22 November - The Line, The Wrench & The Wardrobe

Today was a great, but exhausting day.  It started out with us finalizing the purchase of our car.  You might remember that a dear brother in Christ from the Frankfurt area, who had been transferred by his company to Singapore, sold us his Opel Meriva.  It is a great vehicle, and he was very good to us!  He inadvertently sent the registration papers to Singapore, however, so we had to wait for his boxes to arrive, the papers to be retrieved, and then sent back to Germany before we could complete the transaction.  Today was the day.

We went to the Department of Transportation center in Darmstadt, with all our official papers from the car and our residency in Germany.  The system was very efficient - there was actually no line!  We had the title transfered, selected our new license plate numbers, had the plates made while we waited, and installed the plates on the car in less than an hour.  We had hoped to continue with the same plate number as previous (PS 136) - but alas, in Darmstadt that number was already taken.  So we went with my Old Testament Life Verse PRoverbs 3:5-6.  Our new plate number is PR 356.

While driving back from the DOT, I received a text message from the furniture store that our Wardrobes were in!  So Carol and I headed off to the Moemax store to pick up two wardrobes - a large one for our bedroom, and a moderate sized one for the guest room/office.  We had also arranged to use a Moemax transport truck to bring them back to our apartment as they would not fit in our car.  The two wardrobes came in 12 shrink-wrapped packages of doors, mirrors, shelves, hardware, etc.  It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get them to our apartment, unload them off the truck, carry them up two flights of stairs, and return the truck.

Then the fun begins!  Break out the wrench, the screwdrivers, the glue, and the step ladder, and start assembly!  We worked from about 4:00 until after 10:00 assembling the large unit for our bedroom.  We did take a short break for dinner at about 8:00. It went together pretty well, except for the missing hardware for two of the drawers...it has been re-ordered, and will be here in just two weeks!

The timing couldn't have been better - tomorrow we get our shipment from the US - our clothes finally arrive, and now we have something to put them in!  Of course that means A LOT of trips up and down the stairs - but it's a great cardio workout!

Along the way we had a chance to tell another salesman at the furniture store about the new church in Darmstadt.  He was genuinely interested, and we were able to leave a card with him.  We will be seeing him again on Thursday!  Pray for Mr. Saalan!