Girl's Getaway to Cologne, Brussels & Amsterdam

The cathedral in Cologne

"a-a-A a-a-a-a-A A-A-AAAA" (Think Little Mermaid) THE CHOCOLATE MUSEUM in Cologne

Enjoying our chocolate drinks at the chocolate museum

The famous Cologne Cathedral

Belgian Waffles & Le Manneken Pis

A canal in Amsterdam

I love the Amsterdam architecture

DANGER ZONE!! We gorged on the cheese samples

   

The Amsterdam flower market

Back in Brussels!

This past weekend my friend Emmy & I went on a girl's trip to Belgium and Amsterdam. J and his friends also went to Belgium to do a battlefields and beer tour. I've seen enough of the Belgian battlefields, so we spent our time enjoying the scenery, eating Belgian waffles & chocolate and Dutch Gouda!! (J came home with a ton of Belgian beer gift packs & I came home with tons of tasty treats).

We spent the first evening in Cologne on our way to Brussels. We spent the morning there checking out the cathedral, a renowned chocolate museum & doing a little shopping. I forgot how much fun it is to shop with friends. Then we drove into Brussels and checked out the main sights that evening.

The next day we trained it to Amsterdam and walked a few miles all around the city. I just love the architecture of Amsterdam. I try not to let all of the drugs and sex everywhere ruin the beautiful city for me. We went to the newly renovated maritime museum, but I'd say the highlight was just walking down the canal roads. We found a hidden church which had some great history, and had such a good time we almost didn't get home. The trains all run differently Sunday nights, so we had a few mishaps and ended up missing our train from Antwerp to Brussels by TWO minutes. Yeah, the LAST train to Brussels. Thankfully, there was one that got us about 30 minutes away..and thankfully someone else was trying to get to Brussels too, so we ended up sharing a taxi the rest of the way. A little pricey, but definitely better than sleeping on the train station floor.

Our last day in Brussels we walked through some of the ritzier parts of the town, and then the place that used to contain all of the lepers, Marolles. There is some much to see in Brussels, and so many different areas, it's hard to tell when you are leaving one neighborhood and entering another.

The trip ended with a stop at a furniture shop. A Belgian woman once came to a Bamberg bazaar on post to sell her beautiful handmade furniture. A few of my friends bought pieces last time she was there, but J & I missed out. I have been green with jealousy ever since, so I just went directly to the source and got a beautiful kitchen island. I'm in love!! (And J doesn't hate it much either).

Emmy left for America the morning after we got back, so that was our last hurrah until I am back in the states. There is a good chance we will be stationed relatively close, so here's hoping!!

This weekend J & I are going to a medieval fest, so look forward to pictures! I hope you have a great weekend.

Rosh Hashanah/Where I have come in 2 years

Rosh Hashanah

Today is the start of the Jewish New Year. Shanah Tova!!!

Fun fact: this is the earliest in the year Rosh Hashanah has fallen since 1899.

Two years ago I was in Jerusalem for this particular celebration and it is always such a joy to remember my time there. I remember the blowing of the Shofar and greeting everyone with “Shanah Tovah” (have a good year). Rosh Hashanah is the start of the Jewish holiday season. Rosh Hashanah is followed by Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah & Chanukah. Somehow I ended up in that city for the new year, Atonement day, the festival of tabernacles & the celebration of the Torah. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun & learned a TON.

There is a group of Jews who call themselves the “dancing jews” and drove a van around Jerusalem during Simchat Torah. The van had a huge Torah on it and they followed it around dancing throwing the torah up in the air…it was really interesting. 

I actually started thinking about all of this last week, and then today I got an email from my old employer, the woman who I au paired for. She was rejoicing in the same things I had been thinking about. What an amazing past 2 years it has been since we were preparing for our move to Jerusalem! Her husband was already there studying and awaiting our arrival. 

Jerusalem meant so much to me. It was definitely the best time I have ever experienced in my relationship with Christ. It was a time of learning and of growth and of declaring my love to Him by being baptized. I also came in contact with some amazingly spiritually people and was often humbled to tears. I am often jealous of my time there. 

 Psalm 46:4-6
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

This is the WesternWall on the night of Rosh Hashanah two years ago. I had no idea what was going on when I heard of all of the Shofar's blowing throughout the city.

After I was baptized by Sam Fiore in Jerusalm

I took out an excerpt from a previous blog post: “Living Without Limitations” for the rest of this post:

“I keep feeling like this is just a pause out of my "real" life. That I will go back to Georgia, go back to school, go back to living with my parents, go back to work, go back to my friends, basically go back to the life I had before I left...and that was kind of a depressing thought. I want to change. I want to grow. I didn't move to Switzerland to stay the same person. And more importantly, God didn't send me to another place with completely new people and experiences to not show me something or use me in some way or teach me something.

So, I know that, when all is said and done, when I go back home in December, I will have changed...or I will have done something for the Kingdom. Maybe I won't figure it out until I am sitting in class in Georgia, or maybe I will never know. But I am sure that there is something for me, or something for me to do here. Which is exciting. Also, know that you are wherever you are for a reason.”

One thing I have been struck by recently is how my life has been so perfectly ordained. For instance, there is a possibility somewhere down the road J & I would have had a time to become friends and decide to get married; but if you take a good look at how our lives have gone, it doesn’t seem likely.

I just want to give a little timeline/reasoning for doing the things I have done & J doing the things he has done to show how it must all be some epic, pre-ordained plan:

Choice: J joined the army

Choice: I decided to be an Au Pair for family in Switzerland

No Control: J was stationed in Germany & deployed to Afghanistan Jan 2011

No Control: The family that I chose to work for decided to move to Jerusalem and take me with them Sept 2011

No Control: I had to fly back to America from Geneva before Dec 8^th (I think), because of the ticket I bought & because all of my stuff was in Geneva

Choice: I gave a blanket invite to my friends in Jerusalem to come with me so they could experience Europe

No Control: Only one friend excepted…and it was a guy

No Control: J was back from war

Choice: Try and figure out how to not have a super awkward weekend w/ just me and this guy in Geneva. Find someone to invite.

No Control: See that random friend from college (J) is back from deployment and is stationed in Germany

Choice: Invite random guy friend (J) to Geneva for the weekend

Choice: J decides to come

No Control: Guy friend from Jerusalem did his own thing most of the weekend & left J and I with each other

No Control/Choice: J & I really hit it off

Choice: J goes home for Christmas break

Choice: J & I hang out most of his Christmas break & he asks me to marry him & I say YES!

Basically, if you look at the above list, there are TONS of circumstances that we had no control over. If I had not been coming back from Jerusalem, I would not have invited a friend and then wanted someone else around to make it less awkward. If J hadn’t been stationed in Germany & gotten back from deployment when he did, I wouldn’t have been able to invite him. If I had a different day I needed to fly home, or my friend from Jerusalem didn’t want to spend time on his own and left J & I together all the time, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get to know each other like we did.

But most of all, if J wasn’t created by God the way he was, and if I wasn’t made the way I am, neither of us would have been comfortable with getting engaged after 9 days of dating. One or both of us would have thought that was insane, and he would have gone back to Germany & I would’ve stayed in America and we would’ve just chalked it up to a fun Christmas break.

Going back to my original excerpt, I am not saying that the point of my going to be an au pair was so I would end up married to J. There is SO much that came out of that amazing year in my life. I never would’ve been baptized in Jerusalem, I never would’ve become friends with amazing people like the Fiores, the Trumpers, and off the young adults at Crossroads & EBCG.

I’m just saying it was one obvious perk…

J came to visit me in Geneva the weekend I got back. This is the day I picked him up from the airport. Who knew what would come of a Swiss Christmas village and a Medieval castle?

 Psalm 48:14
For this God is our God for ever and ever;
    he will be our guide even to the end.

I will praise the Lord for what he has done in my life. I will celebrate Him and glorify Him with my life. Thank you Christ for your grace. Thank you for your overwhelming blessings. Thank you for Jerusalem, for the New Year, for J, and Michelle, Sam, Mia, little Sam, Margot & Lydia. Thank you for revealing your love to me through such amazing people in my life. 

I am exceptionally blessed. 

Soli Deo Gloria