A Beautiful Welcome!

Jamie drove us to the home we would be staying in for the next 6 months, and it was such a sight for sore eyes! 

(Did you SEE Keira's eyes in the last post?)

We arrived around 1am, and I think we stayed up until 3:30am just looking around, unpacking, and taking it all in.

After that long flight, I was SO glad to see this bed!

June 24, 2020, 1am

A couple of fellowships and some friends chipped in to make our stay so enjoyable!

Keira opened her closet and found new toys all for her.

That morning, when the sun came up, we were able to see the backyard, and I have no words to tell you what all of the grass and trees did for our souls.

June 24, 2020, 9am

It was good to be here, but we were still waiting on the rest of our family, and we knew we were not complete yet.

As a matter of fact, our luggage wasn't complete either.  That must have been a rough flight on everyone and everything.

One suitcase arrived with only ONE wheel, and another was missing TWO!

Covid affected our stay in America, as expected. There were some people we couldn't see. There were some people who didn't feel comfortable seeing us. And all-in-all, it was kind of weird.  But you know all of that, because you experience the same thing, right?

Back in April, when we were quarantining, numbers looked small for our country.

April 13, 2020

But the day we landed in America, the numbers looked different back where the rest of our family was.

June 24, 2020

The numbers were so small compared to America's, but the fear was very real for a lot of people, and it actually still is. The fear of death has paralyzed a lot of people, and they still aren't traveling outside of their homes much. Here it is, a year later, and our numbers are up again. We were put on a "restricted" list August 8, 2020, which means other countries do not want citizens traveling out of this country coming their way.

Hasten the day...

(Shout out to Kylie who turned 19 yesterday!!)

Lockdown (with Twins)!

Keira and I started having lunch outside.

April 5, 2020

And then we started doing school outside.

April 6, 2020

And others came and went with their books and computers as the sun would allow.

The yard really was a great place to relax and not feel so cooped up.

 

April 13, 2020

There was one week during quarantine that we came home from the 

grocery story with two trays of eggs.  

(Each tray holds 30 eggs...we eat a lot of eggs).

Anyway...these two particular trays were FULL of twins.  

Maybe on a "normal" week, we wouldn't have gotten so excited about it, 

but during quarantine, the excitement was a little higher than normal as you might imagine.

For example, in the picture below, I only cracked 7 eggs!

I know. I know.  Amazing, right?

April 7, 2020

Also, much like in America, each day the government posted numbers for us to see.

I think our country did an excellent job at first with a quick lockdown and keeping numbers low.

Later in the month , after they loosened restrictions so people could 

celebrate the beginning of Ramadan (April 23), the numbers quickly escalated, 

and then trying to get the number of cases back down again was a hard thing to do.

One of the assignments Keira had to do for the French school was write a message 

for their school page in her own language to "Stay at Home."

April 13, 2020

Aspects of Lockdown

Ten days after starting lock down, a "Stay Home" message appeared in the top left corner of my phone's screen.

I think that's one way to know things are getting serious :)

And what more could we ask for? 

Our oven went kaput during lockdown, and there was no way to get it serviced.

I happened to mention it to our neighbors one day, and they said they had 

an electric one that belonged to their landlord we could use.

What a blessing!!

Our oven didn't get fixed for quite some time.

March 30, 2020

We were so fortunate to live in that house at that time. 

The "green space" that we had in our small front yard was such 

a refreshing thing for us when we couldn't leave our house.  

You will see in later blogs how we took advantage of the space on 

sunny, beautiful days like this one.

March 28, 2020

But on rainy days, like the one we had on the 29th, 

we had to move our roof picnic inside by the fireplace 

(another thing we were thankful for in that house).

 March 29, 2020

A Mistake to Only Make Once

"I can breath where there is green.  Green grows hope.  

It keeps my heart beating and helps me remember who I am." 

- Courtney M. Privett, Faelost

While Doug and the girls were gone, an old gentleman knocked on our gate for work.  He told me he could cut our grass, and since we don't have a mower, I thought it would be a great gift for Doug on his return. 

I did not; however, know HOW he would cut the grass.

He kept asking me for a knife, but I didn't want him using my kitchen knives in the yard, and he wasn't satisfied with the one old one I brought out, so he turned and left, looking a little perturbed at me.

He returned about 10 minutes later with a shabby, short, sharp knife, and then he started "cutting."

Can you imagine cutting your yard like this???

Oh my goodness!

However, he cut it so close to the roots it ended up burning all the grass, and it died before summer even arrived.

April 5, 2019

Yep, that's a mistake I'll only make once.

He's come back three more times this year and tried to physically force his way into our gate, and we have to kind of push him out, declining as politely as we can at the same time.  🙅

I did manage to do some good things while they were gone, believe it or not.  Caleb (back left, behind the ball-handler) got to his soccer game and practices.

April 6, 2019

And I "inspired" Keira to clean her room,

April 9, 2019

so not a total loss, right?

(Merry Christmas, by the way!)

Surviving a Park

Parks are a favorite place here to hang out, have graduation parties, lay out picnics, let your kids run and play, celebrate birthday parties, etc. 

There are three nice parks here, and they are all very large, but this is the largest.

stock photo

Apparently, this city was more like a town until a couple of decades ago.

I've even heard that there were no buildings over three stories high in the entire city about 20 years ago, so this place has grown at quite a fast rate.

Thankfully, they marked off some land for parks because, there is hardly any green in the city apart from these three locations.

However, up close, the care and maintenance of the parks is a bit lacking.

Just last Spring, this climbing wall was put up in a new area for small kids.  Keira loved it.

It was painted as an outer space scene with different super heroes pictures at the top.  Kids could climb up to different ones:  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, etc.

And now...

This hop scotch board was painted and cute with grass at both ends.

And now...

This spaceship slide had a great red, twisty slide coming out of this top hole before it had wire barring the way down.

And now...

Keira's favorite slide used to not scratch your legs and rip your pants on the way down.

And now...

The park used to be an all-walk park.  They didn't allow bikes, skateboards, etc.  I will say it would have been nice to drive your car in to your picnic location so you didn't have to carry all of your belongings for what seemed like miles.

And now...

They are apparently renting out golf carts.

We live in a country where road laws are either not taught, or they are just not observed, or maybe it's a combination of both.  Drivers straddle the dotted lines in the middle of the road instead of picking a lane.  Drivers do not yield or stop at intersections.  They barrel out and expect you to be looking for them instead of the other way around.  I could go on and on.

Anyway, this park used to be a safe place, but bringing certain driving skills inside the park may be cause to find a new place to hang out.

Or, I can be like Keira and just stay off the paths.  When all of her favorite places looked destroyed or broken, she simply said, "Let's go lay in the grass.  The grass is why I like to come here anyway."







































And there you have it, folks.

Impromptu Tea Time

I'm always looking for green spaces for Keira to play in.  The park is nice, but it is usually very crowded, and parking is never easy.

One day, I loaded Keira's bike and drove to my friend Dalia's neighborhood.  She told me she wouldn't be home, but I could park at her house.  As we were riding, we came upon this large, green empty space. 

Keira parked her bike and took off running.

There was one older lady sitting way on the other side in a folding chair all by herself, so I wandered over.

She spoke a different dialect of the language I am learning, but we were able to communicate some.  She was very kind, and what I gathered is that she had gone to the market, and when she returned, she had been locked out.  She was patiently waiting for her sister to return.

We sat together for awhile, and then a neighbor she knew pulled up on the other side of the green space.  They greeted across the grass, but soon the lady and her daughter came over for a more appropriate "hello."

The daughter spoke English and help translate for me between her mother and the older lady.  After about 3 minutes, this sweet mother said she was going to make tea and bring it for us.

What I didn't know is that she meant a real tea party!

Her son came out carrying a table!  

He walked it all the way across the field, and while he went back for snacks and a table cloth, his sister went to the older lady's house and brought four chairs from her porch.

Then, while the mother was still making tea, the older lady sat at the table, and the daughter played soccer with Keira.

Tea arrived in fashion!

This kind of hospitality is rare! 

I had never met these ladies before, yet they welcomed me so warmly.

The large box on the table is some special Turkish coffee packets she liked.  We were talking about what she liked, and when she found out I had never heard of her favorite kind, she had her daughter go back to her house and get me not just one packet, but the entire box to take home!

They were all so kind and invited me to come back anytime I wanted.  We exchanged phone numbers, pictures, and I have since run into her and her daughter at the grocery store.

This was such a lovely God-surprise on a beautiful day when I thought we were just going for a bike ride.  I hope we all remember to take notice of how God sometimes chooses to love on us through the people around us.

Grass!

I've mentioned before how excited we get about grass.

It's been wet lately, and I haven't taken Keira to the park in about two weeks.  She said the other day, "Mom, I'd really like to see some grass."

I felt bad, so I started thinking how I could work some "grass" into our schedule.

Every Thursday, I drop Kylie off for French tutoring at some apartments; however, I had never walked into the complex, but I could see fountains and grass from the road.

I told Keira we could go with Kylie to tutoring that day and play in the grass for a couple of hours while we waited for her. 

Well, seeing it was all we could do.  It was kind of a "don't walk on the grass" kind of area.

She had fun running around the fountains, though, and just being outside.

But that couldn't occupy us for two hours, so...

we explored the shops that are attached the apartments.

We went in the grocery store and walked by all the restaurants, and decided to stop inside a cute café.

I had heard about this place (because of their milkshakes), but I'd never been here before.

The guys here loved Keira and loved hearing her say some words in their language.  

When it was time to put the finishing touches on her milkshake, they came and got her and took her behind the bar.

When they saw me taking pictures from my table, they told me to come over and watch.

They helped her with the whipping cream because the nozzle was too hard.  

And then they let her stick two cookie-type desserts in the whip cream.

Then they lowered it down so she could put sprinkles on.

Sometimes (and only sometimes) milkshakes are better than grass.

And my coffee concoction wasn't so bad either.

After the milkshake and coffee, we stayed outside for a little while until it started raining.

Then, we called up and asked if we could wait in the apartment while Kylie finished with her tutor.

It was perfect!  Her tutor had a soft, sweet dog and a beautiful, white cat, both of which Keria loved playing with.

I, on the other hand, had a cup of tea and watched the thunder and lightning show off her balcony.

Hunting for grass turned out not to be such a bad adventure after all.

"Look Mom, Grass!"

You know you live in the desert, when your child gets overly excited about seeing grass.

However, I can't blame her. 

Cool, green grass is a beautiful thing. 

Especially on your toes.

We were at a car dealership looking at vehicles.  Keira and I went outside a little before Doug, and she said, "Look Mom, grass!  Can I play in it?"

I said, "Absolutely."

She giggled and oohed and ahhed when the cool, long blades curled around her sandals and hit her feet.

 She ran back and forth.

 Oops.  Stop.  Smell the roses.

Ok.  Run some more.

Basically, this is a service announcement for you to remind you not to take grass for granted, and a service announcement for me so I will take my daughter to the park more often!