All Good Things Must End

Summer came and went much too quickly for our little family. We arrived home on the evening of July 9th after a little more than 24 hours of travelling, four of which Abby slept. I was a little apprehensive taking a newly-potty-trained two year old on the long trip, but she didn’t cease to amaze. She was delightful for about the entire trip. The leg from Frankfurt to DC was long (after a six hour flight from Jeddah to Frankfurt and an additional three hours sitting on the tarmack waiting for repairs). Toward the last two hours she was done sitting in her carseat. I really couldn’t fight her on it, afterall, she had been such a good little passenger. I scanned the passengers and realized, “We don’t know anyone here. Chances are, we’ll never see any of them again. What the heck?” I unbuckled her and allowed her to stretch her little legs. She is mostly trustworthy and just visited Kennedy and Erin’s seats and then up to Dano and Ethan’s seats. Back and forth she went for the better part of an hour, not bothering anyone else, thank goodness.

Ohio had received quite a bit of rain the end of June/beginning of July so it was delightfully green – although, Phoenix might have looked green to us at this point. Upon arrival over Columbus each of us just kept repeating, “It’s so greeeeen!” We were so happy to see our home again. It looked so beautiful. Our good friends, the Porters, had taped up ‘welcome home’ signs in our kitchen eating area which we left up for about three weeks! We had picked up a Papa Murphy’s pizza on the way home and called it an early night…though what’s early after you’ve been up for 36 hours?

The pool was uncovered the next day. Again, it could be heard amongst us, “It’s so greeeen!” (We'll spare you any pictures of the swamp!) Fortunately there were no living creatures (visible anyway). Our pool man told us it was due to the very hot, humid weather Ohio had had in May and June. It took us an entire week of chemical treatments and vacuuming to get it swimable. However, when we did, there were not many days we didn’t get in it.
As part of Erin’s birthday, we sent her off to DC to stay with my sister and her husband for a few days. I was a little nervous about Erin travelling by herself, but the flight was not long and she appeared to be calm and brave about it. She’s the only one of our children to ever fly unaccompanied…so far.
It was a very special experience for her to enjoy some quality time with Aunt Jen and Uncle Chris. She brought Aunt Jen back to Ohio with her.

We enjoyed visits from family members nearly every week we were home. We had a great time hanging out with Aunt Jen and Uncle Chris when he arrived a few days later.
The exciting part is my sister is due to have her first baby just four weeks after ours. The downside is…we’re going to be half way around the world. I’ve had a hard time coming to terms with this, but such is life. We’ll get through.
During their visit, my mom arrived for a two week stay. She sufficiently spoiled the kids. The girls enjoyed pampering each other and Lindy with pedicures. We were sad that Papa could not make the trip this time and missed him.
A few days after Lindy left, Dano’s parents arrived. During all of this, Dano returned to Jeddah for two and a half weeks. He made it back to spend a few days with his parents before they left. They taught the kids some new card games. It’s becoming fun that we are now having real card games amongst our family, including Five Crowns, a family favorite.
A day after they left my brother arrived. We had a super week playing with him that went by too quickly. I have no idea how we let the time get by without one picture with Uncle David. Shame on me!

Amidst all the family visits we were able to spend time with friends, go peach picking (a favorite family event),

donate some more hair to Locks of Love,


attend a Cleveland Indians game and a Cincinnati Reds game (and make it on the jumbotron!),




devour some pulled pork and ribs, have a birthday party,

enjoy a long stint of not wearing an abbaya, relish in going where I want, when I want, and actually driving myself there, and get a hefty dose (okay, several doses!) of Graeters Ice Cream.

One final event of the summer - Dano participated with several friends from work in Columbus' Pelatonia bike ride which raises money for cancer research. Dano rode the 102 mile leg. We were all very proud of him. I'd post a picture of it, but it turned out to be a very rainy day and during our hour-long wait at the finish line, our camera became water-logged and drowned. (I guess that could explain also why we have no pics with Uncle David...) It was a great experience; one he's looking forward to participating in it again next year.

After a wonderful eight weeks I admittedly was not looking forward to leaving friends, family, Ohio, and America again. However, by the time we got closer to Jeddah, I was happily anticipating getting back and picking up our life in KSA which does feel like home. I considered that a blessing. I don’t think I can ever say it too frequently…we are so blessed with all that we have in the United States.