay, last minute random things we have learned here. In Germany, they do not refrigerate their milk or eggs. There is no coffee creamer here. People are not overly friendly. We now rent DVDs at a video store again. Bakeries are on every block. The food is really good and we can get any kind of food we want. The chocolate (Ritter Sport especially) is so good and pretty cheap. Parking is a disaster. You have to empty the water out of the dryer (which took us three days to figure out why it wouldn’t dry clothes anymore). Parks are A LOT different. People smoke everywhere and there is a lot of them. They have Vanilla Coke here! Ikea… Enough said. Everybody thinks Robb’s in the USA military (everyone who knows Robb and how he talks about his military service and “almost deployed” can laugh at this). No one jaywalks. Starbucks is even more expensive here. It’s COLD!

In our kitchen. 

Baby swing.

Enjoying coffee and German chocolate on the balcony (girls in bed). 

Interesting slide!

Getting along!

Stroller life!

Robb's fav new pop coke and orange mixed (I think it's gross). 

That is all for now. Please keep us in your prayers to continue to adjust to life here. I think we will have a wonderful time, but thought you should hear just how we are adjusting, as some people believe we should have a reality TV show. Please keep in touch.