Today.....

At about 3:30 this afternoon Zander and I were playing outside...

As he walked across the yard I prayed for friends....

At 6:30 tonight, this is what our yard turned into....

God is Good!

Life in IraqiKurdistan.1

Well we have been in here in Duhok, Iraq for just over a week. Life here is MUCH different then we have been used to in Iowa. God has already taught us much about others and ourselves in this short ammount of time. We have been able to experience God's abundant blessings although in the midst of our circumstances it seemed like a mess, God has had greater purposes in mind. Like this picture we need to look beyond "the wires" and see the beauty of God's perfect plan.

A Glimpse of our First week:

Arriving to Iraq:

We flew into Erbil and were greeted by 120 degree heat! We waited about an hour and a half for our ride in this "parking lot" about 10 minutes away from the airport. We didn't have the phone number for the person who was supposed to be picking us up, or any other contact information. So we waited outside but because I was carrying Zander the security guard let me in their little covering that had AC. Blessing #1: There was a girl who was on the same flight that was waiting for her family to pick her up after studing abroad in Indiana. She spoke flawless English and came to find out her sister taught at CSM (Classical School of the Medes) in Suly. So she had the phone number we needed!

Blessing: We learned a couple lessons: Communicate and have phone numbers needed. Have a baby with you so you can sit in the AC :) Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Arriving in Duhok: After the 2 1/2 hour pick-up truck ride we had a view of the city we would call home for at least the next 10 months.

Blessing: Isn't it beautiful!

Ramadan- When we arrived in Duhok, the head master, Mr. Y. wanted to take us out to eat. But since it is in the middle of Ramadan, NO restaurants were open, and we could not find food. We settled on a can of chicken/spam, fruit, and bread!

Blessing: Finding out this canned chix would be a staple in our home because Zander loves it and with enough ketchup Andy will eat it too!

House Situation- We were SO excited to finally unpack our suitcases and settle into our new home. Come to find out our home was was "not ready" for us yet. The main issues were:

• no electricity. The 110 degree heat outside was nothing compared to the close to 130 it felt like inside our house. The electricity/generator power was disconnected because no one was living here for 2.5 months.
• The refridgerator cord was cut (who does this?)
• Not secure: Doors didn't lock properally
• Critters: There were some BIG gaps that needed to be better sealed because cockroaches, mice, etc. were able to get in.
• 

Those were the things that kept us from staying there for the next 3 nights. This was frustrating at first because we were just READY to be in our own SPACE, expecially with a one year old.

Blessing: Spending 3 days with our teammates Mr. and Mrs. Nelson allowed us to get REAL with each other right away. They've seen us at our ugliest, and still loved on us by cooking for us, allowing us to take over their living room, and even letting me borrow some Pj's!

Visas: We heard this would be a painful process because you wait, and sit, and wait, and sit in this stuffy, hot room! We didn't quite understand until we went through it with a one year old. It went a little something like this: (skip this if you don't want to read details)

9 am- arrive at CSM, waited for a driver to take us to the Dept.

10 am- finally leave with a non-english speaker, we'll call him MIC (man in charge) and don't have a clue where we are going, what we are doing. He would just look at us and tilt his head implying "this way"

10:15- 11:30ish- Sit in this hot stuffy room just waiting with about 15 other people. All of us (our team) were falling asleep on the couches except for the one (mostly Andy) chasing around Zander all over this room while the guards pinched his cheeks. Remember it's Ramadan, so no water allowed in public.

11:30- We got the head nod from MIC to "come". Took taxi to the health office, went upstairs to find out we all needed to have 2 photos of ourselves. Head tilt again.

12- looks like we are on our way back to the school. Z has about had it! Get to the school, sit around, we are all wondering what now? Mr. B (great English Speaker) takes us to get our photos taken. The girls and Z head back to their place to find him some lunch and nap. Done for the day. Meet back at the school tomorrow at 9.

Next day: pretty much a repeat, only difference is we found out the airport NEVER stamped Z's passport in Erbil even though we asked they said he was a baby so he didn't need one. This almost put me over the edge. We had to drive back to Erbil just to get a passport stamped?Everything is so ineffecient here! Figure it out! Make everyone's life easier please! I demanded that me and Z go home. The others went on a rat race back and forth from school to office to not have any idea what was going on. Frustrating day. I needed a LATTE pronto! Only problem is they only have instant coffee here. Who cares at this point, I'll take anykind of coffee-ness!

Blessing: Mr. R, took over the Visa situation. He went to Erbil for us to get the stamp, and he did all the rest of the grunt work at the office. Ohhhhhh, THANK YOU!

Camera: Our first night here, our camera broke... tear :( The lens zoom popped out, but never went back in. I tried to bring that thing back to life over and over again but no such luck. Then we went to the Mazi Mart (the closest thing to Wal-mart they have around here. Come to find out cameras were twice as much there as they were on Amazon. But we can't get mail here so can't order things online, or have packages sent, etc. (they are working on making this possible soon though!) I love taking pictures and felt lost without it! But I bought one yesterday. It doesn't have the capabilities as our old one did, but it will do for this year! So we don't have pictures from our first week. But I took some today to add.

Blessing: Ummm... haven't figured out the blessing in this one yet :) How about not holding tightly to "things" (I failed at this!)

Folks, that's just the beginning! I could go ON AND ON, but I'll give you a break for now! More soon!

Help Please!

The first night we were here in Iraqi Kurdistan our camera broke :(
I loved our old camera and to buy a new camera here they are pretty expensive and the options are limited.
Our organization offered to ship one to us (or at least to the city about 6 hours away from here) so we are weighing our options.
I want to see if any of you have any recommendations on a camera.
Although I wouldn't say I'm a great "photographer", I do enjoy the creativity of taking photos, but don't want to pay $500 for a camera either.
So if you have any recommendations, please let me know. The sooner I get a camera, the sooner I can show you some pictures of where we live :)

ok... REWIND! Our boy needs some recognition!

Wow.... I can't believe it's taken me this long to update our blog... well actually I can, this summer has been CRaZy! Awesome, amazing, encouraging, but crazy..... So we are going to REWIND a bit and I'll fill you all in about our life in Iraqi Kurdistan soon :)

This post is all about our big boy!

He deserves a little love after a summer of putting him to sleep at all kinds of different places, us trying to move out, live out of suitcases, random eating, etc.

Month 13 and 14 were fun for us as he's starting to be able to communicate more and be more mobile. But here's a glimpse of what he's up too.

• His favorite toys: I called it "Dino" for a long time until I was informed it was a turtle. So then I called it Mertle.
• His favorite sign: "Please" Which is so hard when he asked so politely not to let him have everything he asks for. Ice cream, pick me up, cell phones, etc.
• His favorite word: "Daaaawggg"

• His favorite emotion: scrunchie nose
• His favorite food: Ice cream (he's his mama's boy!)
• 
• His favorite song: "He's got the Whole World in His Hands"
• Firsts: Happy Meal, water slide, lake swim, horsey ride, haircut, plane ride
• 
• Auntie Alice gave him his first haircut! It was also the first day he repeated a word. "Can you say Alice?" and he said "All-is" We have the smartest kid :)
• When we stayed with my parents in St. Ansgar, we spent a couple hours at the STA pool! Zander loved it! Especially the slide, every time we went down with him he would sign "please"

Camping trip at Lake Hendricks with my fam. I was a little nervous because the lake was a little gunky, but he had a blast with my dad!

Zander did great on his first airplane ride. Gave him suckers to help with the take off and landing, and he slept most of it. It helped that they gave us 4 seats for the price of 2!
• His lovies: ISU blankie (G'ma Kriener) Teddy Bear (Great G'ma Kriener)

Those are just glimpses of what he is doing for past 2 months! Not to mention all the "see you soons" we had to say. Since we have been living out of suitcases for past 3+ weeks, he's pretty good at taking everything out of them too and throwing it over his shoulder! :) But today, we finally got to unpack all of those suitcases! And Zander is starting to get back into his routine. As much routine you can have while living in the middle-east. We are ALL learning flexibility and patience :) More on that later!