Wow.. Less than two months left! I can’t believe it!

My life right now is pretty exciting I believe that I have made a wonderful decision by doing baptism counseling sessions with Mr. Erickson, since January. I’ve been thinking about baptism for a long time because it is such a huge decision in ones life. Our sessions were great he helped me to see more clearly so that I could understand things that I had a hard time with before, he answered any questions I had with detailed answers which was greatly appreciated. All the advice and reading material given to me was wonderful. J Now since an elder of “The Church of God” Mr. Sandilands came out for the beginning of the Spring Holy Days & Passover, I was able to be Baptized in the Jordan River by him! I was baptized in the late morning right before Passover on April 5^th! Thanks Mr. Sandilands for taking time to come out here and spend the time with us and to baptize me! This Passover was my first Passover service as a baptized member of the Church of God. I feel so pleased with the commitments I’m making with God and Jesus Christ. For me being baptized is the biggest most important decision anyone can make, and right behind it is marriage. In my short life I feel blessed that God has put this option in my life by calling me and bringing me closer to Him! Plus He has given me such a wonderful, hardworking and loving husband who I am very thankful for. J

In Late Febuary at the Y.M.W.A, Abed Kareem left to move to Qatar, he was the teacher for group four in the school section. I normally worked in his class three days a week assisting him with the children. It was a pleasant experience since he really tried to work with me so that I could do more of my part in his class! Abed Kareem is missed by the children they ask about him sometimes with sad faces. Now I will be with Mrs. Muna’s class more often who is the teacher for group three. Mrs. Muna is great when she works with her kids.

Since February Fatimah Saleem invited me to stay at her home twice now. Both times were pretty great! The first time I went to go/ help with her sons’ graduation party for the close family members on her side. There were over 40 people in her fathers home, it was nice and cozy for the gradation party and I had a lot of fun! Everyone was so kind, helpful and talkative.  I’m pretty sure I was the only guest at the party that wasn’t family which makes me feel greatly honored to have been there. Most of Fatimah’s family did not speak English very well or any at all, but Fatimah and her two daughters Aseel and Leen are good enough to understand and have conversation with. They were sweet and helped me to have conversations with almost everyone which was great! The day next day went fantastic as well we made a chocolate cake, hung out and had tea at Fatimah’s sisters’ home. The second time I went over it was like cooking galore time! We made five different things…. One was dates covered in chocolate with almonds inside! We made like 75 of them! Yummy… The next day us girls went shopping in the early afternoon! I bought a sweet little dress for my sister Caras unborn baby girl!

The weather here in Amman has been pretty crazy this winter/spring. Two different times it snowed and one of the times it did so for three days and stuck. It was amazingly beautiful especially the second day it snowed, that day it snowed the most. Plus it was hilarious to look outside and see around 30+ Jordanians & Palestinians throwing snow balls at cars and each other... which was dangerous and almost caused a car accident at least once… At that time it did make me even more thankful for electric heating back in the states. By the way, while living here I have seen the thickest fog I have ever seen in my life, this has happened multiple times where I couldn’t see five feet in front of me at the least! This was on the edge of Amman near the Y.M.W.A when we were picking up kids on the bus…. We drove so slowly… thankfully we did. At those moments I was a bit frightened but then I remembered that God is with us. J Now that it’s May it's pretty much prefect outside!

Lately in the last month we had so much going on, for the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread we had about 15 people here for services and dinners! Lucky us! We are so happy that they came out here to see us and the beauty that Jordan has to offer! Those wonderful people are Mr. Phil Sandilands, Jason Nitsberg, Jennifer Petty, Laurel Krenz, Lewis and Lena VanAusdle, Jennifer & Kurt Hoyer + their 3 boys!!! Before the DUB, Lena, Lewis, Laurel, Jennifer, Jason were planning on going to the Baptism Site (Bethany beyond the Jordan), Mount Nebo, Madaba, Wadi Rum and Petra! Which they kindly invited us to go with them and our wonderful bosses agreed to us going for two days! J That was so much fun when the boys weren’t getting “lost”… but it was pretty neat to find out that our Bedouin friend who owns our camp site could track!... The guys(Lewis & Joshua) didn’t think that he really needed to use those skills since they could find their own way back after all the were only gone for around 2 hours… Something along the same lines happened the next day too but with all three men in the morning at Petra! We all had a wonderful time though! Some of us rode donkeys and camels, that was great and a bit scary!

In the week heading up to the 24^th of April we had a ton going on at the school everyone getting ready for the Expo. This is when the school sells what they have been working on during the year and all of the money made at the Expo goes to the school. I would say it went pretty good!! The Wood Working, Ceramics, Weaving Sections did beautiful work!!! I wanted to buy so many things but it’s difficult to bring so many things back to America and the money bit… makes it a challenge. Also the Patron of the YMWA Princess Sarvath came to the expo on the opening day with Princess Rahma, and Princess Rahma husband Alaa Batayneh came later. They bought lots of nice things which was wonderful! The school did ask me to contribute by making Chocolate and Vanilla Cake Pops and Snickerdoole Cookies. This was done with some of the students and Muna, she is office secretary in the school section and was wonderful help! It was hard work to keep them cold but we managed. J The Cake Pops were Mrs. Tanya Horchak idea for the Expo! It was a great idea and they tasted great but I don’t think that people really knew what they were until I showed them... which I was okay with doing and all. Now since the Expo is over things have slowed down quite a bit and are going back to normal.

Something new to add is that Joshua and I are now fostering a beautiful Persian kitty who is very cuddly and playful! The people who brought her to us said that we could rename her because her old name did not suit her well. We named her Zarha because it means white, flower.

Love: Eva

Ps. I turned 21 on April 22^nd! J