I went through a few weeks where everything seemed extra hard. Walking to the grocery store, and carrying everything back up to our second floor apartment. Finding the number to make initial appointments at the medical clinic so I can get my prescriptions here. Learning public transit to get to where we needed to go. Feeling badly that I can’t communicate in German when I’m out and about.

Everything is new, sort of, and it makes my brain tired sometimes.

Yay! We received the happy news that our car had arrived and that we needed to obtain the proper customs paperwork and temporary registration to submit before it arrived for pick up. It was lining up perfectly with us returning the borrowed minivan that Matt’s boss had loaned to us while they were on vacation to the States and Portugal. Truly a God send. I don’t know how we would have done those first weeks without it!

But here we are. Two weeks later. Still no car.

Moving overseas with our beloved doggo has been agonizing and hard, and very expensive. In fact, it cost more to fly her over that to fly our entire family of six! And I have cried everyday about it all since March. But was it worth it? YES.

It’s a still morning before the kids are up, and I’m quietly laughing at a list in my notebook. It’s my catch-all notebook that has all of our accounting, plus travel notes, anything I’ve jotted down quick from customer service interactions, and, lately — also the little things I’m noticing here everyday. Things that are different, or surprising, sometimes frustrating. Also delights, things I’m loving and that make me smile or laugh. A lot of the things on this running list are the oddities I want to remember in these first days of apartment living.