7 Days

Finally. It came. SNOW!!! I woke up to a Wegberg coated in that magic powder I love ever so dearly! The snowflakes fell the entire day and the most magical moment for me was when evening hit and the sky darkened. The lights from the city were hazy and when I walked to the train station, it was quiet and peaceful with families trudging over to the ice rink with their tiny children squished onto toboggans. Magical is not even a word powerful enough to capture the moment, and I happen to really love that adjective! On Sunday, during our Christmas party, Johanna and I built a snowman and named him Calvin. Then she said, "Karly, I know something!!!" as she started rolling together a head, and then while she shaped it she said, "We build now a very baby snowboy." And so we built that snowboy and we dubbed him Poopsie. So I have to tell this story because it's just so funny...Christoph and I were doing the dishes after the Christmas party and there was a huge wooden board we were trying to clean in the sink. It was not working so nicely since it was about three times the size of the sink. We'd placed it awkwardly inside and I attempted to scrub it down while he ran water over it with the faucet. As he was spraying water over it, he suddenly jerked the faucet somehow, and it ran water right down my shirt for a good five seconds before he pulled it back quickly and said, "Don't tell anyone that happened!" And I promised I'd tell my dad. We joked about how funny it would've been if my shirt had been white. Thankfully, it was black! 

Yesterday was Gereon's birthday and he was so sweet. The day before, he came over to me shyly and asked, "Um Karly, could you please make your cookies for me with the chocolate in the middle?" Way to break my heart! His party is this weekend and there will be 12 boys here. It will be crazy. Less than a week from now I'll have my suitcase packed and I'll be heading to my friend's house in Düsseldorf so I can leave early Wednesday morning to the airport. :) Dun dun dun!

I mentioned earlier my overwhelming sin. It opens my eyes to what great lengths Jesus went for me! He died for that filth that is me. And I never saw that so beautifully because I never saw myself so ugly. I have seen the evil heart that is inside me and I want a new one. That is my promise from the cross. And that is where I look, and I am clean. Every day, through every thing. That is what I cling to through each struggle and sin and disappointment and every thing in my life. It's the only answer. Despite doubts and questions, it's the only answer.

Spills & Stains

Jojo and I were lying in bed reviewing church holidays for her religion class. We started talking about Martin Luther and I was telling her how amazing it was that he stood up for what he believed to be true about God, even though everyone around him said it was false. I asked her how it would feel if everyone in her school and all her friends and family told her God wasn't real and would she still be able to believe in Him? She thought for a few seconds and then replied, "Yes, I would still believe in God."

Gereon likes to scare me while I'm doing dishes, or walking into rooms, etc etc. He's quite good at it, and yesterday when I walked into the bathroom he came looming out of a corner and yelled which made me yell back. I then tried to explain to him why it's so easy to scare me since I get lost in my thoughts and in the end, this was all I came up with as a pathetic excuse! - "When I don't think about people and then there's people, it's freaky." My English skills are seriously deteriorating.

Miss Johanna asked me, "Karly, what does the word 'possible' mean?" I told her, "It means 'möglich.' Like, is it possible or impossible?" She looked at me for a moment and then smiled in understanding and replied, "Kimpossible!!!" Well, close enough.

Okay, kid stories are ended. I need to step back to the time that my mother was here blessing me with her presence and share a few of our times together. First of all, seeing mom in the midst of my life here was so strange that I actually let a few tears slip! There was one evening right in the beginning when I had to go to the kitchen and wash some dishes so I could be alone to think because it was hitting me so strongly, all the emotions. My mom, who I hadn't seen for 14 months, was now sitting in the living room with the kids, talking and laughing with them and I know it sounds silly, but it felt like I had 2 lives and they had suddenly converged. Oh man, and was she ever hilarious!!! Here a few of my stand out moments with her:
1. We walked into a shop in a town called Erkelenz and the woman at the desk said "Guten Tag." I replied the same back to her and then mom copied me, very confidently. As soon as we walked by her, mom leaned over and murmured to me, "What did I just say?"
2. Mom and I are deciding how to start our first day in Salzburg and how to spend our money. She looks around the city streets for a few seconds, then turns to me and says, "Let's not even eat anything. Let's just drink until we can't stand it anymore."
I missed her humor big time!
3. We're walking along the street in Salzburg and I stop and take a photo of the building in front of us. Mom: "What are you taking a photo of?"
Me: "Whatever I want."
Mom: "Honey, we need to put some liquor in you."

Needless to say, I was laughing a lot!

The past few weeks have been slipping into Christmas mode. The air is cold, snow has attempted to stick a few times, and the lights, music and joy is spreading through Wegberg. It's rather magical. In fact, it's extremely magical. I love the dark mornings and dark evenings. This morning The kids and I received a boot filled with loot from St. Nick. They were standing outside the door waiting for us. It was cute! Jojo's favorite gift was a robot barbie. Gereon's was a James Bond film. :) They are so darling. I drank my first Glühwein of the season last weekend while Jojo sang in her school choir. We walked down with her in the charm of the evening to the city square where they'd set up a stage, a tiny Christmas market with treats and drinks, and a big skating rink for the kids. She stood proud and tall while she sang all the songs she'd been obnoxiously singing in my face all week. Somehow, it was still adorable!
Since a month, I've developed a new friendship with a woman from my school. She comes from Ukraine and is married to a German guy. She lives in Wegberg, so we've been biking to school together and studying together twice a week. It's been a huge blessing to me. She doesn't speak English, so I've sky rocketed my ability to communicate! And it's the first time I've developed a friendship only based on the German language. It's odd and exciting.

You know that section where Paul talks about his flesh taking over him? Sometimes it feels to me as if my sin is spilling out of me, even gushing out of me, and staining my life. Oh grace, you are too good. Grace that is somehow greater than all my sin.