I knew I hadn't written here for awhile, but didn't quite
realize it was SOOOO long. I'll try to keep it short for the moment, too. We
arrived home in Germany on Monday (three days ago) and it's absolutely amazing
how quickly life seems to return to "normal"--or as normal as it gets for us,
which isn't very! LOL
Very, very quick update on the last six months: we left
Germany March 6th and spent two weeks with my family in California, then headed
for Montana for a Discipleship Training School with Youth With a Mission, which
was a wonderful experience for all of us. The outreach phase (eight weeks) was
spent in Thailand, at four different locations. I loved the people and the
language and enjoyed the work we did (everything from flood relief to teaching
English to street evangelism), but, although this sounds petty, I really did NOT
like the heat and humidity! And we weren't even there during the hottest season,
apparently. After a week-long debriefing back in Montana and our graduation
August 10th, we then flew to Peru for two weeks, to visit missionary friends and
see the work they're doing, as they had asked us to prayerfully consider joining
them. We could imagine doing so, but have no clear answer from God on it just
yet. Then we spent a week visiting friends in the Washington D.C. area, which
was really a vacation--very nice. :-)
And now we're home, which is really weird. I'm very happy
to be here, I like where we live, I like our apartment, I like my friends, and
the baby (nearly 14 months old!) and I already went to playgroup this morning.
The calendar is already looking full, with a dental appointment next week,
invitations to friends, prayer meetings, and so on. But we don't know how long
we'll be here, and don't really expect to be able to stay, so part of me wants
to just stay distant from everything, not get involved, not have to think of
what to say to people.
I walked home from playgroup and realized I was nervous
about accidentally running into people I know, especially people from the school
(which I passed on the way home) that my older two children attended last year
for six months. I saw the mother of one of my son's classmates and was relieved
that she either didn't see or didn't recognize (or out-and-out ignored) me. The
legal truth is that my school-age children are no longer residents of Germany
(that reminds me, I need to call my parents and mention that my children live
with them now...) and are visiting us at the moment, which, completely legally,
they are allowed to do for up to six months a year without having to attend
school. That's the legal, literal truth. But it's uncomfortable.
Yes, I know this is long already, but that was one more
thing to mention: please follow the link to the article that ThreeLittleLadies
mentioned in her comment after the April 1st entry! It's in English! However,
it's not entirely accurate. I do have more information on the situation for the
Hamburg family, but if the president of Schuzh (German HSLDA) doesn't want to
release it, then I shouldn't either. However, one comment in the article was
just plain wrong: it said that this family may be the last holdout in Germany!
That is complete and utter nonsense. My husband spoke with one family this
morning, and while the overall news is not at all good (they put their own
children in school this year and three families in their community have fled or
are in the process of fleeing the country), they do know families who are
staying here and fighting. I know one other who is fighting, and I personally
know another four who are being ignored. There are several other families I have
to catch up with (we've been gone for six months, after all...), but I wouldn't
be surprised to hear that they're still fighting. And then there's us, but we
don't count, I suppose, because our children don't live here, and yes, we're
planning to leave the country.
There are quite a few people who are convinced that
things are just about bad enough now that there HAS to be a change for the
better soon. I don't want to think about how bad it might have to get. Please
keep praying for us and all homeschoolers in Germany!
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