Why am I living in Germany?

A love story

I love my country, and I love Seattle. I never would have dreamed I would leave. I never really thought I'd get married, either. But then I met the one, and he changed everything.





I was very close to my family (we visited each other weekly) and I was living a dream - I had a great job in beautiful Queen Anne, and I lived in beautiful West Seattle and the smell of salt water was in the air whether I was at home or at work. With snowy mountains on my left and on my right, and glistening water in the middle - people come to Seattle, they don't usually leave it.

Best of all, I was finally doing my dream sport - endurance riding. Once I tried endurance riding (1999) I didn't want to waste my time doing anything else - except Mounted Orienteering, which is just as awesome. I had just acquired an awesome rig (Silverado 1-ton crew cab with an aluminum three horse slant that I modified into the perfect camping set up). During the winters I rode in the Cascade mountains every weekend, making sure my horse was ready in March.

I remember at the time thinking my life could simply not get any better, and how blessed I was to have everything in place.






How did it all change?

I was reading my Bible one day about the building of Solomon's temple and I remember wishing I could have been there to work on it myself. It seemed clear I needed a mission. So I joined my church, Calvary Chapel, in preparing for a trip overseas. Our destination was Leipzig Germany. I was already enamored with Germany but had no idea our church would be going there that year. So excited, I decided to learn German.

Is that even possible--as a "one language" American, and 35 years old? It was going to be my big experiment. I bought CDs, books, programs, even listened to an online German radio station in an effort to learn a second language.


That summer (2005) I flew to Germany for the first time with my church. We stayed with a local church branch there in a poor neighborhood and helped them out. We did drama performances on the streets, parks, and mostly at the University of Leipzig. Our performances were really something - everyone would stop what they were doing and watch. We didn't usually talk or have lyrics, it was mostly music and I learned to act! I remember I had stage fright every single performance, up til the last day. But we got through to people - afterwards people would just walk up to us and want to talk about God. I took the opportunity and used my 6 months of preparation and did my best.

Back home in Seattle I was not gonna give up on that language. No matter how long it took, I was gonna become bilingual as an adult.

One of the tools I used was a website called "My Language Exchange" where people chat online with various people around the world and practice langauges. That's where I met my man.

He wanted to brush up on his English, and he helped me with German.

In the summer of 2006 I invited him to America to show him around.

I remember at SeaTac airport thinking how odd this is, how odd he is - so foreign - he seemed nervous. Later I found out he was incredibly nervous - he'd never been far from home.

We fell in love that first weekend - that was an endurance ride weekend and he waited in camp for me. At that point I never dreamed I'd leave America - America is the country to immigrate INTO, not the opposite!

We went to Vancouver, Los Angeles, the Grand Canyon, Oregon's beaches, and all over Washington state. He loved it. He wants to see all 50.

Parting at the airport was horrible. So many tears, just like in the movies. We simply had to see each other again soon.

He surprised me by showing up one weekend - yah, a weekend trip to America!

I surprised him by showing up over Thanksgiving weekend in Germany. I stepped off the train in Wuppertal, terrified, and he was standing there. I remember he said, "Was machst du denn hier!" (What are you doing here?)

We were in love. Our airport reunions were full of happy tears (someone filmed us once!) and our partings were getting even worse.

In March 2007 I decided I'd do one last endurance ride and move to Germany the very next day. Why did I move and not him? Because he's a schoolteacher just beginning his career after 8 years of college. I was just a tech writer, and there is little job security there. Teachers in Germany are guaranteed jobs for life as state employees. Teaching is considered a good job here in Germany.

My family expected me back after a little while. I still expect to go back, because I love my home. But when the economic crisis came, I realized this was the place to start a life together.

We were married March 2008, exactly one year after I arrived. I always thought it takes way longer to get to know a person, but some of you will understand, sometimes you just know. I knew I could be happy with him the rest of my life.

I went home and got my horse, even as we were looking for properties in the country not far from Wuppertal, his home.

Baasha arrived in Germany in September 2008, and we found Finally Farm in November (I call it that cuz it took me so long to have my own place). We moved in here March 2009, and Baasha came 2 weeks later.

If it weren't pretty here I would be much more homesick. Since endurance riding here is something I'm not interested in, I'll have to find something else.

I don't know what's gonna happen in the future; in the back of my mind I feel that I'll be home someday. But for now, we're enjoying our cute little farm, we are enjoying our days together, and...I suppose my German's pretty good for an American: )

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The photos are of my home - can you see how hard it would be to leave?