Groceries anyone?

Written in May 2012

We took our first real trip to the grocery store today. Being out of milk, bread, sandwich meat, cheese and all things essential for breakfast, we decided to brave the HYPERMARKET. Four floors of home items galore! Groceries, appliances, furniture, you name it, they got it. Like a Walmart/Sears/Target all stacked on top of each other.

 

Matthew, the chief adventurer, had ventured into one of these stores earlier in the week for a small item; that “quick trip” is a blog unto itself! So he quasi knew the ropes to getting in and out of these stores unscathed.

 

Into the Lulu we went! Lulu is a grocery store based out of India, but all the items have English and Arabic words on them. Mostly. Some just have one or two words in English. And it might be different words from the ones we are used to…like Kellogg’s  “Frosted Flakes” are just “Frosties.” But hey, we’d know Tony the Tiger anywhere, right?

 

Up and down slowly the isles we went, peering at packages, squinting at squiggly writing, and scratching our heads at certain ingredients.

 

And then we came across it. The “International Foods” aisle. What, pray tell, could an Indian based grocery store in Abu Dhabi that sells products from all over the world, consider “International Food?” Answer: Mexican food. Go figure.

 

Many things are different here, but many things are the same. Like it only takes about 30 seconds for the kids to get tired of walking and only 5 minutes more until they need to go to the bathroom.

 

Our Big Adventure took about an hour, so now that we are all home again, jetlag has overtaken Matthew and the kids. Nap time, anyone?

LoL, computer time and Oreo cookies for me, thank you.

 

I actually really like the markets here. For our produce there are organic markets and small markets downtown that sell cheap fruit and veggies. As long as we are living downtown, we’ll slip over to those. It’s an easy outing and the kids love to pick out their own treats.

 

(We love shopping at these tiny downtown markets. This is SO DIFFERENT FROM WAL-MART)

Life is settling in finally. We are still looking for a permanent villa (we’ll have a guest room, come see us!) and our visas so we can get local drivers licenses’. We are mostly over jetlag, and only hear the roosters out our window crow…well, we still hear them in the wee hours of the morning.

 

We are here on faith. Like Moses and the Isrealites, we’re crossing the Red Sea. On either side of us, there is challenge, uncertainty, fears, and things that if we choose to dwell on, will surely drown us. But we are walking on dry ground that the Lord has cleared for us. And, oh! We are rejoicing! What a great path the Lord has chosen for us!

Written in March 2012….

 

It’s official!

The house is on the market.

Passports for the kids have been ordered.

Words like “Department of State,” “authenticate,” “expedite,” “Secretary of State,” “certified,” “apostille” and “Embassy” are tossed around our home like bright hoops at a circus.

 

How in the world did we get here?

I am so excited to be here!

 

Last March, Matthew and I had the privilege of going to the United Arab Emirates. Say what? Yeah that’s right. Matthew’s brother Daniel and his wife Erin were here as teachers and they generously flew us out to va-cay for a week.

 

Know what’s weird?

I DIDN’T WANT TO GO. No way. No how. I didn’t want to go.

 

For months I wrestled.  Praying, PLEADING with God to intervene.

Go? To the other side of the world to play? I have responsibilities! We homeschool! We have children! I can’t leave them, my Sunday School class, a wedding to direct…

 

Call it anxiety, call it spiritual warfare. I just didn’t want to go. SO I pleaded with God to intervene.

 

LOL, He didn’t.

 

But He did do something else.

 

The minute we landed and stepped into the Abu Dhabi Airport, God breathed into us and said, “I have something to show you here.”

 

There are times when it feels like my prayers go no further than my mouth. But the days we spent in the UAE, it seemed like our mouths were closed because God Himself was speaking to us.

 

 

Now today…

 

The house sold in 24 hours. We sold 80% of everything we owned and moved across the world.

Say what? Yes. We did. Well, God moved us.

 

Matthew is the Pastor of The Evangelical Community Church (ECC) Off-Island in Abu Dhabi.

That’s right! The United Arab Emirates!

Enough backstory. Most of you reading this already know how our awesome God brought us to this amazing place.

 

So this is the blog that I have been promising since April. I’ll be posting as often as I can.

 

There has never been a time when I have depended so thoroughly on the Lord. There has never been a time when prayer has been so vital.
 

God is with us. He sustains us and holds us. He is most definitely the Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace!