girlsgeaux

playing church

2011-10-27T14:51:00.003-05:00

Below are pics of the girls playing "church." Ayden lined up the chairs and they sang together, collected the offering and then read scripture together, she even called Addie up and one point to pray, too cute! Just a little funny, since we haven't been in a church building now for 2 years. But she still thought the chairs should be in a straight line you should stand for some songs and sit for others, and of course she didn't mind telling her sister what to do. She even went and got change for them to put in a basket for the offering.
Guess if they are going to pretend, this is what i want them pretending. The funniest part was when she read out of the Bible to them she had to make sure that Addie and Annielynne were on the right page, (they can't read yet.)

And of course afterwards there was dinner on the grounds! They had to sit in the "church" chairs and eat their pizza!

Shots!

2011-10-27T14:26:00.003-05:00

Since leaving America our children have not had vaccines. So we decided to catch them all up while we are here and it is a bit cheaper! I think Annielynne needed 7, Addie I think had 6 and Ayden only need 3. We did these all over a two or three week span and with 3 dr. visits. But we are all caught up now, except for Kirk and I still need one more. We also had to have blood test just to make sure everything is good. Getting blood from little girls is not an easy thing! They did great through the first set of shots, no tears!!! But after having to get blood drawn the second and third set of shots wasn't near as fun for poor little Addie. They had a really hard time getting the blood and then they had a bad test and we had to go back the next day and they had to redo it. Not fun!!! So for the last set of shots Kirk had to hold her down while she was screaming, it was crazy and a far cry from the first set when they were all excited to be going to the doctor. It was so funny the first time they went, they were really excited to be going, crazy kids I have!!! I guess since it had been almost two years since they had seen a doctor they forgot what it was really like. But Ayden even after the shots and blood being drawn she was still all about it, wanting to watch everything, she says now she wants to be a nurse! She loves watching Abram get his check up and shots. Crazy girl!!!

new Abram stats

2011-10-27T14:18:00.003-05:00

Went to the doctor yesterday for his 5 month check up
Weight 8.6 kg or 19 lbs 97 percentile
length 66 cm or 26 inches 95 percentile

all is good with him, he is just growing too fast!!!
He had two more shots yesterday, he hardly cries, he is the
easiest baby. He cried for about 15 seconds, the amount of
time for the them to put the bandaid on and me to pick him up.

going

2011-10-10T23:44:00.003-05:00

Annie lynne is our child that loves "to go." If we are going anywhere she wants to go. She walks to the store with Kirk or I every time we go. Here she and Kirk and walking to the store together.

more b-day pics

2011-10-10T23:34:00.002-05:00

Yesterday morning we our cinnamon roll b-day pic. and annielynne got her present that her sisters pick out. She had been wanting a friend for her dog "red rover" so now we have rusty. I had to be a little creative with the wrapping paper since I didn't have any. The girls put him in a pillow case and then we wrapped it in wax paper. we had also ran out of tape so we stapled the wax paper to make it stay! Good thing she is still to young to notice or care about any of that.
Last night we had some people over and we sang happy b-day and we had found these candles here that are more like fireworks, big sparklers! She loved it, no one could get too close to the cake, but the girls loved watching the show!
She had a great 4 year old day!

annie lynne is 4

2011-10-10T23:12:00.002-05:00

Annie Lynne's b-day was yesterday, but since we were going to be busy we went on Sunday night to this little place that had these few little rides. Nothing great, but she loved it. The girls got to ride four or five rides and even though Ayden was a little big for some of them, she still had lots of fun. Kirk was a little concerned about the upkeep of these rides but they were never more then a few feet off the ground so we figured they were okay. Of course, the swing ride was the favorite, it went the fastest and highest!
Below is Annie lynne eating her special meal. She got to choose the place and she picked Burger King, she wanted a "cheese booger" We were going to get her a kids meal (a special treat) but they were out of toys, go figure! but she had her own tray with her burger, french fries, and drink. the rest of us were sharing meals and drinks and she said, "mama, I can share my drink with you." I said "no, today is your b-day you get your own!" She got this huge grin and said, " i don't have to share with anybody! She was so excited!"

everyday stuff

2011-09-28T11:03:00.002-05:00

School time!!! The girls have done great doing school this year. Below we made feather pens and used berry juice to write. We are doing Am. history this year and they love it!

This park is really close to our house, it is really nice to have close! Hard to believe that Addie and Annie lynne almost balance each other, i think they are only about 3 pounds apart!

One of our Christmas presents last year was an e-reader, here is addie reading one of the books we put on it for him. I think we will start using the e-reader a lot with school. Kirk even found one of his books for school that he could load, saved a lot in shipping cost!!! And you can get books from the library which will be a great help with homeschooling!!!

So thankful for technology!!! Annielynne and Brogan are making faces at each other as we talk on skype together.
What did people do before skype???

abram

2011-09-28T10:21:00.003-05:00

Abram in his red neck swing! We didn't want to buy anything since we are here for such a short time, so Kirk just hung his car seat up for him. He loves it and i love having somewhere to put him. He sleeps great in that thing!!! The only thing we have to watch is how hard the girls push him! oh yea, it is tied up with broken jump ropes, sure hope it holds :)

Abram is finally turning over, On September 18th he finally flipped over, below are pictures of the day before when he was trying to and then he would get mad so we would just turn him over!
Also thankful for big sister, a few day later I realized I never wrote down when he turned over and I couldn't remember what day it had been on, luckily Adyen had written it in her journal! Glad one of us is keeping up with things!

abram's update

2011-09-28T09:47:00.003-05:00

Today he went for his 3 month visit
weight 7.9 kilograms or 17.4 lbs 97 percentile
height 64 cm or 25.2 inches 95th percentile
head circumference 40.5 cm or 15.9 inches 50th percentile

He is growing so fast!!!

almost as big as my sister!

Abram's first cultural experience

2011-09-17T11:41:00.002-05:00

I went out walking today with a friend, we went to another area of the city to just walk and pray. Right before we were about to catch a taxi we were invited into a home. It was an interesting experience all the way around and Abram got to have his first cultural experience. After we had been there a while it was time for Abram to eat, I asked the mom of the family if there was another room I could sit in to feed him as here in Jordan men and women visit together so her husband and sons were in there with us. She took Abram and was leading me to another room and she realized his diaper was really wet. So as she is walking down the hall she unbuttons his clothes and takes his diaper off and throws it on the floor. Then she brings him into the bathroom to wash him. Instead of wipes they just run them under water. So she sticks his booty under the cold water and uses her had to wash him all over down there (using no soap) and then uses the same hand and washes his face and head. Of course, he is screaming through this. Then she brings him in the room and lays him on the bed and I had by now gotten out the burp cloth to dry him with so she dries him and then proceeds to tell me the way his diaper was was wrong and she show me how to put on a diaper correctly. (i was thinking, I do have 4 kids) But I didn't say anything, she then shows me how to fold a cloth diaper and tell me that would be better. which i'm sure it would, but I do not want to clean that!!!
Anyway, it was so funny and Abram survived.

The family itself was interesting to visit with, they knew no english, so it was a challenge but it was good Arabic practice, something I have not gotten a lot of since being in this country. The mom and dad had been married for 30 years and they got married when she was 13 and she has had 10 kids, but one died. So know they have 9 and most of them live in that house still. It was a little weird for me because in our other country the men would never have stayed in the room but here we visited with the whole family. Of course, finding out we were American they wanted us to help their children find American spouses, always something we are asked. But please remember this family, we gave them our number, but I don't know if they will call, but when I had the mom alone, while i was feeding Abram, she told me that it has been a hard 30 years, i don't think they have a very happy marriage. Hopefully we will be able to talk to them again and tell them more about where true Joy comes from and that there is a God that loves her.

Addie's tooth

2011-09-11T23:14:00.002-05:00

Last Wednesday Addie lost her first tooth eating an apple.
She was soooo EXCITED!!!!!!

Pyramids

2011-09-11T22:23:00.003-05:00

The Pyramids! Really amazing to see! Of course, the girls favorite part was the carriage ride, and probably mine too. It would not have been fun to carry Abram around and try to hold on to the girls in the hot sun.

Climbing on the Pyramids. The girls were really disappointed they thought they could climb to the top, especially Addie, our little monkey. They did make it about three big rocks high before the guard came over and made them come down a little :)

more of Egypt

2011-09-11T13:09:00.002-05:00

Our last night there we went out to eat with Mandy and we actually ate at TGI Friday's; it was great to have some American food, but the really neat thing was we at on a boat that was docked in the Nile River. Just amazing to sit there and think of all the history!

Ayden, our little book worm. I finally made her put the book down so she could at least see the Nile and we talked some about how cool it is that we have gotten see the river; but then she went back to reading!

The girls had been wanted to ride in one of these little taxis call "tuttuts." They don't go up and down the main roads, but instead just up and down the side roads and back into the neighborhoods. The girls loved it, it is small but you can cram as many people as you want in there! The next picture is just a better view of what the "car" looks like.

one more pic from the village, of course this mummy is just a replica but we saw plenty of real ones in the museum. guess you really can't go to Egypt without seeing one!

more from the village

2011-09-11T12:52:00.002-05:00

This was one of the girls favorite things!!! Ayden especially liked the eye liner!
and you really can't go to Egypt without getting a Pharaoh mask!

Pharaonic village

2011-09-10T00:08:00.003-05:00

This was a really neat place that someone had told us the girls would like, and they did. It was on the Nile and you took a little boat around and you listened to a recording about how life was during the time of the Pharaohs. They had different people acting out different scenes. Then you got off the boat on this little island in the Nile and they had made a little village you could walk through and see what the houses looked like and in one of the pictures below they showed us how to make fire. The picture of Annielynne below is how they told time, she told us that water clocks like the one here was the oldest way of telling time, even before the sundial. An original one is in the museum and we had seen it the day before. The Egyptians would fill the pitcher with water and it would slowly drip out of a small hole in the bottom. There were marks on the inside to show when one hour had past. In the summer they would put oil on the top so that the water would not all evaporate. very fascinating. Since the museum doesn't allow pictures it was neat to be able to take pics of some of the things we had seen even though they were replicas.

Tahrir Square

2011-09-09T23:38:00.003-05:00

It was neat and sad to stand on the outside of Tahrir Square where all the protest just happened a few months ago in Egypt. The museum is right there on the Square, and one of the pictures below is a building right behind the museum that was burned during all the protest. The other pictures or of the riot police that now surround the square. One picture of the men standing around the square, one when they were changing shifts (some leaving and others coming) and then one of all the riot trucks parked along the side street. As I was looking at this I was wondering what was going on in our country and what it would be like to look at so many soldiers everyday protecting certain areas of the city.

museum, metro, and apartment hunting

2011-09-09T13:39:00.004-05:00

We did make it to the Cairo Museum, no pictures from inside as the museum does not allow pictures to be taken.
But it was an interesting experience. It is HUGE!!! So much to see, if you are at all interested in Egyptian history it is the place to go. But going in the summer is not a good idea, it is a huge building that does not have air conditioning. Also not the greatest place for kids, because after seeing a couple of statues and mummies, they all start looking very similar. We did all enjoy going into the room with King Tut's belongings, it was a small room that had air conditioning and everything was labeled so you could read about what you were looking at, plus it was just incredible!!! However, other than that room, not many things are labeled, so most of the time you have no idea what or who you are looking at. It was good though for the girls to see and we had lots of talks about what they believed as we looked at statues of their "gods." We talked about how with the mummies they put a mask over their face and painted it to look like that person so that the "gods" would know who it was; Ayden said "their god was pretty small if he couldn't even recognize them, i'm glad we have a God that is a lot more knowing then that." How true, i'm also very thankful that we serve a God that is all knowing and all powerful. So it was a great place to go and have some spiritual talks!

We went to Cairo because we needed to get new visas but we also went to help Mandy find an apartment there. It was Eid when we were there so we actually did most of our apartment looking at night. Here we are waiting in the lobby of this apartment building for the real estate guy to get the key so we could look at the apartment. Addie had had enough and poor Mandy ended up carrying her around the apartment and then down the 9 flights of stairs! (We were there to help her, but I think she really helped me even more!) We took the stairs down, because going up in the elevator was a little scary!

We also rode on the metro, Abram's first metro experience; and not something I would like to do often. The doors open and close so fast, i was afraid we wouldn't all make it on! But thankfully it was not as crowded as it usually is, an we all made it. Thankfully Mandy was with us so I had help, because the men are actually in one car and the women in another so I didn't have Kirk to help me with the kids.

papyrus

2011-09-09T13:31:00.001-05:00

We did go to a papyrus store that also taught you how they made papyrus. It was so fascinating how this paper was made so many years ago. It was a great education for the girls and also Kirk and I. From which part of the reed to use and how long to soak it in water to how to lay out the strips in order to make the paper, it was really interesting!

garbage city and church in the cave

2011-09-09T12:54:00.005-05:00

Someone had told us while in Cairo we should go see the church in the cave and garbage city. It was interesting. You have to drive though this area of town called "garbage city" and it literally is. These people basically live in a garbage dump. Big trucks bring the garbage in and then these people go through it and recycle all that they can. The thing is though that this is not just where they work but where they live. They have bags of garbage stacked everywhere!!! on roofs, all along the streets, right out the door of stores and restaurants, everywhere, and it stinks!!! We had the windows rolled up and it was still really bad. But when you get though it all you come to this mountain and they have basically built a church in the cave of this mountain and actually there are a couple of churches down there. One is just huge, like a big amphitheater. Also there are incredible carvings in the side of the mountain depicting many of the famous Bible stories. We took lots of pictures of different ones but the two below were my favorites. I read somewhere that 90% of the people living in garbage city are christians, of course this does not mean that they are all believers, they are called coptic christians and it is an orthodox church, but it was pretty amazing to see!

our hotel

2011-09-09T12:27:00.004-05:00

In the lobby of the hotel they had these two big chairs and the girls thought they were great. They were king and queen chairs.
So in the second picture Ayden is bowing down to Mandy, they were pretending she was the queen. It was a really nice hotel. Because of all the problems Egypt has had in the last few months, there are no tourist coming, and so all these hotels are really struggling, so we were able to stay there for really cheep and there were hardly any other guest there. Which was really nice for us at the pool, The girls could splash around as much as they wanted!!!

abram's first time in the pool

2011-09-08T13:24:00.002-05:00

Abram loved the water!!! I think he will be just like the other three.
They all did great!!! This was the first day in Cairo and they all 3 just jumped right in the water! Annielynne was wearing her flooties, but by the last day (3 days later) she was swimming without them!!!

The visa run was really hard on Kirk, as you can see!

Abrams first flight

2011-08-31T02:50:00.002-05:00

He did great on his first flight. I was glad that it was a short one, only about an hour, but he did really well. The drive from the airport to the hotel was longer then the flight, since the taxi driver told us he knew where our hotel was, but then of course didn't. Abram did get a little fussy in the taxi, but we were all sooo hot and he was tired of being held. As soon as we got to the hotel and i laid him down he was happy again!!!

seasoned travelers

2011-08-31T02:40:00.002-05:00

We had to leave the country because our visas were about to expire, so we have taken a quick trip to Cairo and then will return.
The girls did great at the airport. Addie and Annie lynne each have their backpack with just a couple of toys that keep them occupied and Ayden picked out a book before we left the house. Traveling with 4 was much easier then I thought it would be. Abram did great and so did the girls, they not only did great, but were very helpful to me; helping me carry Abram's bag and being very patient when I had to feed him.

6:30 in the morning

2011-08-31T02:31:00.002-05:00

Usually Abram eats and goes right back to sleep but the other morning after he ate he was wide awake and very happy!!!
He just smiled and smiled for almost an hour. It was a really sweet time.

hammock

2011-08-29T13:46:00.003-05:00

One of the single girls here with us needed a place to stay for a couple of weeks so she has been here with us, and it has been so much fun. The girls love having her here!!! She hung up her hammock on the balcony and the girls have spent hours playing in it. The funny part is that Annie lynne probably loves it the most. She will get a book to look at and go get in the hammock by herself and just stay there for an hour looking at her book and swinging back and forth. She is so funny about it.

school days

2011-08-29T13:26:00.003-05:00

We are studying American History this year and now we are up to George Washington. So yesterday we had to make hasty pudding.
It was what they ate a lot of in that time period. How thankful I am living in this period. To make it you just add cornmeal to boiling milk. The girls actually liked it, and it really wasn't bad, just pretty tasteless.
It said that back then they would put maple syrup on it for breakfast, we had some cane syrup so I added that to the top of theirs.
It also said that you could refrigerate and then slice and fry, so we had some that way after supper last night. Just like everything else it was much better fried!
Anyway one of the single girls is living with us right now so she helped them make and and the other picture is of them all tasting it for the first time.

this week

2011-08-28T16:30:00.002-05:00

Ayden and Addie know both have roller blades, we have a small concrete area outside and they go up and down for hours a day! Annie lynne puts on Addie's skates anytime she is not wearing them (hopefully we can get her some soon).
In the pic. below addie is doing one of her favorite things, playing with Abram. They are all 3 great big sisters, but Addie just loves to sit there and try and make him smile, she also loves to kiss and hug all over him! Of course, sometimes with that long hair in his face he doesn't like it to much.
In the top pic. the girls had made these hats as one of their school projects and addie said it looked like a kings crown so they put it on Abram and all bowed down to him. Hope he doesn't get to use to this. :)

more of the last month

2011-08-25T00:39:00.003-05:00

Here are girls at an Arab church, after childrens church all the kids came in and sang a song and then got a little goodie bag. The girls loved it, and it was great for them to be around some arabic speaking children again.

Here is addie listening to some recording in Arabic, we try to make them listen to at least some Arabic everyday, they have all forgotten so much since leaving Y.

Ayden doing one of her chores. She wanted chores to do to make a few JD (dollars) and so I told her one of her chores could be holding Abram when I'm trying to get things done. Sometimes she likes it and sometimes it is more work then it is worth :)

Annie lynne made a train the other day, between Abram's tub and the lundry baskets they had a pretty good thing going. Annie lynne sat in there for a while looking at books. They love Abram's tub to play in and they use it as a boat and drag him around too, when the stuffed animals aren't in it.

On the way home from the castle Addie fell asleep on the bus, I guess the book was more comfortable then the seat.

castle

2011-08-25T00:22:00.004-05:00

We went with another family about 2 hours north to see an old castle, the kids had so much fun exporing all of it. Thankfully there weren't many people there and our kids pretty much had free reign of the place. Here they are all pretending to be in castle prison.

bath time

2011-08-25T00:16:00.002-05:00

Abram's first bath with his sisters! Having an older child makes life so much eaiser! He loved being in the bath tub with them and it made bathing him so much easier. Especially at our new house where we really have to be careful how much water we use, it is great to be able to put them all in the same tub. Of course, after the girls get in, I'm not sure how clean the water is.

new pics

2011-08-24T23:29:00.006-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures from the last month:He is getting so big!

Here he is at the park watching his sisters and their friends play,
it won't be long and he will be the one swinging on the swings!

new stats for abram

2011-08-24T23:13:00.002-05:00

We went to doctor yesterday and here are Abram's new stats
This was his 2 month check up, i think they do more check ups here then in America :)

Weight 6.7 kilos or 14.7 lbs
Height 61 cm or 24 inches (he made it to 2 feet tall!)
Head 40 cm or 15.7 inches

Still basicly on the same path, 97 percentile for weight, around 90 in height, and 50 for his head. I guess he has a little
head for his body, but you can't tell because his cheeks are sooo big!

Of course he also got another shot yesterday, but he did great, only cried for about 2 seconds.
It is so funny, the girls love to coming with us to bring him to the doctor and they all 3 want to see
him get his shot. Of course they enjoy the sucker that the doctor's office gives them too. Poor
Abram he gets the shot and his sisters get the treat.

6 weeks

2011-08-11T14:00:00.003-05:00

Can't believe he is already 6 weeks old; he is growing so fast and getting so big!!!
We went to the doctor on Wednesday
weight 6.3 kg or 13.9 pounds (almost to 14)
length 60cm or 23.6 inches
head 36cm or 14.2 inches
so he was in the 95th percentile in weight, 90th in height, and 50 in head circumference

He is growing so good!!! His appointment went great and after his rough shot, the
girls all got a sucker from the doctor's office. They love when he gets shots!
Poor Abram gets the pain and they get the treat :)

dr. visit

2011-07-10T10:37:00.006-05:00

Today was Abram's 2 week appointment and his very first shot :(

But these are his measurements from the first appointment and from today.
At one week:
weight 4.2 kg - 9.2 lbs
height 55 cm - 21.7 inches
head cir. 36 cm - 14.2 inches

and today
weight 4.55 kg - 10 lbs
and they didn't take the other measurements today.

He is growing sooo fast, it makes me sad.

The pictures below is him resting this afternoon after his shots.

abram

2011-07-10T10:15:00.003-05:00

We finally got to hold Abram for a while (when it wasn't in the middle of the night). Usually he looks like he does in the pics below. The girls are always asking to hold him and they never want to put him down.

Every once in a while he gets put down in his make shift seat (his bath tub). here the girls got to pick the blankets
that went over and under him and of course they wanted to use their own. Poor boy, he will always be surrounded
by purple and pink if the girls have anything to do with it.

sling

2011-07-10T09:59:00.002-05:00

Here is me and Abram getting ready to go out. I really like this new sling, he sleeps so good in there and I still have both hands free to hold on to annie lynne and addie.

abram and a baby doll

2011-07-02T11:39:00.001-05:00

Abram wasn't very happy when annie lynne tried to make him share his "bed" with her baby doll! She really wanted a picture of him with it, but he never stopped screaming, i think Kirk was a little proud of him :)

just more pics

2011-07-02T11:32:00.001-05:00

The girls are still loving on him all the time. They love holding him and talking to him and singing to him. Not sure he knows how to lay down by himself, since he is held all the time!!!

first bath

2011-07-02T11:24:00.002-05:00

Abram survived his first bath!!! The girls were so excited to give him his first bath, but I don't think he was as excited to be getting it. Annie Lynne thought it was so fun to squeeze the wash cloth over his head and face and then we had a little extra soap in the water so Abram was nice and slippery! With 6 little extra hands and 3 wash cloths he was good and clean and I think he was very thankful when it was all over!
but he did smell good!

Abram and the girls

2011-06-28T11:33:00.001-05:00

Abram and his sisters!!!

Abram meeting his family at home, how thankful we are for Skype!!!

more of Abram

2011-06-28T11:18:00.002-05:00

finally some opened eyes!
He has been a great baby, he sleeps all the time and he hasn't hardly cried at all.

the view from our room was incredible! We had a great view of city!

the girls can't get enough of him!

abram and annie lynne

2011-06-26T06:41:00.002-05:00

a brother???

2011-06-26T06:36:00.002-05:00

The girls are very excited about having a brother!!!

Abram Charles Severio

2011-06-26T06:32:00.001-05:00

Abram Charles
June 26, 2011
6:15 am
8lbs 8oz
20.9 inches long

what going on

2011-05-22T10:40:00.003-05:00

There will be more pictures coming, but our internet is a little slower here and set up differently so pictures will be coming but probably slowly.

But wanted to just update on all that has gone on since leaving our home. We stayed in the capital for the first two months, just trying to figure out what to do and where to go and how to start life here without really settling in, because we were hoping to go back as soon as possible. However now that the baby is due in six weeks we know we will be here for the next few months for sure. Once that was settled we decided to start looking for a place to live that we could rent for 3 months and we decided to move to a city about 40 min. or so outside of the capital. We found a house and moved in about 1 week ago. It has been an experience and we are learning many new things. The Lord is teaching us so much but to mainly wait on Him and be content where we are.
This is not always easy as we would love to go home and continue the work where we were, but we are trying to learn to rest in Him and wait on His perfect timing.
The girls are enjoying our new home, as it has a big yard for them to run and play in, we are on the bottom floor and the owners of the house live upstairs, they also have 3 children, but they are older then our girls, but sometimes they still play together out in the yard.
We also started homeschooling last week. And having a routine with girls has been really good. Ayden is now in 2nd grade and Addie kindergarten. The girls love their new school books and it has been good to have the time to really teach them.
Kirk and I are still studying lang. and God has been gracious to us and we are able to study with our teacher from home using gmail chat. It has been great to stay in contact with him and still be hearing the dialect that we need. We do that for 2 hours a day 5 days a week and then starting this week we will study with a language helper here 3 days a week for 2 hours. Hoping all this will prepare us for the future.
We will also start trying to meet people here and visit with them. We have visited one family together already and Kirk has visited with another man. Hoping that we have many opportunities here to meet people and talk with them.
Of course, it is getting harder and harder for Kristy to get out and do this, as everything is a walk and she is getting more and more tired as we wait for the arrival of number 4.

We thank each of you so much for all your love and support and we will try to be better about posting more often and more pictures.

bedouin dress

2011-05-22T10:29:00.002-05:00

One of the shop owners here wanted to dress the girls up in the traditional bedouin dress. The girls loved the dresses and
getting to play dress up in the shop.
This is such an incredible country in that there are so many different people groups living so close together. When we travel from the capital to the city where we are living we can see bedouin camps, gypsy camps, the people originally from this country and then a large number of refugees. A pretty interesting place to be.

grocery store

2011-04-03T13:59:00.002-05:00

we still can't get over how huge this grocery store is here. I know it has been a while since being in a super walmart, but this place is pretty incredible! It is in the biggest mall and it is two floors, food on the bottom and then everything else on the second floor. but it is so cool because the buggy sticks to the escalator with some kind of magnets! The girls think it is the best thing ever!!! (can you tell that we are from Louisiana! ha ha) sure they have these in other places, but this is a first for us. So just going to the mall and then grocery shopping is still pretty fun and entertaining for us all!

more pics of our time here

2011-04-02T12:16:00.002-05:00

This is what we have spent most of our time here doing. Playing with the girls and spending time with others in our same situation. One of the pics below is of annielynne and the lady that is staying in the apartment with us. We have been so blessed to have her around and our girls have loved playing with her. She has been a wonderful gift. We already loved her before we came, but now as we get to know her more and more; we are so thankful that our children get to grow up around such wonderful women of the Father.
Also the girls, especially Ayden, have had a wonderful time playing with all the other children here. Ayden came in on about the 3rd or 4th day we were here and said, "this is so much fun, all these kids to play with and they all speak English."
so they have had the most fun just hanging out in the apartment and playing with the other kids.
But tonight when she was praying before we ate dinner, she asked the Father to break up the people so that we could go home. So as much fun as she is having I think everyone is a little ready to go home or get more settled so that this will be like home, for a while.

another thought

2011-04-02T10:23:00.002-05:00

Something else that we have spent time really thinking about and dealing with is that when we left it was very hard. It was hard to know who to spend that last day with, who to call, who to text, and who to go see and visit with one more time. Then once we got here it was really hard not to second guess yourself, did I say the right thing, have i said enough, should I have called this person or gone to see that one. And it wasn't just us struggling with this as we talked to others it was kind of of common thread. But how little do we think of our Father. He loves the people much more than us, He allows us to be part of His work, He doesn't need me. Yes, we should be diligent to share and learn the lang. so we can speak to people; but He is just allowing us to be part of His plan and purpose for these people, He doesn't need me. He can do the work and will continue the work whether or not Kirk and I or there. We love the people and we want to be home and to be involved in what is going on in our city; and the Father has given us a heart for these peoples; but He still loves them way more then I ever could and He will still continue His work, and in His awesome way He will use the conversations we have had and the books we have given out. How Awesome is our Father that He chooses to use us; but what a great reminder that He allows us to be part of His great plan, but He really does not need us!

Just some thoughts

2011-04-02T10:13:00.002-05:00

It is hard to believe that we have been here a week and half and we have no idea when we will be able to go home. This place is so different and so much more western then we were expecting. With everything going on and with all the new things to see and do we have been very overwhelmed. But about 2 or 3 days ago I had had enough. We weren't planning on vacationing and so my mind wasn't set on that, and it is so different here and hard to see how we will get involved that I was really struggling. Not knowing how much longer or what we would be doing was very frustrating for me. However, I was reading in Mark at the very end and it said that the disciples went out sharing everywhere. And I feel like I have been so focused on our people group that even though we pr.. for other areas of the world, I didn't see me going to any other areas. But it was so good for me to see that once again it is not about me or what I want, but it is just about sharing no matter where He puts us.
It is so easy to get consumed by our plans and what we think we should be doing and where we should be doing it that we forget that He uses us wherever we are and that if we are just open to being obedient He can even use us here!

more of this country

2011-04-02T09:57:00.002-05:00

This is us at the dead sea and then at Mount Nebo.
The dead sea was so interesting to me, i could not get over how if felt, the water didn't even really feel like water and it left like an oily residue on your hands. We didn't swim because there was no where to wash off and you can't leave the water on you, b/c of the high salt content. but it was still very cool to put our hands in and see how it felt and then to see the salt crystals on the rocks was really interesting.
But what was really just amazing was to stand and look out over Mount Nebo, where they believe was the spot that Moses stood when God showed him the promise land. So to stand there and look out was pretty amazing. Just to be in that spot and looking out over the promise land, and it was a little hard to see but you could see the Jordan River and just imagine them crossing over; it was all very amazing to see.
The other pic. of Kirk and Annielynne we were in another very old city; and just walking up and down the streets was very cool just to realize the history there. We went to one site where we actually saw pieces of the Roman road and just to think back on all the history was pretty amazing. This city also has some orthodox and catholic influence so I was able to find a cross with the Lord Prayer in arabic, can't wait to hang it up when we get home! Pretty amazing places!

more pics of the trip

2011-04-02T09:19:00.003-05:00

we have had a few days to tour the city; and have some more good food. A couple of pics below of the girls eating blueberry waffles!!! It was very exciting!!! and then more of us looking at lots of old important rocks???
of course we bring the girls to see all of these historic sites and annie lynne's favorite thing is all the caterpillars around. She had so much fun with them and we even brought one home, of course when it died two days later she was devastated! it must of have been ten minutes of tears over her pet caterpillar. She is so funny!!!

advantages of evacuation!

2011-04-01T23:52:00.003-05:00

The first day here we went to a big mall to the food court to eat, for those in Louisiana, it makes the mall of Louisiana look really small. I was a little over whelmed and just deciding what to eat was more then i could take at the moment. So we decided on McDonalds and the girls were excited! we then had ice cream afterward for dessert and it was a lot fun. Kirk then went to the grocery store, which makes super walmart look small, I knew i couldn't handle that so me and the girls came back to where we are staying and napped. Kirk came home with about 5 things and said even the bread section was enormous he couldn't decide what to buy. The funny part was the girls went to sleep about 2:30 for their naps and they didn't wake up until about 5:30 the next morning, think they were a little worn out!!!!!
I think we have had more culture shock coming here then when we moved to our 3rd world country.
But we have enjoyed the food and they even have 1 pork store in the city so we have eaten ham sandwiches for at least 5 meals in the last week :)

we also have a tree for the girls to climb in, what else can you ask for!

leaving

2011-04-01T23:34:00.002-05:00

taken me awhile but hopefully over the next few days i will be able to get more pics up and some thoughts about all that is going on.
our house helper was very gracious and braided all three of the girls hair before we traveled. Even Annielynne had 5 or 6 braids in her hair, I had no idea she even had enough hair for that.

then the sad pic. is when the girls had to say bye to Miley, a very sad moment. A national friend agreed to take her in until we return, so hoping that all works out! The girls were very sad but we were very thankful that we found a place to leave her.

On the plane the girls did great, we had to get up a little before 2 am for our flight and so it was a long day, but they handled it great!!! red rover and baby ashley, of course made the trip with us!

a day off

2011-03-19T09:51:00.004-05:00

with all that is going on here, we got to have a day off. We went for a day at the pool at one of the hotels here. It was so nice, but since our white bodies hadn't seen the sun in a long time, we all came home with sunburns! The water was way to cold for me, but the girls loved it, you would have thought we were going to Disney World as excited as the girls were for their one day at the pool. But sitting in the sun and having lunch by the pool was such a relaxing day. And just in time since Friday was the craziest it has been here.

silly girls

2011-03-19T09:28:00.002-05:00

Ayden was pretending that she was running a doggy restaurant. Poor Miley, they put that puppy through a lot. Anyway she sat her up and then made her a table and then fed her one piece of dog food at a time. So funny!

Annie lynne has decided to become attached to a toy, she has had her favorites in the past but has never been so attached as she is now to "red rover." He is a hard plastic game that she got in Oct for her B-day, but has recently become very attached too. He sleeps with her, eats with her, goes on visits when she comes with me, if we leave the house rover is with us. Then the other day she decided it was rover's b-day so we had a piece of cake and sang happy birthday to a plastic dog who she decided turned 4. That girl is so crazy!

Since Rover had a party the next day Addie decided that it was "baby ashley's" b-day so we did the party thing all over again. This time we sang happy b-day in english and in arabic. the arabic b-day song is addie's favorite thing to sing. Think ashley turned 3 addie decided!

the rain

2011-03-19T09:21:00.002-05:00

It has been a while since the girls have seen water falling from the sky so they were so excited when we got a sprinkle the other day. So funny, by the time they got their jackets and boots on, it had quit raining, but then later it sprinkled again for a few minutes and they were ready. They played out there the whole 5 minutes it rained and it was the highlight of the day!!! And it was nice for us too, it knocked down some of the dust around here. Hopefully the rainy season isn't too far off.

the girls

2011-02-16T07:33:00.002-06:00

As I'm writing this I'm watching our girls spin each other in a chair, enjoying their laughs and kind of waiting for the tears when someone gets hurt! but seriously i'm so thankful for the relationships they have with each other. Some times i let the evil one make me feel guilty and tell me that I am doing something wrong by not letting my kids have a "normal" life, an american life. They don't have many friends their ages and the little ones are not around other kids everyday (ayden is at school, but then she can't hardly talk to them because of the lang. barrier). And sometimes i can find myself feeling bad for them, but them i'm reminded that we are where we are suppose to be and He is providing all my children's needs. How thankful I am that they are not just sisters, but they are best friends too. Annie lynne doesn't even call them her sisters, she always says where are my friends, or why are my friends doing that. I love that she calls her sisters her friends, and so thankful for the relationship they have with one another that they probably would not have if we were not here!

baby party

2011-02-16T06:55:00.002-06:00

i'm learning so much about cultures and customs it is amazing to me!
In our city after you have a baby you sit for 40 days or so and people come everyday to your house to sit with you and drink tea. It is like a baby party everyday, except for the family who had the baby is responsible for hosting people everyday, serving tea and sometimes snacks. Then during those days there are special days where there is music and dancing and other things. The new mom gets very dressed up and wears a special head piece thing and it is all very interesting, but not something I would ever want to put myself through after having a baby. Of course when one of my neighbors found out I was pregnant she was very kind and offered for me to sit in her house for the 40 days for the party thing (i guess she thinks not many people would come to my house) I politely declined, and thought there is no way I can sit and entertain people for 40 days! So kind that she would offer but so funny. Guess one day after I'm recovered I will have to dress up and have a party for all my friends and neighbors. so funny how things are so different all over the world. However, I am all about sitting for 40 days and not having to clean or cook or do anything else ( ha ha).

but I was invited over one day to a friends house, and I hadn't seen this lady in months, so had no idea why she was inviting me.
when i got there it looked like a baby party, and of course i was underdressed, again! but i looked and saw no baby, but that is not uncommon either, a lot of times the baby is in another room, so i just sat and waited for someone to tell me what was going on. about 10 min. later my friend looked at me and said, "i had a baby three days ago and it died." I had no idea what to say to her, after telling her how sorry i was i sat astonished that i had been invited over to a house, where i hadn't seen the lady in months because her baby died. Me I would want to cry alone for days if that happened to me and a party would be the last thing on my mind, but it was what she was suppose to do. My heart was grieved for her, she sat in this room with many ladies laughing and telling stories, just like a baby party but with no baby. i later found out that many women still sit in there house for days and people come over, just like a baby party. How hard! When I would tell her how sorry i was she would just say "God is Good." And yes He is, but I do not think that means that we can't cry. I did find out later that many will not cry, especially not in front of people, because then it looks as if you do not believe God knows what is best for you. However, I did come home and cry for her, how hard, not being able to express any of your feeling!

sorry for the sad story, but thought it was important to share.

valentines day

2011-02-16T06:42:00.003-06:00

I have a friend that i have been to see a few times. She has sent her sons over to invite me to come and when I go there is always a party; so I have never really talked to her. Well I went to her sons b-day party (this is very unusual most of them do not even know when their b-days are and they do not have parties for them) the other day. She sent me home with all kinds of snacks so this week I filled her bowl back up with cookies and went to visit her, thinking I would finally get to sit down and talk with her. I went on Valentines Day which is not really celebrated here. So I was thinking it was a normal day at her house, I was wrong!!! I got there and she was all dressed up with lots of make-up and still getting ready. She sat me in the "living" room and then went and finished getting ready. They already had the loud music going so I knew she was having some kind of party, but no idea what. She came back in the room about 10 min. later and served me a drink and told me she was having a party, i asked for what and she said "holiday of love." I could not believe it, i think i asked her like 3 times thinking something was just wrong with my arabic, but that is what she said. I think the only people to celebrate the holiday in the country and it was her. So another party i sat through being completely underdressed and with no make-up. Before I left I asked for her phone number so i could call before i came back so i would know how to dress and she gave me the number and said "yes, next time you should wear some make-up!" She really is nice and a fun personality, and she much really love parties, but she was very honest in telling me I really should be wearing make-up, thanks a lot!!!

but even though i was not invited and was not dressed appropriately, her and her friends were very kind to me and served me many snacks and treated me very special. The women here are always so kind to me and welcome me and they are very gracious with me and all my mistakes in the language and the culture.

Of course, I just thought it was so funny that on "holiday of love" you spend it with your friends eating snacks and smoking shesha
not with your husbands, she told me her husband would not be home until really late. (i'm sure he had gone to a qat chew)

doctor visit today!

2011-02-16T06:37:00.002-06:00

this is the first for us since arriving here, but figured if I was going to have a baby here I should eventually go. Kirk did successfully go to the dentist, so that was encouraging. He even had a root canal and survived it!!!! we were very excited!

Seriously, everything looks good with the baby. We have due date of July 3rd. Hoping to hold out to July 4th so it can share the same b-day with daddy, but probably by the end of June, I won't care anymore, i'll just be ready to have it!

The clinic looked clean and even though it wasn't Woman's Hospital, I think it will do to have a baby in. The doctor was nice and her English was good so we were glad about that and the room you deliver in looked pretty good. They do have some hospitals here but the clinic is really close to our house and not sure the hospitals have any more to offer. So different from my other 3 but the Father know so we are just trusting in Him!

henna

2011-02-09T10:05:00.002-06:00

the girls all 3 got henna the other day. I could not believe that they would sit still for so long, but they did and annie lynne did great. She sat for the lady and then another 30 min. to let it all dry. So she really can sit still when it is something she wants!!!
they were so excited about it and it really came out good, but then annie lynn slept on one of her hands that night and now she has a little henna flower on her face! so funny and too cute!
One pic is annielynne getting the henna, lots of women around uncovered so had to do a close up of her and the other is the girls the next day showing off the henna to me, still excited about it. It should last a couple of weeks but we will see.

neighbors

2011-02-09T09:47:00.002-06:00

went to my neighbors house the other day and they dressed me up and we took pictures, was so surprised they let me take pics of them with their faces uncovered, glad I am earning so much trust with this family. Of course the girls love all the beads that they put around their head and neck
The head decoration that Ayden is wearing is something that is very cultural to our people group and is usually worn after they have a baby when they are doing the baby party thing.

make up

2011-02-09T09:42:00.000-06:00

Thanks Becky for the make up!!!

our day at the mountains

2011-02-09T09:29:00.001-06:00

interesting foods

2011-02-09T09:04:00.003-06:00

The other day we went with some national friends up to the mountains for just a day of fun. We brought snacks and so did they; it is still amazing to me how different culture and taste are! I had brought carrots and cucumbers, cut up a watermelon, bananas, and we had some boiled eggs. All easy things to pack and to eat. They brought one of our favorite deserts from here, it is what the girls call honey bread (lots of layers of bread made and cooked in a certain way and then topped with honey). Very good treat, but not so easy to carry up the mountain (it was still in the big pan it is put in after made) and a little messy to eat! They also brought and empty pan and I was wondering what it was going to be for? I found out too soon. After sitting down, they opened a container of plain yogurt poured it in the pan and then opened a can of tuna and poured that on top of the yogurt! It was stirred around with a piece of bread and then eaten by all! I am not really a fan of tuna straight out of the can or of plain yogurt, but I did manage to get some down. Kirk must be a little more cultural then me or I just really cook bad, because he ate the tuna/yogurt without even making a face and then said it wasn't that bad!
Almost every time we eat with friends it is something new to try!

so if you are in the mood to try an easy snack just mix yogurt and tuna!

Happy Birthday Addie

2011-01-12T04:12:00.001-06:00

reading and playing wii

2011-01-12T04:01:00.002-06:00

The girls friends have discovered the wii and they love it. So thankful that we got one for the girls before we came.
So this night the girls were playing wii and ayden was finishing up some homework and Kirk is sitting on the couch reading the Book with a friend. The friend is not a brother yet but very interested in what the Book has to say.
We love that some nationals feel comfortable coming over, so many that we meet will not go to a foreigners home or allow their kids to come to our house, so we are thankful that these girls are allowed to come in and that a few adults will also come in and visit.

more from Christmas

2011-01-12T03:30:00.004-06:00

The girls got more then Miley for Christmas and we have had lots of fun playing with everything!

thanks for the gingerbread house and the puzzles of the girls and the make-up
all very fun things that we all 5 had fun with (except for the make-up, kirk wouldn't put any on!)

Christmas morning

2011-01-10T03:40:00.006-06:00

Christmas eve we made a birthday cake for Jesus, Ayden even helped me write on it. The girls thought it was so fun to sing happy b-day Christmas morning before we opened any presents. Even the stuffed animals had to sing with us!

Eating our Christmas morning breakfast. Not quite the same as having it at moms but it still tasted good. So thankful that mom and dad were able to bring an ice chest when they came this past summer and we saved some Jimmy Dean sausage so we could make our special breakfast dish! It made Christmas a little more special

Ayden right after they opened the box with Miley

Christmas pics

2011-01-10T03:17:00.003-06:00

I wrapped the girls in this very traditional cloth for their Christmas picture. some of my older lady friends wear this cloth wrapped over them instead of the all black.

crafts and cookies

2011-01-09T04:09:00.002-06:00

girls making gingerbread people. so fun, but i think their favorite part was eating all the icing!

we were so very fortunate that we were able to buy a Christmas tree from a family that was leaving the country, but it was a little weird having someone else's ornaments on the our tree so the girls and us spent a couple of days making and painting ornaments. Lots of fun and it was great to just do some Christmas "stuff" with the girls.

we decorated cookies with some of the girls national friends, so much fun. The girls loved it and then they got to take lots of cookies home so they were very excited.

Christmas

2011-01-09T02:58:00.003-06:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to post, December was crazy. Kristy had more visits in that month then she has had and Kirk was busy also with work and visits.
We had a very different but good Christmas and are excited about what our Father will do in this next year!

The girls were surprised Christmas morning with a new puppy, we didn't think we would be able to get one here but found out a couple of days before Christmas that another foreign family here had a dog who had puppies and they were giving them away. We were so excited to be able to finally get a pet for the girls and it was so fun watching them with our new puppy "Miley."

sunflower seeds

2010-12-15T06:11:00.002-06:00

Another culture shock! Kirk found some sunflower seeds the other day, so he bought a big bag. After we got them home found out that they didn't quite taste like the ones in the states. These had vinegar on them or something. We just couldn't eat them so we were planning on giving them to someone here. The bag was still on the table yesterday when some of our neighbors came over to play. Without our knowledge the girls got into the sunflower seeds, which would have been fine if they would have eaten them and spit the seeds in the garbage or outside; but not these kids instead they spit the shells on the floor in three different rooms in our house. Needless to say when Ayden came and got Kirk and I we were not very happy. I fussed at them the best I could in Arabic and then Kirk got the vacuum and gave it to them and we made them clean it all up. I just couldn't believe that they thought it was okay to just spit the shells all over the floor. Guess I still have a lot to learn about culture differences. Anyway, I think after they saw how upset we were that they will not do that again.

the beach

2010-12-10T10:47:00.002-06:00

When we left the previous city we headed to the beach for a day. It has been pretty cold in our city in the morning and at night, but the beach was perfect. The girls had a great time in the waves and in the sand. But the next day we came back to the cold.
It has been in the low 40's or high 30's at night, but always warms up during the day. But it was great to have a day at the beach in the warm weather.

visiting another city

2010-12-10T10:33:00.002-06:00

Between kids being sick last month we were able to take a quick trip. We headed north a little to visit this city, it is a pretty big city but not in comparison to the capital, where we live. There are three single ladies living and "working" in this city. They are the only workers in that city. As we looked out over the city, which is in the mountains, our hearts were saddened, thousands upon thousands living in this city, and that doesn't include all the surrounding villages, and only 3 workers. Please remember this place with us, and the many other cities in our country that don't have any one there yet to tell the Story.

annie lynne

2010-12-10T10:27:00.002-06:00

Annie Lynne wearing a shirt that was mine when I was her age. The shirt has a picture of me on it when I was around her age, I told her to make the same face I was making, but she couldn't help smiling a little.
I have a picture of all three girls wearing this shirt at that age, and none of them look anything like me.

more of Ayden's b-day

2010-12-10T10:20:00.002-06:00

It seamed liked Ayden's B-day would never end. Kirk and I could not think of what to get her, so we finally decided to let her go to the toy store and pick something out (within limits). But then everyone got sick so it was a couple of weeks after her actual b-day before we made it to the store. This is what she picked out. Out of everything there she wanted dress-up. Of course her favorite part is the mask. So funny and all three of them have enjoyed this gift.

time-out

2010-12-10T10:14:00.001-06:00

Our new time-out chair. Just kidding, we don't even do time-out, but if we did this wouldn't be a bad idea. Addie managed to get up there by stacking all the pillows, but then couldn't figure out how to get down. Great place to stick one of them if I need them out of the way! ha ha

lice

2010-12-10T07:42:00.003-06:00

Well we had an exciting day yesterday!!!
Well the last month has been a little crazy, one reason for no post. All three girls were sick in November and it took us a while to all start feeling better. We were finally on the mend and things were back to "normal" and then yesterday happened! I was pulling up Ayden's hair for her to go to arabic class and saw "them." Couldn't believe it, and our plans quickly changed. Kirk headed to the pharmacy to see what all he could find and I striped all the beds. They all sleep together at night but they nap in all three beds in our house, so the little bugs were not contained to one room. So after stripping all the sheets, I put them in the tub, our washer does not connect to the hot water heater and sense I knew they had to be done in hot water decided the tub was the best or only place for so many sheets. After washing them all in hot water, i still wasn't convinced the water was hot enough, (our hot water heater is only so big and to fill up the tub it had started cooling off) so we boiled water and poured boiling water over all the sheets, surely now the little bugs were dead. Next problem, we only have two hanging lines! So Kirk found some rope and started running lines everywhere. We had sheets and blankets hung all over our little yard. Then he bought some plastic to lay on our roof so we could lay out all "couch" pillows, so they could sun. and thankfully I had saved some big ziplock vacuum seal bags from when we moved, so now all the toys with material or hair are put up for a while.
Long day and another long day today of more clothes and blankets to wash, but today decided to bucket hot water to washing machine, and then poured hot water over.
As for the kids:
We treated their hair and made them sit outside and watch a movie on the computer while we cleaned and got all pillows out of house (picture below). And then to just make sure all eggs were dead we put vinegar in their hair covered with shower cap and then combed out (picture below). Kirk and I also did treatments just in case. But we ran out of vinegar so Kirk went to little store next to our house and all they had was "brown vinegar). it looked same and smelled the same so just figured it was something really close. The girls were done so Kirk was going to do my hair with the vinegar, as he poured it on my head stared burning I tried to leave it, thinking I was just being a baby, but finally couldn't take it and through tears washed my hair out, then we looked at the bottle a little closer and it was about 35% stronger then regular white vinegar. My forehead burned the rest of the night and I was still smelling vinegar this morning. Funny now, the mistakes we make, but last night wasn't so funny. Crazy couple of days, but hopefully all bugs and eggs are dead and gone, and tonight we can sleep with blankets!. Last night dressed the kids in their sweat shirts and pants, because the blankets weren't cleaned yet. What a funny story when it is all over.
Guess from now on I shouldn't let the kids play dress-up especially with scarves with the national neighborhood kids! But o-well it's worth these minor set backs for our kids to have friendships with the nationals, which has opened up doors for Kirk and I to "talk" with their families!

crafts

2010-11-13T13:40:00.003-06:00

thanks granny for the craft projects, Ayden had a lot of fun today making this.

ayden's b-day

2010-11-13T13:04:00.004-06:00

and when we asked her what her favorite thing to do here is, she said going to the mountains. so a group of us went and climbed and brought snacks. It was a fun day out and she had a great time climbing all around.
so even though we didn't have a "party" it felt like her b-day lasted forever, I think we sang to her 5 or 6 times, and I think she had a lot of fun!

the next morning i did get the cinnamon rolls made and so we sang again, can't believe she is 7!

after dinner we came home and made banana splits! she loved that too.

went to ayden's favorite place to eat that night, kirk had painted all their faces and then she got to eat chicken strips and french fries, so it was a good night

Made cup cakes and brought them to her school when I went to pick her up, the kids all enjoyed them but not sure that translated (bringing cake for someones b-day to school), they still weren't sure why I had brought them.

didn't have time to make cinnamon rolls that morning so she had cup cakes from a local bakery for breakfast, kirk walked to get them that morning, and they left a lot to be desired, I think each of the kids had one bite and that was about all they wanted of that. (cakes here are not made with much sugar and they are very dry)

This was really on Kirk's B-day, but while we were together with some friends we sang to both of them

this summer

2010-10-31T03:02:00.004-05:00

this are old videos from when mom and dad came this summer,
i just figured out how to get it from the camera to the blog

2nd school for ayden

2010-10-27T04:48:00.002-05:00

well this week Ayden has been in a private school not far from our house. I have been bring her and staying with her all day. It is so much better then the other. Kirk is there with her today, he wanted to go and check it out and make sure he has a peace about leaving her there before we commit. We will be pr.. about this over the weekend and then on Sat. either give them their books back or enroll her.
I am thankful we did the govt. school first and now I can really see how good the private school is. I think had we done the private school first I would have seen all its problems and seen how far behind the states it is, but instead i can see how far they have come.

Ayden looks so cute in her little uniform and she is already making some friends, there are two little girls that she mainly plays with at the break time, but everyone there has been very kind to her. I think she would really pick up the lang. fast if she goes, which is the main reason for having her there, and she should do really well in the eng. class since they are just learning the alphabet. I would still have to do some school at home so that is an issue, just trying to find time for everything. She would need to keep up her reading and her math at home. the only part in eng. is the eng. class and they bring in a teacher for that, and her eng. is actually pretty good (at a lot of schools the eng. teacher can barely speak the lang.) and her main teacher does not speak any eng. which i think is good, it really makes ayden try to understand what they are saying and when she does try, she can really figure out a lot. but because nothing is in eng. we will have to do reading and math when she gets home to keep her at grade level with those two things.

school

2010-10-22T10:06:00.002-05:00

Busy week, We put Ayden in a national school, and it has been interesting! Of course, i have stayed with her the entire time, and I have learned so much about the govt. schools and about culture in general. It has been a real eye opener. She goes from 1:00 pm until about 4. But we have come to the conclusion that it is not a place that we would ever fell comfortable leaving her, so we don't know how long she will be able to go. We are going look at a private school tomorrow and then from there we will make a decision that school is from about 7:30am - 1pm. (a little more of a school day). Still having to homeschool and her go to school and kirk and I having our lang. class has been a lot so we will have to figure it out. She loves being with the other kids and she is picking up some of the lang. so we hope we can work something out.

airplane

2010-10-16T12:16:00.003-05:00

Our little seasoned traveler. Addie is kicked back, carsyn in the lap, arms crossed, legs crossed, watching none other then the exciting safety video before the flight!

other pics

2010-10-16T11:54:00.005-05:00

view from our room in Santorini, and yes that is Carsyn, Addie is holding. She still has to go most places with us!!!

This is the day we took the hair down, so funny with all the curls! That is Sydney, Kirk's sister with them, they loved having a cousin around.

Kirk and I decided to do what they say is a 2 hour hike from our room to one of the cities on the island. It is up and down through the mountains, and it was not a 2 hour but a 4 hour hike for us. The girls loved it and we had a picnic along the way. The picture is when we finally made it to the city, the view was incredible!!!

4-wheelers

2010-10-16T11:32:00.002-05:00

we rented 4-wheelers one day and rode all over and saw the whole island, it was a lot of fun, made me think of riding at mom and dad's. The girls thought it was great, and Kirk let Ayden drive (with him on there) and so she thought she was so big!!!
great day just relaxing!
The next day Kirk and I and his sister and her husband went back out on the 4-wheelers. The girls stayed with his mom and other sister and had a great day, and we had so much fun just riding and then having a day of conversation with adults only! It was a lot of fun!

beach

2010-10-16T11:07:00.002-05:00

Kirk finally found a beach he liked, no sand just rocks!!! i on the other hand would much rather the sand.
the beach was really pretty, but the water was freezing, i could not make myself get in. of course, that did not stop the girls. Kirk would only go in up to his knees, but thankfully a friend from Germany was there with us and she swam with the girls. Glad someone likes cold water.

The last picture is us swimming in the hot springs. We went out on a boat for the day and it first took us to the volcano which was a hike but the girls loved it and they loved feeling the hot air coming out some of the holes in the ground. Then we went to the hot springs, but it was not hot enough for me, we swam and it was fun, but i never really found any hot water, just a few warm spots. Guess i lived in Louisiana too long, i like the water i swim in to feel like bath water! After that we went to a little fishing villages on one of the islands, it was really neat to see and it had great food!

more trip

2010-10-16T10:29:00.003-05:00

Some of the highlights of Athens! of course we hit the most important place, McDonalds. I didn't know I could ever miss McDonals, but when we ate there it never tasted so good! Just a little piece of America

Probably the most important historical site we saw was the Acropolis, it was pretty amazing to picture Paul there preaching to the Athenians, and just amazing to see such historical ruins.

our trip

2010-10-16T10:07:00.004-05:00

We were excited to get to spend some time in Greece over the last two weeks. Kirk's family helped us and some of them met us in Athens and then we ferried to Santorini. It was a great trip and a wonderful break for us. Kirk and I had some time together without the kids, which was much needed and appreciated, and we hand some great family time, just playing with the girls.

the first real fast food we have had in 10 months!!! it sure tasted good!!! this was in the airport during our layover.

we got the girls hair braided the night before we left from an Ethiopian place here, it was great! i couldn't believe they were able to get annielynnes hair in so many braids, but is was nice not having to brush hair the first few days!

anniversary

2010-09-24T08:54:00.002-05:00

Well it has now been 10 years since Kirk and I said "I do." and how did we celebrate? Well we checked the time last night and did the time change difference when we were up in the middle of the night cleaning up throw-up from Addie and Annie lynne and it was the exact time 10 years ago when we were getting married. It was funny, here we were in the middle of the night cleaning up and bathing the girls and we just started laughing when we realized it was the exact time of our wedding. What a way to celebrate!!!

Girls are much better today, just the 2 little ones threw up so it must have been something they ate or they drink, who knows, but today they are fine! They have been running around and we have been dragging after being up most of the night.

We did have a good day before that, just a normal day, but some friends took all us to breakfast and another fixed lunch for us and then last night we all went out to eat (which may have been the culprit). The girls also had their first arabic lesson yesterday! Our school is doing a class for kids and the girls went, Addie and Annielynne are in a class together and Ayden is in the other class. The girls thought that was the best thing.

more of the village

2010-09-18T09:10:00.002-05:00

I know it is a lot of pictures of the village, but we had such an interesting time! We went with some neighbors that we have made friends with and they are from this village. It was beautiful out their, up in the mountains and GREEN; ayden was so excited to see grass!
But when i say village that is what i mean. We were probably only 30 or 45 min. outside of the city and the last 10 or 15 min. was off of the main hwy and on dirt roads. There was no running water in the houses we went in and in one house kristy visited the bottom floor smelled like a stable and had left over hay laying around. The donkey was tied right outside the door and upstairs where we had tea and snacks there were flies everywhere. It was so sad to me but the women there seemed so happy I was there and they offered me hot tea and lots of snacks (some of which i have no idea what they were). But i was shooing flies to get the food from the plate to my mouth. Then I noticed that i was the only one doing that, i guess they are that used to it.
Other then that visit we spent most of our time with the two families we went with. Plenty of them to keep us busy, I think there are 12 kids in one family and close to that in the other. we walked a lot and helped them pick beans and spent lots of time just sitting and drinking tea and talking (well kind of talking, none of them speak Eng. so there was very broken conversations).
Kristy went to the wedding thing both afternoons, at least 200 women in a very small room. sitting basically on top of each other with very loud music playing and two or three getting up to dance at a time. It was a little over whelming. The first day I had Addie and Annielynne sitting on top of me and they both ended up in tears. No where for them to move or go and they were not the only kids crying. Finally I decided that it was time for us to get out of there and the kids could literally not walk to the door for the number of people so they were handed over from one woman to the next to get to the door and then i tried to step in between women. But I just found it so interesting, this was the wedding (at least the last 2 days) the bride sat in a chair that was higher then everyone else, while everyone else sat on the floor or stood and danced, while we listened to music that was way to loud. Some of the first days of the wedding are a little different, one day she spends the day getting henna and one other day that I went to was basically the same just minus some of the fancy dresses. They were still dressed up just not quite as fancy.
I was surprised though that out in the village a lot more women left on their baltos and all most all left on their scarves. Maybe they just didn't have a fancy enough dress? i don't know.

well sure that is enough, just wanted to give you a little insight on our trip to the village!

the village

2010-09-18T04:49:00.004-05:00

Yes the girls are wearing their fancy dresses while they are out in the field. we went for the wedding, i didn't know what all the day had in store. but out there it doesn't really matter, kids wear what they have, and after Ramadan when they get their new clothes they wear those no matter what they are doing.

Yes, Kirk is working in a skirt! Kirk is helping the family pick beans and he is doing it in the traditional man skirt that they wear here.

out of the city

2010-09-14T13:12:00.002-05:00

we left the city to go to a wedding of some neighbors. It was beautiful in the mountains, but the wedding was an interesting experience and it's not over yet. we are heading back tomorrow! The girls loved being out of the city with all the space to run and play. Of course the mountains did make me a little nervous but the girls did great and had a lot of fun!!!!

pillows

2010-09-12T13:31:00.003-05:00

The girls figured out how to stack all the pillows and make princess chairs. Addie loves it, she sits in her chair and pretends that the other girls are her servants, that doesn't always work out well!

Better pictures of Annie lynne with her braids!

books

2010-09-10T12:14:00.002-05:00

Thanks for the books! Mom brought these in the big suitcases of goodies from many people at home. The girls love the books and they are the perfect size to take on visits. We have read each of them enough times that all three girls know all the stories so when we go on visits they can take these books with them and entertain themselves! Thanks so much!

annie lynne

2010-09-10T12:06:00.002-05:00

Annie lynnes hair is getting so long. She was so excited that I could finally braid it like I do the big girls. She was excited until I went to take the picture, can't remember now, but right before I took the picture she stated her fake crying!!!
I thought that picture was the funniest and a great memory of her being 2

playing at home

2010-09-10T11:43:00.002-05:00

We don't have closets here so we have these big wardrobes (we call dulaps here) and this week the girls decided they would be a better place to sleep! that is also their favorite place when we play hide and seek!

Thanks mom or the mini marsh mellows, the girls had a great time roasting them over this little grill thing the landlord left here!

This is the second time i have caught annielynne sleeping on top of Ayden. I guess Ayden is more comfortable then the pillow!

loosening up

2010-08-30T23:33:00.002-05:00

When we were at a friends house the kids kept asking if the girls could go out on the street and play and ride the bike. Finally I gave in one by one and let them each have a turn. We were sitting on the second floor so I just watched them through the window. this is house that makes me so nervous, none of the windows have bars and the roof they play on is a death trap for sure, and the stairs just to get down are crazy. So I figured them being outside one at a time riding the bike, might be the safest thing they did. Well you take your shoes off when you come in, so I reminded them to put them back on but if you look closely you can see Addie forgot. When I looked down and saw her riding with no shoes, on that oh so nasty street I thought I was going to be sick. The two boys you can see in the picture have shoes, but I don't think the other three in the picture do, lots of kids run around with no shoes, so I guess Addie wanted to fit in. I have had to relax about a lot of things and I just keep telling myself that the Father will protect, and I am so thankful that He has. Thats not to say we didn't have a little talk with Addie later about "forgetting"!

The girls did have fun on the bike and then later getting all dressed up in the national clothes, and no one had to go to the hospital so it was a good night.