My Mom

Today my mom graduates from college. She has officially achieved her dream after so many years of hard work and sacrifice! Today my mom proves that if you have a dream you should always follow it! My mom is the most inspiring, hardworking, and amazing  person you will ever meet. With the support of her family, she decided to go back to school and follow a completely new path in life. She was inspired by other great women in her life to follow this path and in turn she also inspired others. One of the reasons I was so determined to go to Europe, besides me just being plain stubborn, was my mother. She inspired me to follow my dreams and fight for what I want in life. My mother is amazing, she is beautiful, she is kind, she is caring, she is a mom. She has given me so much love and support even though we are so far apart. I get at least one “Good morning sweetheart. I love and have a great day at school” texts at least once a week if not more. Thanks for always being my sunshine when my skies are gray. Thanks for loving me, taking care of me, and for watching Disney movies with about a million times. Thank you for showing me what a mom should be. But most of all thank you for being my mom and loving me flaws and all!

My mom

Let the Good Times Roll

So I know have a little less than 4 months left in Deutschland. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here this long. I have really enjoyed my time so far in this beautiful country! I have been able to see historic places I had only read about before coming to Germany. The castles and scenery are unbelievable. Last weekend I was lucky enough to be able to visit the breathtaking city Köln. I visited the city during the season of Karneval. I went with some of my friends from school, Lara and Sophia L. I was dressed as a woodland fairy, Lara as Minnie Mouse, and Sophia L. as an American school girl. We went and watched the parade, where we got candy and flowers. Though sadly, here in Germany they do not give out Moon Pies. I later met up with a few of my American friends and finished watching the parade with them. We ended up eating lunch in an American restaurant, Hard Rock Café. Yes I know, why would I eat there when I am in another country surrounded by all kinds of restaurants. Well I have been in Germany since August and let me tell you sometimes you just crave American food, something familiar. But it’s the good friends that I have here in Germany that keep me well and happy and all of my family back home praying for me!

Also a shout out to my one of my best friends here in Germany Sophia H.! Thanks for being my table buddy and putting up with all my stupid German related questions! 🙂 ❤

I found Minnie Mouse and a girl from America! 😉

Karneval!!! ❤

May my Spirit be Brave

“May my heart be kind, my mind fierce, and my spirit brave.”

“Be bold enough to use your voice, brave enough to listen to your heart, and strong enough to live the life you’ve always imagined.”

“The Lord God is my strength, my bravery. He will walk me through places of trouble and suffering.” ~Habakkuk 3:19

I pray for bravery, for kindness, and for humbleness. I pray that when God calls my name I am brave enough to answer, kind enough to spread his word through actions, and humble enough to see when I have done wrong and try and make amends for it. Life is fleeting so living behind the fear of the unknown is a life without risk and a life without risk is a life without adventure and discovery. Fear can be just as hindering as having too much confidence in oneself, but when you have both its called courage and courage allows you to do amazing things! “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.” (John Wayne) Life isn’t about living without fear but find the bravery and courage to overcome your fear so you can live your life your way. “Kid, you’ll move mountains!! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way!” (Dr. Seuss) If you want to move your mountain you have to go outside your comfort zone, you have to go on an adventure, do something unexpected (like move to another country where you do not speak the language ;D). “The brave don’t live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.” You may not live forever being brave, but you will have a lifetime, however long it is, of laughter, friendship, and love. These are things that no matter how long you live aren’t worth living without. So be brave, be crazy, do something unusual. Surprise yourself and others for once, be the shining star God wanted you to be! Let the grace of God shine through you in everything you do and say. Let the Holy Spirit fill you and lend you God’s strength. For he, God, WILL lie you down in green pastures and lead you to still water.

Sometimes Christmas Comes Late

“Life is like a camera; you focus on what’s important, capture the good times, develop from the negative, and if things don’t work out take another shot.”

I finally received my Christmas presents from my family. The package from my mom has been held by the German customs office since before Christmas. Though I was disappointed to not receive my gifts before Christmas, I do have to say it was really fun having an extended Christmas. My parents were amazing; they tried to fit my traditional Christmas at home into a box and sent it to Germany!  Had no idea what to expect as I opened my box. Inside I found wrapped presents from my family, even my stocking and one present from Santa Claus. (Maybe Santa hijacked my present and that’s why it took so long to get here!?! :D) Though I love it here in Deutschland and will be sad to leave, I will also be so happy to see my family again. Being away from my family, friends, and home has made me appreciate them all so much more! You truly do not know what you have until you don’t have it anymore (thankfully I only have to wait 6 more short months till I have it again)! Making a big life change is scary. But do you know what’s even scarier? Regret! I would rather face my fears, and I encourage others to too, because you never know what adventure YOU could find, how YOU could change, and the people YOU could meet. YOU should always do what makes YOU happy, be with people who make YOU smile, laugh as much as YOU breathe, and love as long as YOU live! Never be afraid to be YOUrself, because if YOU are happy other people’s opinion does not matter. Be who makes YOU happy!

“We tend to forget that HAPPINESS doesn’t come as a result of something we don’t have, but rather of RECOGNIZING and appreciating what we DO HAVE.” ~ Frederick Keonig

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas and a Happy New Year

“Best friends are the people in your life that make you laugh louder,

smile brighter and live better.”

I am sure everyone is expecting some kind of Christmas or New Year post since it is that time of year, but for the sake of my sanity I am choosing to write this post instead on friendships. With the start of the New Year just around the corner I’ve decided to reflect on all the new things in my life, all of the new people.  I would rather have one best friend than one hundred friends, and the people I am meeting here aren’t just friends. These people are best friend material; they are patient with me and work with me as I struggle with learning German. I am thankful that I have them in my life and plan on keeping them in my life even after I move back to the USA. A true friend is one you can sit with, not say a word… and still feel like you had the best conversation ever! I can always tell when I make a new best friend when they aren’t afraid to laugh at me on a daily basis! I’ve thought the best friendships are the people who laugh when you fall but always help you back up once they finish laughing. I can’t imagine my life without my new friends now, when June comes around I don’t know what I’ll do. On one hand I’ll be happy to go home to my family In the USA but on the other I’m leaving behind me new family. I’ve bonded with people over Disney, Vampire Diaries, and shared foreign exchange trips. These people are one of the main reasons I’m not terribly homesick, they keep me distracted and laughing! So thanks to all my new friends for being there and for all the new memories!

A German Thanksgiving

Seeing as Germans do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I of course wanted to throw a Thanksgiving feast for my Gastfamilie. Unfortunately, my family was unable to celebrate on thanksgiving so we chose to hold our “German” Thanksgiving on December sixth. The Friday before the dinner we went to a big store in Seigen in search of the most important part of any Thanksgiving dinner, the turkey. Germans for some reason eat about every other animal and bird known to man except for turkey! We had the hardest time finding me a beautiful turkey to cook, but after what seemed like forever, our searching was rewarded. When we found the turkeys there were only two left, so we grabbed one of the turkeys and finished gathering the rest of the ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner. When we got home we were faced with our next challenge, how to fit the giant turkey into the very small German fridge. After a lot of rearranging and careful placement of food we had the turkey in the fridge soaking in salt water to brine it. On Saturday I woke up and after a quick bite to eat I started to cook. For thanksgiving dinner I cooked a turkey, hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, and deviled eggs.   I seasoned the turkey with garlic, butter, lemon, rosemary, salt, and pepper. My Gast-Eltern, my host parents, also invited both of their parents over for dinner. We had a full table of nine for Thanksgiving and I can honestly and happily say the Germans loved Thanksgiving! Everyone loved the turkey, and my Gast-Vater’s mutter, my host dad’s mom, loved my deviled eggs. My German Thanksgiving was a success.

The turkey in the fridge.

My finished turkey.

Gather here with Grateful Hearts

“Laughter is timeless, Imagination has no age, and Dreams are forever!” ~Tinkerbell

“Show respect even to those who don’t deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but as a reflection of yours.” ~Dave Willis

“Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.” ~Unknown

“Family is like branches of a tree, we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one!” ~Unknown

“Those we love can never be more than a thought away… for as long as there’s a memory they live in our hearts to stay.” ~Unknown

With Thanksgiving this month and only a week away my thoughts have begun to drift towards family and everything I have to be thankful for. To me family is not always the people you’re related to but also people who you choose, because you could not imagine a life without them in it! These are the people who see you for all your faults and love you more for them! The people that will always care about you no matter how far you move away from each other! People who would rather make you laugh then cry, who will pick you up when you fall down (after they finish laughing of course), who will lend you strength to carry on when your strength fails you, and who would not think twice to give you the shirt off their back! I would rather have one of these kinds of people in my life then twenty friends who do not really care about me. So today I am thankful for my family and friends! I cannot thank my family and friends enough for always being there for me when I needed them, never asking questions, never complaining, just coming when I called! I am proud to say my family is made up of some of the most loving and supportive people I know, I love each and every one of them for who they are! So thank you God for gifting me with all these wonderful, inspiring people in my life!

Neuschwanstein Castle and München

I am so sorry its been so long since I last up dated! Well like the title says this post is about Schloss Neuschwanstein and München. On Tuesday of our vacation we went to visit The Neuschwanstein park. The park includes the Castle Neuschwanstein, the Castle Hohenschwangau, and a small village. In the village you can eat in restaurants, stay at hotels there, and souvenir shop! The Castle Hohenschwangau is the castle of King Maximilian, King Ludwig’s father. King Ludwig is the king who built Schloss Neuschwanstein between the years 1869 and 1886.

Schloss Neuschwanstein

Schloss Hohenschwangau

We spent the whole day exploring both castles and me buying tons of souvenir stuff, more then I want to admit to! Well I’m only in Germany once so I’ll worry about how I am going to get all of my new memories I am collecting later. There is a beautiful lake set off to the side that would take anyone’s breath away, the water looks like glass at first glance!

  

The inside of both castles was even more gorgeous then I could have ever dreamed! Each step that I took had me amazed at the attention to detail in the castles. I felt like I had stepped back in time as I walked through both castles! Even though Neuschwanstein is unfinished it is still stunning! Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures of the inside of the castles so I am unable to show y’all what I am talking about.

We left on Friday for München and stayed till Sunday. On Friday we went exploring around München and I bought my dirndl! My dirndl is blue, brown, and white. On Saturday we went by train to the Olympic center there in München, Germany hosted the Olympic Games here in the summer of 1972. We then ate at a typical Bavarian restaurant for dinner. It was really entertaining to be able to eat at a restaurant that served the traditional food of this area. I had a delicious fish dish with steamed mixed vegetables and potatoes.

Olympic Center

Olympic Center

Olympic Center

Olympic Center

Old church in München

Holiday day 1

We left Saturday morning and drove to the hotel where my family likes to stay. The hotel is a family run place, the couple has three kids. The two oldest are close to my host siblings ages. Our room is on the top floor with a nice balcony. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a den. On Sunday we went to a mountain close by and hiked to the top. The view hiking up was breath taking and once we got to the top it was unbelievable! At the top there was a cool statue of a cross. We ate our lunch at the top and relaxed for a little bit before hiking back down. We came home and had a delicious dinner. It was a great day and a great way to start our fall holidays!

Here I am Lord

“Here I am Lord.  Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me.”

“If God is for us, who can stand against us?” ~ Romans 8:31

” I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” ~ Philippians 4:13

Looking back time has seemed to move at a snail’s pace but at the same time lightning fast, if that is even possible. It seems like an eternity has paced since I have left Alabama. It is almost October now, which means I have been here for almost three months! How weird is that, I keep waiting to wake up back home in my bed and all of this just being a fantasy! It’s bizarre to think this whole adventure started because of a dream I had when I was a little girl! God planted the suggestion for my goal at a young age with my love of history and discovering where I had come from. Though most people never thought I would make it to Germany this young, me included, it goes to show what we don’t know about what God has in store for us! His plans for us exceed anything we plan ourselves. There is no use trying to guess what these plans are since they will always be superior to what we can imagine for our futures. God placed so many people in my life to help me get to where I am today. He threw open ever closed door in my path to Germany, to my scholarship. He could not have made it clearer that he wanted me in Germany, on this exchange year if he had told me himself! Both my parents and I feel like this is where I am supposed to be right now, this is where God wanted me to be!