A small Victory!

March 21, 2012

We are still working on getting settled in. It has been difficult because we had necessary obligations. We had to get our German resident permits, open a EU bank account, and become residents in the village we are residing in. It took most of yesterday to accomplish these tasks. I also went with the coordinator from the German Gentex office to look at a few apartments in the city of Heilbronn. Heilbronn is much closer to Dave’s work, and I think it would be best to live in the city.

Life on the farm is good, but it is a big adjustment for me. The small kids cannot go outside and play without close supervision because of all the tractors, and heavy equipment, and it is only fun looking at cows the first twenty times. J Hopefully we will find out about the apartment. It is very difficult finding available apartments in the city right now. Additionally, people are hesitant to lease to Gentex (a company), and instead of an individual. These factors have contributed to the delay in finding an apartment.

It was a humbling experience yesterday looking at apartments. Initially I felt like I was on the television show “House Hunters International”. But when we were viewing the second apartment, the owners were not thrilled with a foreigner living in their apartment, and Gentex holding the lease.

Today was a victory for me! We all loaded up in the van. (Yes we have a van!) We dropped Dave off at work, because we needed groceries (so I needed the car). When leaving his work I realized I needed to find a bank to get cash, because in small towns most stores do not accept MasterCard/Visa. You need the EU bank card, which we will receive in a week. I found a bank, went grocery shopping, and got back home, with all three kids! This was a HUGE victory! Oh the small things in life. J