Church Picnic with a Twist

This year our church decided to try something different for the annual church picnic, making it into an event for the whole neighborhood. Food stands, live music, a flea market, Olympic games, face painting, and a jumpy gym for the kids, all made for a lively atmosphere and a great place to invite friends and people from the community. I invited all the ladies from my Integration course, and was super pleased when two showed up with their daughters. Ralf's sister Silke and her finance Rudiger were here to visit for the weekend and we enjoyed spending the day with them and other friends from our church. God blessed us with great weather for the event - it was one of the few times we've seen the sun this summer - and we were very grateful for it!

Summer Festival

View from Above

This is by far one of the coolest wedding presents we got - a roof tour of the Cologne Cathedral - courtesy of Ralf's office. Other than the open construction elevator that we had to use to get up there, it was fantastic. We had a beautiful sunny day which displayed the stained glass windows in all their glory. Was nice to experience it together with his colleagues. Even though the tour is only in German, I'm taking all the Americans on it when they come to visit - its worth it even if you can't understand a word!

Cologne Cathedral - Roof Tour

Summer Wedding Season

How does a newly married couple amuse themselves on weekends? Well for us its been attending the weddings of all of our friends, and in the process, living the special moments of our day all over again! Here's the summer wedding season highlights....fall edition coming soon.

Summer Wedding Season

Boozy in Beilstein

Okay, we weren't really boozed, but we did enjoy a glass of the fine local area wines over the weekend in Beilstein at the annual Wine Festival. Ralf and Tanja also came from Munich for the weekend so it was a big hometown reunion. The Ralfs pointed out all their old teachers and school friends, I got to experience the musical stylings of Beilstein's own Dixieland Band, and of course the unforgettable "Buttenolympiade". Maybe next year I'll enter the competition!

Beilstein Wine Festival

Chillin' with our Homies

Our Homies

"Homies" is the nickname for the members of our small group. In German the word for small group is "hauskreis" - literally translated "house circle"...from there the name for our group is "Homezone" and from that "homies". We meet together every Thursday evening, share a meal, worship, pray and take on all the tough questions of the faith! Here are some photos from different group activities - a weekend retreat, a city tour, baptism...

Lot of Castles 'round Here

Fitting in with the castle theme - Ralf and Grietje, Ralf and Tanja - treated us to a weekend with them exploring Heidelberg. A beautiful city, great food and time with friends that we don't get to see very often - a very nice wedding gift indeed!

Heidelberg Weekend

Honeymooners in Italy

Honeymoon

Sunday morning we breakfasted with family and our wedding party, leisurely saying our goodbyes as loved ones departed to catch their various flights. All that remained in the afternoon were our parents, some cake to eat and gifts to open. After tearful goodbyes with my parents, we hit the drive-thru at McDonald's and fell exhausted into bed. Monday brought us as far as Lake Luzern and Tuesday we arrived at our romantic honeymoon suite at Villa la Bianca. There we alternated days sleeping, day trips, etc...just the right environment and pace to begin our married life together.

A Storybook Wedding

Our Wedding

When Ralf and I chose Psalm 67 as our wedding verse "May God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, that your ways may be know on earth, your salvation among all nations," we couldn't have imagined the rich outpouring of blessing that would be our wedding day and all the events leading up to it. He prepared for us a celebration that exceeded our every expectation... our cheeks are still sunburnt from basking in the warm rays of His beaming face!

My sister's-in-law inform me that it is almost every little girl's dream to get married like a princess in a castle. Having not been one of those little girls, I wonder how I ended up being the one to have that wish come true! A surprise blanket of snow even fell on the church and castle overnight, adding another layer of romance (and creating the perfect lighting for our photos) to the whole affair. Thankfully this fairytale includes no wicked step-mothers or sisters... among the greatest blessings was seeing our diverse circles of friends and family, from all over the world, intersecting at last and not only understanding one another, (thanks to the German's proficiency in English!) but thoroughly enjoying one another.

Many thanks for your prayers for our special day. We appreciate your continued prayers as we adjust to marriage and begin to write the real story...the story of a couple that, with God's help, really does live happily ever after.

Our Last Fling

We both find the underlying principles behind Bachelor / Bachelorette parties to be pretty sleazy...but as an opportunity to celebrate with friends our upcoming nuptials - we were all for it. The guys took Ralf out for an evening of bowling and tasty 3-course dinner. The girls surprised me with an oriental inspired evening, complete with new jewelery, traditional Arab food, hookah pipe, and belly dancer! Later both guys and girls rendezvoused at a nearby dance club.

Bachelor-Bachelorette Party

A Very Merry Christmas...and New Year's Too!

Over the holidays Ralf and I traveled to California, giving the family a chance to give him the once over before the big day in March, and Ralf the chance to peek closer into my closet before he signs on the dotted line. The result - everyone behaved (whew!) - so the wedding plans continue! All joking aside, we had a wonderful time and it was such an encouragement to finally have the informed affirmation of family and close friends. There was some question before our visit as to who would garner the most attention - Ralf or little Miss Elizabeth? In the end, it was Elizabeth's "Old McDonald" renditions that swung the competition in her favor... better luck next time, Ralf!

In between all too frequent eating sessions (Ralf noted after a week that he hadn't felt the sensation of hunger even once), we simply hung out with family and took in some of the Bay Area sights - the usual tourist ones and places of interest on the Julia History Tour.

SF Visit

My girls blessed me with a wonderful Bridal Shower...

Bridal Shower

...and the family went all out throwing us a Pre-Wedding Reception to celebrate with many of our friends that won't be able to come to Germany for the wedding.

California Pre-Wedding Reception

The Reception was held on our last day and was a wonderful culmination of our whole experience with family and friends. It was also a wake-up call that Ralf and I need to start some smile muscle training in preparation for March 24th :). God has truly filled our "cups" with joy that is running over...