Ramazan

This year, Ramazan falls during the entire month of August. People fast from sun up to sun down, and have a big meal called "iftar" to break their fast from food and water. We've been invited to several iftars this month and have eaten some amazing food! When the evening call to prayer goes off, the hostess will have soup bowls prepared and water in the glasses for people to drink immediately. Usually salad is already on the table, as well as some dried fruit and nuts. Then they'll serve a main course with rice and meat. Dessert and fruit are last and of course, no meal is complete without tea.

Our neighbor's iftar table.

Russ and our language teacher after an iftar meal.

Next Monday is the last day of Ramazan, so next week is a holiday week. This bayram holiday, called Seker Bayram, is the biggest one of the year, similar to Christmas for us. Most people will take most of next week off for vacation and stores will be closed mid-week. Downtown has been packed full of people shopping and getting ready to host visitors. The markets will be opened all weekend for shopping. We love going to the market, it's one of my favorite things to do in our city. Below are some pics that Russ took of the pazar this week.

Boy or Girl?

As you all know, we're not finding out whether the baby is a boy or a girl until the delivery. Apparently, this doesn't happen a lot over here. Everyone is so curious to know what we're having...so are we! Lots of our friends have bets going as to what we're having. Most of the women end up doing tests on me to try and find out. Here are some of those:

1. Scissors/knife test (no one was harmed during this test, I promise)- My neighbors had me walk out of the room while they put a pair of scissors under one cushion of the couch and a butter knife under another cushion. They told me to come back in and sit down on one side of the couch or the other. I ended up sitting on the scissors. Result: Girl, but I have no idea why.

2. Salt test- Another neighbor threw salt on my head when I wasn't looking. I touched my nose first instead of my mouth after she did this. Result: Boy.

3. Ring Pendulum test- this one I'd heard about in the States. My friends took a gold ring and chain and held it above my belly. If it swings side to side, it'll be a boy. If it rotates in a circle, it'll be a girl. Result: Girl.

4. Face test- this one is the most hilarious to me. They say that if you still look pretty, you're carrying a boy and if you're getting uglier, that means it's a girl because she's taking all of your beauty away. Now it makes me laugh if people think we're having a girl.

They also have the same kind of old wives' tales about how I'm carrying. Everyone loves to ask me how much weight I've gained too. The other day, one of my neighbors told me I'd gotten a lot fatter since she'd seen me last. Nice.

People LOVE babies here and give pregnant women the royal treatment. When I'm around friends, I'm really not allowed to do anything. Pregnant women tend to go on bed rest in the last trimester, even if there aren't any problems. This past week I've been out and about at 9 months and I've gotten scolded that I should be home. What am I going to do at home all day when I feel fine, just wait? Funny.

Due Date...is Tomorrow!

40 weeks! (minus a day)

Everything is going great with the pregnancy and as far as we know, the baby is healthy, which is such a praise! Tomorrow is our due date and it looks like it might come and go. Locals here tend to want "planned" births, so most women opt for C-sections. Since their biggest holiday is coming up next week, our doctor had lots of C-sections planned for yesterday and today. We're wanting to have a normal delivery, so we'd like to wait as long as possible before being induced. Our doctor is wanting us to have it before the holiday so he doesn't have to miss his vacation (really, who can blame him?), but we're wanting to hold out as long as is healthy for the baby. 

We've been really happy with the healthcare we've gotten throughout the pregnancy. Our hospital is small, so if there are any serious problems during the delivery, we would travel to a bigger city an hour away for care. In some ways, it's nice that we don't have any experience with having a baby in the States, so we don't have anything to compare it to here. We get an ultrasound (even 4D ones) done at every appointment and pay only $40 total for each doctor's visit. Having a doctor who doesn't speak English has been a challenge at times, especially as the due date approaches. But we feel very fortunate that we haven't had any problems so far!

31 week 4D pic

36 week 4D pic. This one's more blurry, but you can still make out the baby's face.

One Year

We have been blog delinquents for the past five months as you all know, so sorry about that! For some reason, I've started lots of posts that I never got around to posting, so hopefully I'll get around to doing that soon! We've been doing well, still doing language full-time and trying to make friends here.

As of July 31st, we've been here a year, which is crazy! It has been a year full of some of the hardest things we've ever done:
1. Sold/given away almost everything we owned to move overseas
2. Learning a language that sometimes seems impossible to learn
3. Preparing to have a baby overseas
4. Being far away from people we love and care for deeply

But it's been full of some of the richest blessings as well:
1. Having great friends who've helped us transition here
2. Meeting warm neighbors and local friends who have invited us into their homes
3. Learning a new culture that is full of wonderful traditions
4. Expecting baby D into our family!

We do have days where we deal with culture shock and get frustrated (or humiliated by sounding like a two-year old), but overall we've had a good transition to living here and love it. After a year of moving five times and being in limbo, it's nice to finally feel settled and to have a home that we love. We're thankful that He led us here and that we made it a year!

On the "boardwalk" in our city, with a 5 month baby bump!

Surprise!

We're expecting! Baby D is due August 27th and we're thrilled! Thankfully, the pregnancy has been really smooth so far, which is such a blessing. 

This is the ultrasound for our 16 week appt. It didn't come out super clear, but you can see the head and tummy.

And per lots of requests, here's a 16 week belly pic!

Here are a couple of ultrasound pics from our 12 week appt.

"Rush"

People here have the hardest time with Russ' name, it's so funny. Every time he spells it, people just don't get the double "s." So they call him "Rush." Apparently, that's a lot easier. On the rare occasion that he gets to go to a Starbucks, even they mess it up...in this case, "Rash."

Blue Mosque, Cistern, and Aqueduct

We took Saturday to tour the Blue Mosque, the Cistern, and the Aqueduct, which were really amazing. 

This is the inside of the Basilica Cistern, which is the largest of a hundred cisterns that lie under the city. It was built in place of a basilica in the 500s AD. This cistern provided water to the palace in Constantinople and later on to Topkapi Palace. It has the capacity to store 100,000 tons of water, but now is only filled a couple of feet, enough to store fish.

The Medusa Pillar.

The column of "luck." Apparently if you stick your finger in the hole, it brings good luck. Or it just makes for a hilarious picture like this one.

On Sunday, we decided to find the Aqueduct, which ended up being an interesting find. You can walk on the top of it, but there's not an easy way up. The guys had this great idea of climbing up the wall.

They did get to the top without falling.

There's also no easy way down on the other end. These two local guys came in handy with a ladder.

While the guys were hiking the Aqueduct, E and I "exercised" at this exercise park. These are all over here and you see old women and men exercising on them all the time, it's pretty hilarious...and fun.