It is now officially less than 2 weeks until I am flying (Lord willing!) back to the United States of America. I´m really excited to see my family again and I will be living in Yakima with them this semester, which will be great!
I was going to write something else, but I forgot. Why does this happen to me? O my goodness, I think I hear Jemima crying. Can this be? I just made myself a coffee chocolate drink and was going to go read some more of the Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. After I finished
The Heavenly Man (which I highly suggest reading) I didn´t have a book to read and the Seitz´s don´t have quite the selection of books that I´m used to having around me...but I don´t know if I´ve ever read the whole book of the Little Princess adn it´s really good and well written. I´m reading it in German, and it´s interesting because there are two forms of "you" in German, the formal and the informal. When and how do they switch between these forms in a book that was written in English? In the German language there is an official verbal switch when people change from using the formal "Sie" to the informal "du". The person who is either older or of higher rank will offer the informal "du". The person translating has to sort that all out and then has to make the switches when, for example, characters who would say "Sie" at the beginning come into a friendship where they would definitely say "du".
I´m very thankful that students automatically can use the "du" form with each other. It´s stressful for me, for example, to know what to use with close friends and relatives of the von Bibra´s and Seitz...because they all say "du" but I should technically say "Sie" and then wait to get offered the informal form. It has worked out in the past, though, and I usually wait until they address me, and if they say "du" then I´ll say it back.
Well, of my life here at the Seitz. I´m planning to be here until Sunday. Then I was going to go back to Bonn, but now I´m going to keep my plans a little bit up in the air so that I can meet up with my friend Laura, who will bein France. I´m really excited to be able to see her, and I hope everything works out.
Mornings I usually come down for breakfast at about 7:15, just as the school kids are finishing. Then I eat breakfast with Naomi and Simeon and feed Jemima (the baby who eats TONS of food). That can be stressful at times, I mean Naomi and Simeon, but it works out somehow. Then they all have to get dressed and Jemima and Simeon have to get their diapers changed. I´m a huge advocate of 2 year olds learning to go on the toilet, which Simeon refuses to do. Alas.
Then I load the two little ones into the kid bike trailor and Naomi rides her bike and we all go to Kindergarten, which is about a kilometer away or maybe a little less. Then I drop them off there and ride home.
Praise the Lord that Jemima usually takes a nap in the mornings! During that time I am able to do housework and work on Chinese.
Then it all starts up again at 12:30, when Christiane (the mother) or I pick up the kids from Kindergarten. The other school kids all come home at different times and every day they come home at different times. So the school schedules are posted everywhere, but I don´t know how to intrepret them because they say, for example, how many hours the kids has that day: 5, 6, or 7. However, "hour" doesn´t mean 60 minutes, it means a class...
Anyway, the scatter in from about 1 o´clock until about 2:30. We usually eat lunch at 1:30 or so, and then the kids do homework or go to music lessons or whatever.
On Sunday I was in Heidelberg with the Seitz grandparents. They are such wonderful and generous people and I had a really nice time staying the night at their house, going to church with them, and then travelling to Heidelberg. We talked a lot and had many good conversations. God encouraged me through them and helped me recharge for the week.
God has been so generous and kind through me through people during my time in Germany. It´s really hard to describe how meaningful it is and what a blessing it has been. People have been so hospitable and generous. I´m really grateful for people like Pia and Rainer and the Seitz grandparents who took me in like one of their own. It makes me want to be generous and hospitable to people who I meet.
I hope Jemima decides to sleep longer...
Simeon grooving at breakfast. Sometimes he ate without any problems, and sometime it took some coaxing, but here he was being quite cute... 
Simeon, Jemima and Naomi. They were the 3 that I took the most care of. Simeon and Naomi I would take to Kindergarden in the mornings, where they would stay until 12:30. I was in charge of Jemima the whole time...she usually took a nap in the mornings, in which time I could get some stuff done around the house and write an email or two. She was a pretty happy baby, and has beautiful, big, blue eyes.
Naomi holding on to me before I left. 
This is how I brought the kids to kindergarden in the mornings. Naomi would ride her own bike and Simeon and Jemima rode in the bike trailor. 
The whole family, except for Johanna who was spending the night at a friend's house, took me to the train station. They waved and waved and it was a very love-filled and nice good bye. Simeon was particularly sad when I left. He told his family very frequently during the last week that I was his friend (which, in German is also the word for girlfriend, because he said I was his friend and not a friend. They all got a kick out of that...) and he wanted me to change him, take him to bed etc. He wasn't always an easy kid, but by the end it was better. God was very gracious to me during my stay with the Seitz'.
