PWOC Conference

I (Marisa) just got back from a PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) conference in Northern Germany. It was the yearly European Worship and Study. One of the neatest things about the conference was seeing so many military women and spouses of the armed forces join together to worship God. There were over 400 women living all over Europe and a handful from the U.S. The speakers were excellent and the Bible studies were educational.

While most of the women at Worship and Study are already Christians some are new to the faith. In fact, one exciting night three women dedicated their lives to Christ. Praise God! They were baptized in the hotel's swimming pool. That was the highlight of the whole trip.

It was difficult being away from Collin for a week but he held down the house well and I'm glad to be back home with him.

We're connected!

Hi everyone. I'm excited to report that we finally got home phone and internet today! It makes me realize how dependent we are on these technologies.

Big News!

Baby McCormick is due to come into this world around June 29, 2008. Praise God!

We went to the doctor for the first time last night. The experience went pretty well. German doctor's offices are different from the States, very bare to say the least. At least the doctor spoke some English. I wish I had some pamphlets in English. If anyone could send us some pregnancy pamphlets in English from the U.S. that would be great, our doctor only has pamphlets in German. The best news is that mother and child are both healthy and everything looks normal. Our precious baby is 0.53 cm.

Our next appointment is December 2nd. We will let you know how it goes. We hope to have internet at home by then. Here is the first picture of our sweet baby taken by Marisa's cell phone. We were so excited to see the baby's heart beating. It is the most amazing thing in the world.

Limited communication

Hi everyone!
We still don't have internet or phone service at home. A friend loaned us a wireless stick that costs 5€/day but it doesn't always work. As soon as we get internet, we'll have lots to share with you as Marisa will tell you soon.
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Venice

We went to Venice this past weekend with some really good friends, Bernd and Ashley, from Texas. Venice is a beautiful city surrounded by water. I had never seen anything like it. You can walk from one island to another over bridges or ride a boat such as a water taxi or water bus. We road a Gondola right before sun set. We walked through St. Mark's church, listened to the orchestras play in the square at night and had a nice time. Collin and I enjoyed riding the water bus from island to island.

The one disappointment with Venice was the food. None of us were very impressed. It seemed like every restaurant had the same exact menu choices and in four different languages. Never in our lives had we spent 6 EUR for a soft drink. That is close to $10 for one drink with no refills. You can make it out of the movies for cheaper than that.

Our hotel had a canal view. It was nice except our room had mosquitoes that bit us during the night. Most hotels do not have a/c or a/c available during winter and so we made the mistake of opening our windows because our room was hot. Bad idea.

If you get a chance to go to Venice, we recommend going. It is a pretty city.

Our trip to London

Our trip to London was wonderful. Marisa really enjoyed speaking and listening to her native language. The tube was very easy to get around on. We took the Big Bus Tour of the city, went to Buckingham Palace, road the London Eye, took a river cruise, went to Princess Diana's palace and saw her memorial fountain, went to Wimbledon, and ate wonderful English food. We had a great time.

New House...Many Surprises!

Our scheduled date to move into our house was October 1st. Collin's job was going to lend us temporary furniture (i.e. a bed, closets, drawers, table, chairs, etc.) until we received our household goods. The day before we were moving in, Marisa received a phone call around 3 p.m. from a woman who said they would not be delivering any furniture to us on the 1st. She said they did not have any money to pay the contractors. That caused some problems. So that night after Collin got off work we rushed to buy a mattress. Thankfully, some of our friends let us borrow sheets and towels but we were still left living out of suitcases. Remember, German homes do not have closets.

During the first week, our landlord replaced the carpet in the second and third floors with hardwood flooring. We were very happy! Our house no longer has any carpet. It was unpleasant having workers in our home around the clock, but it was nice to have the dirty smelly carpet replaced. Our house smelt really bad. We are still trying to get rid of the smell.

We also had painters and no heat. It's in the 40s at night here, so it gets quite cold. Finally, a week later our landlord had someone out to repair the heating system.

Another surprise we discovered in our house was that we had mice! Marisa is scared of them and we both were very unhappy to discover that they lived in our new home. Collin cleared out the refrigerator and we cleaned and cleaned. We caught two and have not seen any holes. The previous renters said they saw one and thought that was all there was and got it. We hope there are no more.

Our household goods finally arrived a day early on October 6th. The workers were finishing installing the last of the floors and painting, but at least we received our things, but we still have no closets. While the movers were moving our furniture inside our house our washing machine flooded our basement and turned our clothes brown. Collin spent an hour and a half mopping the basement while Marisa took the clothes to a laundromat. Our dryer also was not working. We had clothes in the dryer for for 5 hours and they were still soaking wet.

We hope to have internet and a home phone by October 20th. We are now unpacking boxes and getting ready to go to London for the weekend. We will get our wardrobes (closets) on Friday. It will be nice to have a place to hang some clothes.