Tuesday - Hohenzollern Castle

Tuesday we ate lunch & then visited a castle. There was a nice courtyard outside where we sat, ate, laughed and drank beer (of course).

It was a beautiful day!

Sunday/Monday - Guten Tag

We dropped off the kids on Friday, had a birthday party for Christy on Friday night, got stuff done on Saturday, like: losing Brad's wallet, searching everywhere, getting into a huge fight, getting a duplicate license at the DMV, fighting with Mediacom, finding Brad's wallet IN THE HOUSE at 6pm, and I went to Kelly's Pampered Chef party.

Then finally Sunday morning we left for the Cedar Rapids airport. All was well until Brad forgot that he had water in his water bottle and he got pulled aside at security. Then he had to follow the lady to the bathroom and dump out the water and then go back through security.

We bought the kids stuffed Iowa corn cobs (I can only find them at the airport) and our flight took off on time.

Good Morning, Paris

We got to Minneapolis and found a restaurant that served organic and vegan food - I couldn't believe it!  Then we found a place to exchange some dollars for Euros and waited for our plane.

The plane took off on time at 4pm and our ride was 8 hours and 5 minutes. During the flight, the movies and TV were amazing. They had a Kurt Cobain documentary, a Coldplay concert, and a U2 documentary. That's pretty much what I watched and I slept for like maybe 2 hours. We landed in Paris as the sun was coming up and made it through the fairly confusing airport quickly...But at security, I got the pat down after setting off the metal detector, even though I had no metal...weird.

When we got to Germany it was 11am so there was no sleeping. We got settled and then went to eat dinner - SCHNITZEL! Then we picked daffodils out of a field, went for a walk in the woods by Mike and Lisa's house down a gianormous hill...and to the park where they introduced us to the tire swing. There should have been 3 adults and 3 kids here. But no, it was really 6 kids. 3 of us were just taller than the others.  We are going to miss Mike entirely because he is in DC this week for work - Boo.

Guten Tag!

Random

So it's clearly been a long time since I posted. Mostly because I have been incredibly busy at work and the kiddos have kept us running, too. Their appointments, while good, keep us on our toes! I have tried to set up Blogger on my phone, but it's grouchy and won't work right. Grrrrr.

While busy, we have enjoyed the little ones so much. Watching them thrive, learn and smile. It's enjoyable beyond words. 

It's also trying beyond words. Sometimes the schedule about kills me. That and living under a timeline that is not my own. One that belongs to the state of Iowa. I feel I have little patience at times. Patience for behaviors, behaviors common to little people this age. And then I remember. People don't usually have 2 kids under 2 in their house. But they need us. They don't need us to be perfect. They just need us to be. To love them. Until this all works out.

I often feel frustrated that we don't have our own kids, yet. Then I remember again. They need us. Their family needs us. I remember that it work out just the way it's supposed to.

And then I heard it. "Thank you". "Thank you for all you do". And that makes it worth it. And then I realize. We are exactly where we are supposed to be.