It really doesn't seem real and even in the moment it was hard to wrap my brain around. But yes indeed it did happen. The really fun part is that it was a surprise up until 2 weeks prior to leaving and my detail-happy, completely wonderful husband made all the stars align to pull off our out-of-this-country adventure.
Here is my 10-clue game we played at dinner one night. The best part was the kids barely containing their excitement while it took me until clue "22 G & F" to figure out what Shane was trying to tell me.
Fargo came to our rescue once again in the shape of three precious family-friends that teamed up for "Operation Stacey-Kids Camp". Bonus was that the kids had just as much a blast as we did and they didn't even have to get on a plane. We are SOOO grateful for friends who jump on board a last-minute plan just to bless us!
Had a little more time to pack this carry-on than I did for my surprise girl's weekend. I was most excited to pack my new birthday TOMS from my mom.
Planes are nothing new to us. Flying across the Atlantic Ocean has only happened a couple other times though and never before have we landed in Berlin, Germany! This
We tried to get some sleep on the plane and I maybe slept a few hours. We landed in Berlin at 9AM so we had a whole day ahead of us quite jet-lagged so we took public transport and walked A LOT. We had our first chance to see the Brandenburg gate and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, which we would walk by many times in the next 5 days.
This Memorial, called the "Field of Stelae" was such an overwhelming site that is hard to put into words. From these pictures you can't see the slope of the ground take you deeper, farther down, into what becomes very tall pillars of these rectangular blocks. The effect is a recognition first that these "blocks" represent coffins and the magnitude is large enough just at this initial angle. Then as you walk forward down any pathway you find yourself completely immersed in what seems an endless amount of shadowed, sky high, columns of rectanglar concrete. There is no explanation or interpretation offered by the American architect of this memorial as the intent is for each person to experience for themselves the thoughts and emotions it evokes for them. For me it felt endless, overwhelming, ominous and like a great sad burden...the farther I walked down to the lowest portion of a path and then walked back up. Even walking back into the light, the feeling remained. Underneath the ground you see here is an information center about the holocaust. Informative is not the right word for it. As a museum it is really well-done. Hard to say that about a museum that creates an experience you both shrink back from yet do not want to be ignorant of. There is a sign when you first enter the museum portion that I wish I took a picture of. It reads something to the effect, "We do not want to forget so this may never happen again." I wish we were not as jet-lagged as we were that day because I know that prevented me from focusing in as well as I wanted to but it was so very sobering nonetheless.
That was one of our first experiences in Berlin. Hard to swallow the hard, awful history of this city and country but it gave perspective to where Berlin is today and all we would learn of its history. I think honestly it's good for my soul to get a real, hard look at where sin can take a person and a community of people. It's real and grotesque and without Jesus, the whole world would have NO hope of ever being free from the grip it has on us. The cross and the awful, complete payment Jesus made, His sacrificial death and glorious resurrection...this is such GREAT NEWS. He came to free us from the atrocities our sinful selves are capable of...and the reality that sin is SIN period. We ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We ALL need a Rescuer and Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost in their sin. One very real feeling I had walking away from this memorial was gratefulness for the hope I have in Jesus.
Remembering is helpful but only Jesus saves.
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