Christmas Cookies

 One of my favorite holiday traditions is making Christmas cookies. Last year, Belle and I did an abbreviated session because our kitchen was tiny (our refrigerator resided in our living room because there was no room for it), so this year it was nice to go all out. My friend, Kim, and I invited a bunch of little girls over and two nice big brothers and went to town. We made Christmas wreaths, gingerbread houses & cookies, sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies with Rolos, and Russian tea cookies. So yummy!

Here are some pictures from our afternoon:

The festive season begins...

The nice thing about the "winter" season is that it becomes comfortable to spend time outside.  We enjoy being outdoors and the winter makes it comfortable to sit outside, visit the sand dunes, take walks, and play.  Our neighborhood becomes more alive as children run about playing tag or riding bikes and scooters. This season has been extra special because we've experienced several rainstorms - one lasting most of the day (and causing flooding in Dubai because the roads are not designed to handle precipitation).

One of my favorite things about National Day is how the streets are all decorated with the  UAE national colors (green, red, and white), which helps to fill the missing holiday lights we'd be enjoying at home.  The cars get decorated as well, even though this year there were strict regulations not to do this activity.  Our neighbor has very colorful vehicles and decorated all four of them in similar style. We haven't seen them since the holiday, so they are likely off being repainted and de-crystalized (yes - he added crystals!).  We went with friends and celebrated the holiday in the desert. Most of them camped overnight, but with the new baby, there was no way we were sleeping in a tent for the night. 

All the hotels in town offer special holiday events and tree lightings.  Last year, we attended the Danat's and Santa arrived via camel. This year, we decided to bring the girls to the Rugby Club's Christmas Party for the Santa visit. This year, he arrived in a 4x4...
The nice thing about the Rugby Club event was that there were lots of Belle's friends there, and they were able to decorate cupcakes, make reindeer food, ride horses, have dinner, and eat cotton candy while waiting for Santa to arrive. Belle was awesome and brought Zofia up when she visited with the jolly elf and posed for pictures prior to his arrival:

Now we are planning a cookie baking day to have some of her friends over to help make it a bit more festive. It makes me miss Belle's godmother and uncle because there won't be any collegiate colored cookies without them and Audrey is an awesome baking partner. Next year.

Thanksgiving 2012

Our first blessing

I've been doing the "30 days of giving thanks" and some days I have to look a bit harder to figure out what I am thankful for, other days it is very easy. Every year, Belle makes a hand turkey and fills in the things she is thankful for: friends, family, shelter, food, the country we live in and the country we are from. She writes some big things on her small hand.

Our newest blessing with Mama C.

This year there are big things that I am very thankful for, but at the same time the holiday season is bittersweet. This is the second year in a row that we'll be celebrating the holidays far from our country, our family and friends, our church, and without snow.  We wanted to go home badly but by the time we could purchase tickets, the airfare had become so prohibitive that our choices were to extend our time here for another year (to pay off a small loan to go home) or forgo our visit so that we can move back at the end of the school year with enough money to allow us to resettle. When we looked at the options, it was a fairly simple family decision. So barring anyone visiting us, the first time anyone from home meets Zofia will be when she is nine months old...

Ashaunda, Zofia, & Rob

We have many blessings though, and we hold them close to our hearts. On Thursday night, we went to our dear friends', the Giles', to celebrate Thanksgiving. Ashaunda and her family have become our extended family here in the UAE and we are blessed to know that they will continue to be a part of our lives long after our adventure in the sand has ended.  Our friends, Michelle and Kelly, came with us to celebrate as well. One of the things we've learned in our expat life is that it is easy to celebrate events with people you've just met because we're all far from home and that connects you in a way that can't really be expressed.  This feeling carried into our Friday celebration at a neighbor's home. We were invited to two events on Friday, but because Zofia has been battling a cold, we elected to stay close to home.

I'm going to look back on this time and remember the blessings more than the trials, I think. We have met some incredible people, seen things we never imagined and have the best souvenir of our time abroad. So today, I'm giving thanks for my family's willingness to embark on this adventure and all the things we've learned.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

The homeschooling debate

Last year, we sent Belle to private school. It was an easy decision for us because she does well in social learning situations, has always loved school, and that was our only option for schooling if we were not going to homeschool (Western expat children are not able to attend public schools in the UAE).  We spent the whole year questioning the decision as we watched the work she brought home, saw what she was studying, and dealt with the outcome of the classroom behavior of her peers.

This year, we decided that her only option if we wanted her to return to her previous level of academics and progress (as well as avoiding the horrific behavior she was subjected to), was to homeschool. I spent most of the summer researching different programs, determining what we felt was important, examining the work she would be doing in our home district and what curriculum would address her needs. We finally found one that we felt was challenging, appropriate, and fully addressed social studies, science, and language arts. We decided to work with the same math program as her home district. Her school year began a couple weeks before her local friends because we knew we'd lose a bit of time adjusting to the new baby when she arrived.  Her curriculum is everything we hoped it would be and I gladly pay the tuition, shipping costs for books and manipulatives, and the supplies that accompany her learning experiences. To build in more opportunities for socialization and social learning, she is a member of the overseas Girl Scouts and takes piano lessons.

Lately there has been a lot of debate in our expat community due to recent government committee discussions about mandatory schooling for all expat children, and where homeschooling falls in this context.  Some of the conversation is quite upsetting and disturbing as some members accuse homeschooling parents of doing it out of "cheapness" or "laziness"... This makes me think more about my own understanding of homeschooling prior to our overseas experience. I always wondered how children would be socialized and whether it was possible to provide an adequate education for a child without the support of a school system. I now am much more informed and recognize that there are benefits to homeschooling that I was quite blind to before... That does not mean that we'll be homeschooling the girls when we return to the states where the school programs are much stronger, but we now have an understanding of why some parents select this option.

Is that a car seat?

Our nurse asked us this as we prepared to leave the hospital with our new daughter, yet another reminder that we just gave birth in the UAE, not the USA. Car seats and seat belt usage are not common over here and their use tends to announce your expat status. It is nothing to see small children sitting on the console, bouncing around in the car, or even hanging out the windows.

Medical care is different over here.  Even more than at home, you have to be a strong advocate for yourself and really truly know your medical history and medications. In the past month, we've had three friends either be given something they had identified as being an allergen or having pretty awful side effects that far exceeded the symptoms being addressed. When we went into my last prenatal appointment, the doctor told me that she was going to give me an exam, but did not mention that she would be doing an intervention to speed up when I would go into labor until the procedure had been completed.

As someone who developed pre-eclampsia with my first pregnancy and pregnancy induced hypertension with this pregnancy, I was considered "high risk." When my water broke at school, I was directed to immediately proceed to the Urgent Care department for admission, even though I had not developed any regular contractions. After being admitted, my husband ran home to get a few things that we had forgotten, and while he was gone, I went into labor. The nurses did not respond to the call button, so I called Rob to have him hurry back. An hour or so later, the nurses finally came to check on us, to find me in active labor. There was some confusion with the midwives and nurses because they thought this was our first child, after realizing that it was not, and that I truly was progressing faster than they thought they brought me upstairs to labor and delivery.

The doctor who administered the epidural did not shake my hand at the consultation appointment and was quite unhappy with me for not being still while he stuck a needle into my back and while I was having strong and regular contractions.  Then Rob had to immediately go downstairs to pay for the epidural....The relief from this pain medication though was quite welcome and the remainder of the delivery went much smoother.  We ended up staying for four days due to the timing of her delivery (just after midnight) and her development of jaundice.

Since we have been out of the hospital, we've been running about trying to get her paperwork in order. She has two birth certificates: Arabic and English, has had her passport photos done, and we've applied for her health insurance card. Tomorrow, we are off to the Embassy to register her birth, apply for her passport, and apply for her social security card. After that, we get a break until her passport is finished, and then will have to apply for her Emirates ID card, and residency visa. It is a lot of items to make her official. And Belle is loving being a big sister.

The tooth fairy travels...

The tooth fairy has been kept on her toes by Belle. Every tooth she has lost has been in a different place: New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, DC, Vermont, Virginia, Prince Edward Island (Canada), and Pennsylvania. Today, she broke the trend and lost two teeth in Al Ain (UAE). It is bittersweet, because now she is losing the last vestiges of her babyhood as her primaries make room for the secondaries she will have for the rest of her life. She was so excited to call me an announce that now the tooth fairy needed to come to Asia. I also think about how this is probably the last time the tooth fairy will visit for many years because she's growing out of the age of "magic."

Blessings from near and far... (aka getting ready for baby)

It is hard going back to work when you are approaching your final month of pregnancy and even harder being across the world from the people you want to share the experience with.  My new school has been wonderful in trying to make sure I'll have a smooth transition from working for the first 6 or so weeks of the school year, and returning mid-year, and I'm sharing office space and planning with a lovely team.

My dear friend, Ashaunda, who I worked with all last year and kept me sane, threw me a lovely baby shower a couple weeks ago. It was an amazing testament to the power of social networking, as most of the people there were friends I first encountered on Facebook. They have all become a huge part of my life in the UAE, and it was so nice to be surrounded by their love and excitement for our soon to arrive little girl.  Many of these ladies also recognized the other guest of honor, who after 9 years of being an only child, is about to assume the new role of big sister and role model.

Then this week, we received a couple large boxes from our church at home. Rob and I joined our church before we were married, and our church family has helped us raise and celebrate in each of Belle's developments from her very beginning. Even from across the world, they managed to share the love and goodness that is so much a part of that community with the little being still inhabiting my belly. We are all looking forward to seeing everyone in December. It will have been a long year and a half being out of our country and away from our family & loved ones.

Homeschooling continues to progress. I've still got a few more weeks of work before the big day, and then we'll be running around completing all the official paperwork that comes from giving birth abroad, so we can fly home to visit. 

Stay tuned!