Moving in and Adjusting

Greetings again from across the Atlantic!

(I wrote this the first week of November but am just now publishing it)

This warm, sunny day finds me still lying flat on my back in bed typing this but from the comfort of our new home!!! And the good news is that our household things were delivered this past Friday morning so we got out of the hotel in Maichingen AND my back hurts less and less and I find myself able to stand and sit for longer periods of time and with less pain with each passing day. It is hard to sit (or lay) amidst boxes and not really be able to do much about unpacking them, but I know we will get settled eventually. It just will take a little longer this time around.


These last almost 4 weeks in the hotel were quite a challenge as you would expect. Living in a small 2 bedroom hotel apartment with one bathroom for six people has given us moments of laughter and moments of great frustration. And trying to keep everyone fed more cheaply by cooking our own food in a kitchen with no stove and no oven has also been interesting. We got quite creative with our ONE stove burner and also we purchased a rice cooker/steamer and an electric griddle which helped. We also borrowed a crock-pot from friends just down the road so that helped with our cooking options as well. I can proudly say that we didn’t eat a single serving of hamburger helper this time around.


Anyway, this time together has been a blessing in disguise in so many ways. It has been great to spend time listening to music with my son, and watching my younger daughters be creative in their leisure time with no toys. The little girls have spent time knitting, building forts, playing hide n’ seek, and creatively made houses and nests and rooms out of luggage, tables, chairs, boxes, wads of paper, blankets, and anything else they could manage to move and manipulate while living in the hotel. We were also able to watch an occasional movie on one of the laptops for entertainment.

Elizabeth has had to hardest time adjusting to the new time and place but that is mostly because Elizabeth is choosing to have the hardest time adjusting. L So, many life lessons here. Cory and I had a great discussion with Phillip and asked him what he learned the last time around when we moved here and it took him a while but finally he said, “You know, I think I cut myself off from everyone and was depressed because I chose to be depressed and chose to cut myself off from everyone.” Now that took Phillip at least 2 years and some hard life lessons to get that point of realization, so we will continue to be patient with Elizabeth as she adjusts to life here in Germany.

So, normally our days here, whether in the hotel or in our house, go like this: we get up and do school, eat lunch, and then the little girls go outside and play at the park or take a walk to the bakery or bio market with their big brother or now we unpack boxes and try to fit all our American furniture into our German house. It is kind of like a puzzle to try and figure out where we can put the bookshelves, dressers, shrunks (wardrobe closets), desks, etc. since we are working around multiple, large windows, radiator heating, entrance doors in every room and sometime slanted ceilings. Every single door in the house also has a key which is going to be a challenge to keep track of those! Cory is the tetras master and this skill helps immensely with making every piece of furniture fit just in the right spot!

I will try and get some photos of the rooms in the house uploaded now that we actually have furniture---Yay!

Airplane Trip to Germany

After taking stronger prescription pain pills on Thursday night I was much improved on Friday and so began planning to take the plane trip to Germany with my kids on Saturday. Some good friends, the Brandsma family, came and picked us and most our luggage up in their suburban to help Cory’s Mom get us to the airport in one trip. Once there, we checked ourselves and our luggage at the counter, went through security and then Phillip, Mariel and Grace took a detour to Quiznos to get some lunch while Elizabeth, Cloie cat and I headed for the gate. Once at the gate, it was clear that the plane was already boarding and my other kids were nowhere in sight. So, I stayed with the luggage and the cat and sent Elizabeth sprinting off to call the kids to the airplane gate as fast as they could run. Everyone else had already boarded and they were giving the final boarding announcement when all the kids came running up.

In all the chaos of checking in and boarding, I had forgotten to take my next doses of medicine on time. Therefore, by the time I found my seat on the airplane I was in excruciating pain. I quickly asked the flight attendant for a glass of water and took some medication before the plane pushed back from the gate. Luckily the airplane was more than half empty so once we got up to cruising altitude, I lifted myself up and hobbled over to the nearest empty row and laid flat on my back across three seats to get some relief from the pain.

By the time our flight landed in Salt Lake City, my medication had begun to kick in and I was feeling much better. We were able to walk leisurely to our connecting flight’s departure gate which was close by and we hung out there for the next two hours. In the gate waiting area there was plenty of room for me to lay down on my back and rest. The next leg of our trip was almost 10 hours as we were flying from Salt Lake City to Paris, France so I knew it would be a while before I was able to lie down again. Phillip found an electrical outlet to plug in his laptop and my older kids took turns checking email and logging into Facebook and then they watched a movie via Netflix with the younger girls. Then we boarded our next plane bound for Europe.

The long flight went rather well for us all. Our cat slept through most of it while we watched a couple of movies and ate dinner. I had brought along an empty, quart-size Ziploc bag and asked the flight attendant to fill it with ice. This I put behind my back to help with the pain and stiffness. Eventually I had to dump out the melted ice and water but it worked great while it lasted. The only negative side to this home remedy was my backside being all wet from the condensation of water to the bag. By the time the third movie was showing, we were all tired and dozing off, which was good as it was an R rated movie that I didn’t want the little girls to watch. I took away their headphones and they eventually drifted off to sleep. When we were being served breakfast, I knew we were getting close to our destination but I let Mariel and Grace continue sleeping and I kept their breakfast for them until they awoke.

When we touched down in Paris, I needed Phillip to retrieve all the bags from the overhead bins as I wasn’t suppose to lift anything and Elizabeth had her hands full with the cat and her own bag. But, our bags had gotten stashed on all sides of the plane, wherever there was room. So, we just had to wait while Phillip dodged in and out of the stream of passengers trying to exit while pulling bags down. Once we had everything then we exited quickly as we only had just over an hour to make our connecting flight. It just so happens that our connecting gate was D60, at the farthest possible point from where our flight had just landed. We didn’t know that at the time, but we just kept following the signs to the D gates around corners, along corridors, and through moving sidewalks. Finally, it looked like we were exiting the airport completely and it occurred to us that we were going to have to go through security to get to our gate. That is when I started praying that we could make this connecting flight.

Sure enough, as we rounded the last corner we spotted the security line that we had to navigate before being able to board the airplane and it looked menacing. There were security folks stationed at almost every corner of the lines and they were asking to see boarding passes. I kept showing them my baggage claim tickets that had the destination airport as Stuttgart, Germany but I didn’t have boarding passes or even a ticket to show as ours was an electronic ticket. When we were all the way up to the scanner and had all our items in bins and were going to walk through the security checkpoint they asked to see our boarding passes which we didn’t have. Then the security officer told us to take all our things off the conveyor belt and get out of line. We piled all our stuff in the middle of the floor right there at the security checkpoint and the officer told me to leave everything there and go over to the nearest airline desk and get boarding passes, which I did. Then we had to again place all our stuff in bins and go through security to be able to get to our gate to board in time. Thankfully, we made it there just as the airplane was boarding.

Our one consolation in all this chaos at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris was that the ticketing agent gave us seats in first class since there were five seats together across the airplane in row four. So, for the last leg of our flight, we were served shrimp cocktail and salmon pâté along with blue cheese, a breadstick and dessert. We were also offered complimentary wine and beer but graciously declined. When we landed in Stuttgart, Germany we went straight to baggage claim and waited for all our luggage to appear. When the conveyor belt stopped we were still missing a bag so we had to stay there and report our missing bag at the baggage counter. We were last in line behind several others and had no way to contact Cory and explain to him where we were or what we were doing. As we waited in line, two uniformed policemen approached us and asked my name. I answered, “Angela.” and the officer looked confused until I added, “Isakson.” He then nodded and smiled and said there were two persons inquiring about the Isaksons’ whereabouts. Forty-five minutes later than scheduled we finally walked out of baggage claim and into Cory’s arms.

Last Week's Challenges

The Saturday before last in the morning friends showed up bright and early to help us clean our house and get it ready for renters. In spite of reading the email three times and it said, "Is 9:00AM too early?" I kept reading it as 9:30AM and said, "That would be great, we'll be ready for you." So, at 8:55AM my doorbell rings while I am lying in bed thinking I need to get up to shower. As I opened the door standing there in my pajamas, I was greeted by all six members of the Lee family with vacuum, broom, and rags in hand! They were such awesome workers and had the place almost whipped into shape by lunchtime.

My back was aching but I didn’t pay much attention as there was much to be done. The next morning my lower back muscles were really hurting and again I ignored them and pushed on through the day so we could go spend some time with the Boise Families Fellowship and say goodbye to some dear friends. Well, by Sunday afternoon, those same lower back muscles were screaming in pain and by Sunday evening I couldn’t even stand up straight or walk.

Sunday night, I ended up crawling up the stairs to bed. And in the morning when I again couldn’t stand up, I ended up sliding/crawling down the stairs face-first (yes, it was a stupid move, I now admit) and there I stayed flat on the floor for the next three days. I did call into the doctor’s office on Monday and he prescribed a muscle relaxant that Phillip drove to the pharmacy and picked up for me. Each day I was hoping for just a slight improvement but none came and my hopes of getting on an airplane to fly to Germany at the end of the week began to wane.

Thankfully, my wonderful mother-in-law called and offered to drive down to Boise and help me and the kids try and get ready to leave the country. She arrived on Wednesday afternoon and immediately starting nursing me back to health, playing with the little girls and working through my task list of what needed to be done before we left the country. On Thursday and Friday Connie spent much of those days driving me around to doctor appointments to try and get me up and walking so I could get on the airplane on Saturday.

Chapter Twenty-nine: Germany; Our Home Away From Home

Living overseas in a foreign country is quite different than just traveling there as a tourist. A tourist is just visiting and passes through in a short time. Our experience was different. We took our family and moved there. We had to find a rental house, a car to drive and pass a driving exam to get a foreign driver’s license. We also had to learn how to run a German washing machine and dryer. We had to locate a store to buy things; food, furniture, small appliances, shoes, etc. And we had to figure out where to go to get phone and internet services and other basic utilities hooked up or transferred into our names. And we had to accomplish all of this within a country that spoke a foreign language we did not know. Our one advantage was that since my husband was a contractor to the Department of Defense (DOD), we did have the option to shop on the local military bases.

We had begun learning a bit of German before we actually moved there. We knew a few small words like “nein” for no, “ja” for yes, “mais” for corn and “hallo” for hello. That was about it. Fortunately for us, the German people are patient, gracious and tend to know a little English. Our survival phrase those first few months was, “Sprechen Sie Englisch, Bitte?” (Do you speak English, please?)

And they would usually reply humbly with, “Yes, a little bit.” Well, I am here to say that hands down their “little bit” was more than quite a bit and usually enough to get us pointed in the right direction, standing in the correct line or even get our questions answered completely. We were impressed!

One of the largest differences between America and Germany is their land usage. Germany still has clear cut borders between farms, towns, and forests. There really are no suburbs or urban sprawl in Germany. Thus, Americans drive everywhere while Germans walk. Most Germans live in small towns and villages and they are able to walk almost everywhere within their own town. Germans do own cars, very well-engineered cars, and they use them. However, gasoline (petrol) is tremendously expensive and if they are going somewhere, they often walk or take public transportation.

In our town in Germany we could walk to several bakeries, the library, the bank, the electronics and small appliance shop, the grocery store, the park, the post office and the local ice-cream parlor. There were often limited parking options at these places so it just made sense to walk. It was wonderfully refreshing to use my legs for their God-given purpose on a daily basis. This is the norm in Germany. Now that we are back in the states, I have to get into a car and drive to get to any of the previously mentioned places. Just a week ago Saturday, I found myself in a car driving several miles each way to return a library book, buy one needed item at the grocery store and to return a rented video. I sat in my car at a stoplight while running these errands and looked around at cars full of people in every direction and parking lots full of cars and thought, this is just so wrong. Why can’t we build towns that require the use of our legs anymore?

Then yesterday, our family delivered a meal to some friends with a newborn daughter and four other young children in their family. These particular friends live on acreage in a small town here in our area. They built a house right next door to their parents on the same property. They are a wonderful, fun, young family and my kids like to drive out to their “farm” to visit on occasion. Well, on this particular visit, it just so happens that I managed to slip and twist my ankle on the front door mat and I needed some Ibuprofen for the pain and swelling. My friend was out of Ibuprofen so she called her Mom and her Mom brought me over some Motrin to take instead. But here’s the thing; her Mom actually jumped on a 4-wheeler and drove the Motrin bottle over to me 50 yards away (at most) and back! Now, that is purely, 100%-American. I am almost at a loss for words when it takes a 4-wheeler to deliver a bottle of Motrin next door. Don’t get me wrong, I was thankful she was willing to bring it, but whatever happened to walking? America has got to be the #1 laziest nation on the planet! No wonder we are overwhelming obese as a country. We just do not walk hardly anywhere, any more, unless you count perusing the aisles at Wal-Mart or jaunts to and from the store from the parking lot.

I feel fortunate to know that other people live differently in this respect. This knowledge can be frustrating at times in this drive-through-crazed nation, but somehow there is even some comfort in the outrage at our dependence and wastefulness of oil in connection with the automobile. Somehow I tend to see this absurdity now more clearly. These were the kinds of lessons learned by living in another place on another continent and not just by being a tourist there.

And just to be fair, there were things about America that we missed. We missed Charmin, our double kitchen sink, a washing machine with a 20-minute-washing cycle, having a freezer larger than a breadbox, being able to read the road signs, being able to stand upright at any point in our house including the upstairs without hitting our heads on the ceiling.

But there is great freedom in residing in someone else’s culture, for a time, and just being an observer. It was not our culture so we could simply observe and analyze but we did not have to necessarily partake. This was not our home country thus; we were not going to be here forever so we just did not get too worked up over the small stuff. These are fabulous lessons with terrific parallels for the Christian life. For we, as Christians, are truly living in another culture no matter our home country. We will not be here forever and thus this world is not our home so maybe we should not get too worked up over the small stuff.

Well, even though Germany was not our true home country or culture, we quickly grew fond of their daily pace of life and routine; church bells clanging every hour, everything closing by 6pm and the incredible peaceful and dead quiet of the nights. Thus, it became our home away from home. When we crossed borders into other countries, there was always this sense of relief when we re-entered Germany. It was familiar. We knew what to expect, where to find things, and how to read the road signs. In small and subtle ways, their norms became our norms and we were changed by the experience. I do not think we even realized this until we left and returned home to America, but Germany will forever hold a fondness in our hearts because of this familiarity. It will always be my home away from home this side of heaven.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Faith and Contentment

In all our preparations to move overseas and in the actual transition, I tried not to get overwhelmed or stressed out. I also tried not to fret and worry but I think (looking back now) that I failed at this continually. This was a huge leap into the unknown for our family. It was, at times, overwhelming and frustrating. And at other times it was just down-right scary to up and move our family to a foreign country to which I had never even been before. I had seen pictures and perused websites and I knew people living there but that is still all secondhand knowledge without any first person experience. Thus, at times, I worried. How would we communicate without knowing any German? How would we find a place to live without being able to communicate? How would my kids fair without any of their family or friends nearby? These were some of the overriding concerns along with more immediate ones like ‘How will my two and five year old children endure the all day and all night flight getting there?’ How will I keep them entertained and occupied in a hotel all day long? And will all our things in the shipping container actually arrive undamaged?

We were confident that the Lord knew our needs and concerns and we laid them before Him in prayer. But, I must confess, that I did not leave them there at His feet. I tried. But I think I failed and fretted and worried about some of these things that were so completely out of my control. I also tried keeping myself busy with endless task lists to keep my mind from worry. Sometimes it worked and probably sometimes it did not. There was much to keep busy with in those days. I would cross off one thing (like make a doctor’s appointment) only to add three more (like buy luggage, call the insurance agent, and donate unneeded items). But eventually, we did get on that plane and the “to do” list was tossed into the garbage and we were on our way to Germany at last! And then, a whole new “to do” list suddenly emerged that we never could have anticipated and the process was begun anew again on another continent. And, once again, I prayed and tried not to fret and probably failed repeatedly.

As we were settling into our new home and community across the ocean, we all missed our friends and family back home terribly. Our family had lived in the same city, in the same neighborhood, and in the same house for the previous nine years, so this was a BIG change for us all. And even though my husband had signed a two-year contract with his employer in Germany, we knew that when we eventually headed back to the states we would most likely head back to Boise, Idaho from which we had come. It was close to extended family and after nine years somewhere, you develop quite a few friends, and we had kept our two houses and rented them both. Thus, we kept in touch with family and friends back in and around Boise while living in Germany. I sent home email updates, set up a photo sharing website, and began a BLOG for those back in the states.

But again, I must confess, that looking back it feels like I spent much of my time and energy maintaining those relationships and even longing for those back home. And then, once we moved back (unexpectedly early—long before the two years were up) I think I spent much of the first six months missing those new friends back in Germany! Looking back it feels like a failed lesson in contentment on my part. Being a kid who grew up on Star Wars, I like to call it the Luke Skywalker lesson of attentiveness. I can hear Yoda’s voice chastising Luke by saying, “This one I have watched for a long time. And his mind is never on where he is and what he is doing!”

Now, I certainly don’t believe in an impersonal “Force” or that God speaks in a Yoda-voice. But, I have felt His correcting nudge in my life and heard similar words of rebuke in my head and heart. Sometimes I miss living in the moment because my attention is elsewhere. This is a mistake I have seen others make repeatedly and one I thought I might never be guilty of doing. How wrong I was!

I had a childhood friend who I met near the end of grade school who could not wait to get to Junior High. Once in Junior High, she was already wishing for High School and then in High School she was already longing for College. I lost touch with her between High School and College and when I ran into her again in College, once again, she was already focusing intently on the post-College plans of her life. I just never wanted to be like that; always wishing my life away. And yet, I certainly think I was guilty of that very thing during our time overseas. It wasn’t that I did not want to be there. Quite the contrary! I had hoped and prayed and planned for the day. But, when it came, I think I underestimated the complete cost of uprooting my family and moving them far away to another continent. It was a grand adventure but a slightly lonesome one too.

After further reflection, I realize that I was being pretty tough on myself when I first transcribed these words on paper. Part of my longing for friendships back in Idaho while residing in Germany, was partly just because I was in the process of making friends over there while those friends “back home” already knew us, understood us and no long explanation was required. And then when we returned to the states, the reverse happened. Suddenly when trying to share a funny or interesting experience of living overseas with a friend, there was so much context and culture to have to explain and still they often just did not get it. Or, when I started to share something, I would often see a friend’s eyes glaze over or that look in their eye telling me that they really were not interested in knowing. This was tough. But, my friends back in Germany would so understand and would so care to hear and know because they had been there and experienced it. So, once again, it was a lonely existence for a time. So, maybe just maybe it wasn’t ALL about discontent—I’m sure there was some of that. But, it was also about belonging and being understood, which as a friend so aptly said, “Is a great luxury that one does not always possess.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Living Lighter

Part of the joyful experience of moving overseas was taking only about two thirds of our belongings with us. I wish we could say we took less. It would have been much easier; especially in light of the fact that we only ended up staying about seven and a half months. In hind-sight we should have stored almost everything, packed our suitcases and left.

But evening leaving one third of our possessions behind was a wonderful experience. I don’t recall missing a single item in storage while there and by the time our storage items were re-delivered, almost a year later, I had forgotten most of what we had packed away to begin with. For a few precious months, there was less to pick up, clean up, keep up, fix up and pack up. It was liberating. Since we did not own our house in Germany we didn’t have a myriad of home improvement or fix-it projects hanging over our heads. And thus felt available to pack a suitcase or just a picnic lunch for a day trip and leave to go sightseeing or exploring for a weekend--guilt free!

We lived with only items from our suitcases for six weeks in a German hotel and for another six weeks back in Idaho both going and coming. You just don’t realize how many possessions including houses, cars, pets and yards clamor for your attention and suck away time and energy until you have lived without them for a time.

Now that we are back living on American soil in a large house and garage filled-to-the-brim with stuff, we are once again overwhelmed at trying to manage and clean and fix and organize it all. And so we keep boxing it up and getting rid of it via donations and it feels like we have barely made a dent. But we keep trying because we remember how invigorating it was to live lighter for one (school) year.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Internet Bargain Hotel

Before we moved back from Germany I wanted to take the kids on one last trip. We were already in Europe and I knew, as a family of six, that we would not make it back there anytime soon. So, we began looking around at nearby places to visit and ended up finding some pre-summer sale prices at Euro Disney. We were able to book several nights stay at Disney’s Davy Crocket Ranch but we couldn’t find another affordable hotel for the very last night that we wanted to be there. Since we were purchasing multiday, park-hopper passes, we thought we would just get there and surely something else would open up in the meantime.

After the movers came and packed up our household belongings, we drove over to Euro Disney just outside of Paris. We got all checked in and settled but by the time we did, Disney had no vacancies for any hotel for the last night we wanted to stay. Luckily we had brought my husband’s laptop computer with us but found the only internet access at Disneyland was at their Hotel New York. Thus, we located the hotel, went into the lobby, opened the laptop and began searching for a nearby affordable hotel outside of Paris for a family of six for one night. We actually found several but all of them would require us to rent 2 or 3 rooms to sleep us all. So, sight unseen, we made an online reservation for the cheapest one.

The next morning we packed up and checked out of the Davey Crockett Ranch and headed into Disneyland for the day. That evening we drove off to find our hotel for the night. Our trusty GPS finally got us there. We were the last to check in at about 9pm that night and the manager working the front desk had stayed open waiting for us. We parked our van in the gated, secure parking lot provided after unloading and checking into the rooms. We had to split into three rooms of two each for the night. So, my husband took a room with the six-year-old, I slept in a room with the two-year-old, and our other son (age 14) and daughter (age 11) shared a room with twin beds.

The hotel wasn’t fancy or nice; it was just a place to sleep for the night. The bathroom was tiled floor to ceiling since it doubled as the shower as well. We stayed on the bottom floor so even though it was a bit stuffy, I didn’t open the window, as the window was large enough and low enough for someone to walk through into the room. We sank deeply into our foam mattresses as we drifted off to sleep. I would compare this hotel to a Super 8 or a Motel 6 back here in the states but those, while simple but adequate, are usually at least clean. And the crowning moment came when I tried to key into my room for the first time and the door handle fell off into my hand. I stood there holding the door handle, thinking, “Well, that certainly makes me feel safe!” The door handle was to fall off into my hand again after saying goodnight to my other kids and trying to key back into my room. Every time it happened again, I would stand there with the door knob in my hand, shaking my head, thinking, “What a bargain hotel Cory discovered!”