One Year.

Today, one year ago, is the day we arrived in Egypt.

As the plane landed, Savannah looked out the tiny window and saw the triangle shape of the wing tip, and shouted, "I see the pyramids! I see the pyramids! We are in Egypt, Mommy!" And everyone in hearing distance, that understood English, laughed.

I remember getting off the plane at 2:00 in the morning, 5 carry-on suitcases, and 3 tired little girls. We collected all of our luggage, 11 suitcases and 1 guitar case, I remember being crazy happy they had all arrived. We then made our way through the airport, to the bus waiting for us outside.

I remember looking at street lights, painted murals on walls, stores and shops, people and wondering what would happen in the next few years.

This picture was taken shortly after we arrived. 

I remember getting to the hotel and crashing. And then being awakened by our new friends who had put so much work into finding an apartment for us. He woke us all up :) and then had to wait while we tried to find clothes out of our suitcases.

I remember seeing our apartment for the first time and then, I blinked and it is now one year later.

 As I think about the last year, I cannot believe I worried so much about living here. In a lot of ways, it is just how life was in the States. We wake up every day, eat breakfast, fix three little girls hair, make sure everyone is wearing clothes. We tackle whatever is on the agenda for the day, school with the girls, study Arabic, shopping, make dinner, play with the girls, bath time and bedtime. 

There are differences, we hear the Call to Prayer 5 times a day, we can't always find what we want to eat at the grocery store, the money looks different, I do different things with my friends, and sometimes we have to play charades so that someone understands what we are wanting to communicate.

We have learned so much about living in another culture, about communicating in Arabic, about each other.

We've had good days and bad days. I feel lucky that we have more good days then bad days. We've missed grandparents and parents. We've seen and done some really amazing things. We've visited pyramids, the Library in Alexandria, Petra, and we drive past the Nile River at least weekly.

We've studied Arabic for countless hours and we have moments of brilliant success and moments of helpless stupidity.

This picture was taken 2 weeks ago, as we started our trip to the beach.

Our children have consistently amazed us with their ability to adapt and learn. Yesterday, Emily was playing Uno with one of her friends and she was using as much Arabic as she could to teach her how to play. Savannah has made many, many friends and plays with them for hours. Although, she has had no formal language classes, she surprises us by using a word or phrase in its correct context. Sophie has gotten so big and everywhere she goes, people love her. 

They have cried. It is hard to be 4 and 6 years old and live in a place where no understands what you are saying when you talk. It is hard to play games when you don't know or have the ability to understand the rules.

They have cried. It is hard to be on another continent and to miss your grandparents and aunts and uncles. It is hard to be the Mommy and the Daddy of the little girls who is crying for her grandmother.

We have learned so much. 

Enough to know we have so much more to learn.

Enough to know that we love Egypt and we love their people.