"I just want to be someone who brightens up as many people's days as possible while I'm on this earth."

Today so far I've cleaned up a 6 year old's poopy underwear, made sure that that same 6 year old is drinking enough water because he has a little stomach bug, cleaning up the living room, and bumming around.  But my day changed when I was cruising various videos on Youtube a few minutes ago and decided to search some Tim Tebow interviews.  I saw one from ABC news where he was questioned on his faith, his transfer to the New York Jets and his personal life.  At the end, he said "you know I just want to be someone who brightens up as many people's days as possible while I'm on this earth."  And you could tell that that was honestly what he wants to do with his life.  Not score the most touch downs or play for the coolest NFL teams, but he really, truly wants to just make people's lives a little better by coming in contact with him. 

Having gone to Belize this summer, where people have so little and yet are so thankful, that interview made me think back to that mission trip and how it changed my perspective on life.  Sure, having all the stuff that you think is important is nice at first, but then you realize that making a difference in the world for the better and letting your happiness in life make someone else happy is the most important thing.  I don't know, I just thought that quote from Tim was really interesting because he's such a talented athlete and yet he isn't even really concerned about that part of his life.

Another reason why that spoke out to me is because, if you smile or show any sign of joy in Berlin, people look at you like you're crazy.  Granted, Germany's history with wars and hardships hasn't exactly been anything to be happy about.   But that's kinda why I like it here.  In the US, everyone "looks" happy and says that life's great so you don't really know who's telling the truth and who's not.  But here, if you are the least bit happy in your day to day life, you stand out.  Imagine if I let the joy that comes from knowing the King of the universe be on display for everyone to see?  Because I feel like when I am smiling or have a little pep in my step, it may not always be for the right reasons.  But truly letting the love and the joy from the Lord shine through me and giving it free reign in my life rather than finding other things to be happy about would really make a difference in my life and those around me.

the little things

So, as most of the world knows, tonight is the opening night of the Olympic games in London.  And, being that my two nephews are in bed and my niece, Reagan, was gonna stay up, I began watching the opening ceremony with her.  She then, said "I'm hungry.  Do you want something?" and I said "Yeah, could you make me a peanut butter and honey sandwich?" and she said "sure, I'll be right back."  Five minutes later, she comes into the living room with the cutest little setup on a tray: 2 glasses of ice water with straws, a tupperware box with 2 sandwiches in it and some extra peanut butter.  She already is a greater server and clearly enjoys making other people comfortable through her service.  It's so darn cute. 

the joys of being an aunt

One of the cutest and most entertaining things to do is to witness Gideon, who's 6, and Jesse, who's 3, interact.  Their conversations are adorable.  Jesse already looks up to him and so whenever he can learn something from Gideon, he jumps on the opportunity.  He also tends to want to do exactly what Gideon does, which gets on Gi's nerves.  The sibling dynamics are already pretty spelled out, even at their age.  Reagan, being almost 9, usually ends up having to watch one of them or help out.  And then the boys team up against her and get on her nerves.  It's so cute to hear Reagan enlighten Gideon, or Gideon enlighten Jesse about things they didn't know.  And the best part is when I tell Gideon that I know his friends from America.  He just looks at me with a really puzzled look, and says "Eh?  You know my friends from Amewika?" and then he quizzes me on who I do and don't know.  Seeing the wheels start to turn in little kids' minds is an incredible thing to watch.

God is still restoring

When I heard about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, I was so sad and couldn't imagine what it would feel like to lose someone close to me so suddenly.  I saw several facebook posts and heard people talking about it over the past few days, and the more details I knew, the sadder the story became.

I've never lost someone so close to me as suddenly as a gun shot, but I have lost a few through other ways.  The pain I felt was real and took a long to time start the healing process.  However, I can't even begin to imagine what the families and friends of the victims of the shooting must be feeling right now.  When my uncle Ryan died, a little piece of my world crumbled and went away.  It still doesn't feel real to know that he's in heaven rather than coaching football and teaching finance at Farragut High School in Farragut, TN.  However, my family and I at least had a little bit of a warning because he was sick with pancreatitis for several weeks and had complications.  But the families of the shooting victims didn't have ANY warning.  They were slapped in the face at 1 am to the heart shattering news that their loved ones' lives had been taken in an extremely unfair and cruel way.  That, like I said, is just plain unfair.  It isn't, by any means, a gentle way to leave.  It's mean and rotten.  It frankly makes me very angry that James Holmes thought it was ok to just decide to take people's lives when all they wanted to do was have a little fun and see a midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie. 

But, nevertheless, God is STILL restoring His creation.  Events like this make it very easy, at least for me, to doubt God's goodness and faithfulness.  But, it also proves His might and glory.  If God can take a world full of crap like this event and many others and turn it into a beautiful, pure masterpiece like what it was originally made for, then He's pretty awesome.  As He's shown me personally that our weaknesses make Him greater, I think He's showing it to all of us in a way that we didn't exactly expect.  He can take our sins and regrets and stuff and make us feel completely whole after it.  And, in the same way, He can take awful events like this that have tainted and dirtied His creation and make something beautiful out of it.

Back to Berlin

And now we're back home, in Berlin.  We all had a blast in Italy and soaked up as much vitamin D as possible.  However, Talya and I were talking about yesterday how, unless the sun stays out for several days, our tans will have been in vain!  haha but we had a great time on our Adriatic vacation.

I need to correct a mistake I made in my other blog post.  We didn't stay on San Marco.  We stayed on a little island called Lido.  San Marco was the stop on Venice that we got off from our water bus to explore the city.  So just clearing that up even though it really doesn't matter hahah.

I have come to realize that 2 boys under the age of 7 don't understand that when you get toys and stuff out, you're supposed to put that all back where it came from.  It's really cute watching them make "fortresses" out of suitcases and pretend that there's good and bad guys, but when they're done playing, it's all just a mess hahah.  I've been given many opportunities to practice my parenting skills, for when that time comes, so far in my year abroad.  Let's just hope that practice pays off some day haha.

We're all very excited for our sister, Lydia, and her friend /practically our sister, Gretchen, to come visit on their way to moving to England next month.  As my best friend, Prerana said, the Shoups are slowly but surely migrating to Europe.  And, after getting the chance to spend vacation in Italy and eat the food that I've eaten and see the places I've seen, the rest of my family would be crazy to stay in the states.  At least I think so.  I love my family and friends in the States, but I just want to travel more and more after visiting a few countries this summer.  I just feel like God didn't make the whole world for us to stay in one place.  Granted people are called to be in different places, but until I feel like I should be in one place, I intend to explore and enjoy all the amazing places that are on this Earth. 

Italia

Greetings from San Marco, Italy!  I'm currently on this little island that's off the coast of Venice.  It's sooo pretty here and I never want to go back to cold Berlin.  Well, at least for now I don't ;)

The people here are so sweet and funny and they actually smile at my crazy nephews and niece, unlike the Germans.  It's good to get away from the city and to enjoy some good ole Adriatic Sea and legitmate gelato.  Oh yeah, which brings me to the amazing taste of greal gelato, that looks more like whipped cream instead of hard ice cream.  It's sooo good and we eat it pretty often.  Talya and I have some working out to do when we get back to the Germany, needless to say :)

Our internet is still down in Berlin, because the Germans don't know how to be snappy with things, but it's kinda nice not having access to facebook all the time.  It actually forces me to pick up a book.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I miss my Belize mission team.  There has been many times in which I wish I could just text one of my teammates and tell them all the funny stuff that's happened to me so far.  I just miss them all and tons of memories from our trip have come back into my mind pretty frequently.

Well, my time limit of 30 minutes is almost up so I gotta go!  Keep us in your prayers in terms of finding a good church, and me finding productive things to do once summer is over and whatever else you'd like to pray for.

See ya later! :) <3

Just stuff

Hello!  I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but that's what happens when the people you're supposed to call about getting your internet fixed don't answer the phone...But anyways, I've been super busy watching, bathing, feeding and picking the kids up from school for the past several days.  Good thing is, I'm going to Italy in three days!!!!  I'm sooo excited and can't wait to see the Mediterranean sea for the first time.  You can count on lots and lots of pictures from Talya and myself :)

I am loving Berlin but I think I'll like it a lot better once I figure out what I'll be doing for the majority of the time that I'm here.  I'm going to start language school in September I think, so that will take up a lot of my time.  And then Dinah, one of my sister's good friends here said that I should look into volunteering at hospitals or something since I want to go into the medical field.  So hopefully that will be an option too. 

The weather here is driving me crazy!  It's hot and sunny one minute then the next minute it's 50 degrees, windy and rainy!  Not ok!  I can see now why the Germans strip down to nothing the second any warm, sunny weather comes out from behind the too familiar overcast clouds.

Spending so much time with the kids has been very informative and entertaining.  I learned that Gideon, the six year old should really be an actor or model because he can be so dramatic and can legitimately break dance, hahaha.  They all just come out with the funniest things when you least expect it.  Sometimes I find myself asking, "Did they really just say that?  Because that's pretty dang funny."

Well, that's all for now because I have yummy strawberries and pancakes calling my name so auf wiedersehen! :)

The latest

Gah, I'm flat tired.  Being an aunt to three kids who need to get out of the house at least once a day to let their energy out is exhausting.  I told Talya yesterday on the way to the pizza place after we left the pool that we were at for like 6 hours that my goal was to wear them out but I got worn out too.  I better have parenting down pat when I have kids because I use a lot of parenting skills to them on a day to day basis.  I figure it's good practice though, so that when I do have kids, I know how to handle them.  Well, for the most part.

We went to a church tonight called Every Nation.  It was good but it'll be better once I know more people there, and can speak more German.  They have dinner after every service and it's free if you're there for the first time, so that was sweet.  Being a Shoup, I always love a free meal :)  Pray that God leads Talya, the kids and I to the right church in the right place at the right time.  Being a member of a church family helps in so many ways.  It helps when you just need to talk to someone, when you need a babysitter, and whatever else.  Just keep that in your thoughts and prayers.

Day #5

I forgot how much I missed the cafes and little bakeries that you can literally sit at all day.  Today, Talya, Reagan and I were out and about and made a few pit stops at a sandwich shop and a cafe.  I told Talya I could just drink lattes and sit with the summer breeze on my face allllll day :)  But unfortunately, we had stuff to do so we couldn't stay much longer.

I had chocolate musli (cereal) yesterday and today for breakfast and forgot how much I missed it too!  Man, Germany knows how to do it.  Real chocolate chunks in the cereal is sooo good instead of fake sugar that's common in the states.  Little things like that and the yummy pre-made sandwiches remind me how much I love the food here.  So easily accessible and really cheap.

After we ate dinner last night at The 'Bird, an American steakhouse, we went to a park nearby and met some friends that we saw at the restaurant there.  I could see on the other side of the fence inclosing the playground that groups of people were playing some sort of sport so I walked over to get a closer look and they were playing ultimate frisbee.  My cross country friends would have had a cow if they saw that, being that we always played ultimate before like every practice and meet :)  But anyways, I think I'm gonna try to get connected with a team or just a group that gets together to play and meet new people.  It looked really fun and hey!  Where a sport is being played, there's bound to be cute European boys playing it...yes please!

Well, I think I'll go for a little mid afternoon nap until we go to the pool with the boys when they get back from school.  Talya and Reagan told me about this really cool water park-like place not too far from their apartment so I'm excited to check it out!  So, guten tag! :)

Day 2 in Berlin

Hello again!  I'm soooo tired from jet lag still but if I take a nap, I'll sleep all day.  I might just "rest my eyes for a bit." ;) 

Today we went out in the city.  We took a boat ride on the Spree river and saw some really cool buildings and passed by Museum Island and the Germany parliament building, the Reichstag.  It was so cool to be back in parts of the city that I remember being in when I was here two years ago.

And by the way, everything here is soooo cheap!  The clothes are cheap, well at the flea market we went to yesterday they were, the food and drink are cheap.  It's awesome!  You can afford to do fun stuff and eat out everyday because it's really affordable.  And that's one of the things I love about the city.  So easy to do fun activities and go around the city because the transportation is super easily accessed and not expensive and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to experience Berlin.  I want people to come visit soon so I can take them places and give them the satisfaction of eating a whole pizza and not feeling fat because it's so thin and light, hahaha.

Well, off to relax before dinner.  Jet lag, go awayyyy!

And I'm here! :)

I landed in Berlin, Germany today at the Tegel Airport around noon.  I thankfully got both of my checked bags from the baggage claim without any trouble.  I'm oh so tired though.  I've never been able to sleep in a desk or airplane seat or anything that isn't a comfortable couch or a bed.  I knew I should've just brought some Benedryl to knock myself out for several hours! But oh well, too late now. 

The part of Berlin, Pankow, where my sister has lived for two years now is so much nicer than Schoneberg, where she lived temporarily when she first got here.  I know that well because I lived in Schoneberg with her and her two boys at the beginning of her move here, when she was figuring out where she and the rest of her family would be permanently living.  Pankow is very family friendly and has lots of fun shops and markets and parks.  Well those are pretty much all over the city but it's just really enjoyable here.  I'm really excited to start language school in August or September.  I just hope I don't get a gross Germany accent, jk ;) 

Gosh, as I'm writing this, I'm about to fall asleep.  After being awake for about 24 hours plus feeling the strong effects of jet lag, I'm EXHAUSTED.  But soon I'll be used to the different time and move into my new life here in Germany! :)