So we have been here now- 5 weeks. Amazing how time flies when you are trying to put a house together. And carpool, and clean a house, and make new friends, and help your kids make new friends, and do homework, and drive to wrestling, and laundry, and wash dishes, and orchestrate pesticide and house repair and window washing and pool cleaning, and buy rugs, and get passport pictures, and find a place that takes passport pictures....and the list goes on. I have discovered that the list goes on and on regardless of where you find yourself on this globe.
When I find myself giving into this heat and chaos of city life I hear my mother's voice reciting "Attitude is Altitude", and sigh, she is right.

So after 5 weeks I am able to count a few accomplishments:

#1- I can navigate in and out of the city without a map!
#2- Audrey had her first 10/10 day at school. And yes, that day happened to include her 1st day of sailing instruction! How fun!
#3- Hazel is completely potty trained!
#4- Sullivan has made a few friends that are boys! Finally.
#5-Grace is in an accelerated learning program for reading, spelling and math.
#6- Our resident visa's are being processed.
#7- I have finally perfected my Hungarian Goulash recipe.
#8- I don't flinch when I see a dead coach roach on my floor. Well only if I happen to step on it...
#9- I have finished one of four HALLOWEEN costumes.

I am amazed at how self absorbed I have become over the past few years. A trait of which I am not proud. I can blame it on circumstances, living off the fat of the land out in Utah, but really just because I lost touch with what really matters. I remember when Quin and i came home from Egypt and we said we would never ever take anything for granted ever again. But slowly we did. Slowly I did. Anyhow, maybe the reason we have been led to live out here is the fact that someone is trying to get us back on track. Life is learning to be grateful. Grateful you don't wake up each morning in a work camp miles away from your spouse and kids in a foreign country earning 2 bucks a day working in 115 degree weather, building a palace, a home with 5 bedrooms and 8 full bathrooms, knowing you will never live anywhere that has electricity in your walls. Grateful is having the option of driving your own kids to a good school and picking them up when they need you, or volunteering in their class because you are not working. Taking your own kids to the park and pushing them in the swing and having them tell you about their day- face to face. Grateful for someone seeing you wrestling two kids in the grocery store and quietly unloading your grocery cart for you. Thankful for water- regardless of temperature- just enjoying rain, a shower, a pool, clean linens, watered potted plants, a glass of water.

Someone posted a clip on FB about women in Sudan. If anyone is interested there is a great biography written about a young woman from Darfur- "Tears in the Desert". I read it a few years ago. She is being honored as Humanitarian of the Year. You can look her up on You Tube- I'll post the site. Pretty amazing person- and tragic story- but inspiring. Highland City library has a copy- so I am sure you can get it just about anywhere. A great read. Let me know if anyone reads this.