Dear Eva (12 Years)

 June 20, 2025

Dear Eva,

Happy 12th birthday! What a year for an amazing young lady! It is wonderful to celebrate you together today! You are such a delight!

You have such a kind and considerate and empathetic heart. Friends and family are so important to you, and you are always looking for opportunities to connect in meaningful ways. You have almost completed your second year of Gymnasium, and although it is really a challenging school, you are succeeding. You have become a strong presenter and definitely value your friendships at school above all. Studying or doing homework with a friend is always preferred, and you are often setting up friend visits or getting invited to friends’ homes. We are so grateful for your big group of girl friends at school!

This year, we made the decision to switch churches and made the final switch in December. That has understandably been a difficult change for you, no longer having weekly connections with your three besties from the former church. You attended Jungscharlager (youth camp) with your friends last summer, and although the friend time was great, you decided you were done with week-long camping! (We are proud of you for realizing this!) We attended our new church’s retreat in May, and that was a really special time to connect and bond with the other teens and pre-teens. You had a wonderful time!

Family highlights this year were family meals together, evening reading, sporadic game times. Tiger Lily cuddles remain at the top of your list. In August we spent almost a month in London, Kansas, and Colorado. It was really special to see the Bryans, Grandpa and Grandma, and the Shaffers, and vacationing in Colorado was wonderful bonding time, especially over board games, crafts and puzzles. The Bryans also visited for Fall break, and then we spent Christmas and New Years in London and Kansas as well, followed by Easter in London with Opa and Oma able to join too! So many travels! In May/June, we flew as a family to Amsterdam for a GEM conference on the seaside. You really connected well with the girls your age, especially Annalese from Romania.

You enjoy finding ways to express your love of creativity and color. You enjoy singing and dancing and drawing. You attended a pottery painting summer day camp last year and will do it again next month. You joined a Mödling dance studio for a weekly musical jazz class and had a great performance this month! You love expressing creativity through clothing, hair, crafts and music. Oh, and rearranging room furniture, or as in the case this year, swapping rooms! You had a try-out last month with a vocal coach at the local music school, and you were invited to join the choir and work with her individually as well! She said you have a really special voice, and she really wants to work with you.

It is such a joy to us to see your heart expressed in such beautiful and unique-to-you ways. You are so deeply and fully loved by God, dear Eva.

And you are so loved by us! Happy Birthday!

Love, Mom and Dad

12-Year-Old Eva

Two Days in the Mountains

One of Nathanael's best friends from school invites him frequently to join his family in the mountains of Styria. They recently built a home there, and understandably, they spend almost every weekend and every school break in the mountains. This season, we gifted Nathanael with a seasonal lift pass for their area, and he has taken full advantage of every opportunity to join his friend skiing. During our February semester break, this family invited Eva, Gregory and me to come spend a few days with them as well. They are incredible hosts and were generous ski teachers to us as well, as Eva had only been skiing once before, and Gregory and I are quite rusty. It was an amazing couple days. My muscles were not so happy with me, but the mountain air, the beautiful scenes, the pleasant exercise, and the special company made for an amazing few days. I wish I had more pictures.

 

Christmas 2023 with Opa and Oma

It was super special to have Opa and Oma visit from Michigan! We made special memories together, baking, playing games, eating, oh, and getting sick together. Yikes!

Christmas Market down the street from our home!

Eva was in a Christmas musical at church. She did a splendid job!

For Christmas, Eva and I were gifted with a mother-daughter two-night hotel trip, and we had so much fun together!

Nath even came to swim with us at the hotel a couple times. We liked sharing the fun with him!

December Happenings

Candle-dipping at church

the ''humble'' snowman our neighbors built (after it had melted four a few days)

stockings on St. Nikolaus day

sunbathing

a snow-covered vineyard on the train to church

we had more snow than is typical here

 

Fall Celebrations and Halloween Fun

In our new neighborhood, quite a few young families do a version of trick or treating, and so we joined in this year. Sadly it was really cold, so we had very very few kids come by. Eva and a friend braved the cold and collected a sack full of candy. It was special to get to connect with a few families in our neighborhood!

Random October pictures

new glasses!

Gregory and I unexpectedly had an evening when both kids were away, so we made fajitas and pico de gallo!

Nath started playing for a different team on loan. It is fun watching him play in games!

Eva took advantage of our grass on a warmer day.

Nath finally got an actual computer for school and leisure. The hand-me-down laptops just weren't cutting it anymore.

Gregory found some great spots in our forest for pictures.

Our church shares facilities with another church, and the other church bought a new keyboard. It is quite fancy, and for a few weeks in a row, a group of guys would gather around it after the service and play around with all of the settings!

 

Enjoying the Outdoors Nearby

Eva's monthly church kids' program met on Saturday, and they made kites! So naturally, she needed to go kite flying on Sunday! We have a perfect field for it nearby.

I have two labyrinths within walking distance. I have likely posted a picture of this one before, but I had to post another. It is so beautiful and reflective here.

I try to take daily walks in the forest, and on this particular day, the view of the Vienna skyline was stunning.

 

New School Pictures

It is challenging to type a paragraph in Word when you haven't yet learned to type...  Here we go.

Eva's enjoying time with new friends at her new school.

Sometimes (really just sometimes) it can be helpful to have a big brother who is at the same school.  Working on homework...

 

Blogging buddies

I think I have something like three years of blog posts to catch up on...if I ever actually do it. Anyway, I thought I would at least take a stab at it. My main reason for posting photos is to have a digital photo album for the kids and relatives and friends, so I am motivated to not give up on it just yet. The weather has been dreamy here the past few days, and so Eva and Tiger Lily have been sitting with me in the shade on the balcony after school. Shalom moments.

Making new friends

It is difficult starting at a new school and knowing almost no one, but Eva is managing it really well.  She misses her grade school friends, and we will definitely be seeing them from time to time, but it sure made this mom's heart happy when she had a friend over to visit on the first weekend after school started. So many prayers are being answered for relationships with friends and teachers.  Thank you, God.