We have arrived

Hello all! I'm so excited about this blog! Thanks to the wonderful idea that my Mom-in-law thought of, hopefully now we can keep more people updated better!

Leaving our friends and family was extremely hard. My Mom and Ben's Mom took us down to the airport and I don't know when I've cried that much. Oh my word it was hard, I was praying so hard to help get me through it. I know that this is such an amazing opportunity for us and how great it's going to be to travel and grow together as a family. But, it's still the hardest thing I've had to do. I know now that the flight home is really not that big of a deal and is so much cheaper than we had thought so, it's really okay. Plus, this little wiggle-worm has not improved my emotional status :) At least the morning sickness has lightened up.

Well, were here! I honestly can't believe how much Germany reminds me of PA! It threw me back a little bit. The trees are still green and it's been absolutely beautiful. Today has been the only cloudy day and it's been staying in the low 60's. We've had so much going in just the short time we have been here. Our flight was through the night on Thursday and into the morning (East coast time, afternoon here). It was a very smooth flight. Thank God we both were able to sleep most of the 7 hours. I've never been on a plane that size before nor have I ever been fed two actual meals! It doesn't take too much to make this girl happy.

Once we landed, we went through customs smoothly and were able to get Beretta right away. She was still very sleepy, which made me feel so much better. When we took her out of the kennel for the first time, she had her sea legs on. Our baggage was right there and so were the guys picking us up. Getting into our room was the easiest Ben said getting a room has ever been for him. God really took care of us, like always. We got to our temporary housing and it is big! It's a four bedroom apartment that looks like it is straight out of Ikea! It's very roomy. There is built in closets, blonde hardwood floors, goofy toilets, and faucets above the toilets that we haven't figured out yet.

The weekend was pretty much spent trying to catch up on the 6 hours we lost and sleeping at the right times. We did go out into the big town close to us- Kaiserslautern. Not going to lie, I was a little nervous after seeing the tiny curvy streets and the tiny cars zipping around. There was so much packed into a small area. I'm just not made for the city living, neither one of us are! :) But- it is soo clean here! We were shocked at how clean! I guess if you don't clean up to the standards you can get nailed with some hefty fines! Like cleaning the windows that face the street, sweeping the street all year round just to name a few. Also, the recycling here is so intense! Their garbage can is the size of our bathroom trash can. The amount of trash you can put out is per person too.

Monday was a big day! Ben reported in, since we got in Friday afternoon after all of the offices were closing he didn't have to sign in until Monday. After he signed in, we walked to the housing office to start the paper work needed to find housing. I really felt strongly about living on base instead of outside of base in town or a village. Ben was okay either way but I was really pulling for on base housing. Well we got into the housing office and because of the time of year and the amount of people here the office was packed. We waited a little over an hour, which was just fine with me- I relaxed and read my book and Ben read the paper. We got called back and the woman said the waiting list for living on base was 2-5 months for the one base and 9-11 months for the other. I was fighting back the tears. I just kept thinking oh my goodness what if I need something and nobody understands me, or something happens with the baby, or everything that runs through your mind when you allow yourself to worry and not fully give things over to God. I wonder just how much he says "oh you of little faith" So we just made sure our names where on the waiting lists and set out to find a house in the 10 days we were allowed and to make sure we were in housing within 30 days or we have to pay out of pocket for the temporary housing. So we were feeling pretty stressed- wait- I was feeling stressed. Ben is amazing, he really is. It takes a lot to worry or stress.

So we came home, prayed that God would help us find the right place to live and to have housing open up on base so we could eventually move on base. I had called my Mom's and told some friends to pray and God truly watches over us. This morning (tuesday) the housing office called and offered us an apartment with a move in date of Oct. 21! Thank you God! It's still within our 30 days and everything is set to go. Ben went in and signed all the papers and set up the movers to bring all of our things over that have been packed since July!! I'm still just in awe of the ways God works. There is no explanation of why we got housing so quickly when the waiting list was so long other than by the mighty hands of God.

Ben has his drivers exam on Wednesday morning (say prayers) and hopefully we will be able to find a car we can afford soon. I'm all set up in the system and will hopefully have a doctors appointment with an ultrasound soon! I'll be 16 weeks on Thursday!

We'll be keeping everybody updated! Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers!!