True to form, Mary refused to be in any and all pictures, but she took some really good ones. :)
We're back!!! We got home about an hour and a half ago, and I just showered and finished un-packing. Pictures will (hopefully) be coming soon!!! We took a lot of pictures on the beach, and I will be sure to post some of the them...sometime. :) I don't know how many pictures we have of us with Kevin, but I'll look for some. Right now I'm just glad to be home.
Congratulations Adrian for guessing correctly! And Hannah, you were close. Farsi (or Persian) is the national language of Iran...but Iraq is Arabic. Now, why I posted that in the first place. On Sunday morning, our assistant pastor asked us (Sarah, Mary, and Susie) if we were available the next day (Monday, yesterday) to help an elder of our church teach an English class to Iraqi refugees. Mary couldn't because of her babysitting job, but Sarah and I said we would do it. All together, we were working with five women and one man. (One of the reasons our pastor asked us to help: we were female, and so the ladies would be more comfortable.) Our head pastor's wife was also there to help. There were three ladies from Iraq, one from Lebanon (who spoke Arabic, although I'm not sure if that's the national language of Lebanon), and one from Russia. (she was from Russia, but had lived in Uzbekistan for a while.) It was exceedingly helpful that they all spoke the same language, even the Russian woman who knew a little English and a little Arabic in addition to her native tongue. However, none of us knew any Arabic, so it was definitely an adventure. We went over basic English words (table, chair, girl, etc.) and also the correct use of 'this' and 'that'. Some of them got it right away, but some of them didn't. It was really fun to see the hypothetical light bulb turn on when they understood. It was also exciting when all but one of them understood, and then the other four would explain it to them in Arabic. All four, at the same time. :) We then explained to them (with the help of visual aids) how to call the doctor/dentist's office to make an appointment, and how to refill a drug prescription at the pharmacy. One thing they had a lot of trouble with was their birthdate, which as you know, is required by the doctor. They were confused because in Arabic you write the day first and then the month, (which I think makes more sense, anyway) and because they knew the names of the months but not what number they corresponded with, and they wrote the year backwords. If they were born in
1969, they would write 1996. I have no idea why they write the last two letters switched and not the first two, but they do. They also had trouble saying the numbers (like, they would say "November twenty three instead of November twenty third and they would say one-nine instead of nineteen) They knew how to read English fairly well, which is surprising considering how different it is from Arabic. It was really fun to watch them write, because they wrote in Arabic and they wrote from right to left. We also had to teach them how to make the sound a 'p' does because there is no sound like a 'p' in Arabic. They didn't know how to make the sound at all. Sarah and I had a lot of fun. The ladies would say something in Arabic and then laugh. and laugh. and laugh. We would laugh, too, even though we didn't know what was funny. The elder from our church who teaches the class plans to do it all summer, and Sarah and I are planning on helping whenever we can.
What is the national language of Iraq? When someone guesses it right, I will write a post explaining how it has anything to do with anything right now. If your last name is Zeglen, you are officially disqualified because I already told you. If you google it first, that is cheating. Unfortunately, I can't catch you googling it, but if you can live with yourself after I told you not to, then I guess I can deal with it, too. Asking family members is not prohibited, but discouraged. (Esp. because none of mine knew the right answer.) :)
On Saturday, the girls took Mom out to see a movie and get dessert for Mothers Day. (better late than never, right?) We went to see Letters to Juliet and then went and got cupcakes. It was delightful.
YAY!! This computer is posting pictures again! Above is the best picture of Al Gore I have. The lighting was not set up for successful pictures, lol. The other one is again, a picture of Caroline!!! She came back today to play!!! She is absolutely adorable, as always. Have a happy Saturday!!!
P.S. There should be a post coming soon about tonight...we're taking Mom out for a belated Mothers Day...!!!
Kevin graduated from UTK (the University of Tennessee at Knoxville) yesterday!! He was excited. We had to leave our house at 5:30 in order to get there on time, which meant we were all waking up sometime before 5 so that we could shower and eat some breakfast. We had a to hour drive ahead of us, and we knew graduation would last at least to hours. It lasted 3. So, we went about 7 hours with no food. Plus, the only food we'd had was cereal (you don't really feel like making anything else at 4:45 A.M.). Anyway, the actual graduation was 3 hours long, but we got there an hour and a half early so that we could actually get seats. Then we had to wait another hour before we actually got to the resteraunt and got our food. Al Gore gave the commencement speech. It was interesting. He talks in a very convincing way...like some other politicians we know. No wonder he became VP and co-won a Nobel Peace Prize. After his 30 minute speech, every single graduate had to have their name read out and then walk the stage. There were over 1,000 graduates. It took a LONG time. But afterwards we got to eat some delicious food and then we caravaned home...and took naps. After dragging ourselves out of bed, we just kinda hung out the rest of the night. We did puzzles and drank lots of cold water (did I mention we had to eat outside...in the 90 heat). It was exciting, to say the least.
She did inspire me. While she was looking over my shoulder, Caroline saw my blog. And the picture of SJ laying on the garage floor looking dead. She was perfectly fine with the fact that Sarah appeared to be dead. In fact she asked if she was. Mary and I explained that no, she was just laying on the floor and there happened to be red paint there. (we didn't elaborate further and explain that SJ had wanted to look dead. we thought it wasn't necessary information.) She then asked "oh, so she wasn't praying or eating or going places?" We said no, that she wasn't right then, but that when she got up she did. She nodded, as if satisfied. When I remembered this, the first thing that struck me was "wow, she mentioned prayer first." Her parents are not perfect, and they don't pretend to be. Right now, they are even going through some rocky times in their marriage. Caroline is completely unaware of any of this. But even unconciously, she is learning from them that prayer is important. Other times I have talked with her and she has asked me if I had Jesus in my heart. Without even waiting to hear the spiritual state of my heart, she proceeded to tell me how amazing He was. "...He loves you and me and he comes into you when you ask. And He never leaves. Sometimes Mommy and Daddy leave and go somewhere and I have to stay behind but He never does. He's right here..." She said all this in the Nursery with me during church a few weeks ago. Exact quote. Granted, she doesn't really understand what she's talking about or what it means, exactly, but it's still one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. She talks about prayer the same way, explaining how God really does hear you every time you talk to Him. She says she talks to Him about the flowers and the butterflies and her little sister.She's only four, so she doesn't understand how badly she really needs Jesus in her heart and how often in this life she's going to be falling apart and cry out to God, wondering if He's still there. But for now, she's on the right track, and I thank God every time I see her for the precious little gift she is.
The computer isn't letting me post pictures...it's been having (other) problems lately, too. I'm going to try moving pictures from this computer to another one and see if I can post them from there. There should be (more) pictures of our trip to Huntsville, and I might be able to find a picture of Caroline. If I am successful, they should be online by tomorrow at three. :)
so, right now there's a 4-year-old looking over my shoulder while I decide what to write about. She's cute.
This past week, Dad and Mom went to the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit VI conference in Minneapolis, MN. So, the five kids stayed with, you guessed it (if you aren't one) the Ruffs!!! And of course, in keeping with the Ruff/Zeglen way, we took lots of pictures. And a picture's worth a thousand words, right? So, here are a few pictures. 
