The lovely month of May

This last week Gabe and I marked our 5 month anniversary, and it just reminds me of how quickly time flies--and how full it is!

The transition to life in Colorado has been a good one. We have settled back in and are excited for what else the future will hold. Just this last week I started a new job, and Gabe is part of a Film Race competition. Life is fun :-)

Spring, and change, is in the air!

As so often happens in life, I have reached a point of transition.

When Gabe and I got married in December, we were also looking ahead to the Spring, when our one year commitment to serve on staff with YWAM Herrnhut is up. We had many excellent options before us, and have decided that we will be moving back to the states.

Our time in Herrnhut has been sweet--I've experienced so much life here! I have grown, and I will miss the people (and the language!)

So, on April 4 (yes, traveling on Easter Sunday...) Gabe and I will be flying to Colorado, where we will be staying with his parents as we find work and get situated. This is a huge change, and I am both nervous and excited.

If you'd join us in praying that the Lord would direct our steps, and praise Him for His continued provision in our lives! that would be awesome :-)

Pictures

I posted a few pictures of our flat in an album with a couple of pictures of other things here in Herrnhut :-) Check out the link at the side

Back at work

Tomorrow marks the end of the second week back at work at the Castle in Herrnhut. At the end of our time in the states Gabe and I were both feeling aimless and somewhat bored, and actually itching to get to work, but the transition back after two months off could still use a bit of motivation :-) The hard part for me is wanting to get out of bed every morning: it's dark and cold, and I don't want to get out of my warm bed to walk through the ice slick to work. However, back to work we are!
We came back at the beginning of a new Photo & Worship DTS--the students we had met and were living with in the Fall having just embarked on their 10 week outreaches. This new group is a fun one, but I've really only met the few that Gabe and I are living with. We are (until this weekend) living in a base apartment with 6 of the male students. They are quite the multinational group: 2 Americans, 1 German, 1 Indian, 1 Mauritian, and 1 Kenyan. They are fun, and living with them hasn't been bad (Not even as the only female!) But I am very much looking forward to some space of our own.
We'll move on Saturday just down the street to a small apartment that we will be sub-letting from another base couple who are away for a while. It's nice, and only includes the quirks of no heat in the bedroom in our freezing clime, and that the bathroom and kitchen are in the same room. I'm excited!
I'll post pictures when we're in :-)

Wedding

On December 20, 2009, Gabriel David Chartier and I got married! :-) It was a lovely wedding--everything that I could have wanted for the day, and I am loving married life. Of course there are challenges, and we've only faced the issues of sharing space and lifestyles so far, but it is always a pleasure to spend time with my husband.
After the wedding in Bellingham, WA we flew down to Fort Collins, CO to spend the holidays with Gabe's family and friends, and it has been a great time. In the morning, we'll be flying back up to WA for 10 days of non-crazy-pre-wedding family and friends time before we head back to Germany. Woot!

awesome

Gabe and I had an awesome post-Herrnhut/pre-home adventure in Frankfurt last weekend. As some of you may or may not know, in Germany there is an arranged ride-sharing website called mitfahrgelegenheit, and Gabe and I got to use it for the first time to travel from the Hut to Frankfurt. We were (well, I was...) concerned about travel arrangements--train is too long or expensive, housing in the city could be spendy as our arranged ride would get us there a few days too early, language barriers, typical German auto trunk sizes relative to American suitcases... Anyway, our driver told us over the phone that he had an empty flat that wasn't in use, as his kids are away at school--so we are welcome to stay there the night that we drive, because it will be so late when we get in. As it turned out, not only did we get to stay the first night in the city, but both nights with he and his wife, but they also took us to steak dinner, didn't charge us for the drive as a wedding present, and went to work late the morning of our flight so that he could serve us breakfast and drive us to the airport! How awesome is that!?! It was a great way to kick off a good trip home. And now we are busy reconnecting with family and friends in the midst of planning the final details for the wedding :-)

One Week!

In one weeks time Gabe and I are flying to Washington! Needless to say, we are excited and busy. We have all kinds of wrap-up work here in Germany before our two month vacation (woot!) and then we will plunge into the wonderful madness that is final wedding preparation :-) this includes, but is not limited to, building our wedding cake! making tree decorations, figuring out what food to have, enlisting/enslaving labor for the wedding day, and making as many important decisions and personal connections that it's possible to make in the frame of 2 1/2 weeks. whoopie!! Then we are off to CO for a "mini-honeymoon," and Christmas and New Years with Gabes family and friends--the closest trade off for only really being able to get married in one place at one time (although, friends here in Germany have asked if we'd have a live wedding feed, hahah!)
I'm off to try and get some more work done. Please pray for our safe travels, and health as we head into this crazy season! Much Love.