Miss Hadleigh Claire Goes to the Netherlands

This past weekend we ventured out again, for a weekend trip beyond the German borders. It was a wonderful weekend filled with some adventures and fun. Friday we drove up to Haarlem so that Hadleigh could go into Hiding. We visited the Corrie ten Boom house, where Corrie and her family hid Jewish people during the war. I read Corrie’s book “The Hiding Place” when I was in elementary and it tells the story of Corrie and her family, and how God was with her. Eventually the family was found out and she and her sister were taken to a concentration camp. After the war Corrie had a worldwide ministry speaking on things like "There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still".

Here is Hadleigh hiding in the little room where 4 Jews and 2 Dutch resistance workers hid and eventually escaped after the ten Boom family was betrayed.

After the tour we were able to meet up with Shawna Snow and 3 of her kids, Mia, Ari and Shea. Shawna is living in Amsterdam, church planting with Christian Associates. We hadn’t seen each other in several years, but since we were in the area we were able to hook up. Her youngest, Shea is a real character. I told her the last time I had seen her she was in her mommy’s tummy. She thought that was pretty cool and responded “but here I am, I am here now!” Shawna discipled me when I was in high school and college.

Saturday we hit Amsterdam and boy did we ever hit it! It happened to be Queen’s Day, which apparently is like Mardi Gras or Oktober Fest on steroids. None of the trams were working, so we walked from the Centraal Station to the Van Gogh (which I didn’t know is pronounced Van Hock) Museum which was 3 miles away. The crazy thing is that I haven’t seen that many people in my entire life. There were people EVERYWHERE. We kept thinking that the Sea of people would let up, but it was steady down the 3 mile stretch and back a different 3 mile stretch. Unbelievable. There is no way I can describe it. Apparently the Dutch have a thing for orange. If you watched the Winter Olympics you might have noticed that the Dutch wore a lot of orange. We never did find out the reason (since their flag is red, white and blue), but the whole thing kind of reminded us of a TN Vol football game. Not only were the streets filled with people, but the canals were filled with boats that were filled with people.

We managed to get back to the train station and back to Delft (the cute little town we stayed in) by dinner time. We had great Mexican food and margaritas for an early birthday celebration for Kristen. The Dutch definitely outdo the Germans in their Mexican food.

Sunday we left Delft and went to the Keukenhof to see the bulbs. It was amazing. Dave and I went last year, but neither Kristen or Melissa had been. It is kind of like Disneyland without the rides, it is just a happy place. The bulbs were awesome, but not as good as last year. This “spring” (if you can call it that) has been really unpredictable, so we think that had an effect on the bulbs. But, cannot complain, the Dutch know how to put on a flower show. On Sunday instead of seeing a sea of people, we saw a sea of bulbs.

The weekend was great. We had wonderful weather, which was partly cloudy (but we did see the sun) and in the 50’s. Hadleigh was a perfect angel, sleeping in the car virtually the whole 6 hour drive up and back, and allowing us to do a whole lot during all 3 days. Of course, a snow storm welcomed us back to Germany. We crossed the border and the rain turned to snow and it dropped to 32 degrees. I was bitter…but by the time we got home the snow had stopped and it was up to 40. Maybe the sun will come up today.