Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

This Sunday in The Woodlands The weather got a little cooler here in the Houston area . . .for a couple of days.  It was already warming back to the 80s today.  But on Sunday we got to wear sweaters and realize that no, we won’t be able to wear sandals all year long. At church I spoke with a friend who was asking how our transition was going, saying that he felt for us, having to leave Germany after just two years.  It nearly made me cry, but at the same time I was grateful for his understanding.  He knows from personal experience the work it takes to move and adjust overseas.   I’ve been looking over my notes and writings from the last two Octobers and Novembers.  Wow--the seasons are really different!  It does feel like continual summer here and, well, I’m not minding it.  Not right now, at least! The entry below was mostly written on a Sunday in November, 2011, when John was in the U.S. for about two weeks.  It was ...

Before we left Hannover she said, “And you really must keep up your blog.  I want to read about your readjustment.  If you don’t write it down right away, you will get used to things, and then forget how it felt to arrive.” Hauling the load from the grocery store She was right.  There were always excuses to not write things down.  First, we didn’t have a computer.  Then we were busy, flying to California, and then New York.  Then when I did try to write, I got so sad, thinking about our last week in Hannover, full of visits to friends’ homes, the kids romping outside with their buddies, parents eating, drinking and laughing together.  I didn’t know it would be this sweet. I remember thinking, as we were preparing to go to Germany, “What am I going to do there?  I don’t ‘love’ Germany.”  I loved the idea of castles and peasants and medieval times, travel, green countryside and snowy mountains, Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.  Ap...