First Days

{In the taxi on our way to Logan Airport in Boston}



{all our crap in the airport}



{on the plane to Frankfurt}



Well, we made it here safely. I had held it together pretty well, but pretty much fell apart right as we were on the plane getting ready to leave. The girls did reasonably well on the airplane. Norah is at just about the hardest age to fly with, so that was a challenge. I gave her a little freedom from her car seat at one point to change her diaper and then maybe 20 minutes of sitting on my lap. That was a big mistake! After that, she would NOT get in her car seat without a fight. She would just scream at the top of her lungs and throw a tizzy. The girls fell asleep when we had about 2 hours left on the plane and Abe and I maybe got 30 minutes. We had a layover in Frankfurt which was supposed to be 2.5 hours long and ended up being closer to 3. Adeline slept in the stroller for about an hour at the airport. When it was time to board our flight, we had to take a bus out to our airplane and the girls loved it. They were sitting by each other on the bus giggling and squealing with delight. Keep in mind this was about 2:30am Massachusetts time. The plane ride to Düsseldorf was only like 40 minutes and we were there. I was very relived to see Chloe at baggage claim and that her flying time was over. Poor thing had to be in the little kennel like 12 hours. Outside of baggage claim was our sponsor Ricky & the cab driver. The girls and I went with the cab driver and Abe with Ricky. Between their two cars we were able to fit all our crap.

{on the bus to our 2nd airplane in Frankfurt}



It was about an hour drive to Hongen, Germany where we arrived at our Guesthouse called Hotel Peters. In the rain, we unloaded all our luggage and the sleeping girls into our new temporary house. Frans and Sofia own the guesthouse and are so nice. There is only one guesthouse and across the hall from us is where they live. Downstairs is a restaurant that they own and it seems to be very popular. Sofia is amazing and she cooks all the food.

{Hotel Peters & the front of the restaraunt}



When we arrived the girls woke up from their short naps in the car and were completely wired. Abe and I on the other hand were so tired and wanted to sleep desperately. We both layed down and attempted to fall asleep. Of course we let the girls run around crazy and they were slamming just about every cupboard, door, you name it and were also fighting. After a failed nap, our sponsor came back and met us for dinner. We ate downstairs at the restaurant and I had my first real German meal. I got the Snitzel and it was amazing. The girls were bouncing off the walls and being so naughty. I felt like I was trying to control them the entire dinner. When we got home, the girls were so tired, so we got them ready for bed. They were both in bed by 8:30/9 and we were thinking that it was nice they were tired at a decent time and they would get a good night sleep and get on schedule. We were so wrong. Right when I layed down to go to be after 9:30, Norah started screaming. I let her scream for a long time, then tried to lay her down with me, let her scream for a while, etc. After 3.5 hours of screaming, Adeline also woke up and refused to go back to bed. I was so tired after 26 hours of no sleep that I was sobbing while trying to take care of them. Abe heard me and came to the rescue. He sat on the bed with them and started a movie and let me go back to bed. Apparently they were awake until about 4am and poor Abe had to get up at 7 to go onto base for the day. Originally we were all planning to go down to the restaurant to eat breakfast at 7:30. I had to run down and tell Sophia that it would only be Abe eating because I didn’t dare to wake them. She was wonderful and fed Abe and then set aside breakfast for me and the girls to come and get when we were ready. I went back to bed and woke up to Norah crying at noon. That was about the fastest 5 hours of much needed sleep I have ever had. I got Norah out of the room without waking Adeline up. At about 1:30, Norah and I headed downstairs to get our breakfast to bring back to our room. As I was walking back up with the food, I heard Adeline screaming that she threw up. Adeline was sitting on her bad with liquid on herself and the mattress. Poor thing could barely keep her eyes open. It wasn’t “real” throw up and right away I knew that this is one of her episodes that she has had in the past. I still don’t know what it is, but a handful of times she has woken up extremely late, threw up mucus/water and had to sleep it off for a handful of hours. I layed her back down after giving her a shower and changing her clothes and she slept until about 3:30pm. Meanwhile, Norah and I ate breakfast. She gave us yummy rolls, cold cuts, cheese and Nutella. Norah LOVED the nutella on her bread (“chocolate bread” she calls it). After a couple more hours, Adeline woke up and was back to her normal self. I set up the stroller and we went out for a walk to explore the town we are currently staying in. The girls thought it was pretty neat. We saw cows, horses, ponies, deer, sheep, and goats. Adeline said, “When we get a house, can we can animals for decorations in our yard?”

{eating breakfast with my cute little Norah}


{pictures from our walk yesterday}




For dinner last night, Adeline wanted to go to “Sofia’s restaurant” again because “Sofia makes all the food!” The girls were much better at dinner than the night before. Today Abe had to go back onto base for some briefings and the girls and I ate breakfast and went for another walk. We still have not found any sort of park for the girls to play at. After work, Abe showed up with a car that our sponsor is going to let us use until we find one. We drove around a looked at the very few options we have for housing (if we want a 4 bedroom). We still need to set up appointments to see if we can actually go in them. It has been quite an adventure so far. I love the people that own this guesthouse, but I am so frustrated we don’t have a phone, fridge, microwave, etc. It is making it very difficult!