Austria Trip - First Day Flurry of Activity!

Baby Kirsten

I got up this morning and took another shower. After going to bed with a wet head, I had quite the bed-head look going. I definitely needed to rectify that! Taigen and Stan had gone across the street to a local bakery (Strock) and had brought home pastries. These are dangerous!

After breakfast, I finished getting ready and then went shopping with Grace for groceries. We needed to go to two different stores in order to acquire all we needed. It seems similar to how I shop here at home: Market Basket for food items, Walmart for cleaning products. We needed to drive to get to one store, then came home to unload those groceries, and then walked to the one just around the corner from the Sheltons'. This proved to be so very convenient!

Austrians don't have large refrigerators. It makes it invaluable to have a store nearby because of the frequency of the trips you have to make. Another item to note: their milk does not come in gallons (I know, I know...obviously...they are on the metric system...), but in containers that would probably be a little less than a half gallon. That means, if I lived in Vienna, I would go through 12 of these a week! I had better have a store just around the corner! Grace also told me that she basically has to rearrange her refrigerator every time she puts something in. It's hilarious. She's really good at making it all fit. It's like a puzzle each time. Let me tell you, that fridge, and the other one they have in the basement, is chalk-o-block full!

Tonight, the Sheltons were to have their neighbors over for dinner. On Saturday, they were going to have neighbors and friend from the school's PTA (they work with Stan who is the president of the PTA) over for an All American Grill Out. Grace needed to make sure we had all of the big items for these two functions. Hamburger, bratwurst, buns, corn on the cob, etc. After the grocery run in the morning, we blitzed home and got the house ready for company. That meant putting all of the furniture back in place, sweeping, moping, putting the kitchen back to rights.

Somehow the Sheltons heard that we had never been to IKEA. They have one not too far from their house and they told us that we should go! It's quite the experience. We took off and had lunch there (hot dogs) and then slowly wound our way around the ginormous store. We wanted to see if we could be observant and hear of any needs the Sheltons might have that our church could take care of for them. It would be a gift from our church family. We had asked Tammy and Meg about some needs the Hudsons had and so we were also going to look for some nice towels to replace their well-loved (i.e. threadbare) ones. Grace found some inexpensive curtains that could replace her old ones and bring together the new wall color and the couches.

We came home and Grace went to lay down. She had had a rough night apparently. I came downstairs to the cool basement to read my Bible and then catch up on my journal. When I finished, I went upstairs to see what I could do to help. With a family of seven plus two guests, there is no end of dishes! I loaded what I could in the dishwasher and washed and dried the rest. I know it's not glorious to wash dishes, but every dish I wash is one less that Grace has to do!

Grace came down the stairs and started in with dinner. She was making turkey, peas, carrots, rice with white sauce. The neighbors arrived for dinner at 7:30. They live just behind the Sheltons. The husband is away on business, but the wife and her three sons were able to come. They are very polite and the conversation around the table flowed nicely. She asked questions about why we were there and then several questions about Christianity in general. Taigen and Stan tag teamed the answers. It was really wonderful to see the two guys work together.

After dinner, Stan and Grace mentioned that Taigen and I sing. They asked if they could hear us, so we sang a few pieces. Their English is very good (they are originally from India), so we were able to sing our song that were in English without fear of them not understanding. They were very appreciative of the mini-concert.

After they left it was a flurry of activity. Grace and Stan put the kids to bed and Taigen and I cleaned up the kitchen (sweeping, washing dishes and drying). We sat and chatted with Stan and Grace for a while and then the guys headed to bed. Grace and I enjoyed a few more moments of quiet conversation. I wanted to have an opportunity just like this in order to gain a better perspective of her heart and how she is doing. How could I be a better encouragement to her? How can we as a church support them better? Before we realized it, it was midnight. We needed to get to bed! I'm so thankful for the friendship of Stan and Grace and their faithfulness here in Vienna.