Neighbors and Flowers

Now you may ask, what do neighbors and flowers have to do with each other? Nothing really, but I want to share a little about my neighbor and the flowers she "gave us".

God blessed us with an awesome neighbor (family). We moved into our house in June of 2006, knowing only please and thank you in German. But God is so gracious. Our neighbor not only speaks excellent English (she did a year as an exchange student in Texas) but her father just happens to own a language institute! So, language problem, solved, tutoring needs, solved. The story could go on, but then I might forget to share about the flowers.

We have a small yard behind our house. We have a small fence and shrubs that separate our yard from our neighbors'. Every year our neighbor plants flowers along her side of the fence. Inevitably though, we always reap the benefits of her plantings. The last 2 years we have had sunflowers. Sunflowers are really popular here and almost everyone grows them. They get REALLY big here, upwards of 20 feet. (I last lived in west Texas where they had had a draught, so nothing grew) Anyway, this year's flowers were pretty impressive.( I think the only ones that grew, grew on our side of the fence!) So, here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of the flower and it gives me a chance to share a little about God's blessings and my neighbor. I will tell you more about her and the story later. They have 4 precious girls, ages 5 to 6 months. This is a very unusual for east German families! Me under the flower, getting dusted in sunflower dust!
The main flower and one of the other 9 flowers or buds.
Jason under the flower to give you a little idea. In case you don't know, he is 6 ' 3 in. tall (or so he says) The flower is also a little top heavy and is bent quite a bit. Although our flower isn't especially large, I have seen some sunflowers here as large as dinner plates or frisbees.