PLEASE HOLD ON, THIS TRAIN IS DEPARTING

As we prepared to leave Atlanta, we were filled with enthusiasm for what is to come, and felt like if we could just get ourselves pulled together, packed up, and survive the flight we would be alright.  The task of getting out of town seemed stressful, but how shortsighted were we?  Doing all of the packing on the English side of things was the easy part!  Arriving to an empty apartment (with the exception of a few very basic pieces of rental furniture), totally jet-lagging with three little boys in tow is when the fun really started.  The flight was easy-peasy, the challenge started at touchdown in Switzerland.  We dumped our luggage off-all 18 pieces-at our new home, gave the boys a quick run-through tour, and headed straight to the registration office…for what has become one mother of a wild goose chase.  It turns out getting registered is quite a lengthy and complicated process that will take weeks, although Switzerland requires that it be done in 8 days. (more about this registration nightmare in a later post)  We then have to hit the grocery store (a Swiss adventure in it's own right), figure out how to work our kitchen appliances (the oven is programmed to Russian), drive our way across town (with I'm guessing a 30% understanding of traffic signs) to find IKEA and start our multi-step furniture buying, transporting, assembling routine.  Pant, pant, pant.  What a lot to figure out and coordinate...and all in German while trying to stay awake!  At each of the aforementioned checkpoints we were carrying no fewer than two totally zonked-out kids.
After a couple weeks of being here, we continue to ascend higher on the learning curve everyday, each of us finding a way to tackle our unique personal challenge. (Levi: sleeping by himself and through the night, Isaac: figuring out why none of the kids in the neighborhood listen to him, Luke: following along in his local German speaking classroom, Chris and Jodi: too many to list within these parenthesis).  

Please stay tuned, and I will do my best to journal our experiences.  This blog, as this transition, is definitely a work in progress.