Random thoughts...

... somehow you would expect to miss the ship... wouldn't you??? But I don't miss the Doulos at all, not even a incy wincy tiny bit. Shocking, I know!!!! I do miss some people, especially Ned's little friends Tessa and Sienna but he seems to be happy to be the only little one here... and receiving ALL the attention ALL the time (especially from the grandparents!!!), but I just don't miss the old lady. I guess she just isn't anymore what she used to be. When we left, she was a ghost ship and the only things remaining were the memories of ministry and life. And those memories are good, but the ship is dead, I'm ready to let her rest in peace!!! But I'm also grateful that we were able to experience this dying of a ship, we were able to say good bye to her, which many exDouloids aren't... I guess that's why many people NOT experiencing this "dying process" are eager to preserve her. If I'm honest, I think I prefer being part of a ship being born than a ship dying, although the "birthing process" of Logos Hope took much longer than we all thought, but it was worth it:o)))) It has been a privilege to have experienced both. Well, Doulos: REST IN PEACE and cheers the awesome times we were able to have on board... but thinking about it, it wasn't the ship but GOD who made the time AWESOME!!! Cheers, God!!

Living in Germany and living with the Pipers!!

Growing up we always played a lot of card games in my family, but in many country all card games are considered gambling, especially in Christian circles. Maybe we should ban card games in our family as well... not only because I seem to loose all the time, but also because emotions run quite high and Christian values like "love your neighbor" or "sharing" or "considering others higher than oneself" get thrown out of the window for the time being. Everyone wants to win themselves and is spiteful toward anybody else who dares to win instead of themself (especially Ben, he ALWAYS argues around!!!).... maybe it isn't the typical Christian hobby, but - and despite the fact that I always seem to loose (and unfortunately I'm not a good looser)- we as a family have a lot of fun, laugh a lot and don't harbour bad feelings once the game night is finished.

Those nights ALWAYS start with my mum asking the question: "How does it go again??" And in the end she almost always wins, grrrrr... but as I said, we do NOT harbour grudges:o))) Not only are game night great fun times with lots of laughter and maybe even "mild language" (Du Bloedmann), but they also bond us together as family. Once the cards are packed away we also invite our Christian values to come back in:o)

Another typical German Sunday afternoon activity is the famous Sunday afternoon walk, which, you might have guessed it, is a walk on Sunday afternoons. So Ben, Ned and I headed out into the nasty February cold (why did I complain again about 30C humidity and heat??? Just kidding). My legs felt like ice blocks pretty soon, Ben wore his usual shorts and cloves and Ned carried a compulsory Sunday-afternoon-walk-stick around, cut by dad off course, and didn't seem to be bother whatsoever by the freezing cold... but despite the fact of deep frozen knees on my part, I just LOVE the fact NOT to be in a permanent state of sweating!!! :o)))

One thing we also have to get used to again in Germany are the public toilets: you actually pay to go to the "dunny", although Ben stubbornly refuses to do that and walks straight past the lady who is supposed to keep the toilets clean but is much more interested and busy to watch you actually put some coins in the money box. I on the other hand, as a good German, would feel awkward not to but some money in, even if I'm not very much impressed with the cleanliness of the toilets (because the lady is busy guarding her money box instead of doing her job).

We also discovered another cultural difference between Australia and Germany. Down under tights are for girls only, or for Robin Hood. In Germany it is quite normal to put them on little blokes as well, UNDER the pants of course, so you normally don't see it, but it keeps the legs warm in winter.... but to be honest.. it actually does look quite cute on Ned, especially without pants on top and with the tiger paws, don't you think????? :o))

Well, as you can see, we do enjoy living a "normal" live in Germany for now. If I'm honest, I'm not even feeling sad or downcast because the Doulos is being scrapped (hopefully soon). I do miss you people there, treasure the memories of the times on board and marvel in what amazing ways God used this big piece of metal and rust but I'm more then willing to let the old lady go in peace, because she IS falling apart (if you need proof just go to Ned's old cabin and look at and underneath the carpet, because you can actually lift almost all the carpet tiles off the concrete, which isn't very handy when vacuum cleaning, believe me!!). I can't really put it in words but a fellow ex-Douloi did an excellent job, so if you like you can check out her blog:http://shirleyontheship.blogspot.com/

I should go to bed, that's a wise thing to do!!

Night, night

Buying a car!

Well, we are truely blessed!!!

My mum and dad had some money "left over" from tax return and decided to give us for our birthdays a "new" old car!!!! Presently it is very difficult to get second hand cars in our price category, but after a lot of looking around on my dad's side, today we found one at an Aramean car dealer's shop. Dad had seen a Mazda there which we wanted to check out. But we all didn't feel a "yes" about the Japanese car, but there was this bottle green 10 year old Peugeot station wagon (yes, a little family carrier, but lets face it, soon we are a family of 4). We looked around it, under it in it.... and somehow the Frenchy grew in our affections (NO one in my family EVER had a French car, but well, there has to be a first some time:o)) ). And after a test drive and after Ned sat in the car and didn't want to get out of it again, we decided to go for it. So now we are the proud owers of Frenchy... theoretically at least. Dad did sign a contract, BUT neither have we paid any money nor do we actually possess the car. On Monday Frenchy will have to face the "TÜV", a safety/environmental check that cars need to have every two years, and after that the dealer will call dad so that he can register the car, so that we can drive it officially on the road... YAY!!!! It is also very beneficial to bring along a cute little boy (aka Ned), he managed to "relieve" the dealer from a nice buttered brezel as well as a whole block of chocolate.... and the dealer was very happy to be relieved by such a cute little guy :o)))

We've MADE it... YAY!!!!

Saying "Good Bye" to the old lady and to our friend there was much harder then I actually thought!! People who know the ships also know the thing I call the "hug chain", were people line up to say good bye to you, and people who know me also know that I really don't like the "hug chain" very much and always tried to avoid it, but somehow this time I almost liked it, because it was the last time ever to do this on the Doulos. I got a tiny bit sentimental the last couple of days, despite really wanting to go home. I walked around and looked around me and thought: "It's the last time I'll do this or that on the Doulos". The last time that Ned plays with his little friends outside on the corridor, the last time eating chicken and rice (which was rather a celebration!!!!!), the last time to eat our meal at a wonky and listing table, the last time taking a shower and all the water goes to the opposite side of the drain because the ship has a portside list, the last time that Ned plays on fun deck.... many last times. Some of those last times are rather a "Yessss!!!! Finally the last time!!" but many other were a bit sad last times, but such is live, we always have to move on and forward, living in the here and now instead of the past or the future.

After a 13h dircet flight from 30°C Singapore humidity and heat to -5°C Frankfurt, I stood in the shower at my parents place and thought about the "deep" things of life, e.g. how strange it is to stand under a hot shower and enjoying the hot water and not wanting to get out of the shower because the rest of the room is a bit chilly, compared to standning under a lukewarm shower and actually wanting it to be a cold shower, but the water is as cold as it gets and once you're out of the shower the heat attacks you again. Life is strange!!!
The flight was really good. The plane was half empty so we claimed another row as our "own" which was SUCH a blessing. The six seat were divided like this: 1 seat for Ben, 2 seats for Ned and 3 seats for Becca:o))) Ben always boasts he can sleep anywhere, well, and I can't so i streched out over my 3 seats and got quite a bit of sleep. Ned also sleep something like 8 or 9h, but unfortunately he also gave a 50 min display of his lunge capacity which pleased neither us nor anyone else:o)

So, God has be so extreemly good to us: we had an direct flight, all our baggage got through okay although it was slightly overweight, Ned slept like a champ, Ben and I also got some sleep and arriving on the other side we were not only greated by over-excited (grand)parents but also with SNOW!!!!!YAY!!!!!! I was praying and hoping we would experient some snow (unfortunately it is melting as I write, but still, we had snow!!!). We also had a very restful first night and none of us really has a jetlag, PTL!!!!!

Unfortunetely I can't do an English spell check on this computer and many keys on a German keyboard are in different spots then on the English keyboard, but I hope I haven't mixed up too many "Y"s and "Z"s :o)))

Ramndom things...

well, I'm into it now... here I am again updating the blog again.. this time with funny Ned stories:o)))
Although our little boy plays with dolls and doll strollers at times he still is TRULY a boy!!!!! He just LOVES cars, ropes and balls.... and everything slightly in the shape of a ball will be thrown (as a matter of fact, many other things come flying through the cabin as well). But well, unfortunately EGGS do slightly resemble balls, unfortunately they tent to NOT bounce but rather break, as we discovered..... twice already!!!! :o)
I also know that Ned looks much older than he actually is, he looks older than two but the fact is, he's only 20 months and only turns two in June. Well, we had a bit of a birthday confusion the other day:o))) The other day we walked through the crew mess on our way to the dining room and the engine guys decided spontaneously to sing "Happy Birthday"to Ned. One of Ned's mates, Ryan, heard that and was shocked: "Oh, no!! His little buddy has his birthday!!"So Ryan went out and we got a know at our door some time in the evening and Ryan put a present in my hands. I must have looked rather puzzled.... but we explained everything:o))))!! Still, Ned is the proud owner of a nice, new, red toy sports car, yay!! Thank you Ryan!! :o)) We had a good laugh with him!!!

P.S.

... for all you Xdoulois... I managed to set of the smoke detector with my cooking taday and caused a duty officer, hahahaha!!!!! But the food was really good!!! :o)))) and NOT burned!!

Wow, it works to update our blog!!!!

Well, it is a rather handy excuse, that somehow I wasn't really able to update our blog because every time I tried some sort of an ERROR message came up, but if i am honest, it was only twice that I actually tried to update the blog in the last 2 -3 months... lazy me, bad, bad, BAD girl!!!

Ou well, here I am and lots of things have happened. How to wrap up the last couple months in a couple of sentences?? Well, let me try:
-the Doulos is being decommissioned.... it is in process RIGHT now and the entire ship feels a bit like a Ghost Ship. We are only 120 souls left on board and the numbers are declining. It hasn't been easy and the question often came to mind: "Why in all the world did God lead us to the Doulos for this??" But we were able to help people and answer their questions who are transferring to the Logos Hope, because although the two ships are similar in many ways, they are VERY different in others!!! So in this way we were able to help and maybe be a blessing. But if I'm really, really, really honest, I had a very hard time drowning a bit in self pity, feeling sick, struggling with Doulos food, being disgusted by Cockroaches and making close friends is very difficult because everyone, including myself, is and was busy with closure and spending the remaining time with old friends as much as possible, that there isn't any energy or time to invest in new people.
-well, other big thing which happened is that I'm a preggi once more (and still don't like it) which doesn't really improve my emotional stability and sanity!!!! I am very illogical and act silly in many ways and can't help it. The other day I disolved in tears in the dinning room because the food was so AWFUL!!!!!
-and we decided on our next step for now which really helps a lot. We will leave the Doulos on the 16th of February to go back to Germany. The first two weeks we'll stay at my parents place in Heilbronn and then move to Mosbach beginning of March. I feel very weird because I am so excited about going home and living in Germany for a while. I have NEVER really been homesick EVER before in my life but now I am sooooo homesick, especially for the food, but not only. We plan to be in Germany for around 6 -12 months. Ben will be working with Lloyd, Ned will be spoiled by the grandparents and I will cook, and cook, and cook, and eventually have a baby:o)))) After that time??? Only God knows where, when how and what. I'm very grateful for this time of "rest" but I hope by the time we are (especially I am) ready for more adventures with God somewhere in the world. So once again our earthly belongings are packed up in boxes (some of them hadn't even been unpacked after arriving with the container from the Logos Hope) and ready to be put in a container to Europe. It seems to be a little red line in my life, that most of our stuff ins packed away in some box and we live on the essentials..... I guess it shows me how much we often live in luxury without even knowing it. We don't really need that stuff in those boxes, but life is just so much nicer WITH the stuff. I try not to hang my heart on it and enjoy blessings if they are there.

Well, what else could I write??? Ned is doing really great. He is a strong little guy... and actually also a bit strong willed, hmpf!!!!!! It really isn't the nicest thing in the world to sit in the dinning room with toddler who screams of his lungs that your ear drums almost pop!!! But ou well, he has to learn the meaning of "NO"and we have to learn patience (I hate learning patience... grrrrrr!!) But besides those little screaming attacks we have so much fun with him... today he discovered that raw eggs aren't balls and that they do break and although he doesn't speak much of a language that we understand he always has a lot to say in his own language and slowly he starts to translate some into German or English. Yesterday he said;"Heiss!!"(hot) and today he stated to say "baby"and points on a picture of a baby. Other words are amen, night night, seeya, bye bye and ticktock.

Well, I gotta go, hopefully this works and so I've finally updated our blog and continue to update it...