Finally here!

After months of planning and a stressful week and weekend before leaving, we are finally here and almost on the local schedule. June 7-9 found us still packing, getting our house ready for a remodeling, sweating over final details (do we have all the phone numbers we need? official documents? photos of the kids? plane tickets?), and dealing with last-minute minor emergencies (misplaced car keys, lost library books, a flash flood, broken clothes dryer--all within a week before leaving).

We have many friends to thank for many favors: entertaining (or offering to entertain) the kids in our final, frantic days of packing; taking care of our rabbit and cats; watering our plants; watching the house and keeping an eagle's eye on the remodeling; offering to drive us to the airport; bringing us a lovely meal our last evening at home; and even offering to wash our dirty laundry! One family is making it possible for Maya, an enthusiastic new reader, to participate in our local library summer reading program by bringing her book lists to the library and collecting her prizes for her. What a thoughtful favor!

We are starting to get our bearings in Stuttgart with the help of Cam's colleagues. In this photo, the kids are standing before a landmark in the city center, the Neues Schloss (new palace), a Baroque building constructed in 1746-1806 and former residence of the kings of Wurttemberg. (I'm thinking "new" is anything less than 300 years old???)

Meanwhile, below is our yard a week before we left for Germany. The flood brought all of the neighborhood's storm water down our gravel driveway and washed part of it into the creek.