Of course we are not really homeless in the sense that we have to sleep under a bridge. But we are not in our home any more and not yet in our new home. And we have to move again today. We were supposed to be in Latin America since Friday, but we are still waiting for our visas.
Last week we packed out our house and moved into a furnished apartment. We have been staying there for a week now and they rented it today to someone else. Therefore they moved us to another place. It is not a lot of fun to move every week with a baby. But while we are waiting there is not much else we can do. Living out of our suitcases is not so much fun either... We are trying to make it sound like an adventure to get Lilli used to sleeping in different places every couple of days. Fortunately she is able to go to sleep wherever we are. She is such a joy and has started to talk to us a lot. We can't really understand what she is saying, but it is very funny. And she smiles a lot and coos.
Hubby managed to squeeze most of our 6 suitcases and 3 carry-ons in our car (which we fortunately haven't sold yet) and is on his way to our "new" temporary home. I am waiting here with Lilli until he returns. We are supposed to be out here in twenty minutes, but I doubt we will make it. We probably have to make three trips as they asked us to transport the crib as well.
I am very excited about moving to a different country and can't wait to arrive and take it all in. The new language, the new culture, food, etc. I am concerned about Lilli's adjustment, but confident that she will transition well.
Showing posts with label home less. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home less. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
We are fasting...
Thank you for your comments yesterday. I just wanted to write it down, but I felt much better yesterday already. And thank you P. for your lovely email. I am glad you are my friend in real life.
Today is the beginning of lent. We went to our church last Sunday and the sermon was about fasting. I have never done it before and thought it was nothing for me. My relationship to food is really special. I love to eat. But the sermon has challenged me to try it. It is not yet online, but maybe in a couple of days or so you can watch the webcast of it at www.theaterchurch.com.
After the sermon my hubby and I have decided that this year we will fast today in honor of the Lord. We are skipping breakfast and lunch today. In addition, I will fast TV for a while. I will still watch the news and the Today Show in the morning while getting ready for work, but I will not watch some of my favorite TV shows for 40 days. Which is a lot for me. I love to watch TV, especially in winter when I am hibernating. Fortunately, I will be traveling for two weeks, so there is no problem during this time.
Instead of eating I am dedicating this time to the Lord. I am praying for our family and friends and for all bloggers out there that are struggling. Recently I feel that God is working in me and I am grateful for the transformation I am going through. Even though I was baptized and attended Sunday School as a kid, I never had a relationship with God as my husband has. I am working on it. Because the bible says: "But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul." Book of Deuteronomy, 4:29. I am willing to seek God with all my heart and all my soul.
Hubby and I are also doing a "Seeking God in the City" booklet for forty days, today I am also praying for North and South America. That fits perfectly as we are currently living in North America, but will be moving to South America soon.
Today I am also praying for men. That is what the booklet says for today. I wonder whether I am supposed to pray for Homer. I haven't seen him since our last encounter a couple of weeks ago, where he looked fantastic. He disappeared after that. But the fact that he isn't there, doesn't mean I am not thinking about him when I am walking through the park. I always think, it is better that he is not there. Because it means that he is in a better place than on the street. It was so good to hear him say that he stays in a shelter during the winter. And I hope that he is able to find a permanent home. I am praying that Homer finds a safe place where he can feel home. I am so glad I got this closure after Homer disappeared and the only thing I could find out was that he was in a hospital. I thank the Lord for giving me that closure and for taking care of him.
Our social worker is great. She will interview our references while I am in Europe, so that will be crossed off the list before I come back. We also have scheduled all our interviews with her now. It at least feels more like we are moving ahead.
She also has emailed me the contact information of a family that has adopted with the agency we are thinking about adopting with. So I scheduled a phone call for tonight. I also tried to reach the agency to ask them some questions about our moving situation, but I haven't reached anyone there. Hopefully they will call back soon.
Today is the beginning of lent. We went to our church last Sunday and the sermon was about fasting. I have never done it before and thought it was nothing for me. My relationship to food is really special. I love to eat. But the sermon has challenged me to try it. It is not yet online, but maybe in a couple of days or so you can watch the webcast of it at www.theaterchurch.com.
After the sermon my hubby and I have decided that this year we will fast today in honor of the Lord. We are skipping breakfast and lunch today. In addition, I will fast TV for a while. I will still watch the news and the Today Show in the morning while getting ready for work, but I will not watch some of my favorite TV shows for 40 days. Which is a lot for me. I love to watch TV, especially in winter when I am hibernating. Fortunately, I will be traveling for two weeks, so there is no problem during this time.
Instead of eating I am dedicating this time to the Lord. I am praying for our family and friends and for all bloggers out there that are struggling. Recently I feel that God is working in me and I am grateful for the transformation I am going through. Even though I was baptized and attended Sunday School as a kid, I never had a relationship with God as my husband has. I am working on it. Because the bible says: "But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul." Book of Deuteronomy, 4:29. I am willing to seek God with all my heart and all my soul.
Hubby and I are also doing a "Seeking God in the City" booklet for forty days, today I am also praying for North and South America. That fits perfectly as we are currently living in North America, but will be moving to South America soon.
Today I am also praying for men. That is what the booklet says for today. I wonder whether I am supposed to pray for Homer. I haven't seen him since our last encounter a couple of weeks ago, where he looked fantastic. He disappeared after that. But the fact that he isn't there, doesn't mean I am not thinking about him when I am walking through the park. I always think, it is better that he is not there. Because it means that he is in a better place than on the street. It was so good to hear him say that he stays in a shelter during the winter. And I hope that he is able to find a permanent home. I am praying that Homer finds a safe place where he can feel home. I am so glad I got this closure after Homer disappeared and the only thing I could find out was that he was in a hospital. I thank the Lord for giving me that closure and for taking care of him.
Our social worker is great. She will interview our references while I am in Europe, so that will be crossed off the list before I come back. We also have scheduled all our interviews with her now. It at least feels more like we are moving ahead.
She also has emailed me the contact information of a family that has adopted with the agency we are thinking about adopting with. So I scheduled a phone call for tonight. I also tried to reach the agency to ask them some questions about our moving situation, but I haven't reached anyone there. Hopefully they will call back soon.
Monday, January 7, 2008
What to expect when you are not expecting...
I love the title of this blog. I always dreamed about buying the book "what to expect when you are expecting" once I had my positive pregnancy test, but it doesn't look like I will really need it. In a kind of superstitious way, I didn't want to buy it because I first wanted to be pregnant. Well, I guess I saved those dollars.
On Friday night, I went to a happy hour and met the colleague of my husband whom I had met at my RE's office. She first seemed to avoid me like I seemed to avoid her. I still feel awkward that I have shared so much with her, when I told her about our struggles and she blew me off by telling me that she has a lot of work in the office. When she asked me later how I was I told her "Just fine!" and didn't take the conversation any further. It is strange. I would hope for the support from people in real life that are going through the same struggles like we are.
But the most support for our struggles I get from the online community. Yesterday was the meeting of the D.C. Stirrup Queens with Lori. It was my first meeting with this group. I first felt strange to go there, because I didn't know anybody. I really thought the most embarrassing thing that could happen would be, if I ended up asking random strangers whether they are the infertiles. But it turned out that wasn't necessary. I immediately found the right people. Everybody was great and it was fantastic encounter. I look forward to seeing these ladies again and to keeping in touch with them.
Isn't it weird that if you struggle with infertility you end up getting more support from strangers that you have never met while the people you would normally turn to for support don't know how to deal with you (especially if they have children)?
On a different note: last Saturday we went out for dinner with some friends and their lovely two year old. She seems to adore me and wanted me to take her around the restaurant while she was terrified of dh. It was a great feeling to feel her little hand in mine and walk around the restaurant. It was a little glimpse of what my life might be in the future. I can't wait for this to happen.
Last Friday when I went home from work I saw Homer sitting on his usual bench. He looked great. I told him that I had missed him and how I had tried to track him down to visit him. He told me he had been in 5 different hospitals as they couldn't find out what was wrong with him. He has high blood pressure, but doesn't want to take the medication. I asked him about his age and it turns out he is 80 (!). I couldn't believe it as he looks so much younger. He is going to a home less shelter at night. Thanks god. It was way to cold last week to spend the nights outside. I was so glad to see him. I really had been concerned that he might have died. I am happy he is alive.
On Friday night, I went to a happy hour and met the colleague of my husband whom I had met at my RE's office. She first seemed to avoid me like I seemed to avoid her. I still feel awkward that I have shared so much with her, when I told her about our struggles and she blew me off by telling me that she has a lot of work in the office. When she asked me later how I was I told her "Just fine!" and didn't take the conversation any further. It is strange. I would hope for the support from people in real life that are going through the same struggles like we are.
But the most support for our struggles I get from the online community. Yesterday was the meeting of the D.C. Stirrup Queens with Lori. It was my first meeting with this group. I first felt strange to go there, because I didn't know anybody. I really thought the most embarrassing thing that could happen would be, if I ended up asking random strangers whether they are the infertiles. But it turned out that wasn't necessary. I immediately found the right people. Everybody was great and it was fantastic encounter. I look forward to seeing these ladies again and to keeping in touch with them.
Isn't it weird that if you struggle with infertility you end up getting more support from strangers that you have never met while the people you would normally turn to for support don't know how to deal with you (especially if they have children)?
On a different note: last Saturday we went out for dinner with some friends and their lovely two year old. She seems to adore me and wanted me to take her around the restaurant while she was terrified of dh. It was a great feeling to feel her little hand in mine and walk around the restaurant. It was a little glimpse of what my life might be in the future. I can't wait for this to happen.
Last Friday when I went home from work I saw Homer sitting on his usual bench. He looked great. I told him that I had missed him and how I had tried to track him down to visit him. He told me he had been in 5 different hospitals as they couldn't find out what was wrong with him. He has high blood pressure, but doesn't want to take the medication. I asked him about his age and it turns out he is 80 (!). I couldn't believe it as he looks so much younger. He is going to a home less shelter at night. Thanks god. It was way to cold last week to spend the nights outside. I was so glad to see him. I really had been concerned that he might have died. I am happy he is alive.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Meet Homer and Noah...
Last night after a fabulous Thanksgiving-Dinner at our neighbor's house (our fourth time of eating turkey since last Saturday) we ended up driving to Old Navy. They had a pretty nice sale and so dh and I decided to help the economy a little... On our way home we decided to eat Macaroni and Cheese for dinner and dh was going to cook.
When we got home I saw that we had left the light on in the upper floor of our house. But as soon as we entered the house, it was out. Dh was reaching for the light switch downstairs when it happened so I told him it was his responsibility that the whole neighborhood was without power. I guess he must have felt guilty because he called the power company to report the outage. They said it was going to take until about 11:30 p.m. at night. No Macaroni and Cheese then. We decided to go and grab some sandwiches. But as we were driving through our neighborhood we saw that our friends were home, so we stopped by their house to see whether they were up for dinner. We ended up having a really nice dinner at my favorite Japanese restaurant with them.
This morning we went to church. Unfortunately I was really distracted during the service. Our church meets in a movie theater in Union Station and does a lot of outreach to the homeless. While we were waiting for the service to begin, a homeless girl came in and sat in the row in front of us. She had a really bad smell of urine around her and I got nearly nauseous. I ended up moving two seats to sit a little further from her. Then another homeless woman in our row fell asleep during the service and snored. She actually snored so loud that everybody could hear it. They woke her up several times, but she continued to snore really loud. In the end they made her leave. She came back later with a coffee in her hand so I guess they just bought her coffee.
When we got home, I packed up some of the great Thanksgiving Dinner from Thursday, a piece of Mincemeat Pie, and a hot tea and drove it all downtown. There is this homeless guy I walk by every day on my way home from work. He has these eyes that just show that he must be a good person. He is older and always very friendly. I gave him the lunch and we talked for a while. His name is Homer and he has been living on the street on and off for about 20 years. He lives in the park where I see him every day. He asked about my accent and was very friendly. Because he had a coffee already, I gave the tea to a friend of him, Noah, who was so happy to talk to me. He enjoyed it so much, that he didn't want to let me go. I have to say that I feel so blessed by being able to do that. That really made my day.
When we got home I saw that we had left the light on in the upper floor of our house. But as soon as we entered the house, it was out. Dh was reaching for the light switch downstairs when it happened so I told him it was his responsibility that the whole neighborhood was without power. I guess he must have felt guilty because he called the power company to report the outage. They said it was going to take until about 11:30 p.m. at night. No Macaroni and Cheese then. We decided to go and grab some sandwiches. But as we were driving through our neighborhood we saw that our friends were home, so we stopped by their house to see whether they were up for dinner. We ended up having a really nice dinner at my favorite Japanese restaurant with them.
This morning we went to church. Unfortunately I was really distracted during the service. Our church meets in a movie theater in Union Station and does a lot of outreach to the homeless. While we were waiting for the service to begin, a homeless girl came in and sat in the row in front of us. She had a really bad smell of urine around her and I got nearly nauseous. I ended up moving two seats to sit a little further from her. Then another homeless woman in our row fell asleep during the service and snored. She actually snored so loud that everybody could hear it. They woke her up several times, but she continued to snore really loud. In the end they made her leave. She came back later with a coffee in her hand so I guess they just bought her coffee.
When we got home, I packed up some of the great Thanksgiving Dinner from Thursday, a piece of Mincemeat Pie, and a hot tea and drove it all downtown. There is this homeless guy I walk by every day on my way home from work. He has these eyes that just show that he must be a good person. He is older and always very friendly. I gave him the lunch and we talked for a while. His name is Homer and he has been living on the street on and off for about 20 years. He lives in the park where I see him every day. He asked about my accent and was very friendly. Because he had a coffee already, I gave the tea to a friend of him, Noah, who was so happy to talk to me. He enjoyed it so much, that he didn't want to let me go. I have to say that I feel so blessed by being able to do that. That really made my day.
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