grand mother language

Hello again, friends. Quite the long pause there. All that talk about raising songs to heaven and all, and then... crickets. If you are interested in excuses, it's been really busy here. In more honest terms, sometimes there was time, but I was too discouraged to write. When there was courage, there was no time. When there was time, there was no courage. But more about that another day...

Since I left you with Caleb's first day of Kindergarten, I'll start off with that. The kid loves it. He has had to grow up a notch or two, but he is none the worse for the wear. Kindergarten has been just the ticket for him in so many ways. The most astounding of those is his absorption of German. Caleb is my personal translator: prompting me, translating, and correcting my pronunciation. He has developed a rather dorky little habit of saying things twice - in English, then in German. This will all get old, but right now it is more useful than it is annoying.

Lucy Mae is making her own way into the German language. Her version of German is understood only by My Little Ponies and Potato Heads, although Caleb can translate it at times now. Lucy does not let any old language barrier stop her from making new friends. She starts out in English before it morphs into German, but she always gets her point across. Lucy may not be a language lover, but she's people lover, and that will get her even further.

Sticking with the language updates, Daniel preached in German last Sunday, first time without a translator for a Sunday service. I thought he did great. Praise our God! Daniel is also doing most of his reading in German. It's no wonder he also talks in his sleep in German.

My language class just ended a few weeks ago. It was a welcome change to turn my full attention back homeward and take care of some the chaos that had built up around here. Sure do miss those classmates though. Some of us had been in class together for nearly the entire 6-month course. 5 days a week. 4 hours a day. That first week of class I actually felt afraid of them. Now they are some of my best friends. Incredible people. We still can't get enough of each other. A few have visited our church, and they all want to come to the Advents Coffee church on Dec 4!

The biggest headline of all is that Daniel's mom is here! Here. With us. In Germany. She's even learning some German words herself. Between showing her around our new world and letting her spoil those grandkids, we talk the other hours away. So much to do. So much to say. So much to love.

Here's the fb album of the memories we've made so far.
The rest will have to wait. We're off to show Grandmother another castle!