My brother, Jason, and his family graciously agreed to “cat sit” our three furry children while we are living in Graz. However, that meant we had to drive with the kitties from Grand Rapids, MI all the way to St. Louis, MO! We loaded the kitties and their paraphernalia up in the truck and took off midday 13 January. Once the kitties realized we weren’t going to the vet they stopped meowing and finally settled down, each choosing a kid’s lap to rest on. Merlin was with Faywen, Tigerlily with Seamus, and Beefuzz with Liam.

Our 7 yr. old niece, Emma, was very excited about taking care of our kitty cats when we arrived in the evening!

The cats were very good for the 8 hour car ride and they have settled in nicely at the new house. We opted to stay a couple of days in St. Louis with the kitties to help them acclimated to their new surroundings. Jason and Laura will take us to the St. Louis airport for our flight to Europe! A hearty thanks to them for taking such good care of our kitty cats.

On another note… our bunny, Duncan, was dropped off on 12 January to our good friends Pat and Clyde Leigh in Grand Rapids, MI. Clyde is allergic to cats or otherwise they would have cat sat for us. Duncan snuggled into Clyde’s arms quite nicely. Pat loved watching Duncan frolic on their carpeted living room. She is looking forward to playing with him many days. He’ll be one spoiled bunny while we’re gone!

Today we finished packing our boxes to ship to Austria. It’s amazing how little one really needs. We were able to get various seasonal clothes and shoes for 5 people into three boxes! Robert and I then loaded them up into the truck and went to our local FEDEX. Box 1 was 47lbs. Box 2 was 61lbs. Box 3 was 69lbs. Not only did we have to ship clothes, but also some music books, music stands, and four plush toy animals that represent our furry family we are leaving behind for 7 months!

We have shipped two boxes previously to Austria as a trial run. The family we are staying with have four little girls and a baby boy and it was fun sending the kids “American” items.

In the late spring of 2017 Robert approached me with a wonderful idea. He said “I have an opportunity to apply for a Fulbright Grant and teach in Graz, Austria”. After hours of discussion and prayers we decided that it would be a once in a lifetime adventure for the family. In August 2017 he applied for the Fulbright Grant. Then the waiting began…

In early December we heard that he had made it through the first round of cuts. On the evening of 13 February 2018 the wait was over! Robert received an email from Washington D.C. stating that he had been awarded the Fulbright. Since the following day was Valentine’s Day, we slipped a simple note into the kids’ Valentine’s cards which simply read “We are going to Graz!”. Ah the squeals of delight rang throughout the living room!

Robert immediately applied for a sabbatical and contacted his fellow professors at Grand Valley State University. A few days later he received an email from a lady named Birgit who would become our liaison at FH Joanneum University in Graz. By the end of March we had an apartment and everything since then has fallen into place pretty smoothly.

We did have to travel to NYC to apply in person at the Austrian Consulate for our visas. We all have a Visa D which allows us to stay in the EU/Schengen area of Europe for 180 days. We drove to Manhattan and spent a long weekend exploring the city at Christmas time. We couldn’t apply any early than Dec. 1st. We were at the Consulate of Monday, December 3rd! It was fun getting to show the kids around NYC! Our visas arrived and we picked them up at FEDEX on 2 January 2019.

It was a lot of hard work and preparations, but we know that God has blessed us with this opportunity.