Yes, we are alive!

February 14th was a special day for many. For most of you it was VERY special, obviously not because of love, but because it was the day of our last blog. And now you've been waiting all this time for us to update! Good news, today is your lucky day.

I think most of you get our monthly newsletter so you've heard the news and seen our pictures of our new son, Ethan! In case you didn't hear, he was born in Amman, Jordan, on Feb 23, and was 7lbs 5oz and 21" long (3.31 kg and 53cm for you metric nuts). The delivery was quite speedy and the nurses told Katie it was amazing he came with such little pain for her. Yeah right! I watched them put the contraction-o-meter on her and during the height of labor it was only registering 35 out of 100. Before she was taken to the delivery room, she was hitting 60. I think they might have not put it on properly the second time.

Praise God I was able to get all the paper necessary for Ethan's passport. In Jordan that meant getting the hospital birth certificate, then getting our marriage license and passports translated, then taking those papers to a gov't office for issuance of the Jordanian birth certificate. That had to be stamped by 3 offices, then translated to English, and the translation stamped. Then we filled out the U.S. Passport application and took all the papers to our embassy. After being in the middle east for nearly 2 years it was refreshing how easy the U.S. embassy is to deal with. Kudos to the State Department! We waited no less than 5 minutes to put in the paperwork. Everyone was amazed to see a 2 day old baby there! After week we were able to pick up his passport and "notice of birth abroad." Praise God without any extra cost we were able leave 5 days earlier than we had planned; we arrived back at home on March 9. Ethan and mom are doing great; Ethan's gaining weight and getting on a good routine.

We got settled in, and then starting the following Monday we had 3 days of team meetings, moderated by our good friend from Salem, OR. These were long, draining, but ultimately good, days. We came away with a stronger sense of direction and of our individual roles as 3 of the 4 couples finish studying language next month.

That Tuesday Katie's mom and aunt arrived for 10 days. We had a great time together despite our being exhausted! We saw the bazar, local museums, and enjoyed the beauty of God's creation. And they enjoyed seeing Ethan and Zeke too, I think.

They were here for the local new year celebration, which coincides with the spring equinox. The legend goes that an evil king once demanded that a child a day be sacrificed in homage to him, until a hero rose up and slew the evil king. Signal fires were lit on mountain tops, like in Lord of the Rings, to spread the good news. In memory of this event and the rise to prominence of this people group, bonfires are still lit on the local new year's eve.

The local new year's kicks off the picnicking season, which lasts until June when it becomes too hot and dusty to do so. Spring is beautiful and is a mix of nice temperatures, sunny days and plenty of rain too (it's raining for the second straight day as I write). With Katie's mom and aunt, some short-term teachers and a good local friend, we by chance found a beautiful spot with several beautiful waterfalls and an incredible view! We could easily see the mountains that form the border of our country.





Another key fixture of new year's is the stroll down the local main street. Many dress up in their traditional clothes (locals will find ANY excuse to wear them) and crowd the road that is closed to traffic for the special occasion.
Zeke was given a set of clothes by some good friends and proudly wore them with a new Dwight-Schrute-mustard-yellow shirt. If I do say so myself, we were pretty cute. A strange sensation was having men come up from behind and without warning grab the pishteyn, the 10 foot long sash that covers the seam between the baggy pants and jacket. Evidently it wasn't on straight and they felt compelled to fix it. Just another adjustment we've adjusted our adjustments to.






Thousands of people crowd the street, walking, dancing, watching the big bonfire, and at sundown launching fireworks. Unrelated to the new year's stuff, celebrating the local political party's electoral victory, people set off fireworks a few nights ago. They kind they were using made M80's look like popcorn popping. Our neighbors dishearteningly broke out their AK-47 and shot a few rounds "towards the mountains." Remember we live in a crowded neighborhood! I suppose it was inevitable that we'd eventually be able to tell the difference between pistol and automatic rifle shots.

Last week the team began registering students for the next round of classes at the LIFE Center. It looks to be a full semester with 6 class and pushing maybe 80 students. We're forming a small agreement with a new university to teach English. I'm impressed by the charter of U; rather than offer an English program so students can pass the TOEFL and perhaps immigrate, they strictly will not offer the test. Instead they will bring in professors from the States to teach in English so that students can get a quality education to serve their country without the lingering temptation to study (and then stay) abroad.



So there you go, now you know our crazy life from the last several weeks; Katie's mom and aunt have left and now we're gearing up for her dad's arrival next week. We will continue our last few weeks of formal language study and take up our new roles on May 1.