Winter get-away

Rees and I got to spend 3 days in the Cascades, just fifteen miles outside of Leavenworth - just the two of us - recently. It was so much fun! It was the first time we've spent that much time away from the kids (with the exception of Rees' hospitalization in Dushanbe - but I wouldn't call that a get-away or enjoyable). We got to the B&B just in time for a major storm to hit. We ended up getting 2 1/2 - 3 ft (close to a meter) of snow within the first 36 hours we were there. The B&B, Pine River Ranch, provided us with snow shoes and we shuffled through the property while it snowed. I had three inches of snow on my hat by the time we returned. Ironically, the power went out the second day we were there and remained out til we left. Much like our "normal" life in Tajikistan. We instinctively located the candles, lantern and filled the bath tub with water (thinking that in such a remote place, the water may come up via a pump that wouldn't work without power). Thankfully, the gas fireplace still worked. The owner was wondering to himself how they were going to flush all the toilets (because, indeed the water wasn't working). Rees told him that we were leaving a bathtub full of water and he said, "how did you know to do that?" Oh how to explain?
 We are accustomed to shamelessly looking for places to charge our phone and computer so we brought our electronics with us wherever we went and managed to almost watch a whole movie before our computer died. We charged it more in the morning when we went to breakfast and finished the movie in the truck in the Safeway parking lot :)
Suffice it to say, Rees and I still really like each other. Getting away is such a good reminder of that.
Thanks to Nan for watching the kids while we were away. No easy task but she was still on two feet with a smile on her face when we got home.

Leavenworth. I've loved seeing this little Bavarian town dressed up for Christmas since I was a kid.

We saw how hard it was snowing but we were a little surprised at how quickly our truck ended up like this.

After no more than an hour of snow-shoeing.

I've always loved driving on highway 2 in the winter. So beautiful.

We managed to return home with a truck-bed still full of snow. The kids built snowmen in it.

Pics of what we've been up to

We loved spending some time at Lake Chelan in August.

In typical Hannah fashion, she decided one day (when we'd all gotten out of the water and were heading home for dinner) that she was ready to swim without water wings. She was determined and I wasn't going to fight it. So she jumped off the side of the pool and just started swimming. Here she is swimming in the lake.

Rees couldn't wait to get up in the hills and start looking for deer.

The kids were excited to get up in the hills and look for deer with daddy.

Plenty of baths for the cousins. Evan is on the left.

First harvest: a bear. He had jalapeno pepperoni made out of this one and Nan had the hide made into a rug.

We got to visit with some dear friends in Portland just before they moved to Minneapolis. We are so proud of how well they are all doing.

Rees' first deer of the season. From NE Oregon.

He wasn't alone for this one. His devoted wife helped him pack this guy out until 1am.

Rees was excited to give the kids hooves to play with just like his dad had done for him when he was a kid. These Bettinger men are a little odd, but they are on to something. The kids loved them.

Hannah and Brooklyn (daughter of good friends of ours from the Portland days) dressed up like princesses.

Me with some of my childhood friends: Meela, Malaika and Rhea. We actually got away together for a whole weekend! AMAZING!

Hannah and Emmett love preschool. They really enjoyed the field trip to the Salmon Hatchery.

With sun and warm temperatures lasting into October, we got to spend lots of time at parks. This is Lake Washington.

They always have a wonderful time at Laurel, aka: Grandma Peace's, house in Portland.

Strong effort hunting in Chelan but the deer remained safe from these guys this year.

Nanu threw a harvest party for the grandkids.

They bobbed for apples whole-heartedly.

They took daddy's lead and just plunged their whole head into the bucket to get an apple.

Preschool has been a huge blessing. The kids LOVE it. Of course, Emmett's favorite thing to do at preschool is play with cars and trains. He just has more friends to do it with at preschool.

Well, I'll have to post more pics later. Rees was also successful in his Oregon elk hunt (actually, every member of his hunting party was - five guys got five elk and they worked hard for them). Rees had been saying that he just wanted to fill his mom's freezer with meat before we left and I'd say he was pretty successful at that.

Advent in the U.S.

I wasn't sure what I'd think about all the glitz, kitsch, lights, consumerism and hustle-bustle of Christmas time in the states after spending three Christmases in a poor country that doesn't even celebrate Christmas. Turns out, I'm loving all the lights, the Christmas music everywhere, the red and green advertisements in store windows, the decorations everywhere, how easy it is to buy Christmas presents and find baking ingredients and all that stuff. There are some things that I knew I would enjoy - being with family and friends (duh), having ridiculously predictable electricity and water and how easy that makes baking holiday treats (not to mention cooking dinner, heating a house and bathing children), store-bought eggnog, access to any ingredient I so desire, ease of finding gifts for loved-ones (give my creativity a break!) and the feeling that the culture around me is anticipating the same thing. In the Pacific NW in particular, we may each celebrate Christmas differently and for different reasons, but there's still the feeling that most of the people around you are getting ready for Dec. 25th for some reason or another. I'm LOVING being able to go to church during advent. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally a believer in the church is people not a building, but there are people gathered at so many buildings called churches here and it's so wonderful to be able to worship together and be in an environment where there are a lot of people meditating on the coming of Jesus. I just have to put a plug in here for John Piper's poems on the Desiring God website. Really moving. Here's a link to one about the innkeeper of the "no room in the inn" inn in case you've never heard it.
 http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/poems/the-innkeeper-original-1986
The kids are loving Christmas-time here too. Everywhere we go Emmett says, "look mommy! Christmas things!" Costco is one of his favorite places right now because of all the decorations that are out. He doesn't realize that they're all for sale. He's just enjoying what he's seeing. I guess that's what I'm doing too. Sure, there's plenty of criticism for the "over-done-ness" of the holidays in the U.S. but why focus on that? We're just going to keep enjoying what we see and hear and make the most of our holiday season here. 

Some of the things I'm looking forward to...

Now it's time for a list (though not exhaustive) of the things I'm looking forward to while we are in the states (and already experiencing some of while here in Germany). First, I forgot to mention a something that I'll miss while we are away from our home in Tajikistan - being able to walk a block or two to the store. I definitely do NOT miss having to pack the kids into and out of a car just to go buy yogurt, bread and noodles. We can walk a block in any direction from our front door, without even crossing a busy street, and reach a store that has most anything we need. I have really appreciated this. Now on to what I'm looking forward to:
- Seeing family and friends - it's been almost 3 years (2 years and 10 months but who's counting?) since I've seen any of my siblings and my dad, not to mention my dear friends and relatives. This is what I'm most excited about but I suppose that goes without saying.
- Hot showers whenever I want and being able to fill a bathtub to bathe the kids - they'll love that.
- Predictably running water and electricity and the ease of life that these things provide. Just try going a day without running water - you can't even flush your toilet without it. It's probably one of the most essential but easy to take for granted things in the western world (this is just my opinion - no research to back that statement up).
- Anonymity. It can really wear me out having so many eyes watching my every move, asking where I'm going, what did I get, how much did that cost and being such an anomaly. I love to walk down the street and blend in, not have a single person look twice at me.
- Food. Snacks (hello granola bars that I didn't have to make!). Broccoli, greens, blueberries, grapefruit, multi-grain everything, pasteurized homogenized milk, soy milk, fish, boneless skinless chicken breasts, guacamole, nut butters that I didn't have to make, hummus that I didn't have to make from scratch, all kinds of ready-made stuff, Butter Finger, etc, etc, etc. That said, when we do live in the states again I'll be way more likely to use dried beans and occasionally make my own tortillas - just while we're visiting I'm totally going for the canned beans and store-bought tortillas.
- Being able to run and do whatever exercising I want to. I can't wait to get up into the mountains!
- Clean air.
- Not having to wash off our shoes multiple times a day d/t dust or mud.
- Parks and associated play areas.
- Wearing a swimsuit when I swim as opposed to Rees' clothes or a long dress with pants. I never thought I'd so eagerly look forward to wearing a swimsuit but I love to swim and to not have so much heavy fabric wrapping around me when I'm in the water will be wonderful.
- More direct communication - yes means yes and no means no. I feel pretty comfortable with social cues and communication in the U.S. and I really appreciate it.
- Laws that the general public follows and policemen that don't try to extort us but honestly try to just enforce the law. I know there are exceptions to this everywhere but in Tajikistan people drive however they want all the time and police don't stop them unless they feel like it and think they can get money out of you - even when you haven't broken the law.
- Nice dogs.
- Good roads.
- Speaking English and hearing a lot of English.
- Being in our home church communities - although I do think it's kind of cool that our kids think that church is a gathering of people in someone's home who are sharing life together.
- Going to a movie.
- Going to a restaurant.
- Dish washer.
- Dryer.
- Not having to vacuum once or twice a day. Just once a week or spot cleaning.
- Rain that doesn't turn everything outside into a mud pit.
- The library.
- Dates with my husband - with so much family and trusted caregivers around we can leave our kids w/ someone without much mental angst.
- The security of 911 and quality healthcare. Now again, I know there are exceptions to everything but believe me - even with its flaws, healthcare in the states is SO much better than in Tajikistan.
- Having partnership in marriage and child-rearing be the norm, not an anomaly.
- Free press.
- Even with the extremes that politics have taken, just the fact that there will be an election where the votes are all counted is amazing.

There are so many other things that I am looking forward to while being home in the PacNW and there are other things that I think may be a challenge because there's a part of us now that is Central Asian, but I think this list is a good compilation for now.

We arrived in Germany yesterday morning and are staying here with Rees' cousin, Luci and her family til Thursday when we'll fly from Frankfurt to Seattle. That brings up another thing I'm looking forward to - airports that have signs for things (ie: "entrance" "baggage claim" etc) and where there are rules and systems. We are really enjoying our time in Germany and are so thankful to have a little break in our travel in such a loving and peaceful home and are looking forward to seeing everyone very soon!

What I'll Miss...

We will be in the U.S. in less than two weeks but we'll be leaving here in 7 days. I remember the days when I worried about a 5+ hour plane ride with small children and though I'm not really excited for the traveling process - I'm feeling really fortunate for how we get to go. We take a direct flight from Dushanbe (Tajikistan's capital) at 3:40am next Saturday (we'll leave our apartment in our city at 11:45pm Friday night to get to the airport a couple hours early) and we fly for 5-ish hours to Frankfurt where we will actually just get off the plane and stay with Rees' cousin and her husband in Kahrlsruhe for almost 6 days before getting on another direct flight on the 16th from Frankfurt to Seattle (supposedly lasted 10-ish hours). I can't imagine just taking one flight at a time. It's been so long since we've boarded a plane, flew somewhere and simply got off and didn't have to make a connection or entertain the kids during a layover or whatnot. I have to say - they are excellent travelers. We have certainly had our miserable moments but for how young they were when we started all this traveling stuff - we can really only be thankful for how well they do. Thank the Lord.
But that's all beside the point :). I wanted to just make a list of the things I'll miss while we're away from Tajikistan (although, I think we'll just be so happy to be in the states with many of our loved ones that we won't REALLY miss all these things too acutely):
- inexpensive and yummy fruits and veggies in season (I've been buying summer apples for about 80 cents for a kg - 2.2lbs, cucumbers for about 40 cents a kg)
- not having to heavily schedule everything because the culture is really present-minded
- fresh bread out of the tandoor or oven
- neighbors
- our Tajik family and village - the kids LOVE helping their bobo (grandpa), moma (grandma) and aunties with the chores: milking the cow, digging up potatoes, planting seeds, sweeping the yard, washing dishes and anything else they can find in the outdoor spicket. We usually sit around on their outdoor cot (platform) under the grape vines and talk and laugh at the kids.
- Our dear friend and language helper, Gulzira and her family
- lots of neighborhood kids for the kids to play with and lots of dirt for them to "cook" stuff out of
- our AMAZING team here who have become a second family to us
- the temperate fall evenings when the kids can play outside and the women side outside and chat
- the simplicity of our lives
- the culture of hospitality
- using certain Tajik words and phrases that just seem to fit what I'm trying to say better than English does
- the clear purpose we live with here (not that we can't live with purpose while we're in the U.S. but there's just more things that can crowd it out or make it cloudy)

I'm sure that there are more but those are the ones that come to mind and frankly, I wanted to get them listed before I made a list of what I won't miss :). Or maybe a better way to put it is the things that I'm looking forward to in the states.

The Bem Boy

Since I wrote an entry about Hannah it’s only right that I write one about Emmett too – there’s so much to write about this little fellow! Hannah has come up with a number of names for him over the last 3 years. It started off with “Little Em” then went to “Moyer the Destroyer” and “Baylaylooz is a baylaylooz” (his Tajik name is Behruz) and more recently she’s been calling him “The Bem Boy.” He’s such a cute little guy. One of my favorite things that he does these days is start cracking up for apparently no reason and then he says, “mommy you so funny!” I’m glad I’m making him laugh, I just wish I knew how I was doing that. After a year of on-again-off-again-potty-trainedness he’s finally consistently using the potty for pee pee AND poo poo (which was the difficult one for the last year). I think he must have had a painful experience on the potty at some point because now he sits there and says, “It no hurt to go poo poo in the potty! It feels juuuuuuust right!” His voice is so adorable and the seriousness with which he talks with us is something I wish I could adequately record because we don’t want to forget it. Those big blue eyes earnestly looking at us. He’s been such a snuggler from birth – something that we love. He was such a great sleeper from birth that his first year and a half I rarely held him or rocked him to sleep – just nursed him, burped him, swaddled him and put him down. He’d just look around for a while until he fell asleep – 90% of the time w/o a peep. I know – pretty unbelievable, huh?  Since he is our second child, we knew it had far more to do with his temperament than anything we were doing. I think if he had been our first we would have thought that we had this whole baby thing pretty well figured out J Sometime before he turned two I began to feel like I was missing out on the going-to-sleep snuggle so for the last year and a half I’ve been laying down with him at naptime for a cuddle and it’s one of my favorite parts of the day. Emmett is really sweet but he’s also got a temper. He’s more compliant by nature than Hannah but he can be really naughty too. He can play cars or trains by himself for quite a while – seeming like the most easy-going guy around but he’s also pretty particular in some quirky ways. He loves to build and try to figure out how things work and he may love books just as much as his big sister. He’s always running from one activity or place to another and he kind of reminds us of the little penguin in the movie Happy Feet – he does these little stutter steps as he goes along. One day he walks outside and walks up to a complete stranger and greets them, shaking their hand (which is customary here). Another day he walks outside and slugs the first 4 or 5 boys he finds. The neighbors love it. They say, “Tajik shud!” (“He’s become Tajik!”). He adores his sister and every night when he goes to sleep he eventually kicks Rees and me out and says, “I want to snuggle wit sister.” (They sleep right next to each other on mats on the floor – we all do, actually).  This guy has brought so much joy into our family. I remember when he was a little baby and we were getting ready to move here. I loved to rub my cheek against his fuzzy head and know that I could do that anywhere – in the U.S. and in Central Asia. It was something that was going to remain constant for a while. I still love to rub my cheek on his fuzzy head (particularly fuzzy now since we recently shaved his head) and think about how far we’ve come. I can’t wait for everyone to see our Bem Boy’s smile and get to know him better. I think you’ll really like him – he’s just such an enjoyable little guy to be around.

Dad’s turn to write an entry: Emmett is so fun and loving.  Of course one of his favorite things to do with me is rough house but he also is the sweetest little snuggler. The latest thing he is doing that melts my heart is if I am laying down on the couch, he sneeks up on me, or at least thinks he is and whispers in my ear, “Daddy do you love me?” of course I grab him and look him in the eye and say “I sure do! With all my heart” he smiles and giggles and says he loves me too and then he is off to something more interesting.  Often tears of Joy follow as I reflect on the blessing that my children are.  When we say our goodnight prayers. His go-to prayer right now is, “Lord, touch Troy’s knee cuz you are so mighteeeeeeeeee!!!” sometimes if he is not done praying he will just repeat that prayer 2 or 3 times. For those of you who do not know Troy he is my best friend who has significant and chronic knee pain right now and when my faith is weak to continue to pray, when hundreds of my prayers have gone unanswered, it is my 3 year old son whose persistence inspires me. Thank you Emmett. If you read this some day, I love you so so much. Keep showing your daddy how to pray and believe.

Rees

Opening a present from Nanu on his 3rd birthday. 

Helping daddy wash a friend's car. This is the Tajikistan version of the drivethrough carwash.

No visit to the indoor play place is complete without some lego building.

Super excited about the first grapes of the season.

Going to our Tajik family's house in the village is always a good time.  Alternating playing with water and dirt and drinking a bit of tea in between is a favorite past-time of our kids. 

Hannah Fun Bettinger

Within weeks of Hannah's birth we realized that we struck gold in giving her the middle name Joy. We also quickly realized that we could have appropriately given her "Fun" as a middle name because she's been so fun right from the beginning. I remember when she was just a couple weeks old asking my mom, "is it too early to say that she's an extrovert?" She was flashing huge, drooly grins to anyone who remotely looked at her by 4 weeks old.
I'm full of thankfulness for my little family. They are my favorite people to be around. I was going to an exercise class last night (which deserves a blog all of its own - it's awesome to have a place for women to exercise!) and I realized just before I walked out the door that I already couldn't wait to get home to hang out with them again.
I was sitting with Hannah this afternoon, sipping cold R.C. cola (a special treat for both of us) and playing Princess Go Fish and just feeling nostalgic or something. I tend to think ahead but God just blessed me with a moment of present-mindedness and I looked at that darling pale-skinned, big-blue-eyed, contagious smiling face and felt soooo blessed that I get to have Hannah as a daughter. She's just so fun. We had been swimming this morning at the pool and I was just marveling at her lack of fear and busy-ness. She was constantly alternating between swimming all over the place, jumping in, figuring out new things to do with her floaty toy and searching for treasures (which in this case was composed of various leaves and a dead cockroach she found floating in the pool - yeah, she even wanted to take "him" home). We just played charades with her the other night for the first time and she was so good at it! We briefly told her how to play and she just jumped in. She's always up for a new game (or making up a new one herself), always looking for an adventure, always wanting to create something. She's even old enough to go to the bozor with me or on special visits. She's just so much fun.
I think this is all extra sweet to me because from about age 2 - 3 1/2 parenting her was so darn difficult. I had a number of moments where I truly thought that I wouldn't survive parenting her. That I would never get to enjoy an adult relationship with her because the stress of parenting her would have already done me in. I know it's over-dramatic but if you've ever had a strong-willed toddler/preschooler I'm sure you can relate. If you can't relate, be thankful that your kids are/were on the slightly more compliant end of the spectrum. It seemed that no matter how consistent and loving I was and how conscientious I was to not create power-struggles and such - nothing was working. She'd say, "Can we go outside?" and I say, "sure, let's put on our shoes and go out." She would proceed to scream that she did NOT want to go out and would NOT put on her shoes. It seemed that everything had to be a fight for her and 95% of our requests were met with absolute refusal. I felt some days that all I did that day was deal with discipline. It really wore me out. But something started to happen around 3 1/2 and has continued to happen. If you had told me then what kind of kid she'd be now, I would not have believed it. But she's grown in so many areas (so have I) and she's so helpful and thoughtful and kind. And just so much fun.
Here are a couple pics in honor of my delightful 5 yr old girl.

She loves climbing rocks.

With friends, Hannah & Nadiyah, a few weeks ago.

We love this expressive face!

She's constantly climbing something. At home, it's the walls and doorframes.