I know something beautiful awaits us.

I've been spending a few nights recently looking into apartments in Vienna.  Greg's in Boston, and that means no one is telling me that I should be going to bed.  So I lose myself in taking in all the information I can on the city to which we will relocate soon.  It's a time-consuming project, apartment hunting in a foreign language!  I pour over our German-English dictionary (Thanks, Nick & Deb!) looking up key words such as commission and deposit and central heating. :)

In some ways, it has been encouraging.  I am learning so much...about the different districts of Vienna, about the cost of apartments, about how heating and electricity works (though I don't quite have that one figured out).  I'm also discovering that it's not likely we'll find an apartment within budget that has an extra room for an office/guestroom/2nd kid's room.  Though that's somewhat disappointing, it's helpful to have that frame of mind going into the move rather than being stunned by rental costs when we arrive.

It is somewhat strange moving to a city I've never visited.  I guess our move to Boston in 2006 was similar, unless you count my 8th grade history trip.  We had no idea what parts of the city we could afford or where we would work or where our church community would be located or what would even be a good fit for us.  But even though Boston was somewhat foreign to us, it wasn't really foreign-foreign.  Vienna is a new city, a new language, a new culture, a new community, a new job...  It is exciting, and it is a little crazy too.

I do not know where we will live in Vienna nor how life will play out for us in those first few years, but I do know one thing:  God is our provider.  He has a great plan to bring glory to His Name through our lives lived in the place He has called us to be.  He will set us up in an apartment that will enable us to pour out our lives for Him - into each other, into our neighbors, into a community of Christ-followers, into the Turkish immigrants who may also feel somewhat out of place in Vienna...  I am so excited to see how God turns all of this craziness into something beautiful.

Schönbrunn Gardens, Vienna
source: http://www.benoa.net/austria/vienna/pages/Vienna-07.html