Germany

Six months in and it seemed that perhaps it was time for an update. I know what you’re thinking. “SIX MONTHS?! How in the world have you been there six months and left us hanging all this time??” Easy. Because it simultaneously feels like we’ve been here for merely a month and also forever.

Cutting right to the chase, moving to Germany has been almost nothing like we imagined. Aside from the fact that we work at the places we thought we would work and live in the city we expected to live in, literally nothing else has been the same. We thought we’d move sooner, then later. We thought Jon would work at a different place and then back to the first one. We thought Adelyn would be in one place and now she’s in another. Heck, the family we stayed with don’t even live nearby anymore (we literally all moved out of their house to different cities on the same day). While I’ll expand on some of those details down below, all that’s to say that Germany has been absurd. unbelievable. ridiculous. This move has been nothing like we expected and has dragged on way longer than we planned or hoped. But we’re here. And for the time being, I can say that we’ve made it. …so far.

Ok, ok, so let me explain:

The first couple months here were slow. molasses slow. waiting for holidays and meetings and landlords and paperwork and finally for visas. Jon’s visa had strange confusion and miscommunication that amounted to him having a temporary one so that he could finally work (after 3 months of not). Mine came a bit sooner and I started my job as an English TA at a kindergarten/daycare. Jon started at a freelancing business english company that implied that he’d potentially have way more hours than he was given. …not helpful. So then he started at a few others. Freelancing allows him to be contracted out with multiple places, so, no qualms there. Unfortunately, the main, most promising company required two weeks of training prior to working, and we had to wait another 2 months for that… BUT that finished last month and Jon has work now, yay!

We expected to only stay with my brother and sister-in-law for roughly 2-3 months at first, but visa delays and work issues complicated things. Fortunately, they love us and said we could stay as long as we needed to. Buuuuttt then they were moving, so we couldn’t. In a crazy turn of events, my sister-in-law got an awesome job opportunity in a city a couple hours north of here. Yay! but also boo. It’s great for them. But sad for us. Anyway, that sped things up a bit for us and after all landlords/listings either ignored us or told us the apartment was already taken, we were able to instead take over the place of some friends we met through my brother. So, as I said before, we helped Greg and Suzy and the kids load up one Sunday morning, then we loaded up and headed out in the afternoon. …on a holiday. similar to mardi gras. with a giant parade running through the city we were moving to making it impossible for us to get to our apartment in a timely fashion. but hey, we have an apartment now, hoorah!

Once we were moved and Jon was preparing for training, we needed a place for Adelyn during the day. Germany puts childcare as a legal responsibility on the city. Basically, Mannheim was required to find a place for her. Buuutt, they weren’t much help. After the help of many friends – both in watching her and helping us find a place for her – we found what’s called a Tagesmutter (Day Mom) in Heidelberg, about 20 minutes away. She’s great. Like, really great. Adelyn adores her and the other two children there.

We’re currently still in the process of trying to get a number of other things settled, most of which are a “two steps forward, one step back. …then two more steps back and maybe one more step forward’ kind of thing. It’s almost impressive how impossible it feels to get any of our “move” actually settled. Which of course is why it feels like we have been here forever as time drags on and we feel we’re making progress at a snail’s pace. But it’s also why the last six months have felt like mere weeks. It seems absurd that we still feel this new, this unsettled, after all this time.

Truth be told, this move, and all that it has encompassed, has been one of the most difficult things we’ve endured as a family and particularly for me, personally. The anger, uncertainty, anxiety, and heartache could take pages to lay out for you all. At times, being here in this country has felt simply impossible. But, here we are.
On the bright side of things, Jon has finally started getting more hours at work. My job, which has had its own ups and downs for me personally, is starting to feel not so bad. Adelyn has a tagesmutter that she loves (as do we), and that alone is a major relief. While we miss my brother and sister-in-law immensely, we are still cherishing the few months we stayed with them and look forward to many visits with them, both here and there, in the future. We have also found a church that we really enjoy. We’ve met many wonderful people there and feel it is a good home for us and for Adelyn. Jon is covered by incredible health insurance and has ALREADY received a brand new insulin pump FOR FREE since we’ve been here.

While I share all those joys with you all as part of an update on our life, I also write it as a reminder for myself of the good we’ve encountered here. There is truly so much for us to be thankful for, even in the midst of a ridiculous amount of struggles. But many days it has felt impossible to be thankful. This country has been hard. Harder than we ever imagined. There may be more detailed posts for sharing stories in the future, but simply put, “I hate it here” has left my lips more times than I care to admit. And I’ll confess right now that I do not, in fact, hate it here. But I have hated many moments and days here. While Jon and I joke fairly often that we feel unsure whether this country will let us stay, and while I can’t say that I share this sentiment in full confidence at all times, we do believe and hope that in another six months, we’ll have even more positive things to say about our time here.

With that, of course, we ask for prayers. We genuinely are so grateful for the point that we have finally come to now: working, having our own home and a place for Adelyn, having a good church, building relationships with great people, etc. We already feel indebted to so many people both here and overseas in all that they’ve done (and continue to do) to help get us through. However, we still have a little ways to go before we really feel like we can take a deep breath and feel “settled.” We pray for that ‘settlement’ of course, but we also, and mostly, ask for prayer for us. In all that we’ve encountered, overcome, and will encounter in the future, we ask for prayers for us as husband and wife, as parents, as employees, and as friends.
————————————————————————————————————
7 month update 28/05/17 (because that’s how they write it here):
Things are finally feeling much more settled. We have kindergeld (literally “kid gold” – the allowance the gov’t gives you to help you care for your child) which has been a huge relief since it was both one of the biggest headaches and one of our greatest needs. Jon is working a ton, and he really enjoys it for the most part. My job is going alright, and while my commute is quite a bit longer and much more exhausting now that I take Adelyn to her daycare place, I have been loving that time with her, and we’ve also been meeting some fun people that make the same daily commute as us. Adelyn still loves her tagesmutter and is becoming good friends with the kids there. She is also becoming good friends with some of the kids from church – she loves nursery on Sunday mornings when all her buddies are there. For me, personally, I’m still having a hard time feeling “at home” here as much as I did in Taiwan (or back home obviously), but all in all, things are at least more ‘together’ for us right now. We still have so many things that feel incomplete, but most of it isn’t nearly as time-sensitive or stressful. We do still ask for prayers and support because life still feels hard, but we’re grateful for where we are now, and we’re hopeful for the time to come.

And now, pictures!

Viernheim

Viernheim

Weinheim family snow day

Christmas market in Mannheim.

Christmas tree buying! My first time getting a real Christmas tree!!

Weinheim in the snow.

Stuttes and Beitlings took a day trip to Strasbourg – the Capitol of Christmas

Strasbourg – the Capitol of Christmas

Cooking, baking, and eating together.

🙂

Our last family meal and group shot before we all moved to our respective new homes.

Our last cake and coffee outing at one of the small ‘cafes’ in Viernheim. I cherished these outings.

Our new apartment! I debated taking some updated pictures – it has changed a bit since these – but it’s still pretty bare bones and we have ambitions to fill it and decorate it eventually…. so you can have your updated pictures when that time comes…

Mannheim! Our new home.

Window views

Rainbow!

Heidelberg! Our “home -20 minutes- away from home”. These pics are just Altstadt near where Adelyn goes every day and where we frequent for a nearby day out.

Heidelberg in the snow.

Heidelberg

Heidelberg

aaaand Heidelberg

Milk tea in Heidelberg! It’s good, but it’s got nothing on Taiwan. 😦

Heidelberg from the castle gardens.

Heidelberg (from the castle) in the snow.

commuting.

Winter commuting.

this girl loves commuting. Trains, trams, and buses are just a few of her favorite things.

Best Laid Plans

Soon after Adelyn was born, we began discussing our plans, hopes, ideas, and options for the future: immediate and distant. We have always felt a little lost on what we truly want to pursue in life, us both having what feels like many passions and few. We know we want to work with people: interact with people, help people, love people. And we know we both have a love for the world. We want to see everything, immerse ourselves in every culture, and make friends in every country. We hope and pray to be an example of Christ everywhere we go, and hope He would allow us to go everywhere. There wasn’t much question in knowing that we both still felt a stir in our hearts to be abroad. We love Taiwan more than we really ever thought we would, but we also felt our time here was coming to a close (though we weren’t yet sure when that time would be). Germany is a country we’ve often admired: we are passionate about public heath care, in love with their philosophy on raising and educating children, and excited at the prospect of keeping some of what we love about Taiwan while also dipping back into a bit of Western culture. We had every hope and expectation of moving closer to family, uniting our daughter with cousins she’s yet to meet, and having much more flexibility with our work schedules. Germany did, and does, seem like a perfect fit.

Earlier this year, we had some upset in our current situation that started pushing us towards a move a little sooner than planned. Fortunately, things worked out well enough for us, but the wheels that had already been in place began to spin, and things already seemed to be in motion. Before we really knew it, we were making plans to leave Taiwan, moving out of our apartment, and already making our list of “last to dos.”

Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned.

However wonderful Germany’s social welfare system is, it works to protect itself from freeloaders which can lead to an outsider’s exclusion. In order to participate in the public health system, you must be an EU citizen or partake in contract employment in Germany. The freelance work we had lined up does not qualify. Our only option would be private insurance, which unfortunately, would exclude the Type 1 diabetes that necessitates our immediate insurance coverage. What does that mean? It means that ultimately, we aren’t moving to Germany when we thought we would.

So now what? We’re not sure exactly. Jon’s diabetes hasn’t been entirely detrimental to our plans until now. It requires that he always have health insurance wherever he goes, so we can’t try our luck in unpaid internships or volunteering into a job. While some of his grad school compatriots could go to D.C. jobless and putz around until something worked out, he can’t and couldn’t. Add to that having a kid. (And she’s the flexible one.)

Fortunately, we can stay here in Taiwan with affordable healthcare and a decently paid job until we figure things out. We are currently in the process of applying for jobs at Kindergartens in Germany. If we’re able to find full-time employment for one or both of us, we will be able to receive public health insurance for all in our family. We’re hoping we can find something in the same city as my family, but are looking throughout western Germany to find what’s available. Ultimately, if those jobs don’t pan out and we don’t find another path, then it seems we’ll be staying in Taiwan until we can make something work. Our goal continues to be making it to Germany; it just might be 6 months or more after we originally expected it.

This has obviously been a challenge that has worn us down emotionally and mentally, but even so, we are fortunate for how well things have worked together. God, of course, has provided for us; and our friends and family here, in the States, and in Germany have been huge sources of encouragement and guidance. And while it may be difficult to truly be at peace with this right now, we also believe God has provided for us and protected us in our current situation. We are grateful to have discovered this before arriving into a possible mess and even before we bought tickets. We are staying in an apartment owned by friends who have graciously said we can stay here and rent it as long as we’d like. Our family in Germany have been so so supportive and helpful in trying to find a way “in” for us and providing guidance every step of the way. Ultimately, this time has allowed us a chance to step back, take a deep breath, and pursue other avenues. It has provided us a chance to unite with our community here to serve very dear friends in an immense time of grieving. It has given us even a little more time with some great friends here and a chance to say goodbye (again) to some we thought we had already seen for the last time. This current obstacle is, and has been, incredibly discouraging to us, but it has also been good in a multitude of ways.

However, this has also been an emotional rollercoaster unlike much we’ve yet experienced. The constant uncertainty mixed with the back and forth of cutting ties, re-tying ties, rejoicing in some extra time, aching over a delayed or prohibited plan, rejoicing as possible options present themselves, fretting over making decisions and applying for jobs, saying “goodbye” and “not yet” and “goodbye” again: It has all been very overwhelming. Not to mention that getting to Germany, if we are allowed to do so, may not look anything like we thought and perhaps may strip us of some of the very things we were looking forward to.

It’s a lot. Ultimately, we still hope to make it to Germany. We will continue working towards that goal until it is clear to us that God is saying “not now” or possibly “not ever.” We will stay in the apartment and jobs we are in until we have a better idea of whether we might be staying more long term. If the jobs we have applied to fall through, then it is possible we will commit to some more time here, search for our “own” apartment, and plan for a different avenue in due time. While stressful for obvious reasons, this is also hard for Jon and I both in different ways. While we both ache to go to Germany and both mourn leaving Taiwan, we feel each emotion to varying degrees. Staying and going will both be very hard. So for now, we are praying for guidance, praying to make the most of our time, and especially praying to be content and at peace where we are and wherever we end up.

 

On the road again

Two years of Taiwan livin’. It’s hard to believe we’ve been here that long. Time has flown while we’ve been here in a way that we never quite experienced back home. Maybe it’s the constant adventure, the laid back livin’, or the lack of Daylight Savings. Either way, it’s been fast. In fact, by the time we leave, we’ll be just five months shy of three years in this home away from home.

Prior to taking the big plunge, we spent nearly a year discussing, planning, and preparing to move here. I can honestly say that during most of that time I was equal parts stoked and sad. The adventure, the change of pace for both of us, and the unknown was incredibly exciting. But it was also terrifying and incredibly heartbreaking to leave our home and our treasured family and friends. Leaving all that we knew and loved, we feared we’d be exchanging it for something less, or something ‘okay’ at best. We knew God had made the way possible, but it was still hard to trust His complete providence and goodness in making this more than just a ‘good’ place to be. But after enduring two long emotional doubt-filled days when we first arrived, we were blown away by what greeted us soon after. And truthfully, I’m still blown away by it. Not only have we known true community, true kindness, and true selflessness through our church, our students, our neighbors, and even the strangers that have become our friends, but our closest community has even evolved together as many of us have had the chance to welcome new little ones into our lives over the last year and a half (and another on the way this summer). We have had the opportunity to love and serve and be loved and served by others. We have encountered a culture of people that are filled with kindness and hospitality. We have experienced a peace in the environment that surrounds us, even in the midst of so many trials and struggles.These people and this place have impacted us greatly and are already such an integral part of our lives and who we are. 

Which is what makes this post so hard to write.

You see, when we first discussed living here, we thought it’d be for maybe a year, then two, then two and a half, then….who knew. We expected the ease and finances of a new life to hold us down for a while as we explored and “saved” money. (ha!) I expected, or at least hoped, to enjoy living here well enough that a year or two wouldn’t be too bad. What I didn’t expect was how completely heartbroken I would be to leave. How tethered I would feel to this place. How hard I would struggle, even five months out, with the idea of saying goodbye to our friends, to our neighbors, to our guard, or even to the family we buy dumplings from. I had no idea the strength it would require of me to move forward with something new. The idea never even crossed my mind. We were so focused on getting here and being here that I never thought about what it would be like to actually leave.

But now, two years, seven countries, and one baby later, here we are, ready to uproot everything, yet again, and head out on our next adventure.

Therefore, it is with immense joy and unexplainable sadness that we announce the next stage of our journey. This August, Jon, baby, and I will be packing our bags and moving to… (*drumroll*)

Mannheim, GermanyWe will be (temporarily) moving in with my brother and sister-in-law who currently live there (technically in Viernheim) with their three children. And we are already in the process of communicating with possible employers about teaching English to adults. We’re currently preparing to move out of our current apartment to house sit for some friends for the next month before we make a three-week long trip to the States in May. When we return, we’ll have two months of subbing, relaxing, and enjoying every ounce of Kaohsiung living that we can before we leave in August, ending what will have been one of the greatest adventures we’ve had the privilege of partaking in and preparing to start the next.

When we were first starting to think about this, about moving to yet another country, away from home, away from family, away from our own personal comfort, I wondered what this would mean. What will our lives look like from here on out? What will we do in the long run? What can I hope for for our daughter?

Well, I don’t really know what our lives will look like. We talk about it. A lot. We have hopes, desires, ideas. But we don’t know. We don’t know what we’ll do in the long run. That depends on SO many factors that are completely outside of our control. And probably on so many factors that we aren’t even aware of yet.

But I know one thing. What I, what we, hope for for our daughter is that she will grow up seeing the world. Not just for great stories and fun pictures, but for an understanding of God’s creation and people. What we hope and pray for for her, and the rest of our (Lord willing) future children, is that she, they, will have an understanding, an appreciation, and an overwhelming love for every culture and every people. That she would see everyone’s differences as a blessing of a beautiful world. That she would see everything that is God-made, as well as man-made, as an exhibit of God’s beauty and grace. That she would ache for the injustice she sees and knows throughout the world. That she would see everyone around her as no different than herself. And that she would long for the hearts and souls of the people she does and does not meet to know the Lord.

I know our desires are no different than most of the other parents we know. I know we could teach and pray for this over our child whether living in Taiwan, Germany, or St. Louis. But we’re grateful for this hands on experience for her, and for us, to see the world.

And with that, we ask for prayers. We are genuinely excited for this opportunity to be in Germany, and we are thrilled to be close to family. But this truly is much harder than we would have imagined. It’s hard knowing we aren’t returning home, and it’s hard knowing we’re leaving a home that we won’t often get to return to at all. It’s hard packing and moving with a little one. It’s hard figuring out where we’ll live during June and July when we return. It’s hard trusting that God will provide all that we need when we move like He did when we came here. It’s incredibly hard. So please pray for us, for the process as we plan, pack, and prepare to leave, for the time we have left here: that it would be full and that we would be taken care of in what is still unknown about our living situation, for the physical move both now and in August, and for our hearts as we say goodbye to this beautiful country filled with amazing people.

七個月 (7 months)

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Jon and I have noticed something odd about vacations. Every time we take a trip with our daughter (which has been a grand total of two times, but go with me here), we bring back an entirely different child. It … Continue reading →

Lunar New Year

This gallery contains 3 photos.

新年快樂！ Happy New Year! This month marks the start of the Year of the Monkey according to the Chinese zodiac. The Lunar New Year is a pretty big deal this side of the world. Christmas is hardly recognized, and the … Continue reading →