When I look back at my photo album, from those days of leaving the Trudering house, there is something that stands out to me. There were no group photos of a celebration party like, when others had moved away.
There are also no pictures of the men, filling up the vans with furniture in the front of the house. This time, we were all leaving, and too busy trying to re-orient ourselves. Most of us Americans, shared the same commitment to the ministry work, and this phase wasn’t such a big deal.
When our moving date, at the end of December '78 arrived, I was trying my best to keep the girls occupied, while coping with the pregnancy nausea. Thomas, John, and a couple of the brothers, had to take apart all of the closets, desks from our private rooms, plus the office on the attic floor. Everything had to be carried down flights of stairs and then the puzzle began, of fitting the furniture into the Volkswagen vans. There was going to be quite a few runs into the city, unload the stuff, and then drive back to Trudering. Next they loaded up the “antique” kitchen cupboard, and last of all, the packed boxes from three floors in the house.
The girls and I, and Judy, tried to carry on with our day, knowing we would be waiting until the evening when the men returned. Their priority was to get the beds set up and the basics for the kitchen ready. When Thomas got back, he loaded me and the girls into the little “Ente Citroen” car to take us to our new home. This time arriving at the "Herzog Wilhelm" address, and walking up the wooden stairway, would be the beginning of a new era for our family. I was impressed, to see hard Thomas had worked that day, and had the beds already set up. Thankfully, the girls had a lot of practice traveling, and sleeping in different places. So we were off to a pretty good start.
