New job possibilities

Tom has done several jobs during our time here. Currently he is still selling American construction products throughout the Gulf. It has it good points and less than desirable points. We have a new job possibility that we started cautiously evaluating back in November when someone approached Tom and Walter with the proposal. It is rather "out of the box" for both of them but the company has operated in four other 2nd/3rd world countries and been successful to one degree or another in all of them.

It is a company that joins governments in their desire to stimulate and/or revive the fishing industry in their country. They are interested in starting a project here because the government here has done a GREAT deal of research on the fishing industry and is really looking for ways to maintain the many small fishing villages that line the coast.

So this company approached Tom and Walter saying they needed some help on the ground to implement this if it was to happen. The positive things about this is that the government is very interested in the whole process, the company has experience with working with non-western crazy bureaucracy and they have all the skills and would provide training and oversight as needed.

The company is currently submitting a proposal for a feasibility study which would take one year to complete. In the next two weeks we will take a trip along the coast to look at the area (it is about 8 hours from where we are currently) and evaluate it for both living conditions and the business concerns.

There is a great deal we don't yet know and there is no guarantee that things will move forward past the submission of the proposal for a feasibility study. Either way though, it is a great fit for Walter and Tom and they are grateful for the oversight of experienced experts who would be providing the structure for how this all works.

We'll keep you updated as there are real developments. So much is "inshallah" that it isn't worth writing until something REAL happens! Our big road trip to explore the area was supposed to have started yesterday but Tom is not feeling well enough at all to sit in a car for several hours let alone days. We are hoping he'll feel well enough next Thursday!

January 2014

Well it seems we can hardly catch our breath around here! Thanksgiving, Tom's birthday, Christmas, house guests, New Years, new school term and then Tom got REALLY sick and isn't yet recovered. And here we are looking at February already!!

Just to keep folks up to date Tom had an episode of extreme vertigo in November that lasted about 4 hours total. It was totally miserable with constant vomiting anytime he moved any part of his body. Then a couple of weeks ago he had a few dizzy spells and the whole thing started again with a vengeance. We took him to the ER and he ended up spending two days in the hospital. We had an MRI and CT scan done which were all normal so that rules out the scary causes. Meneres is still an option but drs are basically settling on BPPV which is easily treated at home. However, in the last 9 days he has not improved as expected so they are wondering if it may be something else. Apparently there are viruses that can cause two separate episodes like this. crazy. 

So he is not in a life threatening situation but he is just miserable. He is doing better now but still cannot drive or shake his head without the room spinning. He can walk when he concentrates and doesn't have to dodge obstacles. He can do some computer work and watch TV but only for limited periods of time and then he needs to rest.

We are SO GRATEFUL that the hospital gave us all this treatment for FREE because they didn't want to hassle with our insurance practices. Don't get me started on the state of health care in the US versus here...Thankfully we are not in a high deductible insurance and though we have to pay for all the follow up stuff his meds are only $15. We'll be okay financially but we were wondering there for a minute! 

Hopefully I'll have time to keep things updated.

Thank you for Christmas presents!!

I don't I have a photo of each gift but I thought I'd post what I do have (= The shoes for both kids were a HUGE hit!!!

 

The dress and tiara are AMAZING

The dinasaurs are a blur of action (= The nightgown is from Lucy...the pose is from who knows where!?!

We loved getting Nana's package the day after for a calm and quiet gift opening complete with candles, cookies and cider. Lovely (=

 

Azeb loved her scarf!! She says "God Bless You!!" 

Ryan has two of Tom's old trucks! They were a super gift and he loves them. 

Thanks to all of you for your time and energy and expense of sending us gifts. It is much appreciated and enjoyed! 

Cinter Claus

I realize we are a few weeks late for CinterClaus but our dutch friends initiated us this year into their fun tradition (= One of the gifts for all the kids in our little community were these awesome face masks. Layla and Ryan are striking an appropriately serious pose.
 

 

Ryan and his serious superhero buddy (= I'm realizing that I think I already posted these photos. Ooops. It is the day after Christmas and we are relaxing in pjs!

Quick Christmas shots

I don't know if my parents felt the same about Christmas as I do, but it always feels like we didn't do everything we wanted to do and often like it went too fast. sigh. So here are some pictures that reflect our time. FUN with Jon and Vic our friends before we had babies when we first moved out here (=

They were here for a quick 24 hours and rolled right into present wrapping together!

Tom looking tough because he just hung that mammoth world map. I LOVE maps and have been wanting to get this hung for ages. I guess Christmas Eve seemed the time....

Vic making mincemeat pies. Yum yum! The kids were supposed to help but they were literally sobbing in their beds (= poor kids had so much fun they cried.

Probably our sanest moment....eating cinnamon rolls and eggs for breakfast!

wow. they finally all smiled!

More bye bye to doggie and more CAMPING!

Just had to include a few more photos of saying goodbye to Auggie the Doggie.

We are grateful that our kids sleep so well when camping!! One of my favorite parts is waking up together in the morning and snuggling with each other. Our friends were up at 6 and hiked for two hours before returning and waking us up at 8am (= Each family has its own rhythm!!

I love this picture of the kids. The two in the middle are our Dutch friends who we went camping with. The kids played and played and played. Ryan is totally himself in this photo "I'm up! I'm happy! I'm jumping up and down!" Layla "I'm sitting here looking pretty and sweet and totally confident in the moment" Such fun.

Bye bye doggie

We had a chance to dog sit for a few weeks! Tom and the kids LOVE dogs and I am willing to become a dog lover. This guy has been passed around quite a bit but it really a sweet dog. Alas, we have a pack of about 10 kids under the age of 10 around or house which is great for our kids but not great for a dog. Local kids don't know much about how to treat a dog and so usually end up aggravating them. So that in combination with the multiple random cats our neighbor feeds just made him bark too much. It was a real shame as we all enjoyed him and he was remarkably trainable.

 

The nice this is that he is able to go live on a friend's camel farm so he'll have quite a happy life wild and free. He really needed more space than we had as well. We were willing to try training him on a leash but the cat and kid issue was just too much to surrount at this point in our lives.... 

 

You can see some good shots of our front garden. It is quite small compared to other places here but I've bought plants everytime I hear someone is leaving (= So it feels quite green at this point. For some reason outdoor plants are really really cheap out here! You can't see it from this photo but the house wall is only about 6 feet away from me in this picture so we have about 15 feet of space in front of the house but it stretches the full width of the house.

Happy Belated Birthday Tom!

Tom was finally able to use his birthday grill! It is a HUGE amazing find on the local "swop and shop" Facebook page. There had been a big store which blew this against a wall and broke off some nobs. It was literally 85% off the new price (= The sweet little face you see in the picture is not Layla....but her best friend who plays with us every Tuesday.

 

And just in time I found a very belated birthday gift which we wrapped up and gave to him that night. Sue - we all loved them! Azeb wrapped them up in an empty tissue box and put tissues back in to confuse him. It was pretty funny (=

Thoughts on Suffering

**While I had a few minutes on the computer this afternoon (ryan was getting his haircut and layla had a friend over) I was looking at the posts I wrote that have never been published for some reason or another. This was one that I wrote AGES ago but the topic and thoughts are still so relevant and current for me. So here it is about two years and 4 months later....
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When I get time in the mornings (ie I'm not so tired after feeding Ryan at 7am that I just stumble back to bed) i love to sit in my brightly lit, pink kitchen and drink a cup of coffee and journal/do my quiet time/listen to a sermon on CD. Definitely a favorite thing of mine.....alone time, getting perspective, being reminded of truth.

Today's sermon by Tim Keller was on Hebrews 12. Tim calls this section "corporate pastoral counseling". Helping the church as a whole learn how to survive and thrive during suffering. Here are some of his thoughts as I processed and can remember them (huge caveat seeing as I have a 4 month old and 3 year old in my life....)

Life is meant to be an agonzing race. Several English translations have minimized the role that agony plays in the descriptions of what life should be considered in this passage. Suffering and agony crossing our path should not be such a shock to our systems. As Americans/Westerners, we have slowly drifted to believe the idea that life is about AVOIDING suffering. Much of our society and beliefs stem from this concept. Therefore Christianity is extremely relevant to our daily lives because it is one of the few systems (only system/religion/philosophy?) that provides a real and livable way to process and cope with suffering.

There is brokenness outside of us around the world and there is brokenness inside of us. Often the process of suffering or discipline is the perfect combination of these two things. The concept of discipline is the Greek word. Hold that thought, here comes my three year old.