A couple of months ago Jonathan coined a new term that has readily become part of our everyday vocabulary. This new word is "adulting". I would best describe it as the action of facing and completing new seemingly responsibility filled situations as a grown-up independent person. Recently I've felt like we've been presented with opportunities to test our adulting skills.
For example last Saturday we had our first fire department training. Beforehand I was experiencing a mixture of nervousness and excitement. It seemed like there were a lot of obstacles to overcome, understanding what the instructor was saying, working as a team with other people to finish exercises, avoiding tripping/destroying myself while trying to carry and wield all of the equipment. As usual Jesus put kind, lovely people in our path to make things easier. Our trainer had such patience and spoke in high German which was magical. It turned out there was even another young woman doing the course. After the classroom introduction to some basic material our teacher took us outside to the fire engine and he broke us up into specific partner teams. Then we walked through how to set up the water pump and hoses for extinguishing a burning object. At the end of the night Jonathan and I felt like adulting heroes. We had faced our fears, had great interactions, and learned a ton.
Today we had to face a dreaded grown-up affair, government offices! It is hard to believe but a year has gone by and our visa needed to be renewed. So we collected the colossal amount of documents, paperwork, and pictures and headed to the county office to start the process. With these kinds of situations there is always a certain level of anxiety because it is never 100% clear what exactly will be needed from us. On the website there will be one list of required documents but once we actually talk to the people in charge they have different requirements. It can be confusing and maddening. Amazingly this time it was relatively painless getting things started. We talked to one nice lady, gave her everything we thought was necessary, and paid. She said if nothing was missing we would be able to pick up our new visas November 3rd!! It seemed very optimistic and felt distinctly like a success.
Jonathan and I have also learned that not every aspect of adulthood is intimidating. Some parts are glorious, like weekend getaways! Micah and Melia are so sweet and generous and bought Jonathan and I a two day escape to say thank you for our work on the house over the summer while they were in the states. We visited a lovely area of Austria called Burgenland. It was a perfect peaceful spot surrounded by orchards. We had a great time :)
Thanks for reading folks!
-Rach
For example last Saturday we had our first fire department training. Beforehand I was experiencing a mixture of nervousness and excitement. It seemed like there were a lot of obstacles to overcome, understanding what the instructor was saying, working as a team with other people to finish exercises, avoiding tripping/destroying myself while trying to carry and wield all of the equipment. As usual Jesus put kind, lovely people in our path to make things easier. Our trainer had such patience and spoke in high German which was magical. It turned out there was even another young woman doing the course. After the classroom introduction to some basic material our teacher took us outside to the fire engine and he broke us up into specific partner teams. Then we walked through how to set up the water pump and hoses for extinguishing a burning object. At the end of the night Jonathan and I felt like adulting heroes. We had faced our fears, had great interactions, and learned a ton.
Today we had to face a dreaded grown-up affair, government offices! It is hard to believe but a year has gone by and our visa needed to be renewed. So we collected the colossal amount of documents, paperwork, and pictures and headed to the county office to start the process. With these kinds of situations there is always a certain level of anxiety because it is never 100% clear what exactly will be needed from us. On the website there will be one list of required documents but once we actually talk to the people in charge they have different requirements. It can be confusing and maddening. Amazingly this time it was relatively painless getting things started. We talked to one nice lady, gave her everything we thought was necessary, and paid. She said if nothing was missing we would be able to pick up our new visas November 3rd!! It seemed very optimistic and felt distinctly like a success.
Jonathan and I have also learned that not every aspect of adulthood is intimidating. Some parts are glorious, like weekend getaways! Micah and Melia are so sweet and generous and bought Jonathan and I a two day escape to say thank you for our work on the house over the summer while they were in the states. We visited a lovely area of Austria called Burgenland. It was a perfect peaceful spot surrounded by orchards. We had a great time :)
Thanks for reading folks!
-Rach