On again, off again

So much for my plan of writing twice a week, huh? There's so much I want to remember about the past month, but I have been so busy living life, I haven't taken the time to write about it. I will try to play a bit of catch up...about Easter, our houseful of guests, etc. Though since I am so behind already, I'll just stick to telling you about our current adventure with water.
Anyone care to take a bath in this?? There are times the water is so orange the drain isn't even visible. Have no fear; we skip bath days when it's this bad. I quickly abandoned the idea of bathing the kids when I saw how discolored the water was that day. The problem has been going on for months, and we've been told that the old hot water pipes are to blame. So last week they started the process of replacing the hot water pipes in the entire building. Oh, the joys of hearing the workers drill through cement. Dust is everywhere. Because they are drilling through the floor, when they work on our upstairs neighbor's apartment, the debri lands in our bathroom, just as our downstairs neighbor gets ours.

For obvious reasons, when workers are replacing pipes, the water must be cut off occasionally. The first few days, it would go off (randomly) and come back on again within a short period of time. Then this week the "real" work began, and without warning, we had no water for two days. Well, I should clarify that the notice of the upcoming water cut was posted half-way through our first day of not having any water! Thankfully friends let us fill up a big jug of water so we could flush the toilet, etc. Wednesday the water was back, but our electricity came and went throughout the day (unrelated to the pipe replacing, and in fact, this slowed down their work. We got a break from the sound of the drills, and they ended up sweeping some of the debri in our bathroom because their work had come to a standstill).

At 7:00 on Wednesday night I bathed the kids as I usually do. With three kids reasonably clean, I was ready to rinse the shampoo out of Jenna's hair when, you guessed it, the workers cut off the hot water! She was aghast at the thought of being rinsed with icy cold water, and I agreed it would be torture. Thankfully there was a little (well used) water still in the bathtub, so I opted to rinse her with it instead. We'll call her clean.

By Thursday morning we had electricity, hot and cold water. But we were scheduled to visit friends that day. We spent the better part of the day with them (in spite of the fact that Nathan was still coughing quite a bit and poor Josh had a fever which had started in the middle of the night. But, hey, we got to eat Philipino spaghetti sauce with bits of hot dog in it...a first for us and a delight to the kids! ) Upon returning home, however, we discovered the cold water had been shut off. This means no dishwasher, washing machine, water for the toilets, etc. We pay a pretty penny for the quantity of water we use from the hot water pipes, so for Joe's sake we are using the water we do have sparingly. We've been told the water will be on again tomorrow night. For how long, I wonder...

I have to say I am frequently being reminded that water is something that should not be taken for granted. Rather than allowing myself to be frustrated that washing my hands isn't as simple as turning on the faucet right now, I am focusing on being grateful that most of the time we have a plentiful supply. It may be orange at times, but it's easily accessible! And I'm praying that the others in this building (my three sweet boys included) will be drawn to the One who offers each of us Living water.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker...

There have been times when an individual has tried to convince us that our culture and our friends' culture are basically the same. We laugh and remind them that while in many ways we are the same, we do have major differences in world views. One such way that is very different is our approach to marriage.

On a number of occasions, we have been asked to assist our friends in finding spouses. Just this week we received this email:

"hello Mr jozef
...in your Church if have girls for marry,i will marry i am 34 years old,graduated En agriculture .i had green house in Tehran(3000m2) i believe Jesus 10 years. if you know say me or give my email to her. God bless you."

Why are we asked to be assist? Family involvement in the matter of marriage is essential. We know of one case where a single man wanted to marry a young lady, and her sister refused the proposal on her behalf.

The trouble here is that many of our friends do not have family members present to carry out their vital role in this process. Thus we are aware of many who have chosen to propose directly to a lady who is part of our fellowship. When they do so, they end up bringing great shame on the woman. Various young men, who were proposing to practically any single woman they encountered, were creating such a stir in our fellowship that we even considered creating a written policy against proposing without using proper cultural methods!

Since young men should not approach young women on their own, they often approach us to fulfill the role that their families cannot. Sometimes a man asks us to approach a certain single woman on his behalf to see if she will consider marrying him. And, as in the email above, others will simply ask us to find an available female for them.

When I thought about the kinds of things that would be part of our "job description" here, matchmaker was not one of them. And while there is normally great interest on the part of some to get married, I can't think of anyone who has actually found a spouse with our help. Among other things, most of the men here are not in a place in their lives where they are able to provide for a wife. In any case, we find "matrimony assistance" pleas to be among many unique requests we receive that do color our days. Gotta love it!

Sweet sounds of voices

The other day I caught Andrew singing a song, and much to my surprise, he was doing a great job with singing the right tune along with it! This discovery led to pulling out the camera to record his accomplishment. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew I was treated to a concert by three children. I caught a certain fourth munchkin a few days before doing something that brought me equal delight: giggling!

If pictures are worth a thousand words, these videos (posted a few days ago on facebook -- I am still learning how to get this kind of stuff to work!) could probably speak for themselves. However, a little explanation might help. Jenna is singing a song I made up (to the tune of Lullaby). The song as changed through the years as new family members have come along! She is "playing the piano" while she sings. Andrew is playing a guitar while he sings "There is a name I love to hear" (or should that be "two ears...") . And finally, Joshua, while playing the piano, sings his version of the ABC song. You should be able to hear him say "CD." And if any of you can tell me what "moomoonooo" means, I'm all ears! Though he's not verbal yet, he certainly is cute! Finally, our friend Akram is the one who is delighting Nathan and causing his terrific baby laughter. They are all such sweet sounds, indeed. I'm blessed!

Under the weather

Okay, this might not be a photo you would want to remember, but I have wiped Andrew's nose so many times, it is a memory I will have of him for a long time (if such things don't gross you out, you can see a close up of what I'm talking about if you click on the photo). I am very grateful he chooses to come to me to use a tissue rather than taking matters into his own hands and wiping his nose with something else (or as Joshua does, tries to rub his drippy nose on my shoulder!!)

The story of the week has been just this: the kids and I have been sick. Joshua came down with it first, and he was generous to share it with me. One by one, all the kids have succumbed to runny noses and coughs, but it hit me the worst. We missed the Sizdah bedar picnic due to illness.

This, too, shall pass, and in one sense, a slower week to rest and recover has not been a bad thing!

Just another day at the office

I thought it might be fun to give you a glimpse of what Joe's day was like on Tuesday. To say that every day is like this one would not be correct, but at the same time, he's had many days similar to this one!

Joe is a night owl, so this means that on the flip side, he's not generally an early riser. While the rest of the family was up around 7:00, Joe snoozed a bit longer. After his completing his normal morning routines, he began to get ready to head to the office. In doing so, he realized he'd misplaced a paper he'd written in preparation for discipling one of his friends. So....he spent a while searching for the elusive paper and still came up empty handed. Thus it was back to his BibleWorks computer program to record the information he wanted to be able to share with his friend.

In the meantime, Armand called from the office (Armand has language lessons in Joe's office now) to say that the folks scheduled to arrive at 11:00 AM for their appointment were already there and waiting for him (at 9:45 AM). Joe scrambled to finish getting ready, took the bus to Kizilay, and then sped the rest of the way to his office on foot. (I can't say he walked there as anyone who has seen Joe in action will attest to the fact that he often tries to squeeze too many things into one day and is forced to almost run from point A to point B as he's already running late!)

The three fellows met with Joe concerning their cases with the UNHCR and also shared with him that due to their lack of jobs and money, they were just kicked out of the place they were staying and were now on the streets. This necessitated in some phone calls to verify their story (which was true), and then he explored some ways to try to help them.

He had several other meetings that day, such as a visit with Pooya, along his mother and father-in-law who had come for a visit from their own country. They spent several hours with Joe, and he was able to share the whole Message with them and answer many of their questions. He also met briefly with Arash, who came just to say goodbye. (Arash is bound for Los Angeles, and while we will miss him here, we're praying God will use him mightily there and perhaps some day bring him back short term to serve here as he says he'd like to do.)

Throughout this whole time, there were also lots of phone calls. One worth mentioning was from his friend Siavash, who leads a group in an outer city, to say that he had some great news for Joe and wanted to talk later that night. Another was from our friend Safi who called to inform Joe that our friend Mohammad was just robbed at knife-point by four people he knew. Safi was hoping to use the relationship we have with the UNHCR as leverage to get them to return the money. Basically, he asked Joe to tell the 4 men that he'd personally report them to the UNHCR if they didn't cooperate. (Mohammad couldn't go to the police for help as he's not supposed to be here.) However, Joe was wary of using this method to try to get the money back. Joe had already been in touch with these men at his office as they discussed their UNHCR cases with him. He was concerned that making such a "threat" to them might anger them in such a way that they'd try to come after his family. So while we began to discuss how we might proceed, Safi called back to say he learned there was "bad blood" between Mohammad and the 4 men, and perhaps the story of the robbery was not completely true.

By this time Joe was ready to head home for the evening, but upon looking at the condition of his office, he realized some tidying was in order. Once that was completed, he dashed out the door to catch a bus home.

Once at home, he went to work to help cook some yummy fish and potatoes for dinner. (I do most of the cooking, but there are a few meals that require a little extra assistance!) Throughout this time, his phone was not silent. Several calls involved our friend Mohammad. In the end, Joe became 99% convinced the accusation of theft was honest, and the 4 men also reported they'd return all the money except the 300 lira they'd already spent. Joe relayed this information to Safi, who was satisfied to wait and see how it would turn out.

Then Joe got to spend a little time with the family. Due to our recent adventures in potty training, the kids got to bed much later than normal, and so before they were in bed, Joe was back at the computer to talk to his friend Siavash via a yahoo instant messenger phone call. Siavash did share great news concerning restored relationships in the fellowship and of the decision of several to cross the line. Joe also had to arrange some of the logistics for his friend Dick's upcoming trip to that city. The call lasted until after 10:30 at night, at which point Joe switched to working on preparing his lesson for the prayer meeting the next day.

Some time later, Joe was ready to relax - eat a midnight snack, surf the TV for something to watch, and read his book. You'd have to ask him about the particulars, though, for at this point, I was already fast asleep!!

New Beginnings

Last week was a big week for our family. Our sweet Joshua turned 2...another year of his life has begun. We invited two couples to celebrate this special occasion with us, and Joshua loved his birthday dessert and gifts. This little guy truly is a gift from God who brightens our lives in so many ways. He also does great job of keeping us on our toes!

In fact, I'd have written about his special day sooner, only now that he's two, I've been pretty busy helping him adjust to the idea of using a potty. Fun times, I have to say!! For as brave as he is in many ways, he does remind us at times that he is a little boy. For example, he'll fearlessly attempt to climb the ladder of our bunk bed (and usually fall in the process), but for some reason, he's spooked at the idea of sleeping in a regular bed. Before Nathan's arrival we had to buy a second crib so that Joshua did not have to be kicked out of his crib. And now we discovered that the potty is a scary thing, too. We all need patience and wisdom as we navigate this journey toward greater independence of boyhood!

But I digress. On Friday we also celebrated the beginning of the new year with our friends. Their calendar begins with the first day of spring, so at 1:43 (or so!) we found ourselves saying "Happy New Year" to about 120 folks who had gathered that day. Six individuals were given the opportunity to demonstrate their new walk with the Lord as they were dunked during this New Year's service. Since four of these people were from the outer cities, Joe was given the privilege of dunking them. Two of these folks are on the far right in this photo. It was a great time and a great opportunity for several relatives of our friends to hear the Truth for the first time. We're praying that the new year will be full of many blessings and spiritual growth for these friends who have become dear to us!

Fun with our children

We love daily interaction with our children. There are times something happens that is worth remembering. I thought I'd share a few such instances as of late.

Jenna:
Because the guests who frequent our home don't always speak English, it is customary for our kids to ask what language an expected guest will speak. The other day we informed Jenna that we'd be having company that afternoon. This prompted the usual question, "Mommy, are they Farsi?" I responded that our guests were from Canada. Puzzled by this information, she then asked, "So do they speak Canadian?"

Andrew:
Various people have commented that it must be difficult to discipline Andrew because he is just so squeezable. For the most part, we find a way, but there are times that even in the midst of a confrontation with him, he cracks us up. Such was the case recently. Unfortunately, he presented us with the need to discuss the importance of telling the truth alone. At one point his daddy asked him, "What would help you understand the seriousness of lying?" Andrew pondered this thoughtfully for a moment and responded, "Cold milk." So there you have it. The next time you are tempted to say something untrue, just think about cold milk. We will!

Joshua:
Our nearly 2-year-old munchkin loves stashing treasures in creative spots. We always have to check the washing machine (which is front loading and right at his eye level) before loading it. He recently learned how to open the oven as well. We've been careful to keep a close eye on him when the oven is in use, but when it's off, that's another matter. The other day, however, Joe helped me by preheating the oven so I could bake some cookies. Minutes later, when I was ready to use the oven, I let out a squeal and exclaimed, "There's a BABY in the oven!!" Needless to say, Joe came running. He was relieved to learn the baby was a baby DOLL which had preheated nicely but was no worse for the wear. I now try to inspect the oven before using it!

Nathan:
Okay, so he's not talking or getting himself into all kinds of trouble, but his baby smiles and sweet spirit bring us joy on a daily basis. Even when he awakens us in the middle of the night to eat, we are reminded again as to what a snuggly little boy he is. There are even times that we have to keep his siblings from squishing him as they attempt to show him affection! His is loved by all and a great blessing from God, as they all are!