Sweet Brothers

Caleb and Judah really love their little brother.  This is one of the best pictures that captures that!  They love to give him kisses on the head.

Mason is now 1 1/2 months old.  It amazing how fast time flies by and how quickly kids get big!





Also, here is a picture of dinner at the Crane's house.  Since it has been cold, we have basically been living in one room.  We are blessed that our apartment is big, but when it is cold like this, it is hard to keep it warm, so we have kept a heater in one room and have basically been living in just this one room.  It hasn't been too bad so far, but I will definitely be ready for it to start getting warmer.

Little things...

It is funny when you learn funny little things about different cultures isnt it?  Mike and I have been doing language study with a tutor this past month and it has been going really well.  The guy who is tutoring us spends every session with about 5 minutes teaching us something little about the culture.  So the other day one of our lessons he was explaining to us why we see bread sitting on the sidewalks all the time.   Bread is one of the main staples in this part of the world.  Not the kind of bread we have at home, but a flat bread kind of like a pita, you can get it in either white or wheat, but for some reason it gets hard really fast, so people go through it quickly.  Well it is believed by the people of this region that bread is a gift from God, so it is shameful to throw it away, so instead people put it out on the sidewalks for the goats or for the poor.  Funny, huh?  All this time I just though people were being lazy not to throw their bread away.

Another funny little thing that we discovered here is that the word for "butt"  in Dzongkha is the word for Father in Arabic.  And most of the time people will call the father by his first son's name.  So Mike is referred to as "Abu Caleb".  Well, if someone were to ask Caleb where his Abu is, he would point to his butt.  Hmmm....this could be a problem in a culture where honor is very important.  We may have some explaining to do to Caleb!

Another little thing....this morning I went to a local market on the other side of town with another girlfriend.  It was kind of like a huge garage sale or like a flea market, with tables and tables of clothes filling a huge parking lot.  There were all kinds of things, from sweaters, to shoes, to slippers, toys, childrens clothes.   It was fun to go through everything and find some things that we needed.  I was struck on the way home as I sat in the taxi with my "L.L. Bean", "Old Navy" and "Mossimo" sweaters, how this world is a funny place.  Somewhere else in the world, someone had paid maybe $30 or $40 for one of the sweaters I had just gotten for $1.40!  Oh yeah, I love a bargain!  Anyway, next time I will have to take pictures, so you can get a better glimpse into my world.  But, for now I have to go tend to the kids.....

Funny World....

Today we are spending the day inside, after we got a phone call from a friend saying that he had received a phone call from the US Embassy advising all westerners to "lay low"  due to the protests that would be going on because of the situation in Gaza.   We were told to especially avoid any "american places".  It is kind of strange to be here in this part of the world as a westerner, especially American.  Our heart goes out to those in Gaza who are experiencing horrifying events unfold before them.  Now, I dont know enough about all the details to say what side I am on, but I do know that I feel for those people who are trapped, just waiting for this nightmare to end.  I am not sure what kind of coverage this is getting in the US too, but the other day we were at a coffee shop with some friends and there was a TV on with coverage of the happenings.  Here they just show it all.  Blood spilled out on the ground, people weeping over the loss of loved ones....one of the stories that hit me the hardest, was the story of the four young children that they found, weak and hungry, near the corpse of their mother.  Oh my goodness......could you hold on for a second.....as I took a minute to put into my own understanding what that really meant, to imagine Caleb, Judah and Mason, all hungry...just hanging out around my dead body, most likely crying.  UGH!  To bring it close to home makes it hurt.  These are actual people that are hurting and losing loved ones.   Yet, it is so easy for us to just go on with the rest of the news and hear how horrible it is that Oprah has fallen off the weight wagon, or how horrible it is the some super star has made a fashion error.  UGH....let us take a moment to pray for those in Gaza and Israel.  Our heart goes out to them....and as I sit here in my apartment, it is most likely that there are people just in the same building or down the street that are experiencing loss.  Please pray!!!  And know that we are doing well and the area of Amman that we live in has been safe so far.  We will keep you updated!

The Road to Damascus

One of the things about living overseas, is that you have to do things that you would never have to do otherwise if you were living in your own country.  One of those things would be to have to travel and leave the country to renew your visas, even when you have a newborn baby.  So, our time to leave the country was about overdue, and we had to get out of the country before the 30th of Dec.  We looked at all of our options and the most economical choice seemed to be to go to Syria, even though we had heard mixed stories about having to wait at the border for many hours in order to get your visa.  But we thought we would give it a try.  So we were off....all 5 of us piled in the back of a taxi, while another woman paid for the front seat with the driver.  I later found out that she was an Iraqi, going to visit her daughter in Damascus who had just had a baby as well.   Anyway, we went there and stayed in a little hotel, ate at one restaurant and then came back the next day.  I had these hopes to see the city and be able go to "Straight St." and to the place that they say Ananias lived, but traveling with three little ones makes things not always as easy as you think it would be.  So, we headed back to Amman, after spending the night in Damascus.  

I wanted to share this video of part of our ride in the taxi on the way back.  Hopefully it will give you a good laugh.  It is one of those things that is always funnier when you look back on, then it was at the time.  

Ok, for some reason I am having a hard time posting the video, but hope to get it uploaded soon.