between the years

that's how the week between Christmas and New Year is called in Germany. Usually I really don't like that phrase because, well, I think I don't have to explain there is no such a thing like "between the years".

Anyway, this past week I have felt exactly like that - between the years, or maybe between something. It was a hard week for me, at many levels, but it made the little moments of joy even more precious.

Like getting a late Christmas card from my dear friend Anju from India. She made it all by herself!

Another highlight was reading a printed version of M's blogpost. It's the best blogpost I've read for a long time! "Best" is far away from describing it in an appropriate way, but "most beautiful", "awesome", "honorable" and "deep" are kinda worn out and don't do it justice anyway.

Then another letter of an old friend, a lady who could be my grandmother or rather is better than the biological grandmothers I had... and whom I know my whole lifetime. It was typewritten and very personal. The wisdom of godly women can't be held high enough!

Today I feel blessed. And excited about the year to come. May it take me closer to my precious Jesus, whether it brings pain or joy!

wedding gift

Two weeks ago a colleague, Hildegard (yes, that's her real name and she just turned 30 this summer!) got married. As usually, everyone else of our team at work spent some money for her wedding gift and I was the one to collect it and turn it into a gift.
When I was in the same situation in summer to collect the money for her birthday gift and had asked her what she would like, she had no idea. So this time I didn't ask long and decided to just give the money to her (young married couples always need money anyway) and only would put it in a special box or something that had to look fancy (because it was a wedding gift) and was not so very expensive (because I wanted to give her as much money as possible and spend the least amount of it).
So I went to a special place and bought a hollow body shaped like a lighthouse (approx. 4 Euro) and a small wooden box (I think it was 2 Euro) and some decoration sand.
I cut a shoe box open at 2 sides, took a lot of old newspaper together with wallpaper paste and created a rock, painted the lighthouse and the box and put it together.
Finally I cut brown paper in a boat shape to have people sign it as a card and made a flag that had the wedding blessing on it.
That's how it turned out:

New Year, new things

I am excited about this new year! More than the years before. And it already started different. Not as splendid as my sister's (new-hubby-job), but I love those little ones as well. So I started January 1st in PJ's, all day long - haven't done that for years. Sunday (new as well) I decided what kind of cake I wanted in a café just by passing the cake bar (usually I can't decide and it takes MINUTES!). Yesterday, Sandy showed me that "perfect day" coffee bar that has probably best coffee in town AND she found me the perfect warm winter jacket at peek & cloppenburg.

Oh and this one is the best! Since over a year I try to have my quiet time right when I wake up but especially during winter time I too often fall kinda asleep again. It's dark and cold and bed is so snugly... well, you probably know what I am talking about. During the last weekend I really racked my brain (and asked the Father for an insight) how I could change it and TADA, suddenly it was there - so bright, clear and easy I am stunned (and annoyed that this didn't appear sooner):

I have to get up early to feed the cats anyway, they always put up such a fuss unless I give them their breakfast... So I get up at 5 a.m (or 5.30 this morning) and when I go into the kitchen to get the cat food, I turn the heating on. Then, while the cats are eating, I take a shower and dress up and prepare everything so that I easily can leave to get the bus to go to work. When preparations are done, I go back into the kitchen, wich is warm and cosy by that time, sit down at my big kitchen table, set up my kitchen timer (about 20 minutes) so that I wouldn't miss the bus and start reading. It works! I don't fall asleep anymore and I get the most benefit out of it! I finally found my "holy place" even if it's only a kitchen table...

Happy New Year 2011

 

please click the icon to watch the e-card.

wishing my friends and family all the best!

the enemy is doing a great job

there are so many thoughts cruising my brain and I don't know if I will be able to put the feelings that I have about it into correct words but I try.

basically it starts with the question: why am I one of the few who are privileged to be able to understand the concept of life? O yes, I know, to say something like that in our post modern world, it is arrogant and probably will be soon declared discriminatory because I say there is no other way to see the whole thing.
Well, of course you can see it differently. In these days everything is allowed, you can define your world the way you want to see it and do whatever you want as long as "it makes you happy" and no one else is harmed or at least not so much harmed.

Fact is, I had so many conversations with people recently, who are proud of being "modern" and able to do things the way "it makes them happy" no matter what and they fight for their right to be happy. Although in todays world you don't have to fight so much for what they are standing for, because today, it is cool for example to be homosexual. (but if someone dares to say homosexuality is not normal it is - again - discriminatory.) So why are they still - sometimes aggressivley - proclaiming their rights? They are already doing "what makes them happy", but you can almost smell it: deep inside they are not. I could list a lot more things like "take whatever you want, as long as it makes you happy" or "sleep with whoever you want if it makes you happy" or "leave me alone, I am having a nervous breakdown" when they realize this "happy feeling" didn't last. That's why I sum those "happy-makers" up by calling it sin.

WHAT??? don't you dare! sin is UNCOOL. And of course it is a religious invention/concept/fiction. Religion was always used to make you feel bad and guilty about things you have a right to do. It cuts down your self.

But why are those who live out their needs so extremely unhappy and distressed when you look underneath their happy surface?
And why do only a few realize, that as soon that they admit they are lost and (yes I dare to say it) sinners, something changes, the healing begins and the real happiness moves in? A happiness that is not dependent on the outer circumstances?

The enemy said to Eve, hey, eat that fruit because it is so beautiful to look at and so sweet; it will make you happy and you will be as wise as God. Eve did and she lost paradise.
And the enemy is still doing a great job.
A whole generation today is eating the fruit because it's so beautiful to look at and so sweet to eat. And they think they are as wise as God. [Excuse me? God?? What God? I am God!]
And they lost paradise.
Why are there only so few who can see the connection?
It breaks my heart - especially when I talk to those who I love. They reject the only thing that would make them happy, from deep inside, everlasting.

Noah

Today Noah is one week old. This cute, little girl already had a serious open-heart-surgery when she was 2 days old. It was a "three-steps" surgery and maybe two of those steps have to be redone this week. Please join me in prayer that she does not have to have it.
Her parents attend my church and I wish that through this we and all the world may see the power and glory of our living God.

--- click the titel (Noah) above to get to her parent's (Cass and Alex) blog entry about her birth. ---

For Mr. Jim

I don't know, but when I watched this video I thought Mr. Jim would like it. Have fun, everybody:

Alli Gators

Saturday two weeks ago I went to Ikea. I haven't been there for a looong while but as I wanted to buy a frame for the picture I painted for Miss Antje, I thought that'd be the best place to go and find one. All of you who know Ikea can probably remember that they have an area at the end of their exhibition spaces that is only for kids. When I was walking that place I came to pass a rummage table full of ALLIGATORS. I immediately was reminded of a good friend of mine and I took a picture (thanks to cell phone camera I sang about earlier).

The cutest thing about it is the baby Alligator (I don’t know if Mama Alligators carry their babies that way but who cares)!

Happy Birthday, Allison!

Bible in 90 Days

Last week I told Damaris that another dear friend, Frances, gave me a OneYearBible as a "Thanksgiving-gift" last year. I started immediately to read it because I had tried to read the entire Bible before but I always "failed".
Three days ago Damaris told me, she found another website biblein90days. She started to like that concept and created a blog, so that whoever knows german and is interested can join us (or the project). So we don't need to meet "physically" every week to encourage each other - our bible group is only one click away.
Isn't that a cool idea?

Hope we will find many who are interested! You can visit/join us at Bibel in 90 Tagen.

Sometimes God acts really fast

So this story doesn't start pleasant but it has an astounding end and so I want to share it. Ok, here comes the aggravating part:
Maybe six weeks ago my cat, Romeo, started to linger in front of my apartment door, clearly showing that he wanted to go out. As I am living in the middle of the city, a big road passing my house plus Romeo has never been out since he was seven weeks old, I do not want him to go out. But then, when he found that "whining" and meowing wouldn't help, he started to pee on the corridor floor every second or third day. So I had the "fun" business to clean a lot and one night I was really desperate about the situation.

Wednesday a week ago (October 22nd) I had a vet's appointment with Romeo because it was time for his annual vaccination. I told him about my stinky problem, too, and the vet had some good suggestions, like having a second litter pan put on the place where the cat used to "pee extra".
Another suggestion was: "You should have another cat, but a young female, to keep him company."

"Sure!" I thought, inwardly rolling my eyes. "Of course! Where should I suddenly get a young female cat from???"

Later in the evening I prayed: "Lord, if you really want me to have another young female cat, you have to bring it to my front door. I have no idea where to get a cat so you have to take care for it if it is your will."
And I didn't think about it any longer.

Three days later. Saturday.
A friend of mine, Miss A. and her husband Mr. T. were celebrating both their birthdays. (In Germany the person who wants to celebrate his/her birthday has to organize the party or whatever by him/herself). And they had asked me to come an join them a couple of weeks ago. We haven't seen each other for a long time for they live in Cologne. I first had promised to go there and stay for the weekend (Oct. 24th-26th) but when I learned that my cat has the problem I told you in the beginning, I didn't want to stay out of the house for 3 days. Plus, I was pretty exhausted because it was the weekend following my first week back at work after an unintended break of 28 weeks. Not to forget I was forced to take the train which would take me 4 hours to get there...
I prayed again and said: "Lord, I don't want to go - I really want to see my friends, but... well, you know... but I feel you want me to go so please, let it be to your glory!" My idea was at least to go and show my friend and her husband the love of God and share the gospel. So I went on Saturday and wanted to go back home at the same day.

When I got there, the first "thing" I saw was my friend's little cat "Daisy"! The lil one was jumping up and down and I couldn't help but shout "how cute is she?!"
And Miss A. said, "YES, she is super cute, but you know, Mr. T. has some allergies and 2 nights ago he could hardly breathe! You should have heard the weird noises when he tried to breathe, I was really concerned about him. And today I was almost crying but I think we are forced to give Daisy away...!
"I could take her, " I said in impulse.

"Are you serious???"

"Well, I don't want to take your cat away, but hear what the vet said 3 days ago... blah blah..."

"Okay, let's go the whole hog: you stay here for the night and tomorrow we will give you a ride home and you can take Daisy with you."

I didn't know what to say and I was not even sure if that was the right thing to do... But then I remembered my prayer which was like "God, if you want, you have to bring a young female cat to my front door" and here was Miss A. offering to bring the cat not only to my front door but also right into my apartment.
It was also ok to stay one night in Cologne 'cause my mom agreed come to my house and take care of Romeo (thanks mom!).

And the miracle went on.


When Romeo and Daisy met the first time they just snuffled and nosed each other. Ok, Romeo, who is not used to have another cat around him, seemed to be nervous first but two days later he tolerated her being close to his blanket..


And two more days later, it was so cute to watch Daisy trying to get closer to Romeo!








Decreasing space between the two cats





























And this is my favorite picture!
By the way:
Saturday, when all the guests were at my friend's house, we had not so much time to talk... But when Miss A. and Mr. T. decided to give me a ride home because of the cat, we had about an hour in the car, a great time to talk... which gave me the opportunity to share some stories about my life with God, that He answeres my prayers and that He loves them, too, and longs for a personal relationship with them!

It was a holy moment.

I love my new "missionary cat", lil 6-months-old Daisy!

Not to forget to mention: I didn't need to clean my floor for some "cat-accident" reason for almost two weeks!

overwhelmed!

my birthday is almost over and WOW, I've never thought that I could feel so blessed! I actually feel MORE than blessed but I don't know if that is a "possible" feeling (because being blessed and realizing it is actually the best that can happen to someone... so is it possible to double that very best?).

So many friends that called, emailed or left a note at facebook today and so many thoughtful wishes... let alone the precious flowers and gifts I got. I am thinking about making a list and coming back and tell you but even if I don't do it, you know if you are one of those who made my day so special!

May God bless you all richly and thank you for thinking of me!

Lay all your Love on me...

Once again Anju inspired me to write a post... but don't worry, it's different and the story starts when I was a teenager.
Do you know the feeling if you suddenly hear a melody or a song that kind of opens your heart? When you feel like bathing in warm water, flying into a sunset scenery and dancing in the rain - all three at the same time?

So one of my utterly favorite songs when I was a teenager was "Lay all your Love on me", but I only new the version sung by Erasure (a British band). I had no idea that the original song was performed by ABBA. I really like ABBA songs but as you can see I am not that kind of fan that knows all their songs. But now it makes even more sense to me that I loved that special song from Erasure (I only like two or three Erasure-songs alltogether...).

Well, as some of you know, I had to stay in hospital some weeks this summer. After my 2nd surgery in Mainz University Hospital I was moved to Bad Kreuznach Hospital at August 1st. They had promised me to take some tests there and try to find out what the problem with my body (skeleton and joints) is. (Many doctors are trying to diagnose me since I am six years old, so I was not extremely excited about. They didn't find something new and they actually didn't take a test that appeared somehow new to me, but that is a different story)
So I got kind of stuck in Bad Kreuznach for nine days which was on one hand frustrating. The big plus: I met three wonderful young women there and we are still keeping in touch. Another plus: we were allowed to leave the hospital to go downtown (it was only a ten minute walk to get to the part of the city that is called Fußgängerzone - "pedestrian zone" - in German towns). Right there was a movie theatre.

I think it is needless to say what movie we watched one afternoon...

Can you imagine how I felt when "my song" suddenly came up? I had almost forgotten about it (shame on me) as well as I had never expected to hear it in an ABBA musical (because, as you know I always thought it was an Erasure-song). And - if you believe it or not - I had one of my precious "God moments" hearing this song - out of the backgound I actually was reading the book I mentioned earlier. So when the leading male actor started to sing

Don't go wasting your emotion
Lay all your love on me
Don't go sharing your devotion
Lay all your love on me

it was like Jesus would straight say that to me. It is hard to explain and you probably have to read the book to know what I mean, but MAMMA MIA!, I won't forget that day and that movie!





By the way: the original ABBA version of the song is much better!

day trip to Edersee

A week ago Sonja asked Patricia, Bernard and me if we'd like to join her on a trip to Edersee.

Edersee is an artificial lake near Kassel and as we had not so much rain in that area this year the water outflow was more than the water inflow. The water level now is so low that parts of the villages which were flooded years ago now poke out of the water.
You can see foundation walls of houses, parts of a bridge, cemeteries etc. They call it Edersee-Atlantis.

We started yesterday at 10 am and had to drive about 2 1/2 hours (actually, but there was a lot of construction on the road and we had to detour a lot). We arrived at the lake around 1:15 pm. We walked through the lake (hee hee) to get to a hill. Usually that hill is an island surrounded by water. Sonja told me that the last time she was there she had to take a boat and paddle over.

We really had a good time and were lucky with the weather: it was cloudy but it only rained some drops two or three times. I arrived at home around 7:30 pm, tired but happy.

I took a lot of pictures, here are some of them:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

If the slideshow wouldn't work, please try this link

Wiesbaden Church News etc

Last week Monday Uli Walker called from Arkansas and told me, that her husband James Jr. (who is deployed to Iraq) suddenly had major physical problems in his left arm and they brought him to a hospital where they couldn't help him (only to find out it was NOT a heart attack) and flew him to another hospital in Iraq where they again couldn't help him. Finally they flew him out to Landstuhl (Kaiserslautern Area) where he is since a couple of days. He has to undergo a lot of tests. He thinks now that they will fly him home to the U.S. because the options for diagnose are better over there.
Klaus, Sigi, Ricardo and I went yesterday to visit with him after church and had lunch together. We had a wonderful day, as it was Klaus' birthday yesterday, too.

We also had a new family in church, the have two boys and they were so super friendly. Klaus and Sigi had prepared a quick coffe brake - to "celebrate" Klaus' birthday - right after church with German chocolate-cream cake (yumm!) and they stayed for awhile. But I think they will look out for another church because of the boys - I don't know how old they are but the smaller one I would guess is about 5 years old and the older one looks like seven years. They would be the only kids there and I think they will try to find a chuch that has a kids programm... But we will see! We had some really good conversations and it seemed they felt comfortable.
We still meet together (English and German) for worship and lessons and it turns out to be quite professional with translating and stuff. Yesterday we had Brother Klinke over for the lesson, he translated himself. This is sometimes a bit confusing but as I know both languages I didn't miss the message.

We also heard the Harker baby is born, her name is Shelby Grace. Judy had prepared a neat card that we signed for the Harker family, because they moved back to the US this summer.

My arm is a little bit worse, I've got some more pain because all the muscles are gone and so everything is very weak around my shoulder... If you can not move a joint like the shoulder which is usually the part of the body that is the most mobile (it has the highest radius) it causes a lot of pain. But the six weeks that I was supposed to not move it are almost over and I will start my rehab programm next Wednesday and I am really excited about!

best colleagues of the world

It is five weeks ago that I could go to work and I am still having some health issues, so I think I will be at home for the next week, too. I will see the doctor again on Tuesday (in Germany on Monday is a holiday: 2nd day of Pentecost) and I've got a doctors appointment on Monday 19th at Mainz University Clinic to obtain a second opinion and then I'll see.
Anyway: What I actually want to tell is, one of my colleagues, Sandra, was visiting with me on Thursday. She wanted to cook for me an Indian dish and it was SO delicious! It was fun, too, because she made a kind of cheese by cooking a lot of milk and then put some vinegar in. It was so cool to see how the milk turned into lumps and finally we had that kind of cheese.

When she arrived at my place, she had a huge flower bouquet in her hand and a cute "get well soon" card and some very fine chocolates! I was really surprised, 'cause she told me all colleagues of the section had collected some money to buy that stuff!
Aren't they the best colleagues of the world?!?

flowers on my desk

Last week at work was really hard for me. Not only I had to deal with jet lag but I also had a lot of work in an unusual manner.
Some of the "big bosses" of the financial management section for justice had decided to have all confused cases (regarding to the costs that result from judiciary cases) cleared up and asked us to agree all problematic accounts. That means a lot of extra work additionally to what I was supposed to do.

In Germany there is a pretty specific system of what one has to pay if he or she takes a court action or files an application. So I had to check those accounts (according to my jurisdiction) that were not balanced; if somebody payed twice and if so, who was going to get it back; if somebody had to pay extra etc...
And deadline was yesterday, Friday 15th.
So on Monday I asked the secretaries at the office to gather the relevant documents and put it on my table.
For me it was not such a big thing because I know how (and, yes, also like) to deal with that certain computer programm that we have to use for the costs that result from different judiciary cases. BUT most of my colleagues do kind of hate that programm (I don't know why; maybe because we usually work with it in a different way - balancing accounts it is not our specialism). So one of my supervisors asked me to help them. It took me two and a half days (Tuesday 'til Thursday) to clear up all those questionable cases.


When I came back from my lunch break on Thursday I found this bouquet on my desk! I thought "Eh?? What's that?!? Well, today is Valentines Day but this day is not as special in Germany as it is in the U.S. ... So why on earth are those flowers on my table? Probably somebody confused my door with somebody elses door... (I seriously thought a split second: is it my birthday today?!?)


When I came closer I noticed a small note from my supervisor! It was her who had bought that bouquet to thank me for that kind of "annoying" extra work I had done for her! Isn't that super sweet?!?

One Year and One Week...

... ago, I had my first post up here at blogspot. It grew to a sum of 85 over the year. That doesn't make me a power blogger but I've never thought it would be that much anyway.

Thanks to all who stopped by to read a little bit along and HOORAY to all who left a comment (147 all in all)! It's you who are making the whole stuff much more interesting!
I actually met some very nice blogger friends and one of them asked me to be facebook buddies, so we are since last week! Thanks a lot for the invitation, you are someone special

And now let's see what the last days of 2007 have in store for us... talk to you later

wedding powerpoint part two

Ok, Allison * speziell für Dich * (and of course for anybody else who is interested) here comes part two of the wedding powerpoint. It always takes a time to convert and upload, so I don't know when part three will follow.
Tomorrow morning we'll have our monthly ladies breakfast and in the afternoon (I hope) Antje will show up.
On sunday I'll have Thomas and Sonja (part 3 and 4 of the powerpoint, haha ) at my place for lunch after church, we want to bake christmas cookies for the Weihnachtsbasar.


But now finally the slide:


Daniel - MyVideo

more about the wedding

I admit, it's a loooooong time ago that I promised to write more about the wedding and you probably start to laugh when you read this now... but I usually keep a promise even if it is late!

OK, here comes the program I arranged for the ceremony. We put this little booklet on each chair so the guests would know what to sing and what would come next:

The wedding couples arrived at 4:40 p.m. in a carriage drawn by two horses and the ceremony started at 5:00 pm.
After the ceremony everybody went out to take pictures and we started with the starter buffet at 6:30 pm. We had the main dish (BBQ) around 8:00 pm. In between we had some kind of performances to cheer the guests up. One of it was a "fun raffle": we sold lots with winnings like "Candlelight dinner for two" (2 candles and a canned meal)... that was really funny!
We had a cocktail show and a fire show and I presented a powerpoint slide show. This show was a little highlight for me because I had spent days to prepare it. I tried to convert it into a movie but it is to large to upload. So I split it - I try to upload the parts here:


Time Travel Part 1 - MyVideo



That was "Part 1" - Alexandra's life in pictures.
I'm not sure if you want to see Part 2-4
(Daniel's, Thomas' and Sonja's pitures) but you can vote
at the upper right side of my blog...
You can see more pictures from the wedding at the google-wedding-album - enjoy!

sunday visits

Last sunday (25th) after church my mother and I were invited by some friends for lunch. It was really interesting for both of us because my mom fell in love to Max, one of the cats our friends have at home. He is really beautiful and so cuddly.

The afternoon was also very special to me because Sonja has a horse - Santiago - and I've never seen it before. It's a long time ago, anyways, that I've seen a horse so close but I actually like horses very much!
Santiago has back problems and she couldn't ride him for several weeks but she has to move him anyhow. So we went for a walk through the vineyards after Sonja had cleaned his stall (she showed me how to groom Santiago meanwhile) and when we got back from the walk she had to longe him for 40 more minutes. I had so much fun watching!