Tim and Jeni

Eid Visiting

>> Saturday, August 25, 2012

There is a holiday after Ramadan called "Eid Al Fitr." Eid means holiday...the word is not a religious word unless you're celebrating something religious.

Eid is a very big deal for our Muslim friends because there are only two each year. It's as big as Christmas is for us. So, they spend a lot of time preparing for this holiday. They have a lot of shopping to do for special food and for new clothes. It's very important to wear new clothes for the holidays and for the little girls to be matching! Very fun!

The women visit with the women; and the men visit with the men. There isn't any mixed gender visiting. So, the kids and I got dressed up and went visiting without Tim.

The kids enjoyed saying, "Eid Mubarak" because when they did people would hand them money!

Garga'oon

>> Sunday, August 5, 2012

Friday night was Garga'oon (قرقاعون) also called Nasifa (ناصفة), which is the half-way mark of Ramadan. Not all Muslim countries celebrate this.

Fixing our eyes on Christ

>> Monday, July 16, 2012

In the last couple of weeks God has been refining our family. God is so good to walk through both the good times and the difficult times with us. Having our faith tested and purified is so hard. But, in the end, it's so worth it.

Trip to Dubai

>> Sunday, July 8, 2012

Last weekend we took a trip to Dubai! It was a nice time get-away! We flew there with our friend Melissa. She spent her time on the beach, relaxing and soaking in the sun. We, on the other hand, went to the malls and found lots of fun things to do! We went on separate vacations together. That's something, I thought I'd never say.

Our Teenagers

>> Sunday, June 24, 2012

Megan and Jared stayed with us for a few weeks while their parents were in the States. These weeks flew by and I am sad to see them go home now! They leave us tomorrow morning.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about having teenagers in the house again. (The last time we had teenagers was when the Groves were here.) I don't feel like I'm cool enough for teenagers because I don't understand their language. But Jared and Megan were kind enough to help me out! They used words that I don't typically say. Here are some of the words that I heard from them every day: oh snap, epic, awkward, fail, skyrim, mine craft, trolling, totes, bubbs, broski, chill, hipster and cool story bro. They had fun helping me come up with this list. They also laughed at me trying to use them correctly! haha!!

Father's Day 2012

>> Tuesday, June 19, 2012

This year we had a fun Father's Day! Joseph and Faith were so excited to celebrate their Daddy! The kids kept asking, "Is it Daddy's Day yet?"

Tim is a wonderful father! He loves these two so much! I love watching him love them. He's good at playing with them, taking care of them, training them and teaching them.

Mowlid

>> Monday, June 4, 2012

In the last couple of weeks there have been a lot of Mowlids at the Hussainias in the village. I have enjoyed being with my friends in the village during these days of celebrating! This is a picture of the place where the men gather. The women have separate places.

Remembrance is something that is very important in Shia Islam. They hold commemeration ceremonies by gathering together and reciting stories. A Mowlid is when they celebrate the birth of prophets or imams, even ladies from the family of their prophet Mohammed.

Schooling Decisions

>> Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Tim and I have been praying all along that God would direct us as we make decisions for our kids' education. I have been planning to homeschool my kids and I can't wait to do it! I got a lot of great ideas from the homeschool conference that I recently went to. God is faithful to continue to direct us in this decision and we're so thankful!

black gloves

>> Friday, May 18, 2012

This week I bought black gloves. I have seen some very conservative ladies wear them with their abaayas, but I never thought I'd have any.

The thing is that I got henna on Wednesday. I went to a friend's house in the village so she could do my henna. During this time my friend told me that another friend's grandmother had died the night before. So there would be three days of mourning in the village.

But, right away I knew that I couldn't show up to sit with the family with henna on my hands. You only get henna when you're happy or celebrating.

So, I bought gloves out of respect for a mourning family.

Tea Club

I have been meeting with a new group of students from the English Institute for the past few weeks. Each week we meet at a different place where we can sit together and practice speaking in English. Sometimes we go to a coffee shop, but this week we met at the Tea Club!

Faith came with me this time and the ladies enjoyed watching her. She loved drinking tea with us! She also got to color and play on the iPod. She felt pretty special to be a part of this group!

Mother's Day

>> Sunday, May 13, 2012

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a mom! Mother's Day is such a treat for me! This year my husband and kids made it very special. They took me out to the mall for lunch and a pedicure.

I am so thankful for my kids! As we walked into the mall, I thought it was totally appropriate that there was a big heart on the greeting sign. I love these two and I love being their mom! Seriously, my heart is bubbling over with gratefulness for them.

I thought it was cute...after we took the picture Joseph leaned over and said, "I love you, Mommy! Happy Valentines Day!" haha!

tomatoes

>> Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Last week Faith and I went to one of my Arab friends' farm. It was really huge and there are lots of vegetables as well as animals. They were really proud to be able to show us their family farm!

Wedding Time!

>> Friday, May 4, 2012

It's officially wedding season around here! I love weddings on this side of the world! Over the last few weeks Tim and I have been to several weddings.

It's such an important part of the culture here, but it's so totally different than the way we do weddings in the States. One of the biggest differences is that the men and women have separate wedding parties. The men's party and the women's party can even be held weeks apart from each other!

This picture was taken when we got home from the wedding around 11:30pm. Joseph said, "Daddy, take our picture! We're married now!"

Our New Pets!

This week we got two birds for pets! I have been wanting to have birds because I had one when I was a kid and it was a lot of fun! Tim has been hesitant about it, but he's warmed up to them already!

Birds are a very common pet among our Arab friends. Just a couple days ago we saw a boy walking around the village with a bird on his shoulder!

I met a new Arab friend at a local souq (market) where she helped me pick out and buy the birds! This friend has a lot of small birds as well as a big parrot. Most families have a bird and I've heard of a lot of parrots that speak Arabic! I have yet to hear a bird greet me in Arabic, but I hope to soon!

Pretty Henna Hands

>> Saturday, April 21, 2012

The day after shelling the shrimp, I went to the same friends' house and got henna on my hands! After handling the slimy seafood, it felt so good to have pretty hands!

I have blogged about henna before. You can see that blog post if you click here.

I was so excited to find a friend who does henna in the village that I live close to. It takes me 5 minutes to get to her house. I hope that I will be able to go back to get henna many times! Let me know if you want to come visit and get henna with me!

Here's a couple of pictures of the fresh henna on my hands:

Shrimp

This week when I was at the park by the sea I met some new friends who live in our village. As we were talking we saw a boat pull up with big coolers. They unloaded the coolers and went out again. The ladies told me that they are catching shrimp. So I asked if they sell the shrimp.

The next morning at 6:45am

, I got a call from my new friend who said, "How many kilos of shrimp do you want?" I told her I'd take 1 kilo and she said I could come pick it up at 9:00am.

This was the start of my shrimp adventure!

Easter Morning

>> Monday, April 9, 2012

I got home just in time for Easter! It was so great to be back with my family again and to celebrate the most important holiday together!!

Basically the reason that we celebrate Easter is what makes us who we are! We believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried for three days and then raised again on the third day! It's only through his death that we can be set free from our sin problem.

It's awesome that Jesus has power over death! The fact that He rose from the dead means that we have the opportunity to continue living this life with a living God!

Layover

I started to feel more at home as soon as I looked out of the plane window and saw sand! Before getting home, though, I had a long layover in another country.

I was so blessed to be able to catch up with some friends that we hadn't been able to see in about 6 months!

Trip to Kyrgyzstan

Last week week I took a trip all by myself to a homeschool conference. There aren't a lot of opportunities like this over here, so I was excited!

This conference was scheduled to be in Kyrgyzstan. I had heard the name of this country, but I didn't know where it was. I started looking up airlines that fly to Bishkek and decided to go with FlyDubai.

End of another Session

>> Thursday, April 5, 2012

Each five week session seems to go faster and faster! Last week marked the end of another session of English classes for Tim.

He had a couple of different classes. One was all women and the other was mixed.

On the last day of class two of his students who are cousins brought him a gift to say thank you!

Easter Party

Last week we had an Easter Party at my house for a bunch of ladies! It was so much fun to share our traditions with them and, most importantly, the reason we celebrate Easter!

I was so surprised at how many ladies came over to celebrate with us! They had never heard about Easter before and were surprised when we told them that this holiday is more important to us than Christmas!

A week with the Groves Family!

>> Tuesday, March 20, 2012

We were very blessed to have our good friends come visit us last week! Dennis & Shannon brought their four kids with them!

It was so encouraging to introduce them to our Arab friends and show them around our island! Their faith and trust in God is also an encouragement to us!

Jeni's Birthday

>> Saturday, March 10, 2012

March 10th is my birthday and I was really blessed to go out with my sweet family and enjoy some chocolate fondu!

Teacher Tim

>> Wednesday, February 22, 2012

This weeks marks the end of another session of English classes for Tim. He has been involved in teaching Business English. It's been a new challenge for him.

Ice Skating

During this last session of English classes I had the privilege of being involved with a "Community Group." This is a weekly block of time for a group of students to meet with an American to practice their English. I had 6 girls in my group and grew to love each of them. Our last meeting time was on Monday morning.

For our final meeting my group wanted to go ice skating. I had never been ice skating with Arabs before. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time!

Picnic at the Park

>> Sunday, February 19, 2012

On Friday after church we went with our friends for a picnic in the park! We had such a great time! It was a little windy, but wasn't too hot or too cold!

We are so thankful for some time to be able to spend time outside before it gets too hot. Once it's hot, we are stuck inside so much.

So we all brought food to share, which was great!

Jordan

Once we finally got through Saudi, we arrived in Jordan. We had a nice time as a family in the city of Amman!

We had great food there. Jordan is in the part of the Middle East called the Levant where they have some of the best food! We loved the Shish Tawook, Hummus, bread and Lentil Soup!

Driving through Saudi Arabia

>> Friday, February 17, 2012

We drove for 17 hours through Saudi Arabia to get to Amman, Jordan! We stayed in a hotel one night, so we didn't do it all in one day. As soon as we crossed the border into Saudi, we felt like we were in a different world. They drive differently, they dress differently, they think differently.

dinner and a movie

>> Monday, January 23, 2012

A couple weeks ago we went on a family date!! It was so much fun to go to dinner and a movie together! It still cracks me up that they changed the title of the movie here....haha!!!

blessings in January

January has been a very full month for our family in so many ways! But it's always a blessing to walk through life together as a couple! We are thankful to be able to share this life together!!

We've both made some new goals for this year and we're looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2012! We have started a new Bible reading plan and have enjoyed doing this together...what a privilege it is to have a husband that longs to know God and His word more and more!

Christmas with friends

>> Friday, December 30, 2011

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with friends! On Christmas Day we gathered with a lot of friends to celebrate Jesus!

One friend led us in a wonderful devotional time! We read through many old testament scriptures as the kids opened a boxes inside of boxes. Each one showed that Jesus was a very anticipated gift!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a really special time with friends. Some American friends just moved really close to us...walking distance! We had Joseph's favorite meal, chili, for dinner. This really made it special for him.

I have really missed Christmas Eve candlelight services in the States. So, we got some candles and sat outside. We read the Christmas story and sang Christmas carols by candlelight. It was the kind of moment that I wanted to pause, rewind, and play again. What a special time with good friends!

Christmas in the desert

>> Wednesday, December 28, 2011

It hasn't really felt like Christmas to me here. It takes a lot of effort to make it feel Christmasy. Everywhere we go we don't see, hear, and feel Christmas like the States. We don't hear the music or see the lights on houses.

Actually, we see the opposite. Our Arab friends are wearing black for mourning. There are black flags and banners hanging in the village because of the mourning time. It's a little hard to feel festive when our friends are mourning.

So, in order to feel Christmasy, we went out to the desert and took some Christmas pictures. We've been listening to Christmas music in our house and car. Also, the kids have been playing with the nativity set and pretending to be the different characters in the story.

mourning

>> Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Our Arab friends have been mourning since the end of November and it will continue through January. They are mourning the deaths of the family of their prophet Mohammed.

The first 10 days were a very intense time of gathering together to listen to readings. The men would march through the streets broadcasting a lamenting story of the martyrdom of Hussein, Mohammed's grandson. There was a drum too, which really added to the mournful feeling.

blending in with the locals

>> Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The first 10 days of Muharram are very important. No one eats their meals at home...everyone gathers together and eats rice and meat together. There were many evenings that I spent in the village with the ladies. It was a great time to get to know people!

I had to wear this Abaaya. Actually, this is a specific kind of Abaaya that my friends call a Difa. Everyone in the village has one of these.

fun in the rain

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've blogged. These last few weeks have been so crazy busy, but also very fulfilling. Mostly because of Muharram and Ashura, we've been very busy with people who live in the village close to us.

In some ways it seems like this time has gone by in a blur...kind of like Joseph in the running picture! haha!

I'm thankful to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends

>> Saturday, November 26, 2011

Friday we celebrated Thanksgiving with wonderful friends. Since we all live overseas, far from family, we are family to each other. I'm thankful that God provides such great friends to live life with!

We have a lot of kids and a lot of noise, but that's what makes it fun!

I'm thankful for good medical care

>> Friday, November 25, 2011

Since we live overseas, I am especially thankful for good doctors and hospitals.

We've had plenty of experiences with doctors over the last few years. Both of the kids have had respiratory issues. I had two surgeries. We've also dealt with stomach ulcers and other things. They can do the procedures here that are available in the States. We really are blessed!

Faith has had a cold and so I took her to the doctor. I didn't want her to be suffering with ear infections or another kind of infection that could clear up with antibiotics. Turns out that it's viral...not a big deal...something else to be thankful for! :)

I'm thankful for headaches

>> Thursday, November 24, 2011

For seven days in a row I struggled with the worst headaches. Today was the first day that I've felt good again. It's been a tough week because of this. But, I kept feeling God tug at my heart and I finally let him speak to me through His Word.

There have been times when I have to tell my kids, "Go say Thank You!" Sometimes some random person will give them a bag of chips and I make them say thank you! That's how I felt this week. God was telling me, his reluctant child, to be thankful for my headaches. He had to push me to do it, but I finally said thank you!

I'm thankful for my college years

>> Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I went to school at a tiny little college in Phoenix called Southwestern College. I loved this school and the friends I made there! I have so many great memories from the four years I spent there.

I was in the elementary education program. When I graduated, I got my teaching license and started teaching at a public school. I felt well prepared for teaching!!

I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to go to college! I know it's something that not all women around the world get to do.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

© Blogger template Simple n' Sweet by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP