Thanksgiving Preview

We spent Thanksgiving with the Jolliffs, and it was such a great time together all around! I have a lot of pictures to look through and a busy week ahead, so here is a quick preview...check back in a few days for the full scoop from our visit :).

Happy Wednesday!

Legos, Dancing, and International Day

The boys love their lego table and building creations. Nathan brought back a couple of lego sets from his work trip this past week, and the boys had fun putting together their new hovercraft and helicopter! Caleb said his cousin Michael, the lego king, would be proud of him :).

Benjamin is a singing and dancing kind of guy. Watch him move it!

Today was International Day at school. Kids were supposed to wear clothes from their nationality and bring in a traditional food. The boys wore their baseball pants, St. Louis Cardinal shirts, and brought in hot dogs! I received a few pictures from their teachers.

 Caleb's class. Most of the kids are from Jordan, and there are a good amount of kids from Iraq and Lebanon too. There are also kids from Belgium, Italy, and Japan...and of course the USA!

 Benjamin's class...he's in the back leaning on his friend Filipa.  The boys were given money to buy some local items. Caleb came home with a bag of lavender, and Benjamin came home with some seasoned bread and a dessert. They said it was a fun day!

Benjamin is learning his English and Arabic letters this year, and he loves to practice writing his name!

Tomorrow we are off to visit the Jolliffs for the long weekend. Please check back next week for updates. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

What a Week!

It has been quite an eventful week here! Nathan left on Sunday for a work trip for the week, which is normally no big deal. But then on Monday, I was dropping the boys off at school, parked right in front of their school and inside for 5 minutes, and when I got back to my car the left passenger window was shattered and my purse was gone...along with my credit and ATM cards, US license and other typical cards, Jordanian documents, and some money. Thankfully my phone was in my pocket and passport was at home. The school was helpful, the Embassy investigators came right away to help, and a sweet friend from work who speaks Arabic came to help translate and for moral support.  I spent the day with the local investigators and other local authorities, and at the police station to get the report, which was an experience in itself. People were so helpful throughout the day, and that evening one of the investigators was so kind and he took my car on his personal time to get the window replaced.  Then the next day, I got a yuck respiratory sickness and was out of work for the next two days. I was pretty tired and stressed out with everything going on, but I knew I was so blessed with people praying for me, checking in, and offering assistance. And Tes definitely got the gold star award!

I was feeling better on Friday and a friend watched the boys for a few hours, so I could go into work and get a little caught up. They have a 3 year and 8 month year old daughters, and the boys like to play with them. They had a fun morning of donuts, pizza, and lots of playing! That afternoon, the boys and I enjoyed time together and did a few things around town.

One more night till Nathan comes home, everyone was excited...we all slept well until 6:45 am this morning...when there was a fire in our building! Thankfully everyone got out of the building safely and nobody was injured. We were all sound asleep,  when I thought I was dreaming about hearing people outside and running upstairs, then our doorbell began ringing a lot. I grabbed the baseball bat, not knowing what was going on, and as soon as I opened the door, I smelled the smoke. I woke Tes and the boys and we all got outside, it was scary for all of us and definitely caught us off guard. The fire department, police, and Embassy came, and thankfully the fire was contained to the neighbor's balcony only, and appears to have been caused by a propane tank. It was a good opportunity meet more neighbors who are all local except one other family, and to give the boys a fire safety lesson. I think they mostly enjoyed watching the firemen and a real fire truck. We visited with the  neighbor this afternoon, and they are doing well but shook up. The glass doors and windows leading to their balcony was shattered and black from the smoke, and the whole balcony was charred. The upstairs neighbor had a lot of smoke damage to their balcony as well. Fortunately, they had the heavy duty shutters down, which stopped the fire from spreading so fast. 

It has been a crazy week here, and whoo hoo Nathan's plane has landed and he is on his way home as I write! More than anything, I am thankful for God's peace and love that helped me get through this stormy week.

Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I don not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27.

Amman International Church Thanksgiving 2016

This weekend we celebrated our church's annual Thanksgiving event. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and what I love most about celebrating it here, is a majority of our church members are not from America! It was also the first time I have ever cooked a turkey in my life, and it turned out to be much easier than I expected. I found a good brine and cooking recipe online, and I heard the garlic and herbs turkey was good...though I didn't taste it.

And of course you can't have Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie!

Tes made her signature spring rolls, and they are always so delicious. I'm glad we ate one before we left the house because they went really fast!

So many people came to help out that day. You wouldn't know that a little over an hour before this picture was taken, it was an empty cafeteria! 

I love this sheet that one of our pastor's daughters passed out. She's only 8 years old!

Dan and Cathie serve our church in many ways, and they are so sweet to our family. They have spent many years overseas in different countries, and we are glad they landed in Jordan!

 

This is my newest friend Hannah, and Tes. Hannah is just here for a few months waiting to have her baby soon, then her family will be en route to another country

We invited a few friends from work, these are their teenage daughters.

Hello Nathan and Caleb!

The afternoon started with some worship music and a short message.

Many of the youth helping serve food!

There was sooo much delicious food, and many people brought ethnic foods from their backgrounds, so we all got to try new foods that day.

Our senior pastor, Greg.

And his lovely wife Melissa and their youngest child, Gregory.

Tes and her friend Lyn.

Eric and Heidi, the brains behind the day!

Hannah and her husband, Tomas.

Thanksgiving trivia time..

The winning team got to visit the dessert table first.

So many home made delicious treats!

The boys were so good and had fun playing with the other kids and exploring the school.

Nathan and Shaun at the end of the day.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34

Boys, boys!

This week has been a bit more busy than usual, but it's been a good one! The boys love making forts and get creative with what they build. Daddy helped them make this stegosaurus fort :).

Caleb gets English and Arabic homework each weekend, and has been very diligent in making sure it gets done. He tells us his English homework is easy peasy. Arabic is hard for him, but that is understandable, it's hard for all of us!

It is footie pajama weather around here, the temperatures are chilly at night! The boys pulled out their baseball PJs, and to no surprise, they have both outgrown them from last year, but still insisted on wearing them :)

This week we had parent child activities at school. I went to Caleb's activity and we made feathered hats. It was fun to be with Caleb and his classmates and parents at school, and we all had a good time!

 Caleb likes selfies :)

 All the crafts.

The boys do karate at home once a week, and this week I got to watch Caleb after his school activity. I was proud of how well he focused and listens to his instructor, and after class she told me he is working hard, and she is seeing big improvements in his focus.

The reason I did not go to Benjamin's school activity, and why he missed karate this week, is because this boy has a stress fracture on his left foot! Last weekend, he used the couch as a springboard to jump over a cardboard brick wall he built (the same couch he fell off when he broke his arm), and he landed on his foot. Nathan and I were in the other room when this happened, and Caleb quickly told us all the details. He couldn't walk for a day and we took him in for X-rays after it happened. No break was seen, so they figured it was a sprain. He stayed home from school a couple days, then was anxious to go back, but was still limping.

At his 4 year well-checkup earlier this week, the doctor suggested a second x-ray because stress fractures sometimes show up a week later in kids. Well, sure enough that's what it was! We thought he was getting a cast, but when Nathan took him to the orthopedic a couple nights ago (who also saw Nathan for his foot), he decided a bandage for a few weeks and hard sole shoes would do the trick.

The injury does not slow this boy down one bit. Look at that smiley boy!

 The bandage was decorated by friends that night, and he was happy to return to school to show it off yesterday. This boy and this couch!

Today we have the day off for Veteran's Day, and I am about to head out for an attempted 15 mile run with friends...Happy Thursday!