Five Days

Day 1: Monday:  Russell's ETA 11:20 AM in Dubai.  Russell's actual arrival 2:20pm.  Huh. Not really a big deal except no one could actually tell me when his flight was coming in. Called the airline. Asked  them about the delay. No madam. arrival 11:20 am. in Dubai. Umm..no...my son just told me he is delayed by 3 hours. No madam. Call the airport. They will know. I call. No madam. Arrives 11:20.  I wait two hours thinking by then they will have updated the plane's status. Umm..nope. Still says 11:20 but according to Russell he is still in the Kabul airport.  And so it went. When I finally called at 2pm they guy told me it would land at 1am. And then he told me it had landed at 11:20. Ok, so at this point I am wondering..DOES ANYONE KNOW where this plane is????  At 2:30 Russell texts me that he has landed. Ha ha ha. So he got a driver to Abu Dhabi and we walked in the door at 5pm.  I was so frustrated by the end of that day. Glad the rest of the visit went better, though.

Anwar, Russell, Mike and Aziz discussing current events in Kabul

Day 2: Russell soaked up the warmth.  While Sallie and Robert had piano lessons we walked in the park and caught up on life in Kabul and the news in Abu Dhabi. We even sat on the swings for a bit and laughed about he loved to swing as a baby and Mike would push him sooo high. We decided that even as a baby he loved that adrenalin rush..and pushing himself out there. :) That night we had a birthday party for him, celebrating 23 years!! We invited the families that were in Lebanon with us and it was a nice evening. It is actually easier to have people over now because they can park in the new Central Market Souk next door. So now they can park and come see us!

Day 3: Russell went to the park and and studied Dari. Robert quizzed him with his flash cards. That was fun to watch.Sallie and Russell walked to Starbucks and just hung out for awhile. Then we joined Mike for lunch at a Lebanese restaurant.  (Love spoiling Russell while he is here..all his favorite foods and warm showers and clean laundry that doesn't smell smoky...:)  ) Mike, Sallie and Russell see The King's Speech.

Father and Son ready to go kayaking!

Day 4: Mike and Russell kayaked thru the Mangrove areas around Abu Dhabi.  They had fun and only flipped once. :) We had beautiful weather this week. So glad Thurs. was Mohammed's birthday, big holiday, so Mike and Russell had extra time to hang out. Went for Vietnamese food with the Gardebleds that night.

Day 5: Last Day.Friday.  Church. Lunch at the Mall with friends. True Grit in the afternoon. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Home to pack and wait for the 1 am driver to pick Russell up for the airport. Robert tries every time to wait up with him. This time he fell asleep on the couch next to him.  

One of the many blessings we have by living here is the opportunity to have these quick visits with Russell. This was a great week. He soaked up the sun and we soaked up time with our boy. We  missed having Ryan here, but hopefully this summer we will ALL be together. This living on different continents stinks sometimes but maybe we do what we can to make it work.




     

Winter Weather ?

While snowstorms are raging across the US we are battling sandstorms over here.  Sidewalks covered in sand. Sand blowing across the roads. The skyline obscured by sand. No, we aren't having rolling blackouts but we are tired of the sand covering our cars.  The kids are ticked that they are missing the snow days and the slipping down the sidewalks in Carrollton. Oh well. Maybe another time.

Just before the sandstorm blew in, Mike and I took a break in the Empty Quarter. A huge desert about two hours from here. Sallie had a youth retreat and Robert was at a Boy Scout camp out in the same desert.  So with a free Friday night, Mike and I spent the night at a resort-Qasr al Sarab. It was beautiful. Breathtaking. Having lived here for 3 1/2 years means we have seen a lot of desert, but this went on forever and the silence blanketed us. (We are pretty excited about silence since the construction is still going on outside our windows.)   

Sallie's weekend retreat was great. Robert's camping in the desert was a bit more rustic than our experience. Wind blew all night. It was cold. Sand. No pool. No huge round bath tub. No room service. No sleeping bag, He forgot it in the back of the car before they hiked in. (Bet he doesn't do that again. Ugh. )


Today I thought we were done with the sandstorm so I washed my car.  I jumped the gun.  Not two hours later it is all gray again..and spotted, too. I drove under some window washers. Sigh. .  Maybe tomorrow the weather will clear, here and in Texas!.