A Letter to the Mothers in my Life

I never, ever tell people how much they mean to me as often as I think it, or as often they deserve. It’s too much for a photo caption, and too much for a card. So this is a letter of thanks to all the mothers in my life.

First and foremost, to my mom. Mommy, thank you for giving me life. Not just for giving birth to me, but for giving me life. You worked so incredibly hard as a teacher in order to help provide for us and taught us what it’s like to have a passion and be in service to others. You provided me with siblings to love and play with. You provided a home out in the country, a child’s dream, with pets and chores and lots of room to play. You provided a loving, caring family and a stable marriage that allowed me to grow up never fearing if my family would fall apart, and taught me what a strong, Christian marriage looks like, so that I can now live that out in my own marriage. You took us to church, every Sunday, without fail, even when the drive was long and we were little and squirmy. You taught me what it means to serve God with my entire life and to live out the forgiven life I received when you had me baptized at just days old. You shared with us the financial struggles of sending us to Christian schools, yet rather than letting us worry about our future, you helped show us the ways in which God was blessing us and taking care of us. That is a skill I carry through to this day. You taught me how to enjoy life, how to laugh and have fun. You taught me the meaning of responsibility and rules, never giving in to my whining or my ability to “forget” to do my chores. You didn’t seek to be my friend, rather guiding me as a mother should. You understood my need for independence you let me be myself and move out and grow up. I was blessed to grow up with you as my mom.

And the blessings still keep coming. You forgive me when I am busy and don’t call. You understand when our short visits are filled with other responsibilities. You pray for us and brag about us and update us with what’s going on at home. You show you care by saving those fun magazines and cool stickers for my Kindergarteners, who you love as much as I do, even without meeting them. You have become a friend, someone who I can talk to more and more on a peer level, as we discuss classroom woes and parenting philosophies and faith questions. You inspire me with your new-found passion in serving in Guatemala, going out of your comfort zones in ways I don’t know that I could. You show constant love without discrimination, welcoming Nick into the family with open arms.

People always say you grow up to be like your mom. Every day I realize how much that is becoming true, and I am proud to say it. If I can raise kids like you raised the four of us, I will be a proud mom someday. If I can be a teacher as loving, dedicated, and creative as you were, I will count myself as blessed. If I can be a wife as committed and loving as you are, then Nick and I have a bright future ahead. Thank you for everything you do, you have done, and you will do, Mommy.

Secondly, to my mother-in-law, Cathy. Thank you for welcoming me into your family. You show me love in your thoughtful gifts and in your eagerness to help with anything we ask. You have endured the changes that come with a marriage in the family, being willing to be flexible as I invaded your home or took Nick to mine on holidays. You’ve welcomed me into your home, providing food to eat and a place to stay and someone to talk to, even the times when Nick wasn’t there. You’ve helped take care of me, letting me crash in your house on visits even when I ended up sick with the stomach flu or shingles. You’ve shown your love in so many ways, whether by making my favorite Red Velvet cake balls or hosting a bridal shower and rehearsal dinner in your home or taking me out for pedicures and girl time. In the short years I’ve known you, you have shown me how deeply you love those around you. You have become “mom” to so many more than just the children you gave birth to, simply because you are willing to love and care for others without restriction, providing a place to stay or food to eat to those who need it. You are a role model to me as you hold to your faith through rough times, and your constant prayers are a continued blessing to Nick and me. I thank you for raising Nick to be the wonderful, caring, Christian man he is, so that we can now build our own family based on the example that you have provided. Thank you, Cathy, for all that you do.

Also, to the grandmothers God gave me. I was blessed to live nearby both my grandmas, so I was raised by them and got to know them well. My Grandma Betty is now in heaven, and I miss her and the special times we all had as a family. My Grandma Mary continues to amaze me in her strength and joy as she continues to take care of the farm even after my grandpa passed away. I am thankful to both of them for their faith that kept them going through all the rough times. I am thankful to them for raising my parents in the church, loving Jesus, and serving others. I am thankful that they were around for the dance recitals, the birthdays, the graduations…I was so, so loved. I am thankful for the grandmothers I received in my marriage to Nick - two more Godly women who love us and spoil us beyond what we deserve.

I am thankful to my friends who have children, who show me just what a blessing being a mom can be. They show me that you can do it without looking like THAT cliché mom or talking about mom stuff all the time or being a Pinterest Super Mom. They show me that you can genuinely enjoy motherhood and that you don’t have to look like a mess or complain about food stains or sleeplessness all the time. They show me the wonderful impacts that a mother’s love can have not only on the child, but also on the mother and father. Thank you, especially to Adrionna and Heidi, because you have, probably unknowingly, helped me move from being completely terrified of the prospect motherhood to being excited about that day (someday in the distant future…don’t read too much into this) that I get to be a mother too.

I am thankful to all the wonderful women in my life who have or do provide motherly guidance and care. To my Aunt Tami, who gave us a key to her house so we could just crash any time after school in high school, knowing the drive home was too long. To my Aunt Nina, who I knew was always just a phone call away during college, and still lets us stay there on our trips home. To my dance teacher, Teresa, who taught me not just how to dance, but how to be kind and loving while being confident and graceful. To Mrs. Neipp, who taught me to play the piano, and also allowed my little 12-year-old self to babysit her children. To all my teachers growing up and to my fellow teachers now, who help provide that guidance because my mom is 2,000 miles away.

I am thankful for the parents of my students, who entrust their children to me for a short time each day. My kids know that they are just that, my “kids.” They know that I don’t have any children of my own at home, but I don’t need any, because I have 6 of them at work. And they know that I will do anything to protect them, just like their mom and dad would, because I have been given that gift of caring for them and loving them for a year, and boy, do I love those kids. I am thankful for all the lessons I have learned in my past two years of teaching that may someday help a little in my vocation as a mother to my own kids.

Thank you, God, for the rich blessings You have bestowed. You have given me much, much more than I deserve.

Mikaela

We Survived: April

Greetings!

April tulips at the Seminary

May is here! We are both very excited to finally be in the final stretch of this school year. Nick will finish up his last classes on May 19^th and my last day of school and Kindergarten graduation are on May 26^th. This is probably my favorite time of year – time to wrap things up, celebrate the fun we’ve had, and clean out and pack up. Now that we know our vicarage placement, I’m itching to clean out not only my classroom but our home as well. But I’m getting ahead of myself….here’s a little (or a lot, we’ll see) about how April went.

Honestly, we’re surprised we both survived April without either a nervous breakdown or illness of some sort. But here we are, on the other side of the madness, survivors who are now enjoying a very well-deserved weekend of rest, relaxation, and lots of catching up on sleep.

April contained two very big milestones that we have been anticipating since the beginning of the school year. The first was the half-marathon, the second was Call Day.

Celebrating with our post-race ice cream sandwiches

Let’s start out with the half-marathon – April 10^th. We approached it with a lot of nervousness, because it is such a huge event. But we knew that we were physically prepared – we ran 12 miles a few weeks before and survived. We did all the right things – we tapered (slowly cut down the miles we were running in the weeks leading up to the race), we ate healthy (cutting out all the junk food…that wasn’t easy), and mentally prepared. The day before, we had to go to a big expo to pick up our race packets that included our race bibs, shirts, and all the free goodies they give out. It was fun, and we bought ourselves some cool Go! St. Louis hats to wear for the race since we were anticipating rain. After getting home, we laid out all our race gear, carefully selecting clothing choices based on the weather, along with socks, shoes, energy gels, race bibs…all the essentials. I sort of obsess over the right choice of jacket, and I did until the morning of when we were getting out of the car, but it paid off! The race was at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, so we woke up early and drove downtown with plenty of time to spare. This race has thousands of participants, and roads were blocked off, so we didn’t want to risk anything. When we got there, we got to our starting spot, and waited and waited. Because they start runners off in waves, we didn’t get to start until about 10 minutes after the actual race start time. It was a fun race, with lots of supporters with silly signs standing on the side of the course. The starting line had a scenic view of the Arch and we got to run across the bridge to Illinois and back, and then down and around Anheuser Busch. There were water stations every few miles and even a chocolate station at one point. The only disappointing thing about the race was that when we signed up back in September, we had no idea what our pace would be, so we just signed up with a 10 minute per mile pace. However, this put us pretty far back in the corrals and as a result, we had to spend a lot of time and energy weaving and passing people, because we are really at closer to a 9 minute per mile pace. But now we know for future races! We both felt great the whole race (well, good enough to keep running. All my joints were in pretty bad pain for the last few miles), the weather cooperated, and we finished at the time of 2:04:59. We were hoping to finish in under 2 hours, but we knew it would be close, so now we have a goal for our next half-marathon. Our sweet friends Trevor and Hannah came out to cheer us on and took us out for lunch after the race. We were thankful that the rain held off until we were sitting inside at lunch! We really enjoyed the experience and we hope to run the Go! again next year! (The next day, we were also in pretty severe pain. 13.1 miles is a lot of pavement to pound! Next year, I’m taking the day after the half marathon off of work if I can!)

Anyway, that was one of our big goals for the year, and we are pretty proud of ourselves. However, it has been nice being able to relax a bit and not worry about getting in every workout over the last few weeks! We’ve filled up our weeks since the race with faculty meetings, voters meetings, vicarage workshops, seminars at the seminary, time with friends, seminary events, school events, and more.

One of my personal big events of the month was our school musical. I’ve sort of spearheaded this project the last two years, and it’s a very time-consuming, but very rewarding experience. The last few weeks leading up to it always bring about the extra time at school putting things together, the extra shopping trips for costumes and props, and the extra hours out of the classroom for rehearsals. But man is it totally worth it, on musical night, after the show, when all the parents and grandparents are coming up to you, telling you how amazing their children were, how much they enjoyed the show, and how excited they are for next year. Totally, totally worth it. It’s hands-down one of my favorite nights of the school year.

One of Nick’s big accomplishments of April was starting his practicum for his Pastor as Educator class. This involves spending three weeks in a classroom, teaching religion. He was assigned to a 5^th grade classroom at a nearby elementary school, and it’s been a lot of work for him. He’s been writing lesson plans every night and putting on his slacks and dress shirt and tie every morning. He’s come home with some fun stories (although let’s be honest, it’s hard for 5^th graders to compete with Kindergarteners in the story category), and has been really enjoying being able to teach and learn in this time in the classroom.

With our friends at the Mouse Races

This month also held some fun social events for us. Aside from the fact that every time we got to see our friends, we were all bonding over our Call Day predictions and nervousness, we got to make some fun memories. First was an event that is put on each year at the seminary called We Love the Sem, in which all the pastors of the biggest Lutheran churches in the country come and shower students and faculty and staff with gifts and food. It was a huge dinner complete with Ted Drewes and carriage rides this year and we really enjoyed it! Two days later was another big seminary event called Spring Fest, which was again lots of good food and music. The next night was the Mouse Races at my school, the biggest fundraiser of the year. We bought a table for ourselves and our friends and my parents and it is such a fun time getting to bet on mice as they race! It’s amazing how people get into it, and it’s fun to see that other side of school and church members.

On top of all that, my school had its accreditation site visit at the end of this month. So the day after Mouse Races (seriously, I can’t make this schedule up), Nick and I went to a dinner for the visiting team as they started their accreditation visit. They were in and around my classroom on Monday, watching for things we had written in the report as well as looking for safety procedures. They worked through the day on Tuesday, and Tuesday afternoon they gave their report recommending accreditation (yay!). However, I wasn’t there, because that day was Call Day!

With my parents after the vicarage service

My principal was kind to give me the entire day off on Call Day, as my parents were in town, and it gave me a chance to spend time with them and with Nick on this nerve-wracking day. We got all dressed up, me in a new dress and Nick in his suit and clerical shirt. Right as we got to the seminary campus, about an hour before the service, a major thunderstorm decided to hit. Thankfully we made it inside before the downpour – some people were coming in completely soaked! We endured the long waiting before the service and through the service until the moment came to hear the vicarage assignments. We were so excited to hear that we are assigned to Immanuel Lutheran in Washington, MO. Washington is a cute little tourist town just about an hour outside St. Louis, and close enough to Fenton that I can keep my job at Our Savior. God answered so many of our prayers, both spoken and unspoken, and we are feeling blessed! For more details on that, see our previous blog post. After the service, we were fortunate to meet Nick’s supervising pastor and his wife for the upcoming year, the deaconess for Immanuel, and one of the congregation members. They took us out for a delicious dinner as we got to talk to them about their church and what our life might look like next year. So this summer, we are going to move out to Washington, as they provide a house for us to live in for the year. We are so incredibly excited to be placed there  - we have heard nothing but good things about it, even from two previous vicars of that church! Call Day was a long day – we had just enough time after dinner to sit and watch the later Call Service via livestream before heading back to the seminary to meet the District President and take official photos. We finally got home close to 10:00 that night, and were very thankful for a few days following with no evening commitments to allow us to recover a little bit.

At the Bubble Run with the bubble cannons in the background

We wrapped up the month with some fun events! We went to a trivia night at our friends’ church on Friday night, ate way too much sugar, and discovered that our talents are in the categories of Musical Lyrics and Candy…and not much else. But hey, it was a fun night, some great memories were made, and it benefitted the church. Yesterday morning, we got up early and went out to do a Bubble Run – much like the famous Color Run, but with bubbles instead of powder. It was just a 5K, but we thought doing it would be fun and a way to keep us from completely stopping running after the half marathon. It was only one of those things. It sort of kept us running. It wasn’t really fun. Not to be a downer, but unfortunately, yesterday was a wet and windy morning, and well, bubbles don’t really cooperate in the rain and wind. So we arrived an hour early to stand in the rain and had to wait half an hour past the start time in the wind. Once we got started, it was a pretty nice 5K. Nick and I were some of the fastest out there since it’s just a family fun run, and so we got to the front of the pack pretty early and got the bubbles to ourselves as we ran through. But the “party” at the end wasn’t much of a party, and it took us a good 30 minutes to find our way out and walk back to the car. Needless to say, we won’t be doing a bubble run again…but it was an experience J

So I said it would be a little, but it was really a lot, and not my best writing, I have to say. Thumbs up to you if you’re still reading, I’m pretty impressed. But that was April. We are thankful for May and the bit of relief it brings. We are looking forward with anticipation to the summer, the plans we have and are starting to make, the new beginnings we will have with a new school year, a new (temporary) home, and a new church family to get to know and love. Prayers are appreciated as we work out all the details of our summer and the move to Washington, and especially as Nick begins his work as a vicar in August, that he will learn and serve and share Christ with those around him.

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nick and Mikaela Duerr

Overwhelmed

Yesterday afternoon, Nick and I sat in the Chapel of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus at Concordia Seminary along with hundreds of others: students, family, and friends, awaiting our fate for the upcoming year.

We were overwhelmingly blessed to hear the words….”Nicholas Duerr…Missouri District….Immanuel Lutheran Church in Washington, Missouri.”

For those of you who don’t know, Washington is just about an hour outside of St. Louis, in the same direction and on the same highway as Fenton, where I currently teach. This means that, although I will have a longer commute than I currently do, I get to keep my current job at Our Savior.

Needless to say, we are overwhelmed at God’s loving faithfulness and grace toward us.

We are overwhelmed at my opportunity to continue in ministry at Our Savior, teaching Kindergarten, loving those kids, working with a team I have grown to know and love to grow and develop the school.

We are overwhelmed at the fact that not only do I get to keep my current job, but that God chose to provide a wonderful church for Nick to serve as a vicar…a church that fits many of the things we were hoping for, a church that has been praised by many people around us, even including a former vicar of that church.

We are overwhelmed at the financial blessings of this local vicarage…vicarage means an income for Nick to match mine, as well as housing provided by the church (a 2-bedroom house WITH a washer and dryer!). We cannot wait for the opportunity to decimate our student loans.

We are overwhelmed at the perfect match of this community to our tastes…a beautiful riverfront town, a medium-sized town with small-town community and feel (plus an ALDI!), with tourist fun, running and biking trails along the river, and right in the heart of wine country (yeah, you’re all ready to come visit us now, aren’t you?).

We are overwhelmed at the love and support that we received from friends and family yesterday. The prayers, the text messages, the time spent watching the service, whether in St. Louis or away…all that love has been felt so deeply.

We are overwhelmed at the excitement of the teachers and staff, parents and students that I work with at the fact that I will be staying at Our Savior. I am so blessed to work with such loving people who care so much about me. They cheered when they heard I will be staying next year and greeted me this morning with hugs and excitement.

We are overwhelmed that we get to stay around next year, allowing us to spend precious time with friends and family who will be back in St. Louis after vicarage, moving to St. Louis to begin seminary, or staying around for a local vicarage like we are. In the seminary life, you often only get one year with any other class, and so the opportunity to stay local extends that time before everyone moves off to different parts of the country again.

We are overwhelmed at the gift of each other…even with the potential of moving anywhere in the country, we knew that no matter what, we would be together, our constant support and favorite person always by our side.

We are overwhelmed at God’s amazing faithfulness, and how He has been planning and setting this up from the days before seminary life, before we were St. Louis residents, before we even knew what vicarage really entailed. With generous gifts, we bought a new car before getting married, one that will be able to handle the long commute that I will be making with good gas mileage. Through God’s amazing planning, I got a job two years ago in a location perfectly placed to allow us to be placed at this vicarage, at a school and in a grade level that really benefits from my staying there.  

God’s love and faithfulness is evident throughout our lives, and we give Him thanks, especially in times like this. We put our vicarage placement into His hands back in December when we prayerfully submitted our application and attended our interview. He saw fit to place us at Immanuel Lutheran in Washington, and we are, again, overwhelmed at His love and blessings. We look forward to this upcoming year with anticipation and excitement. Your prayers are appreciated as we begin vicarage in August, and we work to join the congregation, get involved, build relationships, and most importantly, to serve others in Christ.

--Mikaela

March News

Greetings from St. Louis!

We are posting about both February and March today! We wrote our blog post about February several weeks back, but in all the craziness we never posted it! (So just read our first blog post as if it’s the beginning of March)

March was a fun and adventurous month for the both of us. In the first weekend of March, Nick got the opportunity to preach at Our Savior. This is always an exciting opportunity for him, and it’s fun to watch him grow in his abilities and gain experience through this. That same weekend included both Grandparent’s Day at Our Savior and a full-day Early Childhood conference, which is a fantastic professional development opportunity for me that teaches me a lot!

High tea with my sister

This month included my spring break from school. I took my spring break to fly to South Carolina to visit my little sister, Karina, who attends college there. It had been about a year and a half since we’d seen each other last, so we had a lot of fun! It was also my first experience flying by myself, but thankfully everything went smoothly. My mom was also able to fly out to visit, so we had a fantastic girls’ week! We helped Karina and her fiancé Hunter with some wedding planning details, ate out at some delicious restaurants, went to high tea at a tea room, and overall just got to relax and spend some time together. It was a very relaxing vacation for me, since getting out of our apartment allows me to leave chores and responsibilities behind. The weather was warm and sunny, and I spent a lot of time sitting outside in the sunshine reading. As much as it was an enjoyable vacation, it was even more wonderful to return home to Nick after that time apart!

Dinner in South Carolina with family

Nick has been enjoying his classes this quarter. His full load of six classes keeps him very busy with a lot of reading and homework. So far, his favorite class is The Crusades, a history course with some very fun reading assignments. He is also taking Pastor as Educator, which has been fun for me, as he learns about writing lesson plans and various teaching methods. I helped him put together a presentation on classroom management methods, so this class has been a fun way for me to get involved in his seminary education. However, as I said, the load is very heavy, so he can definitely use your prayers this quarter, especially as the anticipation of vicarage causes a “senioritis” of sorts, leading to lower motivation to get homework done!

Easter Sunday

March also brought Holy Week and the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, which for a church worker, causes a lot of extra busyness. Nick helped lead four church services over the weekend (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter sunrise, and the early Easter service), and I was recruited into the choir to sing for those services as well. Although busy, it was a fun weekend for the two of us, as we were able to enjoy being involved in the church services and the fellowship with the church members we had by being at church before, after, and in between services. We are also blessed with days off of school for this weekend, so overall, it allowed for a relaxing weekend since we had time to recover from the extra services. We celebrated Easter with our friends who stayed in town for the holiday by hosting an Easter brunch at our apartment on Saturday morning. We also got the opportunity to Facetime with our families – modern technology is an amazing way to keep us connected even from so far away!

As we move into April, we have a lot of excitement, because April holds some of the big days that we have been anticipating all year long! We have just one week until our half-marathon, which we will be running next Sunday morning. Our goal is just to finish the race, but we are definitely hoping for a time under 2 hours and 10 minutes – if we’re feeling really good, we hope to finish close to 2 hours! And of course the big event of the year is now just 23 days away – Call Day! Call Day is the day that we find out our vicarage placement for next year. If you are interested, you can watch the service on Live Stream in real time through the seminary’s website. It’s on April 26^th at 3:00 p.m. Central time (so that’s 1:00 p.m. California time). April is packed full of other events, both for fun and for work, but we will update you on how it goes in next month’s post!

We appreciate your prayers in this anxious time, as we await our placement for next year. We can use prayers for peace, comfort, and wisdom as we wait for information and then make some big decisions. We again thank you for all your support and prayers. They make a huge difference in our lives!

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nick and Mikaela Duerr

February News...A Month Late

Hello friends and family!

These two California natives are excited for the beginning of March, signaling the coming of spring! The weather has steadily warmed up, and even though we were blessed with a mild winter, we appreciate the changing of the seasons even more now that we live through snow and below-freezing temperatures. There are some small blessings to living outside of California after all!

February…such a unique month. Not only does it have fewer days than any other month, but once every four years, we add a day to this weird month. Thankfully for us, February wasn’t too weird. Instead, it brought some fun and relaxation back into our lives!

Nick worked through the last few difficult weeks of his winter quarter, completing papers and exams with only a few late nights staying up doing homework. In addition to school responsibilities, he has been helping out in church services on a regular basis and attending pre-vicarage workshops in preparation for his duties next year. However, his hard work paid off and he was rewarded with a two-week long break, which will finish up this weekend. On Monday, it’s back to school will another full load of classes, including Pastor as Educator, which includes a practicum in an area school, Systematics III, and some fun history classes.

February brought a fantastic lightening of my workload as well, as I turned in my completed accreditation document the last week of January. Not having this huge project on my plate anymore allowed me to go back to focusing on new lessons and games for my kids, as well as getting our students ready for our school musical coming up in April. Although teaching is still never easy, and this month wasn’t perfect, it is wonderful to be able to go back to what I really love to do, rather than spending all my time on accreditation work. February in Kindergarten is a very loaded month, including the 100^th Day of School (an all day party!), Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and this year, Leap Day and a field trip to the symphony. It’s a lot of work but so much fun!

February also marked the return of our social lives after a very, very busy and stressful January. Nick took me on a fun date to an arcade where we played glow in the dark mini golf and arcade games. We got to spend some fun times with friends for the Superbowl and another weekend going out to a fancy dinner to celebrate the end of the quarter. We went to a Valentine’s Dinner Dance at our church with some friends, which not only gave us some quality time with wonderful friends, but also a fun night of dancing which is always a lot of fun! We got to enjoy a second snow day of the school year, although the snow did melt away by the end of the day. We took the free day to watch the full Lord of the Rings Trilogy (extended edition). This totals over 12 hours of movie time, but it is totally worth it! Nick had been itching to do that all winter, so it was fun to take advantage of our unexpected free day. We also were blessed with a visit from Angela, Nick’s sister, on her spring break. We had a lot of fun taking her around St. Louis, playing board games with her (well, Nick played board games), and eating some delicious food at local restaurants together. February was a full and fun month, much-needed for us! We are feeling blessed and loved after all the fun we got to have and the people we got to spend time with this month.

Enjoying fondue at The Melting Pot with Angela

Valentine's Dinner Dance at our church

Having fun mini golfing!

Our half-marathon training is progressing well, I am happy to say! We had a small hiccup in our training this month. Early in the month, I tripped and fell while on a morning run. The next week, my knee was still bothering me and causing a lot of pain, so I went to the urgent care, where they x-rayed it and diagnosed me with a suspected fracture in my kneecap. I spent a long five days in a full-length leg brace, hobbling around and having to be creative in my teaching methods. However, praise God, I went to an orthopedist and he told me that there was no break at all, and the pain in my knee was likely just normal running pain. So after about a week and a half off running, we were back at it, just with more ice and Advil. We’re now up to 9 miles in our training runs and we’re still enjoying it! We spend many evenings passing the ice pack back and forth for our aches and pains, but we are excited to be moving on and we are excited for our race coming up April 10^th!

Our first run back after my leg injury kept us out of the game for a few weeks.

God’s blessings on you and your loved ones! We thank you so much for all the support, prayers, and love you send us.

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nick and Mikaela Duerr

Work, Work, Work

A few days ago, I was browsing through my Timehop (the app that shows things that you posted on social media in past years) and I saw our blog post from January last year. The title? “Month of Mayhem.” That has seemed to sum up this year’s January for us as well. I don’t know if it’s because everything starts to run in full gear again after taking breaks for the holiday season, or just because of the particular schedule at my school, but whatever the reason, the result is insanity.

After having two weeks off and visiting Mark in Michigan, we started back at school. Nick was stepping back into a quarter that started just after Thanksgiving, which means the quarter was already at full speed. On top of that, he is taking a very full load of classes this quarter, with five regular classes and a once-a-week lectionary class. This means he is spending a lot of time on readings and papers, and a lot of time in classes. The upside, however, is that he is absolutely loving his classes this quarter, because he is learning practical and applicable information. He is also now registered for his final quarter of seminary before our ever-approaching vicarage year!

For myself, jumping into January means trying to corral and retrain my students after two weeks off as well as working on extra projects. January is packed full of events – an open house, a basketball tournament, the Spaghetti Dinner (one of our school’s biggest fundraisers), Lutheran Schools Week, and of course the faculty meetings and PTL meetings that were cancelled in December because of the holidays. The biggest project I have been working on is accreditation for the school. This is a huge process for our whole staff and I have been having to hold committee meetings and do a lot of research, typing, collecting evidences, and editing. It’s a project that puts a lot of extra work on top of the normal work required of a teacher. On top of that, we had a snow day thrown into the mix – my first snow day as a teacher! It was nice to enjoy a bit of time to relax at home, but it actually is deceptively more difficult for a teacher to have a snow day, because it totally threw off all my lesson plans. However, it was really nice to actually have snow to work with this year during our snow science unit, as opposed to last year when it was sunny and 55 degrees that week!

On top of all the homework, we have had meetings weekly, sometimes feeling like it was nightly whether they were meetings for accreditation, meetings with the Parent-Teacher League, or meetings about vicarage. In resuming our running as we train for the half marathon in April, we have to be consistent about our workouts, and of course all these meetings have been problematic, since evenings are our training time. So instead of trying to work around our evening schedules, we have made our early mornings even earlier, with a 4:45 wake up time in order to get up and get in a workout before school. While this is a challenge (and let’s be honest, we don’t always wake up in time), we find that we are more productive on our free evenings because we aren’t having to work around our training schedule after school. Our half marathon training is well underway now, with our long runs increasing a mile each week, but we are having a lot of fun and we’re getting really excited as we train and learn more about running. We had a lot of fun taking our Christmas money shopping for much needed winter running gear as well – some new gloves, more pairs of long running pants (because on the really cold mornings we have to wear more than one pair!), and jackets.  

Since this post has so far been a lot of groaning and complaining, we have some exciting news to share! We are ecstatic because, due to extremely amazingly generous support, we were able pay off two more of Mikaela's loans (the ones with the highest interest) last week! This brings us to a total of six loans paid off, five of Mikaela's and one of Nick's (he had one loan that was accruing interest, so we paid it off, so now Nick's loans are not accruing any interest). Our hope is that, so long as Mikaela has a job over vicarage, we will be able to completely pay off all of her student loans and begin to pay off Nick's – a huge success considering we are given 10 years to pay off these loans! We have been amazingly blessed in our time here, and because of the generous support we have received, both financial and in prayer, we have one less thing to worry about. Thank you so much!

On another positive note, we are looking forward to some very fun events coming up this month as the work obligations lighten (a bit) and the weather warms up (hopefully). We are excited to spend time with our friends for the Superbowl today, go to a dinner dance at our church next week, and have some family time as Nick’s sister comes to visit us and then I head out to South Carolina to see my sister! The anticipation of Call Day also continues to grow as we wait to find out where we will be on vicarage next year!  We look forward to the adventures God brings and the blessings He provides.

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nicholas and Mikaela Duerr

New Year: Bring it On

Happy New Year everyone! In my usual procrastination, what was supposed to be the last blog post of 2015 has turned into our first blog post of 2016. The new year dawned bright and sunny yesterday morning after many overcast days, and it was a beautiful sight to see. (It’s also really cold outside, but that doesn’t bother me because I get to spend the day on the couch under a pile of blankets!) If you have heard about the record flooding here in Missouri, not to worry, we are safe and unaffected. The area in which I work and we attend church has been affected severely with flooding, and some freeways have been closed for several days. However, the New Year’s Eve church service was cancelled, and everything should be cleared up in time for the start of school on Monday, so we are thankful that this flooding has not been a problem for us, but we keep those affected in our prayers.

December was a dichotomy of extreme relaxation and extreme busyness with little in between. We spent the first week of December in California, mostly spent at my parents’ house: babysitting my niece, watching tv, doing some Christmas shopping, taking extra naps, catching up on work. We enjoyed an extremely fun weekend celebrating the wedding of our college friend Whitney, and then got up bright and early to fly home to St. Louis. The next two weeks passed in a flurry of work, school, church services (Nick was helping out with mid-week Advent services), work brought home, homework, chores…all that fun stuff. It was a rough couple of weeks as we were both playing catch up from the week we missed while also battling the usual stress and difficulty that December brings. Once we were on break, however, we both crashed quickly. We spent a week in Michigan with Mark (Nick’s brother, who is on vicarage) so we could be together for Christmas. Most of that time was spent playing board games, reading, playing video games, and watching movies. It was a wonderful time away from our normal routines to rest and relax. I wish that I could say that in the last few days being back in St. Louis, we’ve been super productive and active…but, well, it’s mostly been more of the same – sleeping in, reading, watching tv. But hey, self-care, right?

Hanging out with Teagann when we went home

Our friend Whitney's wedding!

Christmas in Michigan with Mark

The New Year brings a desire to reflect – to reflect on the year behind and to dream and plan for the year ahead. A few days ago, I looked back on my first post of 2015 – a picture with all the crazy events and accomplishments of the previous year. Let’s be honest, 2014 was the biggest year of our lives. Graduation, marriage, new car, new city, new jobs, new school…pretty much everything was a new experience, a new adventure. My wish at the end of 2014 was for an “uneventful 2015.” Maybe that sounds really lame, but after a year of new experiences, I was ready for some time to learn, grow, and settle in a bit. This past year lived up to that expectation for us. Again, does that sound lame? Maybe. But in reality, I look back to a year ago and I see how much we have grown up and the goals we have accomplished...

Academically, Nick has learned so much. He is now in his fifth quarter of seminary. He learned how to write and preach sermons, and he’s done so in the church setting several times. He is learning about theology and doctrine, counseling, and worship. He has gained experience working in a retirement home, attending Jewish ministry events, and spending many weekends helping to lead worship services at our church.

Professionally, I have learned more and more about teaching. I loved having the opportunity this summer to work ahead on classroom projects, rather than coming in unprepared like the year before. I have been able to take on more responsibilities at school, and I have gained experience in working with new students that bring new blessings and challenges to my classroom.

Financially, we have accomplished a lot. One of our main goals and passions since taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University is to eradicate our debt. This year alone, we were able to pay off 25% of my student loan total, in addition to a small chunk of Nick’s student loans, which is a wonderful accomplishment for us! (Especially considering they give us 10 years to pay off these loans). We were also excited to recover from the hit of wedding, honeymoon, and moving enough that we have money saved up so that…well, we can actually spend money on things when we need to…or want to.

Personally, we were able to settle into routines enough, and start thinking about our future, that we could start setting personal goals, not just short-term goals, but goals for the long run. This past year, as you know, we got into running. Running a 10K race was a major accomplishment for the both of us, and it was a lot of fun. We have learned so much about ourselves, about each other, and about our marriage.

Stealing from a former post written by a friend, 2015 was a wonderful year, because I love more people now than I did at the beginning of it. We have been able to develop our friendships with the wonderful friends we met upon moving to St. Louis as we grow and continue to love those we left behind in California. We are so in love with our beautiful niece, born in 2015. We got the opportunity to spend more time with some friends in our last trip to California than in the past year and a half, developing those friendships and making new friends there along the way as well.

We’ve enjoyed this past year because the stability and routine allowed us to grow in so many ways. It’s even more valuable when you think about the years we have coming up in our lives – moving for vicarage this year, moving back to St. Louis next year, and moving to our first call the following year. The next few years will be continued new adventures, new places, new jobs, new people to love. We look forward to them so much and we are so excited to see where God takes us!

Thank you for all the support, prayers, and love this past year. We look forward to what 2016 will bring!

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nick and Mikaela Duerr