Searching for a Magic Carpet in a Middle Eastern Bazaar (plus a birthday)

Doug's birthday came and went without much to-do.  This year it fell on a Saturday, which is our busiest day as a family.  I take all the girls to the dance studio in the morning so the older two can teach and Keira can go to ballet class.  After a 2 1/2 hours, I take everyone home, where Keira has 25 minutes to eat, and then I take her back for gymnastics.  After gymnastics, we go home where I start cooking dinner, and Doug and Caleb prepare to go to soccer in the evening. They get home around 9:30pm, and that's when we have dinner.  I think this is why I don't have any pictures of his birthday this year. Sorry.

Of course, Doug has never required pomp and circumstance. He is solid, strong, bold, full of integrity, confident, and a truth-teller. He loves his family well. Our well-being, health, safety, and spiritual growth are always at the forefront of his mind.  He gives freely to others but never at the expense of us, and we know that.  Thank you and happy birthday, Doug!

As an example, he gave to others two days after his birthday when he cleared his calendar to take two single ladies to the rug bazaar. They moved here last summer, and with winter coming, they wanted to get some carpets for their floors.  I got to go along.

I hadn't been to the rug-portion of the bazaar since we bought ours back in 2016, and back then, I didn't have much language to use.  These ladies are learning a different language, so Doug was the spokesperson and bargainer for the day.

This particular bazaar sits at the foot of the citadel that is the center of our city.

(this was taken from the bazaar, looking back up to the citadel)

It's not a beautiful bazaar, but it does have a lot of nifty things.  This is where we have had kitchen sinks and cabinets made. There are desks, lamps, bedroom sets, dishes, vacuum parts, car parts, and pretty much parts for everything.

Unfortunately, you might have to dig through piles like this.

This was a pile of re-claimed plastics, and I really don't know if anyone ever goes through this stuff, but who knows?

This is one of the "carpet roads." It's not glamorous from this view, but each shop you go into is well-maintained, clean, and the men in there can unroll and re-roll any carpet you want to look at faster than you can say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."  

Sometimes, when you walk in, the space opens up into a large warehouse that would hold 50 cars, and it's all full of carpets!

It's apparently very important to be able to buy balloons for not-so-happy children almost everywhere you go in this city.  I don't understand it, but seriously, I've never seen more balloons for sale anywhere except maybe a State Fair.

The man beside him is waiting to "trolley" someone back to their vehicle or taxi.

It's pretty amazing how small they can get giant floor carpets when they fold them.

The carpets are still heavy, so we hired a guy to get the ladies' rugs back to our vehicle. 

Well worth it!

November 4, 2019

Praising Him in the Mountains

Well, the weather continued to be so amazing (and cold), that our fellowship group decided to go back to the mountain for our study time together.

We warned everyone that it would be cold. 

A couple of people did not bring coats, and I think they were pretty sorry.  

The hike down into the valley and back up again warmed some people up, but once we got still, it was harder to keep warm.

I don't like to be cold, so I had on all kinds of layers :)

Before the sun started setting, everyone decided to drive back so they could get to the city before dark, but our crew wanted to stay, so we got out our coffee thermos and enjoyed the God-show.

November 1, 2019

We thought we would make it back up here before it got too cold, but soon after this, snow started falling in the mountains, and we knew it would get harder to drive up and more difficult to concentrate on school or reading if we were so cold.

We looked forward to Spring, but never would we have guessed that the four to six weeks of beautiful weather that this country is allowed in the Spring, we would be inside our homes, stationary, with the rest of the world.

Mountains and Other Notable Things in October

Shortly after her birthday, Keira wanted to get a haircut.


October 28, 2019

Check✔

Where's Waldo Caleb?

October 26, 2019

One afternoon, everyone except Caleb decided to get out of town and take homeschool, reading, dolls, etc to the mountains. 

The older girls downloaded all the things they needed for homeschool.  Doug and I took books and music, and Keira didn't want to be left out, so she drew a computer on a piece of cardboard and pretended to type along with the girls.



She also enjoyed walking around, discovering nature and talking to herself.

She also made time to take care of her baby, which she has named "Kathryn." 💗

As the sun was setting, the girls took this beautiful picture.

It wasn't long before they were photobombed.

And the "third party" kept getting closer to the camera.

She's was really thinking about something.

Then they lost control.

October 30, 2019

It was the best day of homeschool! 

We had blankets, sweaters, a big thermos of hot coffee, and an amazing sunset. 😁

I wish we had more time to have days like this.

And What A Fun Run it Was

We decided to run in the city's 4K fun run as a family. In year's past, it's always been a 5K, so we don't know why the distance was changed this year.  

We did some training at a local park, which is the only place you are supposed to run in this country...running trails, in parks, in designated areas/

Then three days before the race, we went to another park across the city to pick up our registration forms.

When we pulled up, there was a collection site in the parking lot for Syrian refugees being kicked out their homes.

Inside, we picked up our packets, and they took our picture.  The next day, one of my friends found this picture posted on a facebook page for the race.

We got up early and walked to the starting line, according to the map we were given. The 10K and marathon runners were at a starting line half a mile in front of us, and the marathoners had taken off earlier.

We saw that the back of our shirts said, "Run for a Clean Environment," however, the numbers in our packet had a peel off back, and there were no trash cans around.

This was the scene everywhere at the beginning of the race.

The irony is not lost on me.

I took my family's pieces of paper and walked to a water station to ask some ladies sitting there where a trash can was.  They stared at me blankly, and said, "There isn't one."

They kindly took my trash, set it on the table with the water and looked at me strangely.

Littering is such a common thing in this country. They are not taught about caring for the environment or picking up trash. Funny enough though, they like to keep their house, sidewalks, AND the STREET in front of their house clean.

This is the starting line.  You would think it is big enough that people wouldn't miss it, but...

Some 4Kers started at the 10K line and ran less than a 4K; some runners started at the 4K for the 10K and ended up running over a 10K; and some people started at the 10K, intending to run a 4K, but missed the awful-placed signs for the finish line turn off, and ended up running a lap of the city with the marathon runners.

 It was VERY well organized.  NOT!  And that's not the end of the "amazing" organization.  There was more at the finish line.

Here is my running partner.  She did great, but the heat did get to her a little over half-way through.  She finished, but I had to do a LOT of encouraging to get her to keep moving.

Guns and guards watched the running route.

The other four finished relatively quickly, and they waited to cheer Keira and I on when we crossed after them. Some news station put a camera in my face for an interview right after I crossed the finish line, and I have NO idea what I said.

We were told to walk through a partitioned-off walkway to a "celebration party" and awards ceremony. As we walked through, we were handed medals.  Kylie was handed two!  One by a guy on the right side and one by a guy on the left.

The funny thing was, one guy was handing out this medal that I'm showing below.

It's a medal for MARATHON runners!

The 4Kers received a different medal (or if you are Kylie, you received one of each).

All we could do was laugh.

We did not want to stay for the awards ceremony, so our family and some girls we ran with went out for a big Middle Eastern breakfast.

It was nice to sit and talk about the race.  And funny enough, as we sat we kept getting texts from some parents still looking for two of their sons.  They had apparently started at the wrong starting line, got ahead of their parents, and missed the turn off for the finish line.  They ended up running almost a half-marathon!

Their parents grabbed them when they finally saw them coming over a bridge to tell them what had happened, and they took them home.  They didn't even get a medal for all of their trouble :)

The next day, a picture of Keira and me showed up a bunch of places.  I just figured we must have been the only ones running slow enough for them to catch on film. :)

 But what a "fun" run it was ;)

Keira Turns 7

Even though Keira's brother still think she's five years old, she is indeed 7 now.

At the beginning of October, we like remembering Keira's birth story from Kenya.

It's the one birth of the family that we were all present for, and the kids were old enough to remember.

Keira's birthday started with cards on the table, but nothing else.

October 5, 2019

She loves scavenger hunts, and we sent her on one that led her up and downstairs and all around.  She had such a good time!  

However, I'm embarrassed to say that I filmed the whole hunt, and didn't get one still picture.  You'll have to take my word for it that she smiled the whole time.

Keira is a pretty thoughtful young lady.  She is always willing to help whenever asked (and sometimes before).  She's good at encouraging people, giving hugs, and gathering the family for game nights.  She is honest and strong, but also tender-hearted.  She loves to laugh, have a good time, and play jokes on people, and I'm really impressed at how she has learned French over the last year and a half.

This is her with her three best friends from school.  They are kind and loving, just like she is, and I'm so thankful they are in her life.

Since we are currently on lockdown, she is really missing them, but we have Video-called them and also let her text them through Doug's phone, and that seems to keep a smile on her face.

October 24, 2019

Happy 7th birthday, Keira!

A Fresh Start to Fall

The start of school meant the start of dance and soccer.  The kids are always glad to get back to their extra curricular activities.

The dance ladies went out for sushi to celebrate being back together.  

I'm definitely NOT a dance lady, but they were kind enough to include me.

The first soccer game (not practice) was at this field across town, next to this mall.

 Why waste electricity running lights for the field when the lights from the mall do just fine.

Not.

After about 30 minutes, someone actually did turn some lights on which was nice for my more "mature" eyes.

Also, I decided to clean off some of our upstairs balconies so as the weather got more delightful in the fall, the kids could do school outside.

I worked hard hauling water in buckets from the bathtub to the balcony and then squeegieing it down a hole...not knowing where that hole went...I assumed the street.

Wrong!

All the bird poop and 9 months worth of dirt came rushing down this little spout...

onto part of our front entryway, so I had to clean it all again.

This one was about to start losing some front teeth, so I wanted to grab one last picture before they all started falling out :)