Blessings in Disguise

In September 2015, we moved from Blackfoot, Idaho, established in 1885 (130 years old), to Holzgerlingen, Germany, established in 1007 AD (1008 years old). 

At least 1007 is the first time the Holzgerlingen was mentioned in writing.  The town’s castle was first mentioned in writing in 1003 and there is evidence that it started as a settlement established by Celts somewhere between 550-50 BC and was conquered by the Romans in 100AD.  Both Blackfoot and Holzgerlingen have a population of around 12,000.

We left two grown children in the States, and took with us a son (9), a daughter (15), and a 26-year-old son who had been sick for a number of years and was not self-sustaining.

We had been able to secure a home before we got there by taking over a lease from the Navy Commander that James was replacing.  This also allowed us to have phone service and internet already on when we arrived which was a huge plus (as we discovered later).   

We were also able to buy his family’s used furniture as they were headed back to the States, so our house had the basics.  James also purchased their 20-year-old BMW so we had one vehicle too.  All of this was a huge blessing!  It was also very costly, when added up.
 
We discovered our home was around the corner from a terrific, modern park with sports fields, bike/skateboard park, zip lines, slides, swings, climbing walls, and even a stream to play in.

From the park there was a path up to the oldest part of the village.  It passed multiple garden plots with small gardening houses, flower gardens, vegetable gardens, huge wood piles, apple trees, and even a row of huge, ornately painted, wooden owl statues that had been commissioned for the celebration of the villages 1000 year anniversary.  We discovered several other delightful little parks throughout the town.

The oldest part of the village was dominated by a 500 year old church with a tower that dates back to the 11th century, and the moated castle (Castle Kalteneck) mentioned above.  The kids enjoyed watching ducks in the moat.  I loved hearing the church bells ringing on Sunday mornings.    On Fridays there was a weekly outdoor market in the town square.  There was a Gelato shop across from the church and a Bakery just above it.  There were also many small shops in town.

Any direction you went from the village, there were paved bike trails that would lead through beautiful countryside to the next village.  There were also unpaved paths through the woods that you could use to get from village to village.  I always thought it was fun to see signs for the next town along these paths in the woods.

It filled my happy bucket to explore the town, the paths, the forest trails and the surrounding villages.  It was also a great jumping off point for exploring further afield.  Our two boys who remained in the States both came to visit for about a month in December and we were able to visit Switzerland and Austria as well as revisit our favorite places closer to home with us.
 
One thing that is impossible to fully prepare for is just how difficult it is to jump into an entirely different culture where you don’t understand the language.  My personal ambient level of stress went up by much more than I would have expected.  In talking to others who came from the US, it is one thing we all agreed on.  I absolutely loved it and was significantly stressed by it at the same time.

We also had some personal challenges during our first few months there.  I started having problems with severe vertigo at times.  We were not able to get an exception for illness for my 27-year-old son and were facing him having to leave the country three months from our arrival.
 
We put our two kids in German school into what was supposed to be a very good program for learning the language, and ended up having our kids yelled at, sworn at, insulted, told they were stupid, lazy, hit and beat up at recess, and you name it.  Skateboards jumping over desks in the classroom, girls shoved up against the chalk board with their heads repeatedly banged on the board.  Either crazy out of control yelling classes with kind teachers, or classes that were well controlled by a teacher that seriously bullied the children.
 
I do not for a moment believe this is normal for German schools in general, but it is what we experienced in a program for immigrant children that was run by Herr Voice in Holzgerlingen.  He was the abusive bully.  It’s bad enough to be getting it from the kids at recess without any adult intervention, but what are the kids supposed to think when the worst abuse comes from the adult in charge.

On top of the stress of trying to adjust to a new home, culture and language, they started talking about having to move my husband’s command to a different location.  The details were ever uncertain and constantly changing.
 
I prayed and prayed that we’d get to stay.  There were some people that they wouldn’t be taking with them.  I just knew it was more than I could handle to try to secure a new home and move.  Moving seems to bundle all of the areas I struggle together, and there are some parts of it that seem darn near impossible for me even when movers are doing the bulk of it, which would not be in this case.  It would have been helpful if the move was an organized effort with secure details, however it was anything but.  Dates, housing, everything was uncertain.

In time it became apparent that the move would be necessary, although how specifically it was going to work, was anyone’s guess.  Sorting, organizing, cleaning, are all things I have a difficult time with.  I don’t know what auto immune stuff I have, but it involves significant pain when I overdo it.  In regular life, I get by at a doable level with being super careful with my diet, and managing physical output, but pain can ratchet up to a level that scares me pretty quickly with extra stress and increased physical demand.

James found out he was going to have to have hernia surgery, so we ended up moving ahead of most of his command to facilitate having surgery at Landstuhl Army Hospital which was close to the area we were moving.

We went house hunting in the areas surrounding Baumholder, Landstuhl, Ramstein, and Kaiserslatern.  Renting homes to American service members is big business there.  Although real estate agents are not allowed to ask how long you will be stationed in an area, just hedging on the answer to that, instead of having the desired “three years” answer, was enough to turn most off from renting to us.  We were only going to be there around six months.

We turned in several applications for houses.  We only got a positive response from one.  The funny thing was the real estate agent on this one had shaken his head and told us the landlord wouldn’t want to rent to us because we weren’t going to be there for a full tour of duty.  We almost didn’t even turn in the application on that house because we thought it would be useless.  But I Loved the house.
 
It was brand newly built.  The yard wasn’t in yet.  It was on the top of a hill overlooking the small village of Steinbach am Glan with beautiful countryside all around and several paths into the surrounding hills and forests starting right in the area where the house was built.

The home was three stories.  Living room, kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, on the first floor, with three big bedrooms and a large bathroom on each of the remaining floors.  And WINDOWS….we loved our home in Holzgerlingen but it was really dark.  This home had full length windows all over the bottom floor (many of which were doors and could be opened for airflow) and great windows in the halls, bedrooms and bathrooms of the remaining two floors as well.  Lots of great views from the upper story windows.

I didn’t think we had a prayer of getting this house, but I think the realtor confused who we were.  Anyway, they offered us the house and we were thrilled!

There was a wonderful missionary couple in our ward (church) in Stuttgart.  They were Elder and Sister Boss from Star Valley, Wyoming.  Our very first Sunday in Stuttgart, when my head was still reeling and I had no idea who I would call if we needed help, Elder boss handed me a business card with their phone number on it and said they were willing to help with anything.  They were kind enough to take me to a doctor’s appointment when I couldn’t drive because of vertigo.  They stopped regularly to help a mom in our town with several young kids, a new baby, and a deployed husband.  As far as I could see, they were always helping where needed.

We rented a truck.  Ward members helped us pack and load.  Bless Elder and Sister Boss and wonderful ward members!  The Boss’s spent two days helping us pack, load, clean.  Several people offered to come help clean and did at various times, and Sister Boss brought the younger sister missionaries and took charge and directed and got the house spick and span once all the furniture was out.
 
My mind turns sluggish under stress and she just made sure things were whipped into shape.  It was exactly what I needed, and I was so appreciative!  There’s a special kind of appreciation for those who help with things you know you never could have accomplished on your own.

We scored a room on base for the night and planned to drive the truck up to our new home the next day.  We stumbled our exhausted bodies into the Panzer Kaserne food court that evening for food.  It turned out to be a tough night.  James got food poisoning from what he had eaten at the food court, and I was hurting so badly (over did it physically) medication couldn’t touch it.  Needless to say, I wasn’t sleeping either.

James left with the truck early.  When he arrived, still not feeling at all well, he fell asleep in the truck in the driveway.  Before he knew it, a group of Kaiserslautern ward young men and Elders descended, and the truck was unloaded in no time.  We didn’t know if he would have any help, and he was feeling too sick to be able to do much.  Once again, we were so incredibly grateful!!

Germany is dark in the winter.  Stuttgart gets more rain than Seattle.  Some people refer to winter as “the cloud”.  Like “the cloud” rolls in and it’s overcast and rainy all winter.  We did get a little snow too.
The challenges the kids faced in school, brought on anxiety and depression.  I learned to dread overcast days because they would-be tear-filled days.  It became very clear to me that light seriously affects my daughter.  Me too, although I wasn’t struggling emotionally like she was.
 
Even on overcast days, in our new house, with all the tall windows, it felt like there was still plenty of light.  It was really a “Happy” house for us.

Steinbach am Glan had a population of 902.  It was nestled in a valley that had two different villages progressively lower down from it.  Just gorgeous!  There were large hills on either side of the valley, and they were teeming with trails and paths. 

On the hill on one side of town, there were Celtic Burial Mounds that dated to 400BC.  The hill on our side had fields and woods and those trails just beckoned us out.

Jon had been struggling with severe chronic fatigue for eight years.  He never got refreshing sleep.  He actually didn’t get any slow wave sleep at all, but no one could tell us why or how to fix it.  Those hills even called him out.  Sensory overload to light and all.  That is a great “blessing” story for another day, but before long, he had the kids out biking through those hills.

The countryside around us literally brought tears to my eyes it was so beautiful.  We would trek off on trips to beautiful places, but there were very few places that were as beautiful as where we lived.  We loved exploring the countryside.  But we especially loved the hills and forests around us.  I loved looking out my window in the early morning and watching the mists in the valleys below fade to the morning sunshine.  I don’t know how describe how nourishing for my soul the beauty in this area was.

My Heavenly Father knows me!  He knows me better than I know myself.  He was trying to bless me with something wonderful with that move.  Life changing.  Amazing.  Something that brought so much joy!  Memories of beauty I will always cherish.  Here I was begging him not to make me do something I knew I couldn’t do.  Something I was sure would make me miserable.  And it was, kind of.  But through the service of wonderful, Christlike people, it WAS doable.  And the blessings were so great for me.  For the kids as well.

This experience made me think about how this is true in my life in general.  I need to trust His plan for me.  It might not often be as obvious in the short term as this move in Germany was for me, but he wants to bring me joy.  He knows so much better than me what will lead to that. 

There is a song by Laura Story called Blessings that has these words in it:

What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Every time I hear it, I feel confirmation that it is true.  That the trials I’ve been given are my greatest blessings.  I may not have the full picture yet, but I believe it! 

I am grateful for the blessing of the move in Germany for giving me an example for this principle.  For helping to cement that message in my heart.  And I'm incredibly grateful for the experiences we had there.  I'm thankful not just for a "Happy House" but the incredible beauty on our doorstep that invited us out to play.