Learning here thru JanuaryS

This is our third January here in Iraqi K-stan. Things have begun to feel more familar. For example, no longer do we get freaked out by secruity guards. They are not scary anymore :).

I have also learned over the past couple years that January is the hardest month to live here. Remember our first year here around this time? It's rainy, wet, COLD (not like outdoor Iowa cold, but like back in the old days with no proper insulation, no central heating, type of cold. Can you kinda imagine? Well it's kinda like this:

Anyway.... after that first January, God began sanctifying me. Last year, returning back in town during January with an infant had a different set of challenges but yet we just arrived back from America, so we came refreshed by family and friends and most importantly the Body of Christ. This year, planning for the dreaded January... we took some action steps! Instead of just sitting around all day....

We (by the grace of God) have a car now which helps with things more than I ever imagined! So we took a long trip out of town one day with Helen and her mom and brother that came to visit....

love Love LOVE... this girl!

Took some drives up to the mountain just as a family to eat snacks and pray over this city. 

Any chance we could get outside when it wasn't raining, we would! To either play with neighbor kids in our yard for an hour, having campfires,

or going on hikes... This is surprisly a NEW thing for me. I always just stayed home with the kids when Zander seemed too small to get up the rocky terrain and seemed a bit dangerous to carry Zephie during some parts. But, we tried it this year and it was awesome! I was so proud of Zander :)

Here is my first time reaching the SUMMIT of a mountain here!

Sexy i know.... for many reasons... short sweatshirt, fanny pack, pose...etc, etc! I was so excited I didn't care :)

Team Time: Always precious to us!

Naturally the longer we are here the more we start to learn about the culture......

what to do for fun......

 and how to do life differently.....

So, we knew what to expect this January and we did somethings to help us enjoy our time here this month. There were also a few UNEXPECTED things that happened. 

It snowed something like 8 inches here one day. Which is the first time its snowed this much since 30 or 90 years. :) I heard both stories... A wide gap I know! Can you imagine 8 inches of snow in a city of a half of a million people with NO snow shovels or snow plows... Yeah it was nutz! So we just stayed home and played with the neighborhood kids in snow and froze our booties off! Still memorable!

(we were trying to make a bat mobile, but the snow didn't stick as I wanted)

Another unexpected...Andy was away this month more than he ever has been before. Here he went on an overnight stay with the 9th graders to a partnering school 6 hours away on a BUS...  It was worth it!

He also spent a week in Baghdad helping out with a basketball clinic for Iraqi basketball coaches

I'm thankful for both. The blessing of the hard "grey" January days because we learn to depend on Him more, but also learning to be thankful for the joyful moments.  Too often things can often go unnoticed. This post is a remembrance of a season of thankfulness! Thankful for the reason we are here, the sun, laughs, electricity, team, sharing life and loving others. The simple things......

Cyprus 2012

For our Christmas/ Get-out-of-Iraq Break we decided to go to South Cyprus. Mainly because that's where the international headquarters is for the sports company we will be partnering with to get a basketball school started here in Duhok. I didn't have many expectations but it truly felt like a vacation! So here are my highlights!

BACON! and all pork products served at almost EVERY MEAL!

Being next to the ocean!

What overseas worker doesn't get pumped about a McDonalds meal?!?

Boardwalk that went up and down the beach to freely walk/jog wearing CAPRIS and a T-shirt holding my husband's hand! Complete freedom for 6 days! :)

Quiet time! No phones, visits, cleaning, to-do lists, etc. We enjoyed reading, instagramming, and watching Downton Abbey! :)

We had a room with a balcony that had an amazing view! (not my boys in their undies but overlooking the ocean with lots of GREEN!) Also, we had a room that had a little divider thinger so we could put the kids to bed, close this curtain and be in the other part of the room not having to be sneaking around so much :)

Starbucks and lots of other fun drinks! (Sorry if a lot of my favorite things are food related, that's just a part of lovin' life for us)

Obviously a highlight was meeting with our new sports company FO-SHO! Having meetings with them and learning more about what and where they do it was affirming to partner with them.

We got to hang out with their families too which was GREAT to get to know them better and super fun for Zander to have some playmates that spoke English a couple of the days we were there. 

Of course my favorite thing.....Precious family time!

My heart was full!

You all know Andy.... Definately not a man with a gut! But we were both cracking up at this picture that was taken the last day we were there. We really must have eaten a LOT! (Is this what he will look like in 10 years?) He would still be pretty handsome :)

Would we go back again for these reasons! Lord willing.... YES!

November brings change

The biggest change this month was the purchase of this new schnazy van! After much research we found not many options for a van in the city. We knew we wanted to get something that had capacity to hold lots of people and already we are SO glad we did! We can fit our whole team (6 +3 kids) Also, it's great to haul all the neighbor kids!

The freedom that this has given us has been amazing so far. A true refreshment!

Loading up and making a grocery run and be able to get more than my hands can carry is a huge blessing. Also, the money that is saved from not having to ride in a taxi is huge as well. 

and we can actually go to a park, and search new areas of the city :)

We took a trip to Sulymania (neighboring city 6 hours away) the week of Thanksgiving. Seeing K-stan in our own vehicle was a great experience!

Our teammate Sarah went with us, and it really is a beautiful area of the world!

The only drawback of driving ourselves is the stress of driving in the rain on roads that are below American Standards. Andy did great though!

But staying with our teammates and their family in Suly was such a huge blessing. It's so great to be able to fellowship with them and we are blessed by their mentorship (just wish they were closer).  The mom is an AMAZING cook and hosted their fellowship for thanksgiving. It was an amazing taste of home where we actually had cranberries, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie! MMMMMM! A great refreshing time of fellowship. 

So yes, a car has been GREAT! But we haven't been completely consumed by that :) It has been a month of changes in lots of ways...

We tried to get rid of Zander's afternoon nap, by replacing it with Quiet time in his room. But I would walk in his room after 30 mins to find him on the floor, asleep on top of his puzzle.

 After a couple weeks we realized, life would just be better if he just continued to take his nap and we quit fighting it.  

Also, big changes for Zephie!  She started walking....

and rockin' pig-tails, and the side-pony.

Zander learned how to write his name!

Our kitchen walls are like a huge white-board. I was Pin-spired to do a Thanks-Giving tree so we made our version of it in our kitchen- reflecting the month of November what we can "Give Thanks to the Lord for He is good" and also, what ways we can Give to others for "God loves a cheerful giver"

We spent the week leading up to Thanksgiving talking about how the tradition started. My little Squanto is so sweet!

We also finished up our basketball clinic with CSM kids with a tournament. This may be the start of something bigger for basketball in Duhok???? 

Camping: Well, Andy and some guys went camping under the stars one night.

Meanwhile us ladies ate cream puffs, drank coffee, and watched a chick-flick! 

It was hard to believe that little Henry had a tempature of 105 the night before! :( Sweet boy!

Changes in the weather came as well. In October and the first couple weeks of November, I was able to have some quiet time out on our roof watching the sun-rise over the city. It was glorious every morning! 

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