William Turns 8!

Yes, the Buster is 8! Wow!! Despite being a little "homesick" at first and not looking forward to his birthday, William ended up having a great time of celebrating. Over the weekend, we had 3 boys come over for pizza/ice cream/games/movies, etc. They had a wonderful time. I am going to start calling them all "Garbage Collectors"....the 4 love to invent things. During the course of the evening many things once considered trash became amazing treasures!

William was THRILLED to discover on his birthday morning that he had packages from both sets of his grandparents and his great-grandparents. I had to throw in the picture of William's response to Grace buying him a present with the money that she had been saving. (I love those two cuties!)

Matt made "Nate the Great" pancakes for breakfast; we ventured out to Burger King (and the spice bazaar!) for lunch; and we had a local family over for "pasta" i.e. cake in the evening. The bakery gave us sparklers to put on top of the cake....this made William a little nervous as you can imagine.

He ended his day with several calls to the states (PTL that the line was working!). He was able to talk to his dear friend, Hannah which brought tears to his eyes (and mine!) and was a great way to end the day. Our God is good! Rejoicing in sweet blessings for the day and still rejoicing in the miracle of a precious boy. AT

The Kids' New School

It is hard to believe that the kids have been attending a local school for almost 4 weeks. They have missed a few days due to illness, William's birthday and now a national holiday, but it sure seems like the time is rolling by. If you do not receive our prayer emails, let me catch you up on our language learning progress. The kids were with us for most of phase 1 of our language program. (click here to read more about the program) They were tutored by a local for a month, and now they are enrolled at a private "Kid's Club". Kid's Clubs are somewhat of a mix between an "after school program" and a preschool. Due to overcrowding, public schools are only half days. Many children are simply cared for by family or work in their parents' businesses the other half of the day, but a few attend a Club. On an academic level William and Grace have well mastered (in English) what is being taught. This makes for a wonderful learning environment for simply soaking in language. We have been very pleased with the staff and teachers. They all seem very helpful and caring. As you can see in the pictures, all of the staff and teachers are conservative and/or covered. As you think of us, please pray that the children adjust and pick up language at a positive pace. I am sure you can imagine that the task is hard and tiring. The kids are keeping positive attitudes even on hard days. They truly want to make friends, but most days we all have to remind ourselves why we are doing this. Pray that we are able to continue to keep that right perspective and that we are able to be a blessing to this school & a light in the new relationships that we are building. The kids are continuing their homeschool academics in the morning and attend the local school from 1-5pm. Matt & I are in language class in our home while the kids are at school. It makes for long days for all of us, but God is good!

Resident Visas

Well, here are our mug shots for our new resident visas. We didn't know we were going to be taking pictures. The forced smiles, crazy hair and tired looks on our faces are a real testimony of how we felt that day! We brought several pictures with us from the states for visa purposes, but new ones had to be made. (who knows why...we stopped asking questions like that 3 months ago!) It has been a crazy time, but we feel blessed knowing that it could have been much worse. We have many friends all over the world going through much more of a "hassle" than we did.....and I know we would all say that it is worth all the time on paperwork, time in travel, all the WAITING, every headache & every dime!

We are also blessed that we were able to obtain resident visas instead of having to renew travel visas. Travel visas require you to leave the country and re-enter. They are also only good for 90 days. Our resident visas will allow us to be here until 9/30/10.

We trust the Lord to work out the details for next year in HIS perfect timing. Right now, we are thankful for where HE has us, and we'll be faithful to serve Him in the year that He has provided.

"Do not worry about tomorrow..." Rejoicing in what HE is doing today!
AT

Krispy Kreme

Yes, all my overseas friends....scratch and sniff the screen...no licking! As mentioned in the previous post, Matt & the kids trekked 2+ hours across the water with me to investigate the rumors of a Krispy Kreme. They had a great time playing and eating! It was WAY over priced, but it was a fun outing. Maybe once a quarter we can splurge. AT

Day Trip Across the Water

We took out first day trip across the water yesterday. I wanted to attend a seminar on "hosting" in my new culture, and Matt & the kids thought it would be a good time to check out the ferries and the Krispy Kreme that everyone keeps raving about! We all had a great time. The seminar was interesting. There were several foreigners there from all over the world. It was interesting to hear what brought them to this new country: marriage, business, adventure. Our host was also very interesting. Her story of staring a business was inspiring. The kids had a blast on the "boat". We rode the "fast ferry". It felt a little like being on an airplane. You can see the seats look similar. I think this is the one our parents will like when they come to visit. Next time, we want to try the "slow ferry". We'll get to be on the deck, feed the birds, etc.
inşallah, AT

Seker Bayrami

Sunday through Tuesday/Wednesday of this week was the three day holiday of Seker Bayrami. It comes at the end of Ramazan. It is not the celebration after Ramazan, but rather Ramazan is the preparation for this special holiday in the muslim world. It would be like doing all the work of shopping and hanging the lights & decorations in the month of December, but forgetting to celebrate on the 25th. (well, not exactly like that, but you get the picture) The children walk the streets and knock on doors to receive money, candy and other treats. As a general rule, the first day is reserved for family celebrations, but the 2nd/3rd days (and this year the fourth because the first day was Sunday - their only weekend day) friends visit each others houses. We had the privilege of being invited to a new friend's house. Breakfast is the big meal of the day. That makes sense if you remember that all during Ramazan they have not had breakfast or lunch. We met at 10:30 am and ate a wonderful traditional breakfast. This was not a come and go deal. We feasted for 4 hours. After we left the "official" table, we had candies, fruit, tea, coffee, etc. etc. in the salon. It is tradition for the children to kiss the hand of an adult and then put the adults hand to their head. The adult then gives the child a cloth tissue with money inside. As you can imagine our kids really liked this. The money is now burning a hole in their pockets! It is also tradition to take boxes of chocolates to neighbors. This was a great opportunity for us to meet a few new neighbors; show our love for the people in our building; and honor the shop owners with which we have been building relationships. The next holiday is always 50 days from this one. (The start of Ramazan changes every year with the cycle of the moon.) We are not sure what it is all about, but we will be researching. Please pray with us that we are able to show respect for the people of this country by learning their traditions and customs so that we may have a voice and reveal light. AT

The Kitty Story

Well, some of you that keep up with our family on Facebook will already know most of the story, but here is what has occupied our last week: On Monday the 15th from our back balcony, we began hearing the cries of a newborn kitten, but we could not see from where the cries were coming. We often watch all ages of cats from 3months up, playing on the entanglement of patios and balconies that our building and several others come together to make. We are not sure how to get back there ourselves, but the animals find it safe and the babies use it as a jungle gym of entertainment. We delight in calling them and throwing down bits of food. This cry; however, was different. This was a cry for help. After almost 24 hours, we were finally able to see the kitten. It had worked its way onto a tiled patio adjacent to the courtyard of the building next to us. Matt went down to see what he could do to help it. He was able to stick a broom through the fence and sweep the kitten to us. We brought it upstairs to warm it and pray about what to do. In that time, the neighborhood children called us and told us that they had found two other babies. They were safely under a bush on the other side of a fence. Because of the kitten's age, we felt the best thing to do was to try to give it back to its mother. We put it in a bucket and lowered it down with a rope; dumping it out safely with its siblings. The next day we discovered that the mother had returned and moved the litter to a wood pile in the courtyard next to us. Two of the kittens were out playing. I allowed Grace to go down and love on them. You can see the picture below. The kitten we had saved was not with the bunch. We figured that it had gotten too cold from its ordeal and had not made it. Then on Friday, while Grace was playing down stairs, the kids discovered that there was a muffled cry coming from the wood. I went down and sure enough I could see the kitten's eyes. I was able to move some things around and free the kitten. As far as I could tell nothing was broken. The weather had turned a bit chilly, especially for infants, so I tried to discourage the children (with my little language) to leave the kittens alone. We made a place where they could not roam and get too cold. I watched and prayed about what to do on Saturday as the neighborhood children continued to mess with and even try to feed the kittens. I encouraged them several times to leave them alone. I know the mother was doing her best. I finally saw the mother, but she was afraid to come out with the children around teasing her. After our Sunday meeting, we discovered that the mother had chosen to move on with the stronger 2 kittens. The other was left alone. We felt like we had the choice of letting it die out in the open or trying to care for it ourselves. Well, as you can guess, we brought it upstairs. There are no shelters to take animals, and we were not able to find formula replacement or a small bottle. I spoke with a friend of mine who is a vet in England. She gave us basic instructions, but told us the likelihood was that the kitten was too ill to make it - thus why the mother chose to leave it. Our friends connected us with a vet, but the vet would not take the kitten. He wanted our money to treat it and give it back to us. We might would have considered it, but he wanted a large sum (thought he would make a buck from some foreigners) and he could not say what the chances were of the kitten pulling though. She had bursts of energy over the 4 days we had her, but we knew the whole time she was quite sick. She did not breathe well and often stopped for long periods of time. We kept her in the decision room (click here if you don't know what that is) with a portable heater, mattress pad and many blankets and towels. We stayed in there most of the time giving her company and a warm body to curl up to. You can see the pictures of the kids doing their homeschool work with the kitten right along side them. On her last night, I put her in bed with me. I feed her small sips from a syringe and tried to care for her all night, but she slipped away about 6:15am. I wrapped her in one of William's shirts. The kids asked if they could hold her and kiss her goodbye. It was a heart breaking scene as Grace sobbed, "my baby, my baby". We have talked alot about caring for the creatures of the earth. We feel like we did our part in giving this kitty a warm and loving home for the short time she had. AT