Final Letters from Home

Hi All,

well our wild adventures continue. You might have heard about little baby Ian, but did you hear where I am sleeping in Wisconsin?
I stay at Bishop Nelson's house now. I sleep in their basement. It is very nice to be at their house. It is like going to my parents house or something. They are great, and I'm not alone anymore like at my house after the kids left.

Two weeks from now all of us Wheelers will be sleeping in the same place - in Germany. What a crazy thought. I can't believe the time is almost here. We will be staying in a furnished apartment in Düsseldorf (Jülicher Straße, 40477 Düsseldorf) until the end of October. I don't know the telephone number yet, but will let you know. I wanted to tell you a great story about getting the apartment. It is hard to get apartments for a large family and we were looking for a short period of time, which is also hard. The larger furnished apartments always want to rent for 3 or 6 months or more. Here is the story:

I emailed the furnished apartment rental agency MWZ-24 and listed our 5 children and their ages, which they usually request. I had not received a response and so I called the company a day or two later. A gentleman - Herr Schmitz - answered and I introduced myself. He said he had seen my request and was not sure how he could fill it. Gratefully our conversation went further.

After explaining our situation in more detail (from the states, where I will work, what our plans were, etc.) - Herr Schmitz said in good natured way: "Wait, you wouldn't happen to be a Mormon, would you? You must have a 2 or 3 wives in order to have 5 children?" I graciously said that I only have one wife. He then made a joke about there being no alcohol in Utah, and said that any man with 16 or so wives would definitely need the alcohol. I think I agreed with him - it was quite funny when he said it.
We spoke a bit more and he said - I think I can find you something. There is a nice landlord in Pempelfort and he would probably make arrangements for you. And that is the place we will be living in for the first month in Germany - Jülicher Straße.

It was a great blessing. There will be more hurdles once we arrive, like finding an unfurnished apartment, but we trust that the Lord will continue to bless us and that we will continue to find nice people in Düsseldorf to help us.

Here is a great story about Emma after Ian came home from the hospital. I think it was Ian's 2nd day home that this happened. I was lying on the couch resting, when I noticed this.

I looked up and saw Emma on the floor. She was about 2 meters from Tamara (who was feeding Ian on a chair on the other side of the living room). Emma was sitting down with her back to Tamara and she held two binkies (Schnuller) in her hand - her own binky and Ian's binky. We had told her several times not to take Ian's binky and she kind of knew that it wasn't good, which is why I think she had her back to Tamara. But despite our instructions - there Emma sat - in the middle of the floor with her back to Tamara holding both binkies. She seemed to be examining the differences. She repeatedly looked at her binky and then at Ian's binky. Then finally she stuck Ian's binky in her mouth. After a few seconds she took it out; put her binky back into her mouth; stood up; turned around; and took Ian's binky back to Tamara and Ian. It was very cute.

Speaking of cute, watching Emma play with Ian is very cool and because she looks almost exactly like Shantal did at that same age, which is about when Spencer was. Shantal did the same things Emma is doing - taking the binky, trying to give loves, and being very excited about her younger brother. Whenever Emma sees Ian she gets excited and starts smiling. Even if Emma is crying and screaming and acting like all is lost she gets excited when she sees Ian. She stops crying, starts pointing at Ian, makes happy sounds (she doesn't speak words yet), and then goes over to give him a love. It is really cool - almost like they know each other already.

Well I have to run. I hope you have a great week.

Love,
Gardner