A strong dose of perspective

Last Saturday while my family was enjoying a carefree evening of dinner and trick-or-treating with friends, a fire started in a warehouse here in Stuttgart. Not just any warehouse. It held the household goods and cherished items of almost a hundred families arriving or departing the US Garrison here. Beds, children's bikes, pots and pans, hard drives, wedding and baby pictures . . . all gone. It took 350 firefighters until Tuesday to extinguish the final embers. Deliberate targeting of US goods is being investigated.

I know of two families that were set to move in on Monday and were in their empty new homes waiting for the trucks to deliver their things only to receive a call about the fire. Their kids were eagerly anticipating coming home from school to their own stuff and beginning to feel settled. These families have been living in hotels or with lending closet furnishings for days or even months now in transition.

Can you imagine how devastating? It's one thing to lose everything and another to anticipate the ordeal ahead to replace it all in a new country. But add to that navigating three bureaucracies for reimbursement? It just makes your heart break!

From what I understand, reimbursement for losses can be sought through these three avenues. First, the contracted shipping company/warehouse will reimburse just $4/lb, up to $50,000. The army insurance cap is $40,000 of detailed receipts, pictures and present value estimations are inventoried and submitted correctly. And lastly, some may have personal insurance to help cover losses. At first glance, those sums seem pretty adequate until you fathom the immediate needs to fully furnish a house from scratch versus the lengthy reimbursement process, particularly for those arriving here where the dollar isn't as strong as the euro. Furniture to eat, sleep and gather on (I think I've mentioned this is a land of no built in closets too); large and small appliances we rely upon for everthing; linens; clothes for the entire family beyond the suitcases they brought for fall; home electronics; baby gear and wardrobes . . . When we moved, we had shipped our car with our house goods and unfortunately some of these have as well.

I awoke this morning not being able to get their plight out of my mind. I don't know any of the families personally, only some as acquaintances of friends. I've been inquiring how these families will be helped with immediate needs. One was asking where to buy affordable light bulbs since it is customary in many German homes to have to outfit the home with bulbs and fixtures upon moving in. I think each bulb I bought recently was at least 2euros a piece. Many families are not offered housing on base now if above a certain rank and living on the economy can be shocking. Some apartments off post will often be without kitchen cabinetry or appliances and I've never heard of them having washer/dryers already.

Our ward is doing up some baskets for a new family in the ward that has been able to communicate a handful of needs. It will be difficult for so many to ask for help and accept it.

My friend whose husband is a chaplain said that after the Fort Hood shooting tragedy a year ago, the chaplains observed that they were in a good position to channel donations with more ease than many other efforts. They will likely dedicate some services to these families and collect tithes and offerings as well as set up a dedicated bank account that people can donate to. My friend has taken two affected families under their wings, having them over for dinners and even celebrated one of the daughters' birthdays.

My neighbor mentioned Operation Homefront to me and their work looks very admirable. She had told her her friend who was affected to set up a PayPal account, an Amazon Wish List, a Target registry and so on so people can buy them things they actually need and like or cover Christmas gifts. We're checking our baby clothes stashes for winter stuffs for their 4 month old. Again, dinners were shared, sympathies extended were actions.

There is a community yard sale site here kinda like a CraigsList where my friend suggested people could post items and say they were free to families affected by the fire.

I am sure the Garrison is working hard on the needs assessments collected this week to pull resources together. I know the families will be alright and that while devastating, "things" can be replaced.

I guess I'm having a bit of survivor's guilt and feeling useless to help. How ungrateful I am to live in comfort and having been blessed as I have been. I've recently been rather silly and short fused, making mountains out of mole hills. But this is the month of Thanksgiving, immediately followed by the season of giving in commemoration of our Father's ultimate gift, our Savior. And rightly so!

Happiness is . . .

Happiness is not having to leave the house in the dark of morning to scrape ice from the van to get Easton to the bus stop. HURRAY for Ryan being able to take over that now as he heads into work!

Happiness is keeping a snotty-nosed, coughing 3 year old home from kindergarten so I could snuggle and read to him on the couch instead of bundling him and the baby up to walk to school. Instead we're still in pajamas at 1pm and he's crashed on the couch taking a nap after eating chopped up celery with spritzes of balsamic dressing! This kid's food choices amaze me sometimes!

Happiness was earlier watching this 3 year old show me how fast he can run in his Super Suit, ie. the thrift store "Incredibles" costume for $1.50, while having to hold up his breeches since it's a 5T size. Heaven smiled on me Monday when I found this steal!

Happiness is having a full spread enchilada, bean dip, spanish rice, cheese sauce, chips and guac dinner ready for the missionaries tonight done by noon! I'd make salsa but haven't found a recipe I like yet. Got one?

Happiness is being Morgan's favorite playmate and jungle gym because I can be home all day with her! Of course, today that requires having her snot and drool all over my shirt because she's teething and her preferred method of contact is smashing her face into wherever suits her whim. Her giddy chatter and giggles make my day every day!

Happiness is knowing all library items were finally returned and I found two fun books to read if I so choose! I'm needing a breather from Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling which I'm enjoying but it's a thick, long read. So now I've got Austenland and Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. Liking them both so far. The other night as I began "Four Seasons", Ryan and I got some good chuckles remembering our own transitions moving our real young family to a foreign country and all that entails in the first few days.

Happiness is knowing Ryan gets to come home every evening to our family and be my best friend and a fun daddy to our kids! We are blessed!!!

Happiness is feeling like we're getting a good education at FPU developing a sound financial plan together so we can be ready for rainy days and make our money work for us.

Happiness is being spun in circles in the Man Chair by Morgan getting her laps in while I finish this.

Happiness is those darn delicious brownies Ryan makes calling for my attention! I'll have to catch ya'll later because happiness is eating them, not listening to them . . . unless you're my hips.

Christmas Spirit Wagon - All Aboard!

I feel like Christmas snuck up on me this year. I've been pretty sick this past month which I won't go into here, but sufficed to say that my functionality was greatly compromised. Doesn't that sound better than being reduced to canned soups, naps, not being able to sleep more than 2 hours at any time day or night, and not really leaving the house for a few weeks? Anyhow, I'm getting on the mend and loving Christmas this year. I think it's because Easton is starting to understand it which just makes me so excited!

With our little homeschool preschool group, I got to introduce the Christmas season last week and I loved how it put me in the Christmas mood! It was all about giving ourselves in loving service and celebrating the birth of our Savior. The kids really got into it and I am really enjoying talking about the nativity story with Easton as it comes up every day. He's so perceptive and it's fun to see that light go on. Yesterday as we were driving into DC for my work party, we were listening to the Scripture Scouts account of Jesus's birth which I love! It spoke of Jesus being born in a stable and not a hospital. Easton said, "Mom, stables have hay where Jesus was born. But I, when I was a baby, was born in a hopsittle." Then he wanted me to recount his favorite hospital story/song about how I sang to him the first time he cried. I loved talking to him about how angels came and told the shepherds to follow the star to find the Savior and how the kings also followed the star to find Him. I'm soaking up rediscovering what Christmas is all about through Easton, making it accessible and simple to him and me.

Not to forget the Santa aspect which Ryan really gets excited about sharing - Easton's loved watching the old Christmas cartoons that come on every year. He's still young and innocent enough to only want one thing for Christmas - a GeoTrax train like Owen's. Although he's now added a candy cane and a video game. (Ryan had borrowed a friend's Wii play system - the kind where the controller can let you swing a bat or play ping pong - and Easton LOVED the cow race arcade style! Tooo cute!) Anyhow, I just love that he doesn't yet embrace the "I want it all" syndrome we get too fast as kids!

I am also simply loving McKay's stage right now at 20 months. He loves to just play and explore everything around him until tuckered out. Then he just comes over to me, says "Up peese" and settles into my lap sucking his thumb and contorting his ear. I regularly have to remind myself to soak up these solicited snuggles while they last! McKay pulls chairs, stools, or stacks books up to whatever he wants to get into or turn off/on. McKay actually will head to the basement on his own to play and I've found him putting together Easton's train tracks that work like puzzle pieces - brilliant boy! He's saying "'elp Peese" and "Ank-woo" for just little things like help getting up or down, receiving a bowl of Cheerios to munch on or his favorite yogurt. This is also a fun time because he loves to celebrate himself with exclamations of "Ta-Dah!" or "Yeah!" complete with claps or arms thrown in the air! He loves to get his groove on to any music playing, especially if he turned it on and I LOVE that impish smile of sheer joy!

Right now McKay is pushing buttons on a funny noisy toy and looking up at me saying, "Mom-Mom, it funny." The nn is more of a yy sound, but it's hilarious to me that he gets it!

There is, I admit, always an exasperating spell or two per day where I joke with Ryan about McKay taking my name in vain. You know when little ones have only one volume button and it's hollering your name over and over just because they can or often just wanting acknowledgement of each move they make? When McKay's repeat button is stuck, it's him hollering "Mom-Mom." It cracks me up that I can give him specific directions or reason with him

McKay is our kitchen quality control because he likes to sniff and taste every ingredient. If Ryan is in the kitchen, he actually just toddles over to Ryan with his mouth open wide either grunting or saying "Peese!" because if Ryan's in the kitchen, he's making some sort of treat!

Back to my original thought about catching the Christmas spirit. The prophet said in his Christmas fireside that with all the hard things people around us are going through, we should be saying, "It's Christmas Time. What can I do for you?" I've been thinking about that a lot these past two weeks because for the past few months now I've been so blessed to be a recipient of others' service. Recently struggling with my health, I was surrounded by Ryan, my best friend Rach who came for Thanksgiving, my sister Brooks who also visited and always cheers me up, my mom calling to check in on me, and many devoted caring friends that saw through my feeble attempts at stoicism when I just wanted/needed to crumble. These caring friends exemplified the two following recent quotes from Elder Teh's General Conference address:
- "Our Heavenly Father places loving individuals on important crossroads to help us so that we are not left alone to grope in the dark."
- "Serving others need not come from spectacular events. Often it is the simple daily act that gives comfort, uplifts, encourages, sustains, and brings a smile to others."

It fits so perfectly with the short quotes in this month's Visiting Teaching about Becoming an Instrument in the Hands of God by Exercising Charity. How lucky am I to be blessed with so many caring friends that I did not feel forsaken, but instead felt completely buoyed through a rough time and joyful for such good women! In fact, I was not able to retreat from some of their efforts which in the end endeared them to me even more. Thank you wonderful friends - I hope you know who you are and if you've had contact with me in the past few weeks it is you!!!

On a trivial note of love to my cute boyfriend - Ryan still trumps you all because he installed a new faucet in the kitchen for me which makes me want to belt out a Hallelujah chorus every time I turn it on! Ryan's always doing little things for me to show he loves me, such a great heart! Funny story actually - Easton's first use of the faucet that night and he exclaimed, "Mom! Is this one of my Christmas presents?!" Man I love my guys!

My family has been so blessed in the past year with health and employment that I'm just so happy I'm home with the kids, that Ryan has a job he enjoys, that we have everything we really could need or want. I have a cousin whose house burnt down in the California fires. I think of her often and others I know who are currently struggling with various things. So many of us are so blessed, do we do enough to share ourselves and lift another's burden?