Matthews Family Herald

Our family and I have undertaken to move to Germany and are currently finishing up the 5th phase of the 7-phase plan that takes us from preparing to leave America, over the Atlantic ocean, and on to full integration. Throughout this long process that began in August, we have experienced a wide variety of change in location, circumstances, and people we've been around.

We went from our normal routine of life to sleeping on mattresses, all in the same room, and having no furniture and few possessions. As rough as that was, we kept in mind that we still had it better than most in the world. Next, we lived for 12 days with a friend and his family. We lived in a little shed there that had no running water. There was a lot of dust and friendly spiders, ants, and bugs to share the shed with but we still had an air conditioner, electricity, and cell phones. Two of our kids contracted chicken pox during that time.

From there, we moved to a hotel room while making last-minute preparations to launch into San Diego, California. In Cali, we turned in our family van for shipment and moved into another hotel while enjoying the company of some friends in that area. We next lugged our 24 bags into an airplane and traveled for what amounted to about 18 hours across America, (changing planes once b/c of engine trouble) and then the ocean, until we arrived in Germany. We next traveled by van for an hour or so and finally checked into a hotel near Heidelberg and are now adjusting to a lifestyle where people are accustomed to much smaller living spaces and higher prices for everything.

If you read through all of that, I want to thank you for sticking with me and getting to the main point of all of this. The struggles and coordination that went with this move were and have been challenging but we thank God that it went smoothly, overall. As I talked to my family about all we had been through, it seemed right to me to point out something significant. We are a family. Through all the changes and all the places we have lived and been, we've stayed a family. Family isn't about where you live, what you have, or what you are going through. It's about serving our God and about being together. No matter what goes on in our world or our circumstances around us, we always have our God and we have the bond of each other to sustain us. This is the constant, the anchor, that gives life meaning and makes it worth living.

-Dad

Ps. Heather says that after getting used to life without all these possessions and after enjoying so much time together as a family living in close proximity, she is praying that the boat with all our stuff sinks. It's been so liberating to be free of all that "junk" and I have to agree with her. We are really planning to downsize and share life more in the future. This whole thing has been a great re-focusing experience.