One of the prayer requests we mentioned as we prepared to depart was our hope to meet soon-to-be-friends as we spent time here. Your (our) prayers have been answered in spades in that regard—we’ve been blessed to have met many new friends as we’ve been here this week.

A couple days ago, a dear new-to-us-friend shared a verse with us, from the NASB, and we’d like, in turn, to share it with you. Psalm 25 is a psalm which acknowledges that God is the source of our salvation and He is the one who leads us in truth. She shared verse 12 with us, which is especially applicable for this week:

Who is the man who fears the Lord?
He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

It is our prayer, that as we explore His creation here on another continent, that He will lead us in truth, and instruct us in the way we should choose—for school, for our home, for which country will be our new home.

One of my favorite bands, Third Day, wrote a song based, in part, on Psalm 25. We’d like to share it with you here. We feel like it’s our prayer/song for the week here—our hope is Him.

A view of the village of Riedlingen still resting in the morning mist, from the west.

Guten morgen!

We were driving back from dropping Phoenix off at the German elementary school this morning, and came across this view. We had to stop and grab a few frames. It was quiet, cool, and still this morning, as the mist was still lying low in the tree-covered hills. This village, Riedlingen, is just a kilometer or two west of Kandern, about a 3 minute drive.

(Click on the photo for a larger view.)

We will post later today, but we though you’d enjoy having this image to see when you woke up…enjoy!

Miranda and Phoenix along the main street in Kandern, in the early evening. Many of the streets/buildings look like this, and above many shops are apartments.

(NOTE: This post is part of a series we’re doing about a Vision Trip we’re making to the area where we’ll be living within the next 12 months.)

We arrived safely at the gate in Zurich around 7:15 this morning. It was the quietest major airport I’ve ever been through. It was also the easiest and quickest passage through customs and immigration I’ve ever experienced, even better than coming home through the US. We received a bit of a treat when we got to the car rental counter—when he saw the amount of luggage we had (including the two 70-pound foot lockers), the gentleman behind the counter gave us a free upgrade to a larger wagon (a Hyundai i40), so that we could make sure everything fit easily.

We loaded up the car and drove away from the Zurich airport no later than 8:15 am, local time. We made it through Switzerland, into Germany, and arrived in Kandern in about 90 minutes, with only minor delays due to morning traffic in Zurich. We must’ve gone through about two dozen tunnels on our way, some more than a mile long. We saw horses, fields, and vineyards along the way, as well as one castle (in Lorrach, which we might visit later in the week).

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Phoenix kept herself busy at the United Club in Newark with an origami peacock.

(NOTE: This is one of a series of posts about our family’s Vision Trip to Europe ahead of our planned move there within the next 12 months.)

By the time many of you read this post, Miranda, Phoenix and I will be well on our way to Europe, en route to a full week of fun and excitement in the Switzerland-Germany-France borderlands. Hotel—check. Rental car reservation—check. Passport—check. Winter coats—check.

We’ll share a quick story about our experience at the airport this morning, and then we’ll share a bit about our plans for this week.

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We started out this morning in the rain in Houston, making our way toward IAH. We had about 250 pounds of checked luggage, a couple roll-aboards and backpacks, and a left-handed bass in tow as we pulled up to the curb-side drop off. Phoenix and I lugged everything to the check-in while Miranda dropped the car off at the Parking Spot.

We took everything up to the counter, were being assisted through the check-in process, and everything was going along gangbusters, until the gal behind the counter printed our boarding passes—or rather, our NOT boarding passes. Apparently, the original plane (a large Boeing 767) broke down sometime early this morning, and was replaced by one of its much smaller siblings (a Boeing 757). Consequently, we (and more than 100 of our fellow travelers) were seat-less.

Needless to say, a moderate wave of brief panic washed through my mind—what if we didn’t make our connection? What if only some of us were able to make it through? We had prayed, as we pulled out of the driveway, that we’d have grace and mercy as we travelled. Here was an opportunity for us to not only experience that grace and mercy, but also share it with others—and we did, by God’s grace.

We were given our non-boarding passes, whisked through security, and arrived at the gate to see a throng of people all trying to sort out the mess of seats and tickets and assignments and connections and everything else. We were, finally, assigned seats—not our original ones—but were also able to find kind souls on the plane who allowed us to sit together. United’s people, by the way, were nothing if not kind, patient, and courteous with the throngs of disrupted passengers.

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Our plan this week, loosely, is to sort out the Things Which Need Sorting (TWNS). There are many Things Which Need Sorting, and many of the associated issues are intertwined with others.

Chief among the TWNS is: How are we going to educate our children? There are, fortunately, myriad choices, across two different countries. But with so many choices come many individual issues, including: cost, availability of spaces, suitability of learning environments to our childrens’ needs, and location. As part of this particular quest, we’ll be visiting some schools, and Phoenix will even be visiting a German school this week with a girl her age who lives in Kandern.

Which brings us to the next TWNS: Where are we going to live? The big answer to this one is tied up with the education question—Germany or France? Understand, first, that we’re only talking about 20-30 miles difference between the various locations—it’s literally a question of which side of the Rhine we will be on. In addition, we will investigate what kinds of locations/homes might be available within each country (city/country; apartment/detached homes, etc.). We will spend quite some time this week exploring this TWNS.

And that, finally, brings us to the last TWNS: How might we do life in this new environment? The “answer” to this one is not so much a definitive thing, but a gradual revelation. We’ve been given a head-start from our future team leader on some of the questions we might pursue (she had a list from her first assignment overseas), and we have playdates, dinners, and coffee dates with soon-to-be-friends in Kandern to help with this.

So in summary, these are the Things Which Need Sorting (TWNS): schooling, residence, and doing life. Additionally, if you’d like to pray specifically with/for us this week, here are some of our concerns:

• Continued safety in traveling, especially driving in winter conditions in Europe
• Productive meetings with soon-to-be-friends and others who might help us along the way
• That God would make it clear to us where we should be (Germany/France) and might even point us toward some housing options
• That we would be mindful of when we are getting too tired, and not try to do too much in this short week

Have you ever seen this many passports all in one place? That’s how we roll.

(NOTE: This post is the first in a series of posts regarding our upcoming vision trip to Europe, ahead of our planned move there within the next year.)

Recently, our family took a giant step toward being ready to move overseas—we got passports for everyone! We printed and filled out what seemed to be a ridiculous amount of application paperwork (complete with five notarized affidavits stating that I was aware that Miranda was getting passports for our children). Miranda loaded everyone up for a two-stage field trip: first to CVS for five sets of passport photos, and next to our friendly local US Post Office to drop off the application in person.

I have since discovered that it’s quite bizarre to look down at an official US federal government identification document and to see the face of your three-year-old son impishly smiling back at you. It feels unnatural, irregular, at first, for my children to have their own passports. When I was the age Phoenix is now, I didn’t even know that passports existed. The first time I really understood about what it meant to have a passport was when my own father was required to get one for a nine-month work project in India in the mid-90s.

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Hello family and friends!  I wanted to share a few pictures that I caught with my phone this week.  We had a great week spending time with family and celebrating Jesus’ birth.  Some of you may know that my dad dresses up as Santa every year and visits company parties, children’s gatherings, etc.  We made sure to get some special pictures with Santa this year!

Santa with Beast, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine

Santa with Cyclops and Santa with my mom

My sister and I with Santa, and all of the cousins together.

They had so much fun playing on Mom’s ipad that they fell asleep.  Cyclops modeling his new hat with some festive leis.

I hope you enjoyed these snapshots of our holidays.  Please don’t mind the picture quality.

Miranda

I must’ve been in high school, but I don’t remember…let’s just say that I was an early teenager. It was Christmastime, always a difficult time in a home where money was scarce—and even more so when, as a child, I understood that this was the case. Over the years, I frequently didn’t ask for the nice things I really wanted because I knew we couldn’t afford them, and still felt ungrateful when I asked for more affordable gifts.

But this year was different. I knew exactly what I wanted—and I put all my eggs in one basket. This time, I didn’t care if That One Thing was expensive, because it was all asked for. Every time we discussed what we wanted for Christmas, That One Thing was the only thing I talked about. For my teenage self, That One Thing was $100—cold, hard cash. To this day, I can’t remember why I wanted the cash, but probably for a new lens or an off-brand TTL flash—what the intended purchase actually was didn’t really matter. Because this story is about That One Thing.

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This season, we have started to celebrate Advent.  Since I come from a baptist background, I have little experience with the liturgical calendar.  However, the more I experience, the more I find I love the rhythms of the year and the richness and depth it has added to my relationship with God.

I am about to tell you something big.  Something about myself.  Those who don’t really know me might be surprised.  Those who do know me might just fall off their seats laughing, so hang on.

I am not good at waiting.  Not. At. All.

As the shock wears off or the hilarious laughter subsides, stick with me.  When I say, “I am not good at waiting,” it doesn’t mean that I simply dislike waiting or that it causes me frustration.  A closer description might be that waiting makes me crazy.  Something close to knots-in-my-stomach or can’t-focus-on-anything-else might give you a better idea of what waiting does to my system.

I purchased God Is In The Manger and have started reading it.  The first line from yesterday’s entry read “Celebrating Advent means being able to wait.”  Uh oh.  Not a good sign.  I took a deep breath and pressed on.

You see, I want to be good at waiting.  I want my life to echo the psalmist’s declaration, “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.” (Psalm 130:5-6) When I wait, I don’t want to do the impatient wiggling, worrying, fretting waiting that I do so often.  I want to wait expectantly, longing for God’s promises to be fulfilled.  I want to wait with sureness and confidence, eager to see what is coming but content to rest until it is His time.  I am simultaneously excited about learning to wait and nervous about how this process will stretch my comfort zone.

I am reminded of the story of Elijah and the voice of God coming in the still, small whisper after the storm and fire (1 Kings 19).  Elijah had to wait.  He did not whine or fret about God’s presence not coming immediately.  Rather, one of the most profound moments of his life came when he met the Lord in His time.  I believe that the best things of God may only come after waiting.  These things are experiences we walk away from having been utterly transformed.

Personally, I think the season in which God now has us is teaching me to wait more than ever before.  We are waiting on God to provide partners, wisdom, networks and relationships, and to pave the way ahead of us in Germany.  I am thankful for Advent to guide me as I grow in this area.

I want to leave you with an excerpt from today’s devotion:

“Not everyone can wait: neither the sated nor the satisfied nor those without respect can wait.  The only ones who can wait are the people who carry restlessness around with them and people who look up with reverence to the greatest in the world.  Thus, Advent can be celebrated only by those whose souls give them no peace, who know that they are poor and incomplete, and who sense something of the greatness that is supposed to come, before which they can only bow in humble timidity, waiting until he inclines himself toward us – the Holy One himself.”

My heart longs to be like this.

Bowing humbly,

Miranda

Quick post today…we just wanted to tell everyone about a really cool opportunity we have this weekend.

Just over 16 years ago, I stood up in front of the congregation at First Baptist Church of Anahuac, Texas, and told them that God had called me to full-time vocational service to Him. Not long after, I left my hometown for college and everything else that God had in store for me and, later, my family. We’ve returned for visits over the years, but I’ve yet to close the loop, so to speak, with my home church regarding God’s calling on our lives. This weekend, however, that all changes.

This Sunday, the whole Peacock ostentation is going East, back to my hometown, to spend Sunday morning worshipping with the body at First Baptist Church of Anahuac. We’ll be sharing about the really cool things that God is doing in our lives, and how He brought us to Wycliffe.

For any of our readers in the area, we’d love for you to come out and see us there (you know who you are, Facebook people!). If you’re unlikely to be there, we’d love to have to praying for us during this morning. Details below.

First Baptist Church Anahuac
405 S. Magnolia Ave.
Anahuac, Texas 77514

Service @ 10:45.

Much love!