Eid, meet Blue Bell. Blue Bell, Eid

Since our last post we've had the privilege to join in on a few cultural celebrations.  The first, Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.  It is a two day celebration where people basically set out food and sweets and open their houses all day to neighbors and friends.  Men visit with the men of the house and women with the women.  Both Gabe and I had the opportunity to meet some very important people in the city, and eat some wonderful and interesting foods.  Everyone is generous and the host never thinks you have had too much to eat. I think we both gained some weight after our visits.   Most Arab homes have a greeting room called the majlis.  It is a large room with couches along the perimeter of the room and small tables in the middle.  Food, coffee, and tea are shared from the tables.  Some homes even have a permanent tent or structure built outside their home to greet people in.

The picture below is of our kids and some friends playing in a Majlis.  We along with a few other families were invited to have lunch at their house.  We had the best goat I have ever eaten.

I also was able celebrate my Arabic teacher getting married and was invited to her wedding.  Weddings here are a bit different.  It is more of a party, one for the bride and groom simultaneously yet gender segregated.  Most women wear fancy ball gowns and have their hair and make-up done. The bride usually appears at the end of the night after all the food has been served.  She walks down an aisle while the other women in the room are cheering or clapping making her way to a stage at front.  It was 10pm by the time this took place and I left shortly after.  Apparently these parties last long into the night.  In some weddings the groom will come into the room and join the bride, and it's at this time that the ladies will cover themselves with their Abayas.

We are finding our way around town and I now have my UAE drivers license.  Thankfully as Americans it was very easy to get a license and, as a woman, the process didn't take long since I was able to use the female-only line.  I am liking the perk of being able to use the shorter line.  : )  

Hopefully this week we will be able to check out the local farmer's market (souq) and get Evelyn ready for school.  She starts September 4th.

Gabe's part:  Hayaak! (Hey there!)  Since our last post I've been working most days.  I've been in the Womens Clinic and staying very busy.  There are lots of complicated Obstetric patients (Diabetes, HTN, etc) for me to see.  We currently use paper charts but will  be moving an EMR in the next 6-12 months and I will be part of the team that implements this.  I am excited about that.

On my off days we have been doing a lot of small home improvement jobs such as making tubs not leak, hanging stuff on the walls ( TV, pictures etc).  There remains much to make the apartment they way we want it.

One of the other staff named Trevor is running in the mornings and so it looks like I have a running partner.  But getting up at 5 to run ain't easy.  We will see how it goes.  The hospital has soccer team that plays on Sunday evenings and I've been enjoying that when I'm not on-call or injured.

We are glad to be making friends within the Oasis Hospital community and getting to know our neighbors here in our apartment complex.  We feel like things are going really well overall.

On a final note, we found grocer who carries Blue Bell Ice Cream.  Not gonna lie, that seems miraculous to us.  It's only $9 for a half gallon.

We love you all!

Stacy and Gabe

The End of the Beginning

We have arrived, our cargo has arrived, our resident visas are complete and vacation is over.  A normal life here in Al Ain is starting to develop.  We have several things to celebrate.

1.) We recently got back from a wonderful week of vacation at Atlantis the Palm in Dubai.  It was a much needed break and the kids enjoyed the water park, aquarium, and the hotel room in general.

The kids loved posing in front of the aquariums.

Part of the the view from our room.

2.) We bought a car!  Or rather a Honda Pilot which is very much like the one we had in the states.  And it just so happens to be MAROON (whoop!).  A little something to remind us of College Station.  Even our oldest was excited about the color.  As soon as she saw it she exclaimed, "It's maroon! Yipee!"  The car buying process is a bit different here but we are very thankful that it only took a few days to get everything legal and in order.  And even more thankful that Gabe took me with him to have it registered.  We were able to go through the Women's line at the inspection station which had 2 other cars in front of us as opposed to going through the general line which was wrapped around a building.  I'm sure my presence saved us a least an hour! : )

So thankful for covered parking!

3.)  One more day until Ramadan is over.  This means stores go back to normal hours and by normal hours I mean open during the day instead of during the night (during Ramadan most stores are open from about 8:30pm until 2am).  More importantly we can eat and drink in public during the day.  This doesn't seem like a big deal but when you have small children and it's crazy hot outside you can't be on a long outing before the kids (and yourself) need food and water.

4.)  We are mostly settled and the last bit of furniture is due to arrive next week, on our wedding anniversary.  Happy Anniversary to us!

It's still crazy hot.  So hot that even the cold water from the tap it not cold but quite hot.  Keeping water tanks on the roof means you always have warm or hot water during the summer.

We made a quick trip to Abu Dhabi in hopes of some site seeing.  We drove by the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque. It is quite impressive.  At some point we hope to take a tour.

This is from the side.  The front, which we did not get a picture of, is much more impressive.

5.) Gabe has officially started work.  I'll let him insert something now.  (enter Gabe stage right) Hey there folks.  Just got home from my third day of work.   It's good to taking care of patients again.  Just like any new job, it takes some time to figure out the process for doing even basic tasks.  But I'm catching on and that makes for less stress each day.  I'll be working mostly exclusively in the OB dept this month and next, due to an unexpected shortage of OB providers.  

6.) We have started Arabic classes and have learned some common greetings, and are learning the alphabet.  Learning Arabic is one of our primary goals so it's good to be doing that.  

Miss you all and thanks for reading!

Stacy and family

Our Neighborhood

We are finally getting settled in our now permanent apartment.  We have furniture, our boxes from the States has arrived and now we are slowly unpacking.  I've taken some pictures of some of the sites we see every day.  They are from the car as it is too hot to walk around! Hope you enjoy!

This it main road in front of our apartment.  If you look closely, in the center of the picture, in the distance, is Jebel Hafeet. (Mountain with an oasis at the bottom of it.) It has a an elevation of 1250m.  Someday when it is cooler we'll explore it more.  There are several parks and other things to do there.

The current Oasis Hospital and the new one being built in the background.

A new mall within walking distance from our apartment....too bad it doesn't have any stores in it right now.  We've heard rent is too high for most stores to come.  : (

 The Al Ain Club football (soccer) fields right behind our apartments.

The small grocery store in our apartment complex...we haven't made it in yet.

Gabe wanted me to add this...FC Al Ain is the best team in the Gulf and their practice fields are behind our apartment.

Some towns in America have a church on everyone corner, here there is a Mosque in every apartment complex.  This is our neighborhood Mosque.  At night the top of the tower is lit up green.  And you can see the loud speakers on the tower that broadcast the prayers throughout the day.  

Our apartment.  We've been blessed to stay in this 4 bedroom apartment since we've arrived and now we get to call it "home" while here. The balcony is just off our dining room (where I'm sitting and typing at this very moment) and the window to the left of it opens to our living room. Behind the gates in front is where we will park our car....which we will be getting very soon! We only have one other apartment in our stairwell which is nice.  They are an Egyptian family with 3 children (2 girls and a boy) who are several years older than our kids.  Hopefully when the weather is cooler they can play outside some together. We took them a cake recently and they invited us right in, sat us down and fed us fruit and some delicious desserts that I think the wife must have whipped up while we were there.  We have much to learn about what it means to be hospitable in this country.  

Looking out to the right of our balcony.  When it rains...which I've been told happens in January, the creek under the bridge fills up.

Looking out to the left of our balcony.  To the right is the roof top of the new hospital.  Gabe can walk to work. 

The view from our bedroom balcony which is screened in.  The kids looked out and said, "Wow, so much sand to play in."  Yes, yes indeed. 

We love you all!  Ma'a salama.

A Little Fun in the Sun

We are slowly getting settled in, but I wanted to share a few pictures from this week.  Gabe celebrated his 37th birthday on the 9th. It started out as a bit of a stressful day as Evelyn was sick with an eye infection and needed to be taken to a doctor.  But ended with a chocolate cake and a banner that the girls made for Dad.

Temperatures have been around 122+ F and too hot to do anything outside.  One of the local hotels has a wonderful recreational facility with several pools that can be used all year round.  We signed the family up for a membership and have been enjoying our own oasis in the desert!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

The girls waiting to go down the slide.

They are worn out after a few hours of sliding and swimming. 

We might come here everyday!

As a follow up with Evelyn, she is doing much better and her eye is finally healing.

We made it!

First I want to apologize for no pictures as 1) the camera is still safely packed away and 2) it has been too hot to venture out far.  We have never craved water as much since arriving.  

I'll back up a bit in our journey here.  The flight was actually very nice and the kids did extremely well given the circumstances. We are so thankful that my mom came with us to help.  Such A BLESSING!   I highly recommend Emirates if flying abroad is in your future.  It was a direct 15hr flight from Houston to Dubai.  We were in economy class (the cheap seats) but it felt fancier than that : ). I can only imagine the treatment one gets in first. They even had special treats for the kids and we all had about 1,000 movies/shows to watch.  We arrived in Dubai fairly well rested and with all our 12 bags!

We are currently staying in a 4 bedroom guest apartment provided by the hospital and hope to see the apartment we will move into on Sunday.  We are adjusting to jet lag...the kids current wake up time is about 3am.  That is plenty of time to enjoy coffee and breakfast before the neighborhood call to prayer, which is broadcast over loud speakers throughout the apartment complexes every morning at about 4am.  It actually sounds like a song and is quite pleasant.  After only few mornings the girls have started thanking God for their day, food, etc. when they hear it.

Speaking of worship, the typical day for rest and taking time to worship is Friday.  So today we will be visiting a local international church.  Last night we checked out a service and the couple who helped to start the church met at A&M.  It was nice to meet someone familiar with our home town.

Well today's agenda hopefully includes getting me a phone and a trip to a local mall to let the kids run around.  : )

Will post pictures when we start taking them (which will be soon!)

Thanks for reading,
Stacy, for the family

Salaam Alaikum! Peace be unto you!

Over the past several weeks our travel plans have finally crystallized and we are happy to finally have something to write to you about. 

We are set to move to Al Ain on July 2nd.  We will fly direct from Houston to Dubai on Emirate Air (~15 hours flight).  We will settle into our apartment over the following 4 weeks and I will begin work at Oasis Hospital on August 5th.  My licensure and work visa process was completed in miraculous time.  It usually takes about 9-10 months but mine was approved in only 4.  

As you can imagine there are a great many tasks to complete prior to our departure but we are well positioned to have them completed in time.  We are prepping our home to be leased; selling off the remaining furniture and Honda Pilot (2011 Touring, if you know any one who may be interested); and organizing for our final garage sale June 30th...plus all the regular activities of life with 3 children!

Our primary need from our friends and family is prayer. Pray for us whenever you think of us.  Know that we will be praying for you.  We need wisdom, health and endurance to complete the transition process over the next 2-3 months.  

Shortly after our arrival, Stacy and I will start learning Arabic.  We will throw ourselves into this over the next 12 months as one of our primary goals.  Learning Arabic will be important to developing healthy relationships with our neighbors.  

We will share our Al Ain mailing address after it is finalized.  

We love you all. 

Stacy and Gabe

A New Adventure

It's official, this summer we will be moving! As most of you know, we have always had the calling to live and work overseas....overseas was where we first met. : )  An opportunity has come our way and we have accepted.  Sometime in July or August we will be moving to the city of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)...near Dubai.  Gabe will be working for a clinic and hospital doing much of what he currently does in his practice here.  I will continue to stay at home, take care of the kids, get to know new neighbors and hopefully learn some Arabic. : )  Feel free to email or call if you have more specific questions. We would love to answer them.