A Week of Ups and Downs

Right before leaving Paris to go back to Düsseldorf, I found out the terrible news that my aunt Sharon died tragically in an accident. Needless to say, this was completely devastating news, especially after just losing my grandmother to cancer just 12 days earlier. Going back to what I said in an earlier post, losing my aunt makes me realize yet again how grateful I am for the hope we have in Christ! Sharon was a believer, so I know she is in heaven now with Christ, being reunited with her dad who died a couple years ago and all the others she has lost over the years who were Christians. I know this time is so difficult for all of our family, but what a blessing to know that we will all be reunited one day in paradise! Without a hope like that, a tragedy like this would be unbearable. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for my family!

I have been sick all week...not surprising after flying to the states for a funeral, flying back to Europe and touring all week, experiecing such a tragic loss, then a late train back to Düsseldorf. Luckily, I had a workshop the last 3 days of the week that was great and helped get my mind off things. It was on intercultural effectiveness...I learned a ton and it was really beneficial for working internationally. I also got to see a lot of friends I'd made from the last workshop, which was fun. The only bad thing was coughing and sneezing and sniffling through the whole thing, and even losing my voice completely on Thursday.

So after a long few weeks, we decided to stay in town for the weekend and put traveling on hold for a while. It was good to just relax and recoop. Saturday night, we went to our first movie since we've been here...I found a theater that plays the movies in english- score! :) Saw Star Trek, which we both really liked (even though neither of us have been into Star Trek before). Best part of all- while we were there, we bought tickets to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Thursday...CAN'T WAIT!! The previews look awesome!

I guess I better go join Ben for the rest of the evening...he just beat Super Mario Bros 3 (the oldschool one, but we downloaded it on the Wii) for the first time in his life...all the way through, all by himself, no warps and no help from me! I'm so proud :) Now he's playing through it again since once you beat it once you get an inventory full of p-wings to play it again. You fellow gamers out there know what I'm talking about!