Don't Forget

to wear green today!!!! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

blowing bubbles

We had a celebration for the children who returned from Turkey after surgery. It was great to see these kids who couldn't walk up stairs before play games where they had to take deep breaths and blow and they did great! They had a great time and it was so fun to watch their enjoyment and see how healthy they are looking.



Ahmed if you remember was one of the worst cases. He was very blue before surgery and could hardly walk. Look at him now! He is doing so much better and has been playing and gaining weight - he looks amazing!



This is Taban. She is doing great! Her family is worried that she's being TOO active because she loves to run around and play and is now totally healed. She will never need another surgery and will be able to grow up and have kids and live a normal life. Her dad loved playing the bean bag toss with her, it was really cute!


This is little Zana. He was the last to return from surgery and just got back a week ago. But look how great he is doing at blowing bubbles!


Here is the girls with our first child we sent to Turkey for surgery. She is the one in the middle in the red and she's doing great!

We're gonna have a baby!!!

We just found out this week that I am indeed pregnant! We're still pretty shocked, but really excited and totally terrified... that's normal right? I don't know what it is about moving overseas - maybe it's the winter, the lack of electricity, the new bacteria in the drinking water...but whatever it is we are pregnant and couldn't be more excited. It is still really early, only 5 weeks, but I will be going to the doctor probably next week to make sure everything is on track. So, sometime in November we are going to have a baby.....WHAT?! Maybe I can share a birthday with someone else! Or maybe you can Chelsea, or you Sarah, or you AB, or you Jennifer, or Beth... there are so many great days in November to be born! We'll keep you posted!

normal?

Life here is continuously becoming more 'normal'.... or I guess I should say that things here are the same, we are just getting more used to them. There were things when we arrived that I couldn't imagine getting used to. But alas, I had to think really hard about what those things even were now.

- Jeff never thought he would get used to being called Kak Jeff. That is how they refer to men here, it is like Mr. and is a term of respect. It is pronounced like a bad word in English, it rhymes with sock. But now Jeff is called Kak Jeff several times a day and refers to other men as Kak so and so without being phased.

- Pretty much every English cuss word is a normal word in Kurdish. Just walking down the street or listening to people talk it sounds like they are dropping the F-bomb and every other manner of cuss word. The word for thing or stuff is Sh*t, so people say it ALL the time. I use it now without feeling awkward, so that's a step forward.

- The electricity goes off every 2 hours when it switches from government provided electricity to community provided electricity. Sometimes it takes several minutes for the switch to happen or other times it won't switch at all and you are left in the dark. I used to feel like everything should stop when this happened (haha it just happened as I'm typing this). But now it doesn't matter where we are, you just continue your conversation, finish your dinner, do the dishes all in the dark and it is okay.

Well, I'm not sure it is coming back on, so I better go before we loose our back up power source!

our house

Here are some interior pictures of what we have finished so far in our house. The upstairs is a work in progress, but the downstairs is almost finished!


This is our bedroom. We painted the walls and LOVE the color!


This is another view of the bedroom.



Here is our kitchen. The stove and fridge are on the other walls... but they seem pretty bare by themselves, so I didn't post those.


The living room.


The faux fire place. the mirror isn't supposed to go there we just haven't hung it yet.

That is the downstairs, minus the bathroom, shower and sink (which are all separate rooms). We are in the process of painting the upstairs and I will take pictures of that as soon as we get around to buying furniture for it... it might be a couple months! =)

...

I don't know what to call this post, I had a hard time writing it too because I just don't know what to say.
Early Sunday morning baby Honyar died in Turkey after receiving heart surgery almost a week ago. She was 5 months old and had a large hole in her heart. Baby Honyar endured a very difficult surgery and never came out of ICU. She died because her pulmonary pressure could not stabilize and it got too high. She put up a valiant fight, but God has called her home. We ask that you keep Honyar’s mother in your thoughts and prayers as she copes with the death of her first child in a foreign country away from her husband and family. Also, please pray for Honyar’s father and family as they prepare to receive their loved ones back from Turkey. Pray for comfort and peace that only the Lord can give. We have no explanations or answers other than that the doctors and medical staff did everything within their power, but God is the one who holds life and death. We are all grieving with this family, but not as those who have no hope. Pray for Hope for this family today, because in the midst of all of this pain and sorrow, that is really all we have… Hope.

Please Pray

I went to see Serhang and his family today. It was really wonderful too see them and really, really sad too. His family is really amazing. I pretty much fell apart when I asked his parents how they were doing and feeling after finding out that Serhang is inoperable. His dad talked so lovingly about his eldest son and how he would do anything for him. His mother kept asking us if there was any hope for him. The medical answer is simply no, there is no hope. Our doctor in Turkey is one of the best and if he can't do it than no one can do it. I told them that we had not given up hope for him but that we believed that the God who created him is the God who can heal him. I told her that we would not stop praying for him and asking our friends around the world to pray for him as well. We laid our hands on sweet Serhang and asked Jesus to heal him. We don't know how much time he has left, only God does. But, I'm going to be honest with you - I'm going to be heart broken if God doesn't heal him or make a way for him to have surgery. I held back my tears the best I could, but it was pretty impossible to not love that kid and his family. His mom had to go get tissues for me because I couldn't not cry anymore. I promised them that we would not forget them and that we would do whatever we could to help them. Serhang has some brain damage due to the lack of oxygen that is getting pumped to his brain, but he understands. He understands that he will not have the chance to be made well like the other kids did. Serhang told his dad when he got off the plane from Turkey that he didn't have to worry anymore because he got heart surgery and was well. His mom was planning a party for him when he got back to celebrate his recovery. Serhang keeps asking her if they will still get to have the party. I know that God loves Serhang infinitely more than even his parents love him, but it is so painful to see their hurt and disappointment. So, please pray for Serhang. Let's be like the widow who kept going to the judge everyday until he gave her what she asked for. We told his family today about how Jesus raised people from the dead and did all kinds of miracles and that he still did them today. For the sake of your name in this place Jesus, please heal Serhang. Amen.