Let's start at the very beginning.....

I can’t believe that I am now currently residing in the Middle East! Or that I have been here for almost 2 months already….I guess time flies when you are having fun!

As many of you know, I am not the greatest at this whole blogging business……remember my failed attempts in the past? Well, I guess now I have a greater reason to, being that I can’t just have you all over to see my new house or town or meet new friends! I truly want to share this experience with you and want you to be a part of this journey too – so this is where it will happen!

I’m not exactly sure where to begin, because although at times I kind of feel like I haven’t done much, as I reflect back there is so much to tell. So, “let’s start at the very beginning; it’s a very good place to start…”

I will classify the beginning (for sake of the blog post) as Mother’s Day weekend (May 8-10, 2009), as that was my last time to spend with my parents, and the last in the great U.S. of A. for a while. It actually was pretty eventful. D’Andra and I arrived home from a great few days of training in Idaho (my new favorite vacation spot in the US!) on that Friday. That evening Bethany and I were trying to finish up some last minute office work when all of a sudden my computer died, literally! I got to spend the next few hours on the phone with the lovely Dell customer service, only to find out that “Yes, your hard drive is completely gone! But good news, it is under warranty. We can have a new one out to you by Tuesday.” Now that is all well and fine, except for the fact that I was leaving the country on Monday for 15 months and HAD to have a computer. My parents were very gracious about the whole situation (as they are with everything!) and said they would take the old one and figure out what to do with it and get me a new one. So Saturday, in between 2 all-nighters of packing, we spent the afternoon at Best Buy getting a new HP (yes – be proud! No more dells for me….ever!). The situation did cause a bit of additional, unneeded stress for the weekend, but I also came to realize God was teaching me a lesson of patience, His timing, and that it was for the best. I don’t know WHY it happened (do we ever try to understand technology?!), but SO thankful it was while I was still in the states and not already overseas where I could not purchase a new one!

The rest of the weekend in Nashville was a bit wild, crazy, and great. D’Andra, Bethany, and I were all packing (3 girls – 2 leaving for 15 months and another for 1 month, just imagine that in your head!), it was mother’s day, both D’Andra and my parents were around (it was great for them to meet!), plus a friend of hers and Bridget (my cousin/former roommate). Bridget was my “packing Nazi” as usual; after only getting approx. 6 hours sleep from Friday-Monday, I was a wee bit tired Monday as we boarded our plane. But rewind, before leaving we had the “privilege” of getting Heather’s dog Dixie to the vet and on an airplane – now that was an experience! We also took my dad to Buffalo Wild Wings for the first time (oh…how I miss the wings!). Then, Sunday evening, my mom cooked her own Mother’s Day meal – which was the BEST “last supper” anyone could ask for (ham, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, salads, desserts, etc.), I miss my mom’s cooking (already!) – though I am attempting to duplicate the amazingness she always puts out! We had a group of about 20 at Heather’s house that evening (minus Heather – she was already here) – and a wonderful time of prayer and worship after dinner.

Monday morning we loaded my parent’s rental van FULL (17+bags) plus 5 people and went over to our friend Diane’s house for an amazing brunch. Then it was off to the airport to check in our 17 bags – we tried to talk them into making allowances for the overweight and extra baggage charges, but to no avail. Once we got the 3 of us, plus my parents and Bridget (to head back home), all checked in, we had a nice prayer time with all of our families plus Jimmie, Jamal, Brandie, and Jessica. My parents and Bridget were able to see us off all the way to the gate as they had flights out a few hours after us.

Saying goodbye to Bridget and my parents was emotional, I’m not going to lie, but we all did pretty well. The first leg of our trip was from Nashville to Washington Dulles. When we arrived in DC, we had a 6 hour layover, so a friend of Bethany’s came and picked us up and took us out for dinner – it was fun. Then we all used my cell phone and our last hours in America to make some last minute good-bye phone calls. Then we made our flight across the ocean to Frankfurt, Germany.

As we arrived in Frankfurt, I was not feeling the greatest and it was raining, so we spent our 9 hour layover in Germany sleeping in the airport. The lesson we learned there – do not exchange $ until you get to your destination because you totally get ripped off (they exchanged our American Dollars to Euro’s then to Jordanian Dinars – which cost us like $40, bah! well, lesson learned). Finally, we boarded our plane for Amman and made it, at 3am. – with all of our luggage. And praise the Lord we had made connection with a worker there, who was so gracious to us……..he picked us and our 17 pieces of luggage up in the middle of the night, and ended up letting us store all our luggage in his van during our 3 day stay in Jordan, a huge blessing.

Having 3 days to spend in Amman was tiring but wonderful. I will share in detail about our time there in the next post. Then, Friday, May 15, we boarded our Royal Jordanian flight and made it (with all our luggage again – though not without having to pay the overweight and extra baggage fees a second time!), to our new final destination – Erbil, Kurdistan of Iraq.

We had to load all of our luggage on to a bus to be taken out to the parking lot and then we loaded our luggage off the bus and were waiting on the side of the curb, hoping and praying that Heather would be there to pick us up (as we had not contacted her since leaving America). I must say, seeing her in the darkness of the 4am. hour, was the biggest relief of the whole journey – we knew we were “safe” (for lack of a better word!) and sound. Luckily, some friends of Heather’s were picking up their parents at the same time from the airport…and had a pick-up truck, because all of our 17 bags (plus 5 of us) did not come close to fitting in our Jeep J. But, as the sun rose over the “mountains” (big hills) of Kurdistan, we arrived to our new home (yes, the sun comes up at an insanely early hour here – like 4:30am!). We stopped just down the street from our house and got hot, freshly baked bread, and then got the first look at our new home – which is beautiful! Heather then made us some wonderful omelets and we all caught up on the happenings of the previous 2 weeks. After having some great girl talk and full tummies, we all headed for a few hours of some quality sleep (it was wonderful having a “real” bed after our 5 long days of travel)! I think it took me a good week beyond that to truly get caught up and un-jetlagged.

"Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast."

John 21:12

So, there you have it, that is the “beginning” of my journey. Beginnings are a complicated thing though, because there were many “beginnings” to this season of my life. I would say that the true beginning of this journey began on January 2, 2005, with the opening prayer Heather prayed over her breakout session at Passion 05…..or a few days later at the same event when my friend Wendy prayed for me to “go to the nations”…..or at Passion 07 where I first heard about the Freedom Center….or in February 2008 in Dallas where I met Heather and Brandie “by chance” ;) at the Passion Regional I was volunteering at (the newest addition to that story – other workers who are here were there at that event talking to them at the exact same time, and were led here as a result!)…..or in July 2008 when I “officially” decided to “do this”…..or in March when I moved from Iowa and began all the training….or really, I could just say that this is the time and the place and the season that God has created me for – and He knew it before the creation of the world. However you define it, this is the beginning of the rest of my life.

One last thing, I think I am going to include a “FAQ” – Frequently Asked Question – with each post; things that I don’t always think to share but what various people have asked me. So, the first one (the one I get asked the most)……

What is the weather like?

Everything is brown now……hot and dry! The average temperature for May was 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit and June has been 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit. Praise the Lord for a generator and air conditioning (the best $250 I ever invested!). Though we have had a few cloudy days and 2 “thunderstorms” (VERY small; nothing like IA or TN!), which I guess is extremely out of the ordinary. They say it’s not even hot yet, just wait until August – I’ll keep you posted. We can have a contest between here and Iowa, Jlol!

Well friends, I think this might win a record for the world’s longest 1^st blog post. I don’t do anything halfway! Plus, if I do say so myself, I think this was a great way to "begin" my new life of blogging :). Until next time....