The apartment we were living in didn’t have a room for a baby, plus the house is for sale.  So to make sure we have a place to live, a place for the baby, and peace of mind that we have a home ready before the baby comes – We MOVED!  We moved from Peine to Stederdorf, which is closer to the church where we work.  We moved on September 29, 2012, my Mom’s Birthday.

Well, it was a bit too busy for pictures on moving day.  I just never got around to it.  But here are some pictures of us moving into our new apartment.  These are of our kitchen.  Remember kitchens in Germany do not normally come with anything in them.  So we brought our kitchen from the last apartment with us.  Well, it does not fit like it did in the last place so some changes will have to be made.  As you can see the bright orange wall has a huge piece of wall not covered by wallpaper, so I am taking down the paper.

So I have played Mexican Train before in Germany, but this was David’s first time while we were at Crescent, OK.  Mexican Train is a really fun domino game and it can seem like it lasts forever if you use all the dominoes (up to twelve dots on one side).

First of all we played it at Phyllis’ house.  She made and extremely delicious supper.  I have to say that she must love to cook and bake because before we left she gave us a loaf of homemade bread —Yummmm it was so good!

Well, you can see that we also played with Keith (Pastor of FCC in Crescent, OK) and Debbie.  Keith said that he just had to beat us at that game so he went a bought one of his own, well, and so did we!  Well, Keith and Debbie both beat us.  But they don’t know that we have been practicing getting ready for our next match!

Leaf Me Alone

Nothing like a hard day’s work in the Smelser’s garden.  Ok, well it took me a lot longer than one day.  I really did enjoy working out in the garden, but I have to say the thing I hated the most was picking up all those leaves.  So I wished all the leaves would just go away and “leaf me alone.”

So it started out picking cherries off the cherry tree, raking up all the cherries when they fell on the ground, picking weeds, picking blackberries off the blackberry bush, making sure the roses were up to par, cutting the hedge, David and I raking the moss out of the ponds, David mowing the grass and trimming the courtyard bush, raking leaves over and over and over.

Yeah, I think that pretty much sums up our garden work.  It was fun, but I am glad it is over.

God takes care of you no matter what! I have to keep reminding myself of that all the time. I try to do everything myself, and it just gets me into trouble sometimes. Well, living life as a missionary helps with this issue if anyone else is struggling. As a missionary I have to lean on God for everything especially our income. This might sound funny, but it is really hard to rely on God for money instead of working the normal leave your house 8-5 job. God uses people like you to help us and I am so thankful for that!

Well, anyhoo, Katy met a couple through her English class. This couple was looking for someone to buy a living room set off of them. Long story short, their daughter-in-law’s father passed away leaving behind this gorgeous furniture. No one seemed to want it. In Germany, you do not have garage sales, you pay to stick junk out by the road and people who are interested come and pick it up. Well, this furniture was too nice for that, so this couple was looking around. Katy told them that we were coming and might be interested.

Well, time passed. David and I arrived and I went with Katy to check out this mysterious furniture. When I saw it, I was shocked at how gorgeous it was. If I went to the store to pick out furniture I couldn’t have done it better. The best part was that this couple started doing English lessons with us in the Luke workbook through LST. They were so nice to sell it all to us for only 100 Euros ($ 125)!!! I don’t have pictures of the chairs because they are hidden away until we can get our own place, but here is a picture of our new sofa. There is also a picture of a few crazy monkeys hanging out in our room.

So thank you to all our friends who helped us receive this furniture – there are a lot of them. And thank you God for orchestrating it all so that we now have a living room!!!!

I just wanted to tell you about my job opportunities that have become available. I will start with Community Support Services the last week of June to help kids with mental disabilities. I have had some experience with the mental health center in my hometown and loved it, so thought I would try it here. Also I am planning on starting a paraprofessional position this next school year.

I have had two interviews concerning the elementary age level. Next week I should hear from the schools to see if I am hired. I am so excited. I love jobs dealing with kids because they are such a joy and fun to be around. This is also an exciting time because when I was looking for a job in December the process was slow and unsatisfactory. Please pray that this time turns out much better.