First Camp Experience

Matthew Ray, Madison and their friend, Cohen had their first summer camp experience this week! Not only was it their first but it was all in Arabic! It was a stretch for them but they did great after the first few calls home. Some of the conversations went like this:

Matthew Ray: Mom, we are coming home after swimming today. I found a man who will bring us home. I will call you when we are on our way and you can tell him the directions to our house!

Me: Matthew, you will be fine. You are not coming home. You have lots of friends there.

Matthew Ray: I think we are what is called homesick. Our heads and stomachs hurt so that means we are homesick.

Me: You will be fine. There are several friends there you know well!

Matthew Ray: MOM! YOU DON"T GET IT! I don't miss my friends! I miss my FAMILY!

Madison called a little later and said, "Mom, I'm sorry but I don't think I can do this..it's soooooo much Arabic!!" It was pitiful to hear these conversations but we encouraged them and they decided they could stay. We called today to tell the leaders we would be coming to pick them up and they said, "They have done great! They don't even miss you and haven't said anything else about you since you called." We are so proud of all three! It's a major accomplishment!
They made it home safely this afternoon and this was the report: "We had a great time! We went to church like FOUR times everyday! We don't need to go to church for a LOOOOONG TIME!"

Yousef...

Matt with Yousef...One of our Egyptian pastors is very sick in the hospital. We went to visit him and met his youngest son for the first time. Isn't he adorable?! We asked if we could bring him home with us but they love him a lot! :):)

North Coast of the Mediterranean

We visited a new part of the Mediterranean last weekend...the North Coast! It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! The weather was amazing and this was my view...

We are so glad to be back home in the country we love!!!

Easter 2011

Easter Egg dying and hunting!! We had a great day celebrating our risen Savior with other believers. Meredith is not pictured because she was on a trip with some friends. Hopefully I will get some pictures of her getaway soon and post them. :)

Matthew Ray's a Cheetah!

Matthew Ray is playing baseball this semester and loving it! The Amman Baseball League is great and he is a natural! We are so thankful for yet another sport that he loves! Go Cheetahs!! By the way..we are currently undefeated!!

We love these T-Shirts!

Some dear friends sent us these cool shirts from the recent "happenings" in E! We love them and they make us feel at home. :(

Jerash and The Sea of Galilee

Recently we took a day trip to the ancient city of Jerash and to the Sea of Galilee. We hired Billy, our taxi driver for the day. It was such a great day together. When we got down to the Sea of Galilee we spent time in the scriptures learning about all that Jesus did right in that spot! We love sharing these experiences with our kiddos! It is so meaningful and comes to life when we get to be where Jesus walked!

Dead Sea Trip

Over the last few weeks we've had company...dear friends we love to live life with. We spent a day at Mt. Nebo and the Dead Sea..such a memorable and fun trip!Sweet Caroline...
Nader and Cairo...
The "men" floating in the Dead Sea...Matthew Ray thought it was so cool to just "float."
Madison wasn't so sure at first but then loved splashing around in this VERY salty sea...
Pure joy (with no teeth)...
Skipping rocks on the sea...
Audrey and Meredith tasted the HUGE salt crystals...

MEREDITH...I LOVE HER BEING 14 :)

Meredith and her friend did a photo shoot together and this is what they came up with...pretty creative and 14. :)

Meredith also is enjoying her new friends at her school...AND getting into 14 year old poses at school..she's so funny...

Sharing My Big Family With You...

I ran across the picture taken at Christmas and wanted to share my sweet family with you...I love you all so much and am so grateful for a great Christmas ALL together!

The Nose Story...

As stated in an earlier post, we ran out of water 2 days before the city would turn it on again. Matt and I decided that we would all go out for dinner that night so we didn't have a yucky kitchen for 2 days. We loaded up in a taxi and headed to a local restaurant with these place mats...


After leaving the restaurant with hysterical place mats we decided that we should stop by a local store (called a doukan) to get a few bottles of water for drinking. The kids and I waited in the taxi while Matt ran into get the water. I was looking down and suddenly Madison screamed, "Daddy is hurt and is bleeding!" I looked over to see Matt doubled over and blood gushing from his nose. I jumped out of the taxi and told the kids to wait there. Thank goodness for Meredith who can comfort and mother Madison and Matthew Ray..they were crying and concerned.:(

Matt ran smack dab into a VERY CLEAN glass door! He never saw it! After getting the bleeding under control and paying for the water we decided to go home and assess his nose to see if it may be broken. Matt was in pretty good spirits and seemed to not be in that much pain but his nose was crooked and swelling fast.
We decided to go have it x-rayed just to make sure. X-ray's showed he had broken it in THREE places! Since we had no water at home and he didn't want us all to have to come back to the hospital dirty the next day, Matt told the plastic surgeon, Dr. Mo, to go ahead and set it while he was awake....
Dr. Mo did a great job on a very painful procedure.
Here's Matt at home afterward on pain meds :)....
The next day we had a very scary moment when Matt passed out and seized in the kitchen. After speaking with the doctor it was determined that it was a vagal reaction to an injury like this. We are so thankful that he is recovering quickly and will have a straight nose once again...in sha Allah..

The Kids are doing GREAT!

While we were in the States we always were asked, "How do your kids like living overseas?" We can honestly say that they love it and adjust very well to different settings. Many times we feel like they are "missing out" on things like a yard, all friends speaking English, more time with grandparents and Target(oh, that's mine..sorry!:) But really, they aren't "missing out"...they are gaining in so many ways and we feel so blessed that we have the opportunity to show them "life outside of our own little world." Their eyes are opened to how people hurt, how people live in darkness, the hopelessness of those without The ANSWER, and how serving others brings HIM glory! Of course we would love a yard, love to have grandparents around at all times, love Target...but those are very small sacrifices for living out obedience.

Here are a few recent happy faces...

Matthew got a new spike...
Madison on the street..she picked out her outfit for going out to dinner...
Meredith in the taxi...she's so sweet...

First day of school in front of our building...

Flat Number 2 in 2 weeks...

We've moved again to another flat since arriving a little over two weeks ago. We have gotten settled into this place and will be here for the next 6 months. Then we will move to another flat that is unfurnished after we receive our crates of belongings...or at least that is the plan today...our life tends to change so much so you never can tell what may happen next! :)

Our flat is very cute and very "American like" except for the temperature and the water issues! You would think it would be very hot here in the desert but it is VERY cold where we are now. The temps are only in the 40's but we don't have central heat, we have ceramic floors and concrete walls and that makes for us living in a big refrigerator! We also have water issues here..imagine that..in the desert! Water is only turned on two days a week in the city where we have unlimited use of it on those days. The rest of the week we use water from our reserve tanks and pray we make it to the next week! We didn't make it last week but this week I am the "MOM WATER POLICE!" I walk around saying, "Turn off the water! Do you need that much water? Take a really quick shower!" Oh the joys of learning again how to live in yet another place!

Here are a few pics of our flat...

Entrance is "down below"..kinda unique!
Kitchen...very cute...stove cooks EXTREMELY slow and microwave stops every few mins..:)
Madison and Matthew Ray's room...
Meredith's room...
Our room...
The living area...