Sunday: Visiting the Whites

This morning we spent 35 minutes zipping along (well, this car doesn't really zip, but y'know...) the countryside on our way to visit Joel, Tatjana, Adrian, Helena, and Emma. We also met their orange cat 'W'. (aka Dub-ya or Dubby). You Americans will appreciate the Joel-humor in the naming of their cat! ;)

Their church is a great bunch. It's about half the size of Lanesville and has lots of young families and a fair amount of FTA students and so on. It was the kind of church Stefan would one day like to pastor (or so he says!). After church the kids rode their bikes home while Tatjana and I followed on foot. Stefan stayed behind with Joel. Stefan recognized some people from his Gießen study days. By the time the guys arrived Tatjana had already given me the grand tour of their beautiful new home. It's nice to see them finally settled into a space big enough for them and the ministry work they do!

The kids were all proud to show off their rooms: Emma has a loft bed and is proud of her set of cozy nooks. Helena is a budding interior designer and happily showed me the new stripes on her walls that Tatjana had helped her paint for her recent birthday. Adrian's room sported the usual boy sports paraphanelia (go Red Sox!) and the computer he had saved up and paid for himself. When they built the house they saved money by scrapping the basement and adding more garage space - now Joel has a small workshop area, the fruits of which are displayed around the house.

Tatjana has developed a real green thumb and the backyard is testimony to her tireless efforts - it is absolutely beautiful! Flowers, bushes, herbs, tomatoes, etc. sprout up from every corner. A true labor of love! We had our lunch outside after Emma nearly beat Adrian and Stefan in a serious game of bocce (Stefan just barely won in the end).

I think the best part of the day were the hours spent in conversation with all of them. The kids had a lot of great things to share and it was wonderful to hear what they've been up to! Later, Joel and Tatjana continued the conversation, discussing their church, it's growth and upcoming events (year 2 of english camps with a group from Charlotte - Lanesville, you gotta get in on this for 2008, the template is there and it's working). It was also a time to discuss what we'd been up to and so on. While Joel gave Stefan and I tour of the little old city in their town - really cute-typical German, Tatjana stayed home and rounded up a few things to contribute to our spartan kitchen in the new apartment. It will be nice to have a few extra things with us when we move in 2 weeks from now (including a jar of homemade current jelly!). We also got a few ideas of where to find some cheaper furniture in the area.

It was really wonderful to see them and I am so glad we're close by to them! Everybody seems to be doing really well, and with their guestroom-bath set-up they are ready for some Lanesville visitors! Many greetings from them to the Lanesville readers!