Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Family and friends!

I didn’t send holiday cards and our annual family letter this year, so here it is online:) We have so much to be thankful for in 2017, and we pray that it has been a wonderful year for you. We are grateful for the opportunities we have had to explore new places, enjoy several family visits, and continue living in Jordan. In July, we celebrated Caleb's 6th and in October, Benjamin's 5th birthdays.

This fall, the boys transitioned from a Jordanian School to the American School, where Caleb started Kindergarten and Benjamin started his final year of Pre-School. They adjusted quickly, and love their new teachers and friends. The boys continue to take Tae Kwon Do, and this year they earned their yellow-green belts. 

Caleb loves building with legos, he is learning how to read, enjoys science experiments and magic, telling jokes and stories, and he continues to have an incredible imagination. Benjamin is a great helper around the house, and he loves being outside, playing soccer, singing, dancing, drawing, building puzzles, and he is getting very good at making paper airplanes. They are great buddies (most of the time), and we are so thankful for the strong and loving brotherly bond that they have. 

In October, Nathan and Heather celebrated their 8 year wedding anniversary. In the middle of the year, Nathan transitioned to a new job at the Embassy, and we are excited about the opportunity to live in Jordan until the summer of 2020! Heather is enjoying work and continues taking Arabic classes. We love being involved with our church, and we are thankful for the wonderful friends we have made through our church community. We are especially thankful for Tes, who has been with our family for 4.5 years, and how she takes such good care of us.

We love exploring Jordan and visited some of our favorite places several times this year: Mt. Nebo, Madab, and the Dead Sea

The highlight this year was a late summer vacation to Lebanon and Cyprus. In Lebanon, we explored Beirut and visited many sites in the city, drove through the lush mountains in the north to see the Cedar Forest, and explored the beautiful coast and sea-side towns. 

In Cyprus, we were beach bums, and enjoyed swimming at some of the most beautiful beaches in the warm and pristine Mediterranean Sea, and the pool.

We are thankful for several family visits this year! In the spring, Nathan’s sister, Elizabeth, came to Jordan to run the Dead2Red race with Heather and some friends. The race started at the Dead Sea and ended at the Red Sea. Nathan was still recovering from his foot surgery from 2016, but he was a brave volunteer to be one of the drivers. Heather injured herself before/during the race and ended up on crutches and in a walking boot, so we just passed along the crutches and moved on! 

Shortly after, our family spent a few weeks in the U.S., and we road tripped from Virginia to Illinois to visit Nathan’s parents. 

We had a very relaxing time in Illinois, eating lots of ice cream, enjoying being outside, driving through the country, and we got to visit with a lot of his extended family during the trip. 

We took a few day road trip with his parents to Kentucky, where we visited the Louisville slugger museum, spent a couple of days exploring the riverside town of Newport, and visited the Noah’s Arc museum. It was such a fun trip! 

We had a great visit during the summer with Nathan’s sister’s family. Even though we are geographically close, it is not always easy to visit, and we are thankful for the opportunities when we can be together. We played at a couple parks in Amman, and took a trip to Madaba and Mt. Nebo, We had lots of laughs together, and it was so fun and wild to have all 7 cousins together - 6 boys and 1 girl! 

Elizabeth returned for a quick visit in the early fall, and she and Heather did a non-OSHA approved waterfall hike through a wadi, and we all explored ancient caves in a town outside of Amman.

In the fall, we were thankful to have an extended visit with Heather’s family. Her mom stayed for 6 weeks, dad for 3 weeks, and brother for one week over Thanksgiving. The boys loved having everyone here, and they spent much quality time together. Heather’s mom experienced lots of day-to-day life, and was a big help when Nathan had to travel for a significant part of their visit. 

They enjoyed seeing sites in Amman, and when Heather's brother arrived, we took a whirlwind tour of Jordan, camping in Wadi Rum, visiting Petra, the Dead Sea, Madaba, and Mt. Nebo. We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving in Petra, eating delicious Jordanian foods, and it was our first Thanksgiving that we were all together since 2012!

 At the end of the year, we enjoyed hiking at the Scandinavian Forest, just outside of Amman, taking in the greenery and the views from above, and getting up close and personal with a herd of sheep. 

We look forward to what 2018 has in store for our family, and thank God each day for placing us here, now. We invite you to visit sometime over the next 2.5 years, to experience the beauty of this place and the people. We have a spare room and two boys who especially love visitors :). 

Blessings to you and your families in 2018, may it be a great year for you all!

Love,

Nathan, Heather, Caleb, and Benjamin

Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas from Amman, Jordan! We had a low-key Christmas season, with fun activities as a family leading up to the day. The week before Christmas, Santa came to the Embassy on a camel!

This is the first year that both boys have been willing to sit on his lap!

But of course they will sit on a camel :)

Fresh candy cane lips :).

The month leading up to Christmas, we did daily readings throughout the Bible as a family, learning all about God's wonderful creation, the prophecies of Jesus, and his miraculous birth.

Some decorations around the house.

The boys get more and more excited each year for Christmas, and it is so fun to watch the excitement through their eyes. On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed making cut-out cookies.

The Children's church performed at our Christmas Eve service (which was the day before Christmas Eve). They sang Go Tell it On the Mountain, Away in a Manger, and Joy to the World. The boys had been practicing at home, but I'm not sure how much singing was going on during the show, haha! But it was so cute to watch!

On Christmas Eve, we had a friend over for dinner, and it was fun to share our family traditions with her.

Each year on Christmas Eve, the boys get a new pair of PJs and a Christmas activity book. Benjamin loves to draw, and he made this sweet picture for Santa ;).

When the boys were asleep, Nathan and I put out out gifts. We have enjoyed our nightly talks around the tree each night since we put it up:).

On Christmas morning, our family tradition is to eat cinnamon rolls and egg casserole, sing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus, and then open gifts.

Happy boys, waiting patiently!

It was a cold, rainy morning!

The boys received lots of nice gifts from family and say thank you very much!

They made me these sweet cards:)

The boys really enjoyed their gifts to each other - tactical nerf vests! And they had fun playing for a couple of hours while Nathan and I got a good nap!

We had a great Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus, and enjoying time together as a family.

"Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David." ~Luke 2:11