First Christmas, Updates

I hope that you enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Holiday. Ours was a delightful first Christmas in Germany. We visited the Freiburg Christmas market, attended a German Christmas Eve church service, ate a traditional Christmas Eve German meal, went ice skating with 2 families, ‘webcam’ed with our families, and we also took some time to rest.

Merry Christmas!!

A couple of photos of our tree...

http://picasaweb.google.com/thadhoskins/FirstChristmasInKandern

Merry Christmas! We hope you enjoy celebrating our Savior's birth!

A few quick notes...

Today, Jana and I are about to head to our apartment to pick up our keys!! We can move in today. I helped May clean the apartment yesterday and I can say that the carpets are clean! I cannot pronounce in German what the machine was but it was effective. After that, we head to Lorrach to begin our visa application. Please pray for that as it can take a few weeks. And finally, our shipment was cleared from customs and the documents are in the hands of the shippers. We do not know yet when it will arrive, but we hope and pray it is soon! Thank you for your continued prayers as we settle in.

First Church Service

Today we attended our first church service spoken in German. We actually understood the page numbers for finding the hymns and could even follow along with singing some of the songs. The sermon on the otherhand...I was completely lost, but I did stay awake even with jetlag!!

We met several people, and one guy, Marcus, invited Thad to join their Water Rugby (absolutely no idea of what that is!!) group on Tuesday mornings (I think at 6am!!!). Thad said he would love to join them in January and is really excited to learn a new sport.

We took a meandering walk back from church and enjoyed seeing several new streets that are quaint and quite pretty. Along the way, we saw several restaurants that we will add to our list to explore. We discovered that our apartment is just next door to a car service station!! How convenient!

The weather is slightly less chilly today, so the walk back was quite enjoyable. It was strange to look around and say "this is home," but we think we will adjust fairly nicely once the language becomes easier. Thad fortunately has a little bit of German background to lean on from his school days, but I on the other hand can only understand a handful of words.

Well, it's time for lunch, and I am rather hungry. Please shoot us an email or leave a comment, we would love to hear from home!! Love to you!

Festival in Kandern

Just a quick entry because we are exhausted! We spent the past couple of hours trying to get our Christmas cards out...it is now midnight!!

The Christmas festival last night was wonderful and just what I expected. Lights were strung along the main street. People (tons of them!) were walking, eating, talking, listening to carolers, drinking Glueb Wine (my spelling is probably way off, but i don't have the energy to look it up...it is a type of spiced, hot wine), and trying to stay warm. I posted some quick photos on picasa.

Today's events...
We began the process for obtaining car insurance, now we just have to transfer the title to our name, and then show that to the insurance company to finalize it. We opened our bank account. We met with our new landlord and signed the apartment lease. We faxed all of the required forms to the Customs Clearing Agent. We took our Christmas Card photo. We visited a local electronic store to price hairdryers, TV's, phones, and an iron (the hairdryer is priority because I don't want Jana catching a cold while trying to let her hair air dry!!). We had dinner with the Workman Family in our future apartment. And then we put together our Christmas "Post"card.

So after such a full day, we can't wait to rest tonight. Thank you for continuing to pray for us. We still have financial needs, so please keep that in your prayers as well.

We are in Germany!!!

Hey everyone! We made it and the feeling is very surreal! I can hardly believe that hours ago we were sitting in a Chik-fil-a eating breakfast with our families! It is also strange realizing that we do not have a return plane ticket. Our flights went well, in that we arrived safe and sound. Both had slight delays, and we nearly missed our connecting flight. We are here though and thankful for the provision that made this happen.

It was hard saying good-bye, but we definitely felt the Lord's peace throughout it all. Pray for our families as they adjust to having us overseas, and particularly for our little neice Isabella, she was pretty distraught yesterday and apparently cried the entire 30 minute drive to school.

Here are a couple of highlights from our first morning in Kandern. We were stopped at Border control while crossing the Swiss/German border...was it because the trunk of the car was dragging from all the weight or because I was "hiding" in the back seat asleep?? Who knows, but it was actually pretty painless...they just checked our passports and sent us on our way.

We had breakfast at the Miller's home (which is where we will be staying for the next week). Anna fixed a delicious German breakfast of pretzel bread with sliced black forest ham (more like prosciutto than the black forest ham in the states) and sliced gouda cheese. It was a wonderful sight for our hungry eyes!

We stopped by the Rathaus (German Courthouse) to register for our residency permit (which means we can contact the company to have our container cleared through customs!!).

We have also been given our trash calendar (more explanation later, once we actually know what it all means).

We also attended our first Agape Office Coffee hour this morning and apparently new comers receive a round of applause on their first visit (we were very touched!!).

So far that is all of the news I have to report. We are very tired and look forward to sleeping tonight! Oh, one more thing...there is a Christmas Festival tonight here in town!! Thad is 4 for 4 on arriving in Kandern on the day of a festival!!

In our hearts and minds...

This is just a short post to share how we are feeling today. I have to be honest when I say I am a bit scared! Realizing that we leave in less than 4 days makes what always seemed far in the future a sudden reality. My prayer last night was for the Lord to bring something from His word to mind that I can rest on these next few days. While Jeremiah 29:11 continues to calm my heart, I would be grateful for any other insight any of you may have. If anyone has a favorite verse that might be applied to a time like this, I am all ears!

We are spending time with each family member before next Wednesday, and I have to focus my thoughts on the moment rather than sad thoughts! While we know that the Lord has many exciting blessings waiting for us in Germany, it is still hard to say good bye.

Thank you again for each encouraging comment and email. They mean so much and really help to surround us in love.

Leaving next week!!

We have been negligent in sending out prayer requests for the past few weeks, so we would like to make up for that now. Over the next few days, we will be making our final preparations to move to Germany. Thad just received a call from Orlando saying that we have approval to book our plane tickets; we are looking at leaving early morning on December 13th, which is next Wednesday.

Here are some prayer requests:

Down to a little over a week

Though our plane tickets are not yet booked, we are quickly nearing the time to leave. Currently, our support numbers stand at needing around $130 monthly to be at 95%, and around $500 monthly to be at full support. We continue to receive special/end of year donations towards the purchase of our car, future kitchen, and a health insurance increase.

Our container (filled with all of our belongings) is due to arrive on the coast of Northern Germany at the middle of next week. After clearing customs (a matter that we would like to ask for prayer), a trucking company will deliver everything to Kandern around December 13th.

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. Our hearts are filled to the brim with gratitude, excitement, nervousness, and great joy.

Austen - Importance of every day

"Teach us, that we may feel the importance of every day, of every hour, as it passes."

~ Jane Austen