Thomas had told my parents that we had a beautiful backyard.
Since learning gardening at Living Waters, he had more appreciation for someone else’s hard work out there. The people who had originally owned the farmhouse had carefully arranged the tulips in a circle around the apple, pear and cherry trees. We had made it through the cold winter, but now with the spring season upon us, we had a refreshed outlook on life.
We were gradually getting used to the radical changes, of learning the language, and the German customs. We had become friends and co-workers within our communal house, and the biggest blessing, was becoming parents of our second daughter. We wanted to share our joy, with both of our parents, who had been waiting for the news.
Thomas’ mother, had saved the baby announcement card that Thomas wrote saying; “Liebe Mutti und lieber Papa, mit viel Freude schreibe ich, euch. Hier sind ein paar Bilder von euren Enkelchen. Esther kann schon fast, ganz deutlich sehen, und sie lacht auch, schon ein kleines bischen. Naomi lernt jetzt auch Deutsch. Gott sei Dank, dass ich jetzt, etwas Zeit habe (mein gebrochener Zeh). Uns, geht es allen, ausgezeichnet. Wir grüßen euch alle, ganz herzlich. Gottes Segen! Thomas und Kristine, Naomi und Esther.“
The card is so cute because of his typical, detailed cartoon drawing, that he often added to his letters. He depicted us out in the garden, with a tree, some sheep, butterflies and a singing bird. We are all smiling, his arm around me holding the baby, and he’s holding Naomi’s hand. The unusual detail is, that he drew a large cast on his foot.
The story to that was, he had broken his toe playing soccer with the guys. We all thought it was funny, when he came back from the
doctor’s office that day, with a complete foot cast. It didn’t last very long though, he cut it off a couple of days later! He couldn’t be bothered with it!
