Holding Up My End of the Bargain

It's been a long summer, and until today, this blog had nothing to show for it. So for the sake of the grandparents, I'm going to remedy that. Here are the obligatory "what we did this summer" photos!

We celebrated a certain someone's 4th birthday about 12 hours after we arrived to post. Our amazing sponsors had a cake and presents waiting at the house the evening we arrived (not to mention all kinds of other goodies and amazing meals stocked in the fridge). Thanks again Cassie and Sandy... you guys literally saved the day!

When we first arrived, all we had was what we packed in our 8 suitcases, which sounds like a lot, but you try moving across the world with a dog and 2 kids, one still in diapers I might add, and see how many non-essential toys for the kids get left for another shipment. We were very lucky that our UAB (unaccompanied air baggage - roughly a 700 lb. shipment) was delivered within a week of arriving to post. And what better use of the UAB boxes are there than making forts for the girls. Many hours of fun were spent improvising with these boxes.

About 10 days after we arrived to post, we celebrated another certain someone's 1st birthday. It was a different sort of first birthday party, as we had just arrived to post and didn't really know a lot of people yet, so we just spent the day together as a family. We don't give our kids refined sugar until they are at least two, so there are no cutesie cake-face-smash photos, but Madison didn't mind. Her highlight of the day was that she got to have strawberries for the first time that day!
























Through out the summer we've gotten out and about to explore the city and of course find out what would become our favorite spots. One of our favorite restaurants is an Italian place (if you know me, than this should come as no surprise) called Cucina. Great food with lots of vegetarian options for us, not many vegan, but hey we'll take what we can get over here in the Caucuses.



We spent a lot of time outside playing with water and teaching Madi to walk. She took off the week of her birthday and she never looked back. Soon she was trying to run everywhere she could. I was worried about bumps and bruises because our house has so much tile, but she is surprisingly agile and as of yet, she hasn't had any major spills!























The Embassy put on a great 4th of July community celebration, complete with fireworks and patriotic tunes. I must admit, as the fireworks were going off over the city of Yerevan, and God Bless America was playing in the background, I got a little teary eyed! This being our first 4th of July abroad, it was definitely a day to remember!

One of the best days of the summer was the day our HHE (house hold effects) was delivered. All 7000 lbs. of it. We started to really feel settled once that arrived! And Jason was thrilled that his "newly purchased before we left Virginia", flat screen, made it safe and sound! Actually we had very little hassle with the whole move. We only lost a few things and found a few scratches here and there on random things, but all in all, I'd say that it was a very successful global move!

Where to Start

Some of you may have noticed that I've been absent for awhile. I've pondered over this post for quite some time. To be quite honest, I wasn't quite sure where to start, but during my silence over these past few months, I've realized something. I use this blog to process, as a journal of a sorts if you will. So without it, I've felt pent up and that's not such a good feeling. So lets just start off again, and this time I'll try to hold up my end of the bargain, which would be to create a post more than once every few months. And you, well, I guess your end of the bargain would be to just let me vent, ponder and process the going-ons of this crazy life.

Here's to new beginnings.

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

If our walls could talk, that’s what they would be saying.

To sum up our housing assignment here in Armenia, a few words come to mind: Beautiful, New, Amazing, Dream Kitchen, and last but not least, Lucky!!

When you’re assigned housing in the Foreign Service, you basically have no say in the matter. You can give your preferences, as we did: family friendly and a fenced yard for the dog, but other than that, it’s based on the size of your family and your rank or time in the service and a little bit of luck. And since Jason is a Junior Officer, we’re not too high on the proverbial totem pole, so we didn’t expect that we’d be blessed with such an amazing house! Our house was built just this year and is brand new to the Foreign Service housing pool and because of the time of our arrival, this house was available for us. A lot of the houses here in Armenia have closed off floor plans and small kitchens, so when we walked into our house, we were VERY pleasantly surprised. Huge open spaces, 4 bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, my dream kitchen, a finished basement, and a non-useable pool and sauna (bummer that we can’t use it, but it was the talk of the embassy community for a few weeks – we were the “family with the pool in the basement”). Not a bad start to this Foreign Service Life. The only down fall to our house is that because it’s brand new, there’s not a mature garden or any fruit trees, which most of the housing in our neighborhood has. But that’s a trade off I’d take because we are VERY happy with our house. We don’t have our HHE (Household Effects) yet, so it doesn’t quite feel like home yet, but for the time being we are loving our house. I know a lot of you have been waiting for some pics, so I’ll post a few for you to see, but after all of our stuff arrives sometime in July, I’ll be sure to give you a proper tour!

Our front entrance and foyer.

The view from our living room into the dining room. The foyer is on the left and the back door is on the right.

The view from the dining room into the living room.

Our amazing kitchen. Just look at all the cabinet and counter space. I'm absolutely LOVING it!

The sitting area in the basement.

We may not have a "secret room" like Donna had when they were posted to Armenia, but we do have a pool... that we can't use. This is the wall they had to build to close off the pool area in the basement.

The sign warning us of what's beyond the wall.

The DEEP "pool" aka the liability hole that they had to block off. Off to the right is the unfinished sauna.

The view from the upstairs balcony. On a clear day, you can see Mt. Ararat.

Another view from upstairs.

One more view.

Our side yard and the gazebo patio at the end of the yard.

Our front steps.

Dealing With the Emotions

When I first heard this song a few years ago, I thought, "Oh my goodness that's how this whole Foreign Service Life feels to me". Because we'll be moving every 2-4 years for the next 20+ years, we won't really be putting down roots anywhere. And now looking back over the past few years of preparing for this life (selling our home, selling and closing our businesses, saying goodbye to friends and family) and having actually made the move overseas to our first posting, the reality finally hit me. We. Are. Officially. Nomads. The first few nights here in Yerevan were very hard for me. I didn't struggle during the day because I was with people all of the time, meeting new friends, going to the market and basically, just learning how to do life over here in Armenia. But in the quiet of the night, once the kids were asleep, and Jason had dozed off next to me in bed, the emotions would come. I felt so far away from all of my loved ones and sometimes the sadness just felt overwhelming. I would lay in bed and pray and talk it over with the Lord, trying to figure out if we had made a gigantic mistake. I would pray that He would take away the sadness and the guilt I felt about moving my kids half way across the world away from their friends, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and beloved cousins (although to be fair, we've actually moved a whole lot closer to one set of beloved cousins, so that's a nice feeling) And in those quiet moments, I remembered this song. So I thought it would be appropriate to post it here since it was a pretty accurate reflection of how I was feeling those first few days. This is "No Sound but the Wind" by the Editors.

The Trip Across the Pond

After the craziness of trying to prepare for our move across the pond to Armenia, the big day finally arrived. For the sake of all of our emotional well beings, and so our kids don't learn to abhor airports, we didn't want any big farewells at the airport (thanks for the tip Justin and Ali). Both of our parents initially expressed a desire to be at the airport to say goodbye, but we all decided against it in the end. And I must say, the entire trip went pretty smoothly. I was extremely nervous about flying with Cash underneath the plane, but again, he did great!

We left DC on Friday afternoon sometime around 3 pm and arrived in Paris at 6 am (about midnight our time). Jordana did great on that leg of the trip. I'm thinking that the TV screen directly in front of her seat had a little something to do with that. Madison was another story. Our newly mobile, almost one year old was not to happy to be restricted to a four seat area and lets just say that she didn't make many friends on that trip, especially not the Parisian fellows in the seats directly in front of us. If you were under the impression that the Parisians didn't like kids before our trip, I can guarantee there are a few more that aren't to keen on them since. I don't know if I've mentioned it before on the blog, but our little Madison is a "screamer". She can't talk yet and so her main mode of communication is to scream. This phase is new to us and not that fun to us auditorily sensitive folk and we're hoping she grows out of it very soon!

But I digress.

We arrived to Paris and quickly collected Cash so that we could hang out with him before we had to recheck him at the gate. We had a six hour layover, so we had plenty of time to leave him out of the crate and let him go potty. The girls slept during this time since they hadn't slept AT ALL on the way over so we were happy for the break.

Although Jordana was not to happy to have to get back on the airplane, basically from that point on, it was pretty smooth sailing. We had about a 4 hour flight to Yerevan and luckily Madi and Jordana slept most of the way. We arrived around 9 pm and our sponsor (who happens to be the head Marine here at post, which made us feel very safe) was there to greet us and help us with our 16 bags, 8 carry ons, 1 stroller, 2 car seats, 2 kids and a dog. Thank you again Walter!! You and Sandy have been a God-send to us!! We arrived at our house around 11 pm on Saturday night and after touring our house and looking around, we tried to find what we needed to get the kids in bed pronto so that we were able to follow suit as soon as possible. When it was all said and done though, we didn't fall into bed until around 2 am. But not to worry, we didn't wake up until noon.

As I was getting Jordana ready for bed, Jason was supposed to be getting Madi changed and ready to nurse... but instead, this is what I found :)

Whirlwind

Actually a more appropriate word to sum up our last few weeks in Virginia would be… Cyclone. Now that we’re actually here in Armenia and we’ve had some time to reflect on our last few weeks, we’re somewhat disappointed in how it all wrapped up. It was a flurry of activity and we feel like we didn’t even get a chance to relax and enjoy our visits with our families who all came out to be with us. From the time Jason finished language training at the end of March (hooray) until May 6^th, it was literally nonstop preparations. Even though we knew going in, that this was the nature of the beast, it still took us a bit by surprise. I’m not quite sure how it all got done, but in the end, it was mostly all accomplished and we started the pack out process on April 29^th. But our feelings of disappointment mainly stem from the fact that our families came for visits and we were just so busy (and a wee bit stressed) with the packing up and out process, that the time we could have spent hanging out and gaining some closure to this time got sucked up into the cyclone of activity that surrounded our last few moments of togetherness. But we were so blessed to have everyone come to be with us and now that we’re half way across the world, we definitely cherish those memories.

My Mom and Dad and Mike and Deb, Helaina and Sam all came to visit over Easter weekend. Aside from our craziness, it was soooo wonderful to all be together. The kids had a great time playing and we adults tried not to think of the impending goodbye that was looming. Everyone got in on Good Friday and on Saturday we hung out at the house and then went out to dinner for Jordana and Madison’s birthdays since we wouldn’t all be together for their actual birthdays. Jordana’s favorite “date” these days is to “Jason’s Deli” for dinner, then to the fountains at Fair Lakes and finishing it off with a trip to REI. So that’s exactly what we did as she wanted to share this with her cousins (she had been talking about doing a “cousin’s date” for weeks). On Sunday we woke up, colored Easter Eggs, hunted them, and then headed out to Arlington National Cemetery to walk around and then back to the house for dinner. On Monday Mike and Deb and the kids took off, and my parents stayed an extra day to help me around the house and just to have one more day together. Saying goodbye to everyone was pretty brutal and I do hope that in the future, with all of the goodbyes ahead of us, that these feelings of sadness and hopelessness subside. But as I said it was a wonderful time together, we only wish it could have been longer!

My Mom and Dad left Tuesday afternoon and then that evening Mom and Joe flew in to be with us. Again it was amazing to all be together, but oh my goodness, Mom and Joe probably didn’t realize what they had signed up for. They were such a blessing and basically watched the girls for us for the entire next week as we ran around like the crazy people as we were trying to get ready. We all moved into the hotel on Thursday and the packout was on Friday. I don’t really know how to sum up packout but it was 3 days of absolute insanity and I can only hope that we are more prepared and organized next time. We had a few moments of downtime over the weekend but we were also at the house packing, selling furniture on Craigslist and getting as organized as possible, while Mom and Joe ran errands for us and made sure kids were fed and bathed and pottied! We were able to squeeze in another birthday party with Nana and Papa (Mom and Joe) for Jordana and then, waaayyy to soon it was time for another excruciating goodbye. I’m so not good at the goodbye thing, and this was no different. What makes it even harder is that Jordana was having a hard time with the goodbyes and by the time Mom and Joe left, she was definitely not excited to move to Armenia.

The next few days were spent cleaning up our town home (Jason steam cleaned all the carpets until midnight on Tuesday) and packing and repacking everything that somehow made it into our 2 bedroom hotel room (which was amazing by the way). A full kitchen, dining and living area, 2 roomy bedrooms, a full breakfast each morning and dinner Monday thru Thursday, and right across the way from a Chipotle, Costco and Target. What more can you really ask from a hotel. Residence Inn Marriott in Chantilly, you rock! We did our walk through with the Land Lord and turned our keys in on Wednesday. Our KIA Sorrento was picked up on Thursday to be shipped over to Armenia, and on Friday we donated my 98 Chevy Cavalier to the Vietnam Vets. I was a bit sad to see that little piece of my history head down the road, as it was my very first car that I bought, and actually drove off the showroom floor at Gregg Sweet Chevrolet! It served us well, but there’s no way it would have survived in Armenia. In fact we’re hoping that the KIA doesn’t fall apart as well. Only time will be the tell.

I think that’s enough of a recap for now. Next up… the trip across the pond!

One last thing... a cute video that I had to include of Papa Morning tickling Madi while we were at Jason's Deli for the "cousins date"

Our first "post language" weekend

He looks bilingual doesn't he!

And it was a glorious one!

Not that we did a whole lot. But that was exactly the point!

We all heard the Hallelujah Chorus on Friday afternoon around 2:00 when Jason called to inform me that he had, in fact, passed his language exam and fulfilled his language requirement for the Foreign Service. I guess the third time really was the charm :) To say that the past 9 months (and especially the past 3) have been stressful for all of us, but especially for Jason, would be an understatement. We didn't really know what to expect when Jason started language training back in July, but the emotional roller-coaster that we found ourselves on, just may have taken us a wee bit by surprise. The fact that Jason's tenure capability is attached to him being able to check off an itty bitty box on a US Gov form that reads "bilingual" or "language requirement fulfilled" or something of that nature, made it all the more stress inducing. Who doesn't like a little job security in this day and age, huh?

But I digress... back to the Hallelujah Chorus.

We had originally planned on heading down to DC this weekend to celebrate and do some touristy type things, but when the temps took a dip (yes we woke up to snow on March 27th), we decided that schlepping the girls around town in the not so warm temps didn't sound all that appealing. And besides, Jason just wanted to hang out at home and relax and play with the girls. So between fort building, making a mini tabletop snowman, finally going through some mammoth piles that have been brewing on multiple surfaces (Jason is quite famous for his "piles"), building fires fueled by some, now obsolete, Spanish notebooks, snacks and movies with Jordana, getting to go shopping and to a movie all by myself, and fun family time together, it really was a glorious weekend all around! Jason even got to lounge on the couch and read a magazine or two. For fun! In English!

Now if he could only learn Armenian... we'd be set!

Madi was happy to have Daddy at home too!

Jordana declaring herself "princess of the castle fort"

This kid loves snow and was so excited to wake up to snow on Sunday, even if it was only a dusting. The snowman lasted for about 3 hours!