Before leaving Schweinfurt, Loralynn was given a goodbye
party at her German Kindergarten in Hambach. She left school
naming all of her friends and saying she was so sad that she will never see
them again. It made my heart ache for her.
Tana spent a lot of time at Oma Birgit's house while our
house was packed up from Tuesday through Thursday. Then Dan finished at school Friday,
and we started cleaning. Between the two of us, Dan and I cleaned that place
for a total of 30 hours. It was so clean you could eat off the toilet. Our
contract said to “broom sweep” before checking out and we weren’t quite sure
how much cleaning that meant. So we decided to go all out in order to get our
full security deposit back (and we did!). We ate breakfast and dinner with the
girls each day and put them to bed. I went back to work several more hours into
the night while Dan stayed at the ranch pension with the girls.
Seufert Ranch was the absolute perfect place to stay just
before leaving Schweinfurt—even though it didn’t have internet :o). The girls
loved the atmosphere and the animals. There was constant activity around
everywhere with a kids’ riding camp taking place and a busy, popular
restaurant. Loralynn and Tana doted over the horses, tiny ponies, donkeys, guinea
pigs, giant pig, goats, sheep, bunnies, dogs, cats, geese, chickens, and birds.
What a wonderful way to end each exhausting day!
All of our neighbors on both sides (3 generations, minus the
babies) came by at various times on the weekend to bid us farewell. We even got
gifts and hugs from them! Their thoughtfulness to come and say goodbye made my
eyes tear up. We didn’t know them all really well, but we did chat and play language charades (since I don't know German well and they didn't know English well) here and
there throughout the five years we lived in Hambach. I didn’t expect such a
nice acknowledgement to our move from them all.
When we finished cleaning the house on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
we cleaned ourselves up and picked up the girls at Oma Birgit’s. She worked in
the Ledward Chapel watchcare and has spent four hours each week with the girls
nearly since they were born while I attended the women’s Bible study on
Wednesdays and went to church service with Dan on Sundays. She holds a special
place in the hearts of our girls.
After our sad goodbye with Oma Birgit, we went to the chapel
Father’s Day grill-out for some food and to say goodbye to our village-mates
Michelle A. and her family. As we left post for the last time, we all waved and
said goodbye to the buildings. Loralynn asked to say goodbye to the chapel
building. We spent so many wonderful hours there since she was born almost five
years ago…
On the way back to our ranch pension, Loralynn chose to pick
strawberries over having a pony ride at Seufert Ranch—so strawberries it was!
It was fun with the girls even though Tana wasn’t feeling well. I think it was
a wonderful last memory. We have picked strawberries every June since she was
born, too.
On Monday morning, our neighbor Lisa and her father came to
the ranch to say goodbye to us and and Nutmeg. Lisa started asking to walk
Nutmeg regularly shortly after Tana was born in 2011. Since then, Lisa and Nutmeg have
become great friends. The Maas family also came (Marco, Christiane, Alena, and
Manuel) at the same time. It was overwhelming but so nice that we had a
send-off as we drove away from our Schweinfurt home of 8 years. We will miss
our friends and life there.
(Photos to come at a later date)
