Friday, October 30, 2009

My Little Painter

Hi. This is Micah talking. Mommy is tired and needed a break, so I thought I'd show you what I've been up to lately. Mommy decided that since I am now 18 months old, it was time to let me try to paint with my new Crayola painting friends that Poppi and Gigi gave me.


I had so much fun painting the paper, the floor, my hands, legs, and face. Mommy was smart to take my pants off and to put a bib on me. I wanted to paint everything.






Luckily Daddy was not home, because he had just mopped the floors...I don't think he would have liked the mess I made. Mommy cleaned it up in no time so Daddy didn't even know :) When Daddy came home, he was proud to see my first painting.


I think I like this painting thing. It is fun to get messy and do whatever I want. It also meant that I got to take TWO baths, and I love my bath time!

That's all for now. Maybe Mommy will let me be back soon :)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

18 Months+

Two weeks ago, Micah turned 18 months old. How he is already that old blows my mind. Recently, I put him in a precious outfit that we received at one of my baby showers back in Kentucky. I remember opening this particular present and thinking "This is so adorable, but I cannot even imagine my little boy fitting into this." It just looked HUGE to my eyes at that time, when I only had a 3 month old sitting next to me. My eyes now gaze past the 3-4 year old clothing section at stores, and I am of course in unbelief that Micah will sooner or later be fitting quite nicely into those clothes as well.

Anyway, I love the "preppiness" about this particular outfit, and just wanted you to see my cute little stud modeling for his Momma. Thank you Bordas' for this outfit-it was so fitting coming from you :)




Friday, October 23, 2009

Surprise Goodies

Yesterday, Paul came home from a meeting with two surprise packages for us. YAY! His Mom had heard of someone heading our direction, so she secretly asked some of our close friends if they wanted to join in on the fun and send us something with this guy. At first, Paul was just so excited that he just started ripping into all the individually wrapped presents in tissue paper-thinking that everything was just from his parents. There were lots of goodies inside and it sort of felt like a mini-Christmas :) When we saw cards from our friends, we started realizing that each of them had sent something too. It took us a few minutes to sort through what each person had sent, but we think we finally figured it out. THANK YOU to everyone who went in to make this surprise so special. It was so sweet and thoughtful and truly brightened our day! We love you.


Micah was excited about his new movies too. :)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Lunch with Language Teachers

Last week we went out to eat with our new teacher, Saed, and his finance, Haloud, who is also a teacher at our language school. Saed has actually been our teacher for about 4 weeks now-ever since we moved up to the next Phase of language. Saed just thinks Paul is the greatest, so he let Paul pick the place to eat (I'm sure Paul was relieved!), which of course meant that we ended up eating pizza. Ha. We ate at Sbarro and I must admit that I wasn't too upset either. I love pizza as well, and it was our first time eating here in Jordan. I forgot how much I loved the pizza there-plus you can't beat the size of their slices. We had a fun meal together and Haloud was very patient with my poor Arabic. This was the first time for Saed and Haloud to meet Micah, and they loved him. Micah was not so sure about them at first, but by the end of the night he had warmed up to them and wouldn't let them go. Saed could never remember Micah's name, but we think he finally tackled it after meeting him. After dinner, we just walked around the mall for awhile and then decided to take Micah to the play area. He enjoyed sitting on all the different rides, but wasn't quite big enough to really enjoy them quite yet. It was a fun afternoon and we are hoping to hang out with them again soon. They have already invited us to a wedding this weekend, but we aren't sure if we will be able to make it as it is a far drive and starts late at night. However, we are planning to have them over to our house next weeks to play cards. They say they are really good at spades, which is my favorite, and I'm always up to playing a good card game :)


Haloud, Micah, and me.

The engaged couple (I promise they know how to smile. ha).

And the craziest begins with our little one...




Friday, October 16, 2009

A Smokin' Birthday...

...Literally! Last week was Paul's 26th birthday and we finally got to go out on a date to celebrate! Yay! It was much overdue and we loved every minute of it. Thanks to our good friend, Katie, for coming over to babysit Micah-thankfully he slept most of the time for her!

We decided to try a local Italian restaurant called Romano's, that was recommended by a friend. The food was delicious, but the only negative part was that it was a smoking restaurant. When we first walked in, it was inevitable to inhale smoke. So, I asked the host for a nonsmoking section, and the guy just stared at me like "ummm...what's that!?!" Ughhh. That made me a tad frustrated, but I tried to ignore it. I did fine until the end of dinner when I looked around and saw EVERY table surrounding us lit up. And these people finish one and just light up another. I was seriously breathing through my napkin. The food was delicious though and we had a wonderful time together. We split dessert which was a chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and marshmallows. Yummy :) I just love date nights...and am so thankful that birthdays give us an excuse to go out in town!


Friday, October 9, 2009

Waiting...

...and waiting, to see the doctor, that is. We had to wait about 30 minutes or so, but it was worth the wait. The doctor's office was incredible and this was the amazing view of the city we had from his office.



Also while waiting, a couple of men brought these fresh flowers in for us to enjoy. They were beautiful!


Exhausted after a full day at language school.


After a long day away, I was so excited to come home and hug on my little one.

And here is the proud BIG brother showing off our new "baby" :)

So, yes, we are officially expecting baby #2 and couldn't be more excited. YAY! I'm about 8 weeks along and am due around May 26th. I couldn't have been happier with the medical care here. I actually saw a doctor BEFORE I was 37 weeks (which is what happened in America. ha). The doctor was extremely knowledgeable and actually started the hospital where I'll be delivering. He is about 70 years old, YES 70, and I'm not going to lie, that freaked me out a little at first. However, after meeting him, I totally understood why he was recommend by so many of my friends. He had a wonderful bedside manner-much different from the doctors I used in the States. He is so busy and practically lives at the hospital...which explains why he was late. But once he was with us, he gave us his undivided attention and was so thorough with everything. We look forward to the next several months as we prepare to add another precious life to our family. God has been so good to us, and we pray that our lives glorify Him alone as we are embarking on this parenthood journey :)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Wadi Ma'in

Last Friday we got a babysitter for the day, and did something we had been wanting to do for awhile...hike in water through canyons. It was such a cool experience! As soon as we arrived in Jordan, all sorts of people were telling us that we HAD to do this. However, it isn't always easy to find someone to watch Micah for the day while we leave the city for an adventure. Thankfully, our normal babysitter, Josephine, was willing to do it for us...which made me more relaxed as well, as Micah knows her and loves her.

We left in the morning and drove about an hour and a half in hopes of going to a place called Wadi Mujab. As we drove, the Dead Sea was on our right side for the majority of the drive, which was pretty neat. It is just pretty amazing to think that we are living in the midst of all these famous Biblical landmarks. It blows my mind somedays and makes Biblical history come to life.

Anyways, Wadi Mujab is a touristy place as you pay and have to take life jackets (even if you don't wear them) but they were completely out of life jackets...therefore our plans quickly changed as it was going to be at least a 2 hour wait until we could begin. Thankfully, our entire group was flexible (which is rare these days! ha) and one of our friends recommended hiking through another canyon that was FREE (yay!) and only about 10 minutes from there. The hike we did was called Wadi Ma'in and ended up being about 4 hours long. You pretty much hike through a few feet of water the entire time. At some points the water is pretty deep and there were also different spots where we could get in and swim. We also got to see several waterfalls along the way which always brightens my day. The water comes from a hot spring, so the temperature was extra warm. I liked that at first, but after awhile it was a little too warm and not at all refreshing. We had one Jordanian girl with us, who definitely slowed our pace down some, but all in all it was an awesome experience. I'd love to do it again :)


The entrance to the hike...


Group picture before we started.

Because we got soaked while hiking, we obviously couldn't take our cameras. This made me quite sad as there was many perfect photo opportunities. Here is just one photo I found on the internet. It at least gives you a little idea of what we did :)


Thursday, October 1, 2009

Busy in the Hood

Lately we have really been blessed as we have made some friends with our neighbors. Ever since Ramadan has ended, they have been so much friendlier and have invited us into their homes. It has become a nightly routine where Paul goes outside and plays soccer (well, futbol) with the neighborhood boys. They always come and ring our doorbell if Paul isn't already out there. Micah sees his Daddy leave and immediately starts whining because he wants to join the party outside. I end up taking him outside to play with his soccer ball, but lately we haven't made it very far before a new neighbor comes out and invites us into their home. It isn't always the best timing as the visit lasts well beyond the time I need to be cooking or giving Micah a bath, but I am just thankful for these opportunities. It has been so wonderful to feel so accepted and welcomed here.

The language barrier is definitely still there...so we communicate with the little Arabic I know, or the little English they know. At times it can be very mentally and physically exhausting, as there are many stressors that come along with cultural differences. Some of the homes are extremely smokey-YUCK! Not only do I leave reeking like smoke, but I also usually have a pounding headache. I'm not complaining though (well, maybe a little. ha.) as we have many friends that have lived here a lot longer than us and that don't know a single neighbor at all. Just this past week we were able to get into about 5 different homes and begin to build what we hope will be strong friendships.

We have also quickly realized how generous the Arabs are. Almost daily, our doorbell will ring and a neighbor will be standing there with a plate of food they made for us. Micah and I really enjoy the Arabic food. It is "zacky" (yummy in Arabic) as Micah would say. Paul on the other hand could do with or without. I am proud of him though-he has tried several new things which is a BIG step for him :) We have learned that it is culturally appropriate to return the plate given to us with something on it. At one point I had about 6 of my neighbors plates accumulating in my cabinet. I quickly made some chocolate chip cookies and distributed them back to their owners. However, I am already piling up another stack of plates...so I'm trying to figure out something else to make and give them. Any ideas!?! :)

One of my neighbors enjoyed the cookies so much, that she invited me into her home this past Tuesday for me to teach her how to make them. We ended up making two batches so that she could give them to other friends and family. It was a lot of fun and was nice having our little ones play away together. Before cooking, we started the morning with some drinks. I'm not a coffee drinker, so while she sipped away on some Turkish coffee, I drank some orange Tang. I'm not a huge Tang fan at all...but that is the drink of choice that the Arabs serve EVERY time you enter their home.

One night this past week some older boys took Paul around town in their car. They basically showed him every place they thought Amercian's would like (restaurants, hotels, malls, etc). Even though Paul had already seen all of these places, it was definitely a good cultural experience. They were so sweet and even bought Paul a shawarma (beef with onions, tomatoes, and peppers wrapped in a pita)-ha, you know he loved that! He said he did his best to eat what he could and then would throw some of the vegetables out the window when they weren't looking. Oh Paul... :)

Here are a few pictures from the view from our window of Paul playing soccer with a few of our neighbors.


Micah wishing he was outside too :)