Getting ready...

The great part of life in the Foreign Service is living in foreign countries, immersed in foreign cultures and languages, meeting people from different places and walks of life, experiencing daily life in societies that are sometimes very different from what we're used to as Americans.

The absolute worst part, bar none, is the physical act of getting yourself, your family, your pets, and all your worldly possessions from point A to point B.

Our plan for this move was fairly simple: Send our sea freight (the bulk of our stuff) to Washington about 6 weeks before we'll arrive there, which is how long it took our things to get here from Washington. Send our air freight (a smaller load of things you need more quickly) to Cleveland, so we have it before we leave for Omaha. Heck, keep a few things we'd prefer to have for these last weeks (kitchen stuff, our own sheets and towels, a small TV/VCR, etc.) and do a second air freight shipment to Washington - since both Tim and I have travel orders, we can do all sorts of creative things.

Then, after many e-mails to my point of contact in the US for the company that will be receiving our stuff, processing it through Customs, and delivering it to us, I finally called him last week and learned:
1. The air freight shipment to Cleveland wouldn't arrive until mid-July, 3 weeks after we send it.
2. Our sea freight shipment isn't due to be delivered until late August, possibly after I've gone back to work. So much for those extra days of home leave so I wouldn't have to take time off to help unload shipments and unpack our house.
3. Our car won't arrive until mid- to late-August either, so the vehicle we'd been planning to rent for our summer driving will need to be rented longer. At our expense, of course.
4. No one has done anything yet about arranging for delivery of the things we have in storage, mainly furniture we were counting on since we've been in fully furnished quarters overseas for so long.

Bugger! Now, instead of a fairly relaxed last few weeks in Berlin, we've been scrambling to call people, make arrangements that should have been made months ago (if only someone had told us this), revise our plans (e.g. find boxes and mail the things we were planning to send to Cleveland, at our expense, so they get there in time for us to take them to Omaha. Things like Pauline's portable crib, spare diapers, etc.)

The good news is, by sometime in September, we should have everything at our house, boxes unpacked, and by October I'm hopeful that we'll have the house fairly put together. The bad news is, getting from here to there is going to be a huge headache.

But there's more good news! We have a house!!!!! Thanks to a very helpful real estate agent and our good friend Kristi, we have secured a lease for a townhouse in Alexandria. It looks very nice, from the photos we've seen and from Kristi's description of it. 3 bedrooms, one of which will be set up as a guest room - we anticipate plenty of visitors! It's just off of Duke Street, so convenient to major roads and also to Old Town. And there are lots of amenities within walking distance, like a big grocery store, a public library, and a dog park. Something for everyone! It should be fairly convenient for me to commute to and from the office, which is very important. We can't wait to see it!

Friday is the big day - we'll be up with Pauline from early in the morning to close our suitcases, load the pets in their crates, and leave for the airport. We fly to Amsterdam, then to Detroit, where my parents will meet us with their van and a U-Haul (really) to schlep the six of us (2 cats, 1 dog, 1 baby, and 2 exhausted parents) back to Cleveland. We're hoping Pauline does well on the flight, or at the very least, doesn't repeat this morning's opera performance. Our girl isn't content with just talking to us anymore, now she wants to sing. Loudly. I'm thrilled that she seems to have inherited my capacious lung power, I just hope she doesn't use the flight to show it off...

2 months old!

Pauline turned 2 months old on Wednesday, May 27! It's hard to believe it's been 2 months already... or, it's hard to believe it's only been 2 months. She has already changed sooo much since she was born.

She decided to celebrate her big day by sleeping through the night. Tuesday night, we put her down in her bed (after feeding, burping, changing, singing, and putting her into her pajamas along with the nightly reading of her "Pajama Time!" book) around 7 PM; she slept straight until midnight, woke up to eat, and went back down until 5. This was so much fun that we did it again last night - we started later, so she didn't go down until 8:30, but she was out until 2, woke up to eat, and went back down until 6. I am frantically knocking on wood as I type this, but I really hope this is a trend and not just a fluke!

Other highlights from yesterday included an outing with Daddy (who had a medical appointment; Tim says Pauline was just great, willing to sit in her car seat in the corner for most of it, and more than happy to let the receptionists look after her while he got an X-ray) and a surprise visit to see Mommy in the office. This is a luxury we won't be able to indulge in once we're in Washington, but it's a great treat while we're in Berlin! I loved getting a mid-afternoon baby fix. And Tim promises that when he and Pauline have things to do in Washington that bring them into the city (museum outings, trips to Eastern Market, etc.), he'll try to make sure they fit into my lunch break as often as possible.

At 2 months, Pauline is developing faster every day, it seems. She's moving her hands a lot more now (and loves to suck on them, though hasn't found her thumbs yet); she's a pro at tummy time; she loves to sit up, if we prop her up a little bit (but doesn't get too fazed if she falls over); she has wonderful "conversations" with us, especially with Tim, where he talks to her and she vocalizes back. (She has an adorable husky voice.) We still have no idea what color her eyes will be - right now they're a sort of variable color that has aspects of grey, blue, green, and brown; if I had to pick one color I'd say greyish hazel, but it really changes. And the reddish hair she was born with is falling out; she has a tiny baby mullet on the back of her head, but is otherwise almost bald now. She's getting better and better at putting herself back to sleep, and is more willing to spend awake time in her car seat or swing (i.e. not being held constantly.) And while she's becoming more interested in some of her toys, nothing compares to her fascination with her parents. The best parts of our days now are the times we spend with her smiling and cooing up at us.

Baptism Weekend

We made it! Pauline's first road trip was a complete success. Tim, Grandpa Chuck, Pauline, Minka, and Mommy drove from Berlin to Muenster on Friday (week 4 - time is starting to go by very fast!). It's normally a 4 to 4.5-hour drive; we stopped twice to feed Pauline, but she handled most of the trip like a trooper. She was fussy once we got to our hotel, even after eating, so we set out for dinner, which entailed a long stroll once with Mommy and another with Daddy. The reward, however, for her fussy afternoon and evening was that she slept that night for darn near 8 hours straight. We'll take it!

Saturday morning we set off after breakfast for a stroll around the old city. We headed to the open-air market, which is one of the largest in Germany. Pauline seemed to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells; Minka and I decided to sit it out, after the umpteenth person tapped me on the shoulder to remind me that dogs aren't allowed in the market. We whiled away the afternoon waiting to hear from Father Boecker, who'd said he would call in the evening and wanted to meet with us at that point. Pauline and I took yet another walk in the late afternoon so Tim could get some rest, and when we got back to the hotel, Caroline and Antoine had arrived. Caro is my former college roommate; her son Antoine is like my godson, and the two of them are very close to me. We're incredibly moved that they drove up from Lausanne, Switzerland in a whirlwind weekend just to meet Pauline. Anyway, Tim, Pauline, and I set off shortly after that for Schoeppingen, and indeed, Father Boecker called while we were on our way. Our meeting with him took longer than we'd expected, but we outlined the baptism ceremony, and he gave me copies of at least some of the texts he'd be using so I could interpret them into German for Chuck and Tim. Back to Muenster (it's about a half-hour each way) for dinner at the Pinkus brewery - Pauline was harder to get to sleep, but got a solid 6 hours once she fell asleep.

Sunday morning we woke up, fed the baby, got ourselves dressed, got breakfast, and left for Schoeppingen. Pauline was an angel during Mass - it took a bottle and a bit of rocking, but she liked the singing especially. (I can't wait to see what she does with a Methodist service...) She was so calm that I was able to get her into her baptismal gown during Mass, so she was ready to go. Her gown was the same one worn by her Grandma Liz (Tim's mom), her uncle Tom, and her cousin Rosie. She also wore a bracelet from her godparents, a baptismal ring from Chuck and Beth, and a gold cross of mine that once belonged to her namesake, my mother's godmother. We held her in a lovely white silk blanket that was another gift from her godparents.

The ceremony was a lovely one, with lots of reference to the special nature of the occasion - that Pauline was returning to the home of her ancestors. Pauline didn't cry or fuss at all when she was baptized - a moment which Antoine captured on video for us. We were joined for the ceremony by my friend Beate, a colleague from the Embassy who comes from another town near Muenster and who helped us to contact the priest last fall to arrange the baptism. Beate's mother also joined us, which was neat. Other guests included the members of the local historical society we met in February, and Renate Klitz, a very distant Klitz cousin who had been in contact with Tim and Chuck years ago. Though she'd fallen out of contact, she saw the article in the local paper about our visit in February and wrote to Chuck to ask if she could come for the baptism. It was really neat to meet her and her husband, and of course, wonderful that Pauline could be surrounded by so many friends for this important occasion. We were also joined by another distant Klitz relation, who'd e-mailed us after seeing the article in the local newspaper, and by a reporter from the paper. Stay tuned for yet another media appearance by our daughter.

After the ceremony, we invited everyone to lunch in Eggerode, the smaller town outside Schoeppingen which is actually closer to the Klitz family's farmstead. The hotel/restaurant put on a great spread for us, with lots of typical Muensterland foods. Caro and Antoine had to leave after lunch to get back to Lausanne, but it was so wonderful of them to come. After lunch, the rest of us strolled to the Klitz family farmstead, where Chuck, Tim, Renate, and Pauline posed for a picture on the Klitz Bridge, and Chuck took some soil from the plot of land his ancestors once farmed. Mr. Schulze Sievert, the descendant of the landowners who employed the Klitzes, invited us to walk over to his farm, which is just adjacent to the Klitz plot of land. He and his wife had us in for coffee, and we got to continue our conversations about emigration, history, farming... all sorts of things. Tim and I both thought when we met the members of the historical society in February that Chuck would have loved to talk to them, and we were so happy that he had the chance to do so. It was such a special day.

We went back to Muenster around 6 that evening. Pauline had been perfect all day, but by then was worn out and fussing. My sainted husband took her and Minka for a walk around 8:30, to let me get some rest; I didn't hear them come back, or much of anything else until Pauline woke up around 6. (I think there may have been a middle-of-the-night feeding in there, but I slept through it.) Monday morning we packed, got breakfast, and headed out. Our angel was great on the ride home, just to cap off a wonderful weekend.

The Wait is Over!!!!

Pauline Elizabeth Stevens Klitz joined us in this existence at 4.01am Berlin time, Friday, March 27. She weighed in a 3.85 kilograms and is 21 inches long. After dealing with 18 hours of labor, Ruth Anne underwent a C-section to bring Pauline into this world. It was an incredibly long day; Mommy, Daddy, baby and Grandma Carol spent about 26 consecutive hours awake. We all finally got some rest last night. We will be in hospital for the next few days. Once we are back home, we will post pictures, call and email folks, etc.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the new baby.

We're off!

Today's the big day! Tim and I have a doctor's appointment at 9:20 this morning, then we'll check-in at the hospital and start working to get this baby born already! My mom arrived yesterday, so once we know where we'll be laboring, he'll leave me in our midwife's capable hands for a few minutes to pick Mom up and bring her to the hospital. Please keep your fingers crossed - today should be a long, but very exciting day.

Just to record for posterity (aka Pauline, and my scrapbook I suppose), we took some pictures last night of the enormous belly. Here are two favorites. (The "cross-hairs" on the black-and-white picture just show where the seam from my pants intersected with the line on my tummy. Almost, but not quite, a bull's eye to my belly button.) The side view really shows how big we've gotten:

Love, Ruth Anne, Tim, and Pauline

Almost there...

Speck seems to be increasingly eager to come out and play. We went on Monday afternoon to the oral surgeon referred to us by our dentist for a consultation for Tim. (I went along because one never knows how much English people might speak... happily, the surgeon speaks great English, but seemed happy to be able to explain a few things in German.) Tim will be going in to have a dental implant next week; the receptionist tried to give him a Thursday appointment, but found some time on Wednesday when I pointed out that Thursday was "absolutely impossible - I'm going in on Thursday to deliver the baby." When someone who looks as pregnant as I do right now says this, it does seem to have a way of magically making other times available on a calendar!

Then yesterday we had our weekly check-up with the doctor, and sometime between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, Speck decided to move downward. Even further than she already is. Her growth is fine, judging from the ultrasound, and her heartrate indicates that she's perfectly OK where she is, but she's moving lower and lower as I have more and more contractions. The doctor said he didn't think she'll come this week, but that she might not wait until Thursday the 26th, which is when we're scheduled to induce her. All the fun things I've been doing with the midwives to get ready to deliver - the acupuncture, the herbal teas, etc. - seem to be doing what they're supposed to: I'm about 30% effaced and beginning to dilate. So... either she comes a bit earlier than expected, or Thursday next week we go to the hospital for our weekly check-up (the doctor couldn't squeeze us in on Tuesday - and the magic pregnant woman effect on rescheduling is much less effective on obstetricians!) and then stay there to have a baby.

With the baby's head so low, I'm now waddling in earnest. It's gotten hard to walk - especially during the contractions, when I really feel her head pressing down. And since my hip joints have become so relaxed at this point, walking is about as uncomfortable as sleeping has become (sigh.) But, I should be able to finish up this week - though today will be a very short day; I'm congested and sore and cranky, and only planning to spend a few hours in the office. And we're keeping our fingers crossed that Pauline waits until next Thursday. We have a few things left to do, not to mention that my mom arrives on Wednesday (and Tim has his surgery appointment, which we'd like to be able to keep!)

The mail has been bringing us a nearly constant stream of baby things, courtesy of Tim's family. This will be one well-dressed little girl! It's kind of like a baby shower that goes on and on - it's been a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone!

Family roots

We've been so busy since our last post, it's hard to know where to begin. Our big news, though, was our trip out to Western Germany. We had a few things to take care of out there, including some work-related meetings for me, so we combined them into one week-long visit. Here's how it went:

Sunday we dropped Minka off at Puppy Camp (aka with our friend Regina) because one of the hotels we'd booked didn't allow us to bring her with us. Regina loves Minka; Minka is so happy to see Regina that she doesn't even look back at us when we leave. We've been very spoiled by having such a friendly and eager dog-sitter in Berlin. We then drove straight to Ahaus, which is near the Dutch border. Despite some inclement weather, we made the drive in about 5 1/2 hours including stops - not bad. We checked into the very charming family-run hotel Tim had booked for us, took a nice stroll around the town, and enjoyed dinner in the hotel's restaurant.

Monday we had to get to work. We had been sent the e-mail address of a genealogist in Eggerode, a small hamlet right outside Schöppingen, and had made arrangements to meet with him Monday afternoon. So in the morning, we went to Schöppingen, the town from which Tim's Klitz ancestors emigrated to the US, to begin some research. The clerk at the town hall recognized our name at once, and pulled some files she'd set aside for Tim in response to an earlier query, which included the emigration paperwork that his ancestors filed back in 1869. She also helped us dig through census records to find which farmsteads the Klitzes lived on, and gave us a great map of the area so we could see exactly where those sites were. We stopped off to get photos at a few of them on our way to lunch, then came back to Eggerode for our afternoon meeting. What a treat! The genealogist, Matthias, turned up with two older villagers, both of whom are active in the town's historical society and one of whom is the descendant of the Klitzes' landlords. We explained why we were there, and they took us out to the site where the Klitzes farmed. Here's a picture:

It was taken by the final member of our party, the town journalist, who wrote a piece about our visit for the local paper. We were then invited by Mr. Schulze Sievert, the landowners' descendant, to his farm, where we walked through the grounds (including several buildings that have been there since Tim's ancestors' time) and enjoyed a nice chat with these very kind folks. It was an incredible experience.

Tuesday morning we had an appointment with the priest in Schöppingen, Father Böcker. He was very friendly and happy to give us access to the photocopied church books, including marriage, baptism, and death records. We found some very helpful information on the Klitz ancestors, though wish we could have spent more time with the records. We also discussed with him the second big item on the trip agenda: would he be willing to baptize Pauline in the Schöppingen church? We brought a few records of our own, which satisfied him that we're really married and that at least one of us is Catholic. So on April 26, Pauline will become the first Klitz in generations to be baptized in St. Brictius Church.

We continued on to Paderborn, where we spent the night in another charming hotel. It's the archdiocese seat for the towns that Tim's Kaup ancestors hailed from (Kaup being Tim's paternal grandmother's family). We spent a good chunk of time on Wednesday in the archdiocese archives, where we found lots of information. We then drove to Cologne, where we would spend the night and where I had meetings scheduled Thursday morning.

Thursday was the start of Karneval in Cologne. Imagine Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Now spread it out over 5 days, and that's Cologne during Karneval. It was terrific fun to see this pageant unfolding all over the streets. Tim got a few pictures of the revelers as he explored the city on foot; I was in meetings most of the day, but we went out again when I got back at night. It's one of those things I'm glad we didn't miss during our time in Germany.

Friday we walked around the city a bit, including a visit to the magnificant cathedral, then started our drive home. It took over 8 hours, due mainly to traffic, during which poor Tim had to deal with a very cranky wife - who would have thought that our deluxe business-class hotel in Cologne would have a bed much less comfortable than the ones we'd enjoyed in the hotels we booked for ourselves? Hard mattress + 8 1/2 months pregnant = cranky and sore. Despite the stack of extra pillows I ordered for our second night.

We had a wonderful surprise over the weekend: Tim's dad Chuck got an e-mail from a distant Klitz cousin in Germany, someone he and Tim had corresponded with years ago in the process of doing their research, but with whom they'd lost touch. She saw the article and the photo in the local paper, and wrote to Chuck. She also asked if she could join us for the baptism. It should be quite an interesting affair!

Still growing...

We reached week 32 today - or week 31, if you're counting on the German system - and continue to grow. Pauline is as lively as ever, pushing and stretching and kicking and hiccuping and generally making the most out of her increasingly limited space. In the last few weeks, I've started having more Braxton-Hicks contractions (the sort of warm-up contractions that are common in the 3rd trimester.) They're not painful, but can be a bit uncomfortable, especially when Pauline lands a good kick at the wrong time.

Although I haven't had too much pregnancy swelling before this month, it seems all of a sudden it's gotten much more pronounced. Thank goodness my favorite work shoes, which are wearing out fast, have nice stretchy elastic tops to them. But most of my other shoes are getting very tight, my watch has grown a bit too small, and this week I finally had to face facts and remove my wedding rings. Alas! I let it go too long, and was unable to get them off my finger. I think I tried just about every home remedy known to the internet, but no luck. So today I went with a German friend over lunch to a jeweler friend of hers. The jeweler was able to saw them off, with only minor cuts to my hand in the process. Since both my engagement ring and my wedding band have a plain gold band on the back (normally turned back to my palm), she said it should be a piece of cake to forge them back together; I'll go back next week to pick them up, along with a very sturdy chain to wear them around my neck for the time being. The good thing is that the beautiful diamond-and-sapphire eternity band Tim gave me for Christmas last year, which I normally wear on my right hand (the hand where Germans wear their wedding rings), I managed to take off several months ago - intact. Sigh. Next time I'll know to do it sooner; I'd been hoping to avoid it entirely, but no such luck.

We enjoyed watching the various inauguration events. Tim came downtown to join me in watching President Obama (yay!) give his inaugural address, before we went to the European premiere of Tom Cruise's new movie, "Valkyrie." It was pretty good - I don't know that Tom was the best bet for the main role, but the rest of the cast was great, and the story was well developed and well researched. And what the heck, every once in a while it's awfully fun to go to the movies via the red carpet...

Our friends Melissa and Jeremy are coming to visit us next week! I've been looking forward to this for a long time. The two of them are dear college friends of mine; I'm so happy we get to see them here in Germany. We also have a doctor's appointment next week and an appointment with the midwife the following week, so hopefully you'll get more news about Pauline in the next few posts.

Exciting news!!!!

Our ultrasound appointment on Thursday went perfectly. The specialist was able to do all the measurements he needed to do - Speck's growing well, and is on average in the 65-70th percentile for growth based on gestational age. There are a few exceptions, most notably the femur bones, which seem to be more like 90th percentile. (Long legs? Can this really be my baby?) But best of all, we were able to get a definite call on the baby's gender:

It's a girl!!!!!!!!

Speck, aka Pauline Elizabeth, was very active during her ultrasound, moving her arms around and at one point sucking on her big toe. (Remember when you were flexible enough to do that?) We got some wonderful sonograms, which we'll post as soon as we can - we've been having some computer problems at home. But the important thing is that she's healthy and growing well. The specialist did an echocardiogram, which turned up absolutely clear. Liver, kidneys, lungs - all are developing normally, as are the physical structures of her brain. In short, as far as medical science can tell us, we're expecting a very healthy baby.

We decided on Pauline Elizabeth for her name. Pauline is for my mother's godmother, Pauline Hansen, who was like a grandmother to me and who was a very special person in my life. Elizabeth is for Tim's mom. We can't think of two women we would want to honor more, or two better namesakes for our little one.

Our next regular appointment will be Thursday - Thanksgiving. (It's not a holiday in Germany, so it's a great time to take care of some errands, including this one.) We have so very much to be thankful for this year.