Meet Ina

We were approved as short term/emergency foster parents, and today we picked little Ina (22 months old) up from her parents' house. She will stay with us for the next months while her family sorts some things out. We are excited to be starting this new chapter in our lives.

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God bless you, Ina, and make your path smooth. You are loved.

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Can't get a song out of my head!

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Which one? A song called "Better days" by Faith Hill. Especially the chorus:

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. "Better days are coming around

I know you feel like

The whole world's gone and let you down but

Better days they're coming for you

I know they will

'Cause I'll be right here making sure they do."

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Why this song?

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Because if all goes as planned, tomorrow will be the start of a new, better life for one little girl.

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What we've been up to since we came back

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Good ole' Bavarian baking

and Swiss hot chocolate

We also celebrated a couple birthdays with family and friends, sushi (thanks, Ulli!) and cake

(Lily loves sushi but it MUST be eaten with chopsticks, which calls for intense focussing, and often those California rolls just fall apart anyways.)

Missed you so! :)

Spring is here and the bikers are back!

So are the biking injuries. (Finn, of course.)

And count on our son to catch the stomach bug that went around preschool weeks ago, while we were safely away. This child catches EVERYTHING. He threw up for the first time at 10:30pm the night before Neil's birthday and then every 15 to 30 minutes UNTIL 8 IN THE MORNING. We're still catching up on sleep. On the upside, Neil was up for about 22 out of 24 hours of his birthday. That counts for something!

Happy to say, no one else got this and it only lasted a couple days. But Finn was very miserable and after talking to his doctor in the morning Neil took Finn to the children's hospital. We were able to rehydrate him without an IV (THANK GOODNESS for no needles!), so he didn't have to stay there over night. Now he is all better, but lost some more weight. He also lost a pound at the rehab center, so now Lily is officially heavier than him. But don't tell Finn!

More pictures! Lots of them...

As promised, here are some more pictures from our rehab. We stayed in Wustrow, a village on a peninsula a good half hour drive east of Rostock, where Oma and Opa live. Here is an aerial shot. The rehab center is the complex of dark roofed buildings on the bottom left, a couple rows back from the beach.

Our apartment was on the first floor of this building.

The beach

The indoor playground

Finn in the front, and Lily in the very back. And behind Lily the treasure chest on which Finn managed to split his head open.

Making stuffed animals - Finn made a moose (good Canadian! :) and Lily made a seal.

"Look, Mama, bats in your bed!"

"Fasching" - German carnival. Beauty and the Beast are back!

With their kiddie group.

Breathing therapy

Kinder fest

Sports therapy (Finn coughing, as usual). And Lily's ring finger needed to be held just so for most of the day after it sustained a paper cut.

Room service. We ate in our rooms for a couple days after Finn threw up. It was only from coughing too much, but a tummy bug was going around so the doctors were being extra careful.

We walked around town quite a bit and looked at the nice old cottages, the windmill and we even climbed the church tower. Afterwards we went for hot chocolate/coffee and a treat at the bakery. I really enjoyed hanging out with my little buddies.

A selection of Playmobil needed to come too, of course.

Watching cartoons in my bed at night. Obviously this was after Finn's fall. :)

Play hard, rest easy.

And a real highlight for the kids was being able to spend the weekends at Oma's and Opa's house. Lily even stayed over night some days all by herself. We did a lot of fun things like going for a boat ride, visiting the zoo, or just hanging out at home having a good time. Omi Lotti was often with us, too.

A story in pictures

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Starring: Finn and Lily at the beach, a bunch of hungry seagulls, one particularly feisty bird

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"Yum, waffles on a stick!"

"Let's go up to the beach."

Note: not a single bird to be seen.

Five seconds later - tons of them!

See that bird on the left?

Ready for touchdown.

And ... GONE!

Run, Finn, run!

All is well that ends well. :)

It scared Lily a lot when that seagull just swooshed down and stole her waffle right out of her hand. When I realized what was about to happen I ran towards Lily, but it was too late (thus no pictures of the actual taking). She got hit with the wings and was afraid that "the birds would come and peck her!". The next waffle we ate right by the booth. It's always amazing how a gazillion seagulls can appear right out of nowhere as soon as some food appears.