A Year Ago...

Last year this time, we'd just arrived in Amman.  Re-reading that post, I can remember that day, but only in a very hazy sense.  And Ramadan this year isn't nearly as strange, it's inconvenient when I want something from a specific restaurant and they're not open, but knowing what to expect I can just suck it up for four weeks (just two more to go!).  Last year we'd just arrived and didn't have a vehicle, didn't know where to grocery shop, etc. so life was just harder.  Thankfully having one year under our belts we're just sliding back into life here in Amman!

This past weekend we moved Benjamin's crib and sundries into the playroom to make it his "big boy room", and the other, slightly smaller room will be for the new baby when he arrives.  He has done really well with the transition so far, thank goodness. 

Benjamin's big boy room

Using the dresser as the changing table is very high, I'll probably start using the floor soon.

This used to be just the playroom, but the toys still fit.  I need to have them take away the extra mirror though.

The past couple weeks we've said goodbye to some friends who are leaving, and a few more leave this week.  It's hard to see awesome people go, but I'm hoping that we'll make some new friends and continue to create our own little community here.  And hopefully we can all be in DC at the same time, at some point in the future.  God has been so gracious in giving us meaningful friendships in such a short period of time.

There's been a customs strike in Jordan, so the police have been called in to help man the customs offices.  Not sure if it's made any difference to our packages getting delivered, but it does seem that this week things are arriving all the time, last week was pretty bereft of brown boxes. 

We've got lots of diapers!

I was craving pretzels last week so I ordered a gigantic tub which will hopefully arrive soon.  I vacillate between sweet and savory in my cravings, last night I made cheese dip at 10pm after eating ice cream earlier.  It's calcium, right?

Almost 34 weeks, in the empty-ish baby room.  Waiting on the crib to arrive.  (It'll be the same as Benjamin's.)

At the last Dr. appointment, the baby measured about 5 pounds!  Yay!

Not much exciting is happening these days, we're just laying low and I'm trying to take it easy, keeping my feet up as much as possible.  I did get a mani/pedi with a girlfriend yesterday, which was really fun.  I'm trying a bolder color than my usual pink or red, so we'll see how long I can keep it going.  When we were traveling back to Amman and I was all puffy and weird, I was so stressed that I bit my nails back down so I've got a long road ahead to grow them out.  But it's helpful to get the professional polish job, it definitely lasts longer so I hope I can get in the good habit of moisturizing my hands and leaving my nails alone. 

Electric blue.  Definitely out of the box for me.

Man, a whole year has passed.  We've got two more to go and I'm guessing they'll go by quickly as we adjust to life as a family of four.  It was hard coming back to Amman after being home for three weeks, but now we're in the groove and getting into a routine again.  Praise God, Benjamin is sleeping better and if he wakes up he doesn't take much coaxing to get back to sleep.  Fingers crossed we can all be rested up for when the baby arrives!

Rachel

Home again

We're back, and it's been about a week.  Despite Benjamin's continued nighttime struggles against sleeping, we're glad to be home and back in the "normal" routine.  I got to attend book club on Monday night even though I never read the book.  I plan to in the future, though.  (It was Khaled Hosseini's latest, "And the Mountains Echoed".)  I feel very motivated to read the next one, for August, which is "The Orphan Master's Son".  I'm a couple chapters in and it's good, but a little disturbing.  After reading a nonfiction book about North Korea, fiction seems extremely plausible.

Emy has started working for us more hours during the week which is fantastic.  She's such a blessing and help.  I know it will be a sanity-saver in the first months after the new baby comes.  Parents of 2+ kids, I'd love to know your strategies for preparing to have more than one kid.  And it seems so weird that this baby isn't Benjamin, if that makes sense.  He's the one baby I know, his patterns and habits and personality, and looks even.  It's strange that this is an entirely different person who I'm going to meet soon.  (Although hopefully not too soon, I'm praying that he can wait until 40 weeks.)

In random news, Thomas has become a bit of a fashion plate.  He found some good deals on suits and work clothes while we were in SC and ordered some shoes and things online to round out his new look.  He's also getting some older suits tailored to update the silhouette, and it feels strange to have him be so put-together and stylish while I get larger by the second and wear the same five things every week.  And it will be at least a year before I plan to buy clothes, considering that I'd like to lose weight after dropping the baby weight, and who knows how long that will take with baby #2.  I feel like I'm definitely gaining more with this one, but I think that's normal.  My SC splurging was epic, but now we're home I'm eating more salads and cooking much more.  It was a glorious three weeks of stuffing my face though.  (stares wistfully into space)

Sunday night I tried finger painting with Benjamin, the previous attempt many months ago just made him upset, since he likes to be clean and sticky stuff isn't his favorite.  He started getting into it more this time so hopefully we can introduce more arty things.  I think I have some IKEA watercolors we can break out, which could be fun.

Messy.

This afternoon Thomas came with my to my doctor's appointment and met the doctor for the first time.  After a couple ultrasounds Dr. Mashini told us that the placenta had moved and it didn't look like it would be an issue going forward.  I was so glad, and I'm guessing that as I get bigger and bigger it'll move even farther up and out of the "danger zone".  I'm so grateful and am praying that no other complications arise and that everything can happen normally.  I've been nesting a bit and putting away lots of baby clothes into Benjamin's room and putting his clothes away in the playroom, soon to be his "big boy" room.  I think we'll make that transition in a week or so.  And I'm trying to get our guest room/office in order for a visitor in a few weeks!  Can't wait!  :-)

Almost 33 weeks!

Another benefit of being home for a while, I finally got the shoes I'd ordered but were then lost in the mail.  So happy with them, even if they were criminally overpriced.  But I love them!  (See above pic.)

Someone was very snuggly today.

And I'm out.
-Rachel

SC Trip #3

After eating lunch with my parents and sister, niece, and my niece's friend on Thursday, we drove to Charleston to spend a long weekend with my brother and his family.  It's a pretty easy drive, but there was a massive thunderstorm on the way down so we were a little slower than usual, but we made it and really enjoyed a relaxed time just hanging out with family.  Benjamin immediately loved my other niece and she played with him tons.  He was a little afraid of the family dog, a black lab, but she's older and very sweet and eventually he would try to give her hugs and kisses.

Leaving Moe's in North Myrtle Beach, Diet Coke in hand.

A fun park on Daniel Island, with a pirate ship to play on.

Checking out the ship.

Benjamin loves swinging.

Attempting to kiss to Gracie the dog.

My sister-in-law is an amazing cook and she fed us well, and one night we ate some good Mexican food at their usual restaurant.  It was fun watching my brother and sister-in-law deal with the parenting issues of pre-teens and teenagers, that stage of life seems far away but I'm sure the next 10 years will fly by. 

Sunday morning they all drove to the airport so the kids could get on a plane to camp, so Thomas and I had a leisurely time packing everything up and as soon as he started loading the car, the heavens opened up and it was a deluge.  We hung out and waited for the worst of it to pass, but eventually just got a little wet and set off for Aiken.  The downpour lasted a good half hour at least, it was a little hairy on the interstate, but once we got on the highway the weather was clear and it was a pretty drive to my hometown.

My parents beat us to their house only by an hour or so, they left that morning from the beach.  It was good to see them again and unload all our stuff for the last time.  I think the time in Aiken went the fastest, I had a busy schedule of meeting up with friends and Thomas ran some errands too.  We stayed from Sunday then left for Jordan again on Friday.  Tuesday I got to get a haircut, which was so luxurious.  We had a fun Fourth of July at my parents' house, they pre-ordered Carolina BBQ, and it was awesome.  My sister and her family came, and Thomas's parents also, so it was a fun family day and very low-key.  Benjamin enjoyed the bubbles that Thomas's mom brought and we had a few sparklers to wave around in between rain showers.

New 'do.

Concentrating on the bubble blowing.

So much fun with Grandma!

Sparklers, and my attempt to style the new haircut.  Still working on it.

Our saga of leaving began Friday, our flight from Columbia to DC was scheduled for 2:30.  We got to the airport at noon and checked in quickly, no line at all.  My dad drove us, he said goodbye and then headed home.  Thomas's parents came to eat lunch with us a little cafe in the airport before security, which was fun.  Not many people around, it was a relaxed time to visit and then we said goodbye around 1pm and went through the security process.  I'd forgotten about a Leatherman mini-tool in my purse, so thankfully the TSA guy handed it over to Thomas's parents.  I would have been sad to lose it. 


We waited at the gate for a good while, since the rain seemed to delay things.  Then we heard an announcement about lightning strikes in the area, and the plane refuelers have to wait 20 minutes for the "all clear" before they can fuel the planes.  Ugh.  Our layover in Dulles would have been about 90 minutes, and we left Columbia over an hour late.  The whole flight (an hour and a half) I was stressed thinking that we'd definitely miss our flight.  And naturally, we did.  But they rebooked us immediately onto a flight to Frankfurt (instead of Vienna, the original stopover point) which was actually boarding at the time.  Thomas stood at the counter with Benjamin and sorted out the baggage issue while I got drinks and a snack at Potbelly, one of my favorite sandwich places.  We got terrible seats because it was so last-minute, Thomas and Benjamin sat in the middle two seats of a four person row in the center of the airplane, and I was in the middle of three seats on the side.  Eventually a guy on the end next to Benjamin switched with me, it turns out he has three kids of his own and was very sympathetic.  It was a long flight though, and all the stress of changing itineraries really got to me. 

We landed in Frankfurt at 8am and had 12 hours to kill.  If we'd just been two adults we could have made it into town and seen some sights, but with Benjamin and all our carry-on junk, it didn't seem worthwhile.  Thomas hoped that the trip would have given him enough miles to upgrade into the lounge, but no dice.  We found some benches without armrests, the only positive part of the airport, and took some naps.  My feet and ankles had swollen like crazy, I guess I didn't walk around as much as I should have.  They didn't hurt but felt very weird and I was really worried about random medical stuff.  We didn't have access to wifi, and weren't going to pay to sit at the public access computers, so it was a very long day.  We ended up eating three meals there, before our flight boarded at 8pm.

The flight from Frankfurt to Amman wasn't terrible, at least we were all sitting together in a three person row.  It was extremely full and the four hours seemed to never end, but we finally made it back to Amman at 1am.  There must have been another flight coming through the exact same time, because the line for immigration was crazy long.  Thankfully we used the diplomatic passports and jumped to the front of the line, but still had to wait ages for our bags to show up.  (They all made it, thanks to that ridiculous layover.  I am grateful to not have to deal with lost bags though.)  At that point my legs and feet were still swollen and I felt terrible.  We went through customs with no problems and found our driver, who got us home in record time, only about 20 minutes.  I'm glad we came in at night, I was grateful to not be faced with the stark reality of desert life again right away.  We unloaded and got Benjamin into a bath and settled in bed, and passed out. 

Thomas went to work the next day, poor thing, and Benjamin and I both slept until noon.  We're still working on getting over jetlag, he'll wake up around midnight and fuss and fuss for hours.  Not the best.  I went to the embassy clinic yesterday and talked about my edema/swelling.  The nurse said to watch it and it should keep going down, and today it seems to be basically normal.  Even baking bread and washing dishes, being on my feet, it hasn't come back.  Praise God, I was so stressed about the baby and everything.  I'm so thankful that it seems to have been just travel related and not a harbinger of anything really serious. 

Puffy legs, taken 4am Sunday.

Pretty much back to normal, today.

I tried to force Benjamin to skip his nap on Sunday, but let him snooze an hour on the sofa.

We enjoyed our time in South Carolina so much, and are glad to have seen so many people.  I know there are many we didn't get the chance to hang out with, but hopefully we'll have another trip home in a couple years.  My plan now is to find somewhere in Europe for our next vacation, preferably one with a nonstop flight from Amman.  :-)


-Rachel

SC Trip #2

After spending the first six days in Columbia, on Thursday we drove the couple hours to Greenville SC and spent a few days seeing friends.  We stayed at another Homewood Suites, which was nice.  We arrived Thursday afternoon and got settled, then Thomas had a gathering with work people which I skipped so he could hang out and not be locked into leaving at 7pm.  Benjamin and I ate dinner at the hotel, it was pretty good, fried chicken and beans and rolls.  He was terrible though, just cranky and out of sorts, and it was a rough night.  But it was good for Thomas to see people and catch up.

Friday was pretty low-key, we had some ChickfilA for breakfast and met up with a friend for lunch.  We ate at Corona's, our favorite Mexican place.  It was so great to have "normal" Mexican food, which doesn't really exist in Arlington and definitely not in Amman.  I love cheese dip, and it was heavenly.  Thomas took Benjamin back to the hotel for his nap and I got to hang out with my friend, and we hit up a thrift store and shopped around Target.  It was great to catch up and have a relaxed day.  After she left, we went downtown and ate at Sticky Fingers, but the BBQ was definitely not as awesome as the Palmetto Pig in Columbia.  But Benjamin enjoyed his hot dog and it was fun to be back in my favorite town.  Seriously, if I could live anywhere, it would be Greenville SC.  If you haven't been, and the opportunity arises, check it out.

Saturday we ate brunch with friends and had the best time hanging out with our old crew from 5 years ago.  Among the four couples there were just two kids before Thomas and I moved away, and now there are... oh math time.  Four plus two plus two plus one... 9?  Yes, nine children.  I'm so thankful for friendships that endure despite distance and long periods of non-communication.  It's so fun to get together and see everyone and their kids and just enjoy the gift of community.

Enjoying fellowship at the coolest house around.

My favorite picture ever, taken by the immensely talented Cheri Ritter.

Saturday afternoon I got to see another girlfriend and it was great fun, wandering around different stores and just catching up and talking.  We all ate at PF Chang's for dinner and I was shocked that Benjamin was so hungry he ate some crab wontons, and then also ate the skinny and lightly brined carrots and cucumber meant as the garnish.  He's a funny one.  Sunday morning we met another friend and her husband and two kids for brunch, which was fantastic.  I hadn't seen her since her wedding shower a few years ago, so it was great to reconnect and see how much life has changed for us both. 

After that we hopped in the car and drove to North Myrtle Beach and bunked down with my parents at their condo.  It was fantastic to just relax and enjoy the ocean and outlet shopping, and eat delicious seafood.  Benjamin was very unsure about the whole beach thing on Monday, but today he was crying and fighting Thomas when they would come back out of the water.  We never even made it to the pool, just hung out at the beach for a couple hours at a time. 

Happy buddy!

Doesn't look like much, but Goodfellas is amazing!

Thus ends the second installment... stay tuned!
-Rachel  

SC Trip #1

After many many many hours of traveling, we finally made it!  Our flight from Amman was delayed a full hour, so I was really nervous we'd miss our connection in Frankfurt.  Thomas was very cool and calm and we actually made it with time to spare.  We decided at the last minute not to use the car seat on the plane, and just let Benjamin sit in the seat by himself.  He ended up napping for a good hour and half on the four hour flight and he was really good the whole time.  I tried to get up multiple times and make the trek to the bathroom to keep active and moving. 

Post-shower, pre-plane, 28 weeks.

In Frankfurt we had to go through security again which made my blood boil, I was ready to slap everyone I saw.  They patted me down (because you gotta watch out for the pregnant ladies?) and made me drink the rest of the water in Benjamin's Camelbak bottle.  Argh.  But we got to the gate and checked the stroller and got settled, with about 30 minutes left.  People even boarded after us, which surprised me.  Thomas paid to upgrade us to Economy Plus, and we had seats behind the bathrooms, basically like the bulkhead.  It was great to have extra legroom to stretch out.  But the armrests were solid because they had the tray tables inside, so we couldn't raise them up like we did on the Amman-Frankfurt flight and let Benjamin stretch out to rest.  He did pretty well considering, but definitely had some loud crying moments.  We just fed him goldfish and raisins and kept him pumped full of water.  The other bummer was the lack of changing tables in the bathroom, I guess it was an older aircraft.  Thomas was a trooper and did all the diaper changes on the 9 hour flight. 

After landing in Chicago, we moved through immigration and picked up our checked bags, then did customs, then dropped them back off.  What a hassle, I'm going to avoid flying through there again if I can.  But it was doable and we made it.  The confusing part was figuring out which gate we needed to find, I think the departures are listed around the baggage pick-up, but we were so focused on getting through we didn't see them.  So we took the tram around and eventually Thomas figured it out, but it was annoying that the tram stops don't have departure information right as you get on and off, you have to go upstairs to see the board with all the information.  And after around 20 hours of traveling, I was losing patience.

We made it to the gate, after doing security again.  Our layover was four hours, I wanted a cushion in case of random delays, but we had plenty of time to sit and rest and eat some McDonalds.  It was crazy to just sit and people-watch.  I've never seen so many leg tattoos in my life, is that a thing now?  And on all ages, genders, etc.  Fascinating.  The plane from Chicago to Columbia was super tiny, just one seat on the left and two on the right.  Benjamin totally lost it on that flight, and I snapped at the flight attendant which she told me I couldn't hold him in the single seat in case of a loss of cabin pressure.  Ooooh I was steamed, I was exhausted and cranky and just wanted to get away from the crying beast.  I apologized to her as we got off the plane, I felt so bad.  One upside was the flight was mercifully short, they were late getting to the gate but made up the time and we arrived on schedule.

It was great to get into the Columbia airport and see my parents and Thomas's parents.  Despite being awake for an unholy number of hours I felt reinvigorated and so glad to be on "home turf".  My parents loaned us their car, as the Volvo we were going to mooch (from my brother) had broken down on their way to pick us up.  We're still waiting to hear the status on that one.  I feel bad making my parents survive with just one car, but they say it's okay.  Thanks, parents!

Benjamin excited about new Lego toys in the hotel room.

The weekend was low-key, and jetlag was pretty bad at first.  We're still working on getting Benjamin to sleep in later, but 7am is better than 2am.  And I've somehow become a morning person, wide awake hours before I would normally be conscious.  We've eaten some excellent food, Chickfila and Zaxby's and Taco Bell and Rush's, and today we ate at a BBQ buffet.  Oh man, it was almost criminally good and I felt like I would have new stretch marks afterward. 

We've been to Walmart and Target, and I was expecting to feel overwhelmed, but I honestly don't think I'm having any reverse culture shock.  It's just a profound feeling of gratitude to be in a place where I can brush my teeth with the tap water and everyone obeys traffic lanes and lights, and I don't feel like I stand out as a foreigner.  I love being back home. 

Playing with Dad's old cars and trucks.

Sacked out, with lots of owls.

We went to the Riverbanks Zoo today, which is amazing and really nice.  We only spent a couple hours but it was really fun and Benjamin had a pretty good time.  We fed the giraffes but Benjamin was really scared and got freaked out.  But later on, he said he liked it.  He's been having a good time hanging out with Grandma and Granddad, Thomas's parents.  They have lots of toys, and he especially loves the boxes of toy cars that belonged to Thomas and Priscilla.

Zoo time!

Thomas feeding a giraffe.

Benjamin liked the giraffes, until the feeding part.

Get me out of here!

Monkeys.

Sweet angel.

That's it so far!  Back in a few...

-Rachel

Not What I Expected

Warning: this will include mention of the female anatomy.  So, watch out.

Today I had my 28 week appointment with the doctor.  It's a little early, my last one was only about three weeks ago, but I needed to get cleared to travel and it's always nice to have that reassurance of the baby moving around onscreen.  However the last visit showed that the placenta is very low, and this visit he measured how close it is to the cervix: one centimeter.  This doesn't immediately impact plans for delivery, but if it doesn't move upwards in the next few weeks, the odds having a c-section greatly increase because it's dangerous to go into labor with the placenta so low. 

This freaks me out no end, Benjamin came three weeks early but I was able to deliver "normally".  I was just worrying about breastfeeding and getting my pump in time, etc, but now this adds a whole other level of stress.  Please pray for me, that I will trust God and put every potential outcome in His hands.  He is in complete control, as much as I like to think I have a say in things I can't change what will happen.  I can only give it all to Him and pray that everything will work out so I can delivery safely and have a healthy baby at the end.  Which is obviously the main goal, whether or not I can nurse or deliver naturally shouldn't be such a concern, but those things do matter.  So, please pray alongside me that the placenta will migrate upwards and everything will be safe and healthy and uneventful.

Part of what upsets me about this, from my cursory internet research (terrible idea, I know) is that this can be caused by having a D&C.  Since Benjamin was born vaginally and with no complications, other than being three weeks early, I just assumed this pregnancy would be fine and I would deliver normally, possibly even without an epidural.  But I'm forced to recall the sadness and despair of my miscarriage, and subsequent procedure.  And thinking that might force a c-section and tough recovery, and basically all hope lost of breastfeeding, is pretty sad right now.  (Compounded by hormones.  Yikes.)

Anyway.  This is a downer of a post.  Please pray, and thanks for bearing with me.  I know I'm incredibly blessed to be pregnant and have the hope of a new little boy to bring home.  I thank God for His incredible goodness and hope for continued and unearned grace and mercy.

-Rachel

Random Pictures

After much rumination, I've come to the following conclusion- Fast & Furious 6 was less entertaining than Fast 5.  Consider yourself edified.

Thomas and I got to check out the new cinema at Taj Mall last weekend, Emy graciously babysat so we could catch a movie and eat dinner afterward.  The movie theater is very nice and new, only opened about a month ago.  There's even a VIP theater where you get butler service and each seat is basically an easy chair.  Maybe sometime we'll check it out.  I still like the Baraka Mall theater, but it's so easy to just park at Taj, watch a movie, then have tons of restaurant options.  We got a quick meal at Fatburger then walked around with our shakes for a while.  It's so nice to have date afternoons occasionally.

I went to a baby shower for a friend Saturday morning, it was really great to hang out with some ladies and eat brunch and have fun.  It's weird that I'm basically in the third trimester now, and baby is super wiggly and active.  I'm extremely grateful for this child and am praying that traveling to and from the US will be safe and complication-free, and that this baby will arrive at 40 weeks.  (Benjamin came right at 37.)

Attempting to dress up for the shower.  26ish weeks.

Mixed signals at the restaurant.

Benjamin's new sunglasses finally arrived, after being misdelivered at first.  The sun is so intense here and it's always sunny, it's probably good for him to have a little something over his eyes.

Best baby in the world.

We're so excited to be leaving for SC soon, I'm dreading the flight and ensuing jetlag, but it will be so worth it to visit with family and friends.  Please still be praying for Thomas's dad, for successful treatments, healing, and strength.

-Rachel