Surprise!

This year, more than any other year, was the birthday of surprises. Not because of one big surprise, but because of many small ones from the people around me whom I love and am blessed to have in my life. My students, my friends, my family and my co-workers all blew me away with their love and surprises this year!

In the morning I went to my friend Sarah’s home where she had prepared a wonderful pancake breakfast for me. What a great way to start my birthday, with great company, cooking and conversation.

When I got to the school I was greeted by two of my close friends with gifts and also with a cake from our cleaning lady. So we decided to sit in the teachers room and enjoy tea and cake.

After that I went to my classroom to grade some papers and one of the girls from the office came in followed by another person and then another and then another. Within moments my classroom was filled with practically everyone who works at the center who brought me gifts and sang Happy Birthday to me. This was very special because I knew that they all stopped their work just to come and wish me a happy birthday. I am blessed to work with such loving, kind and caring people.

But that was just the beginning of the surprises. Each class surprised me with something different. The first class surprised me with the biggest bouquet of roses that I have ever received and I giant birthday card.

The second class surprised me with a beautiful bracelet. The third class surprised me with more roses and a beautiful Kazakh Tea set.

Also one of my best friends came and surprised me with flowers and a beautiful photo album.

The last class took us to shashleek the night after my birthday. I got so many little gifts and things as well from students and co-workers, here is a picture of our coffee table filled with many of the gifts and flowers that I received.

After class we went to a cafe for dinner and then we went home where I had a package from my mom and dad waiting for me! I got so many great things that we cannot get here.

I felt truly blessed by all the gifts, love and wishes that I was given for my birthday, even from back home. I am still waiting for a couple more packages which is exciting too. The day I turned 28 was a day when I could catch a glimpse of how many people G*d has put in my life who love me and with this I am blessed.

7 years...

7 years ago I began a journey that changed my life. I had my first date with the love of my life. I turned 21 on that date. Together we have grown to understand what it means to love and to live for Chr!st. It has truly been the best 7 years of my life and I hope for 70 more.

Happy Women's Day!

What a happy day it is for women here! It is the one day when women here are “pampered” by their men. They probably don’t have the same definition of being pampered as we do in America. But nonetheless, many of the women receive flowers, and are relieved from their duties of cooking and cleaning for the day.

There have already been so many festivities connected with this holiday before today including, a lunch on friday given by the men at the Center for the women there, where we all received flowers and free coffee drinks of our choice from the cafe. Then the boys from conversation club arranged another party for the girls where we played games and won prizes and they even sang to us, their song of choice was “You’re Beautiful” By James Blunt. It was sweet. On Monday I also received flowers and presents from several of our students.

These things were awesome, but today was the best by far. Today we celebrated by having a complete sabbath. A no plan day! And it was wonderful!

We slept in till about 9:00 and then enjoyed a slow morning together which included Banana-Oatmeal-Cinnamon-Pancakes and Coffee.

After we enjoyed our long morning we hit the streets. The sun was shining today and  temperatures were up! It was the first real spring day in the city and it was obvious. It really felt like a holiday or even a vacation. Everyone was in good spirits, walking and laughing with friends and family.After going to many different shops and walking the city for hours we went to a nice dinner and finally at the end of the day we sat by the Tulip and talked as the sun began to set.

When the sun was almost down we went home and watched a movie while I sipped wine and Curtis sipped coffee. It was my idea of a perfect women’s day. I hope there are many more to come!

Spread the word

Take a minute and go to this site. It is something I care deeply about and affects the people that I love the most. Educate yourself!

Visit: www.r-word.org and put an end to the use of the r-word.

A few weeks ago I was walking down the street and I had a 50 tenge coin in my coat pocket for the bus. As I was walking with my hands in my pockets, I saw a man who was begging money from people. He was small and wore an uzbek hat and coat, I looked a little closer and realized that he might be down syndrome. As he came near me I was a bit fearful and unsure, maybe he wasn’t down syndrome, maybe I was giving to someone who didn’t need it. Nevertheless, the government here doesn’t exactly help homeless people, so I held out my hand with the 50 tenge and he took it from me and at that moment I knew that he was down syndrome because he gave me a massive smile that warmed my heart, but also broke it at the same time.

It appeared to me that there was no one to love or care for this man like my niece who has down syndrome, she has a wonderful family, loving parents and sisters. But it seems that this man is alone and he has no place in the society here. It took everything inside of me to keep myself from weeping right there on the street corner.

I saved that for the next day when thoughts of it reappeared during my time with Father. That is when I decided that I am going to try to raise a little awareness here by teaching my students about some of the beautiful people that they so willingly cast out of their society.

Still, things are very difficult here for people who have any sort of disability, mental or physical. At the NGO that we work with at the center they have a community care program that does home visits to people with disabilities and just people who have no one to care for them. This is a great program and I know that it can really have an impact on some of these people’s lives, but I think that education can be stronger.

It is difficult to be in such a society and discover some of the mind frames in this country. But I know that this society is influenced by the west. I think that the more breakthrough that there is in the west in this area, the more breakthrough there will be here. And hopefully, slowly, these people will begin to be a part of the society here.

Please join me in pr*yer for the people in this country with disabilities.