Eczema update

I have been meaning to post an update about her eczema following our trip to Nunisi.  Around Thanksgiving, just shy of three months after our trip, Natasha ran a low-grade fever for about five straight days.  After the fever abated, her skin cleared up.  Completely.  Not a trace of eczema remained.  She didn't scratch at all.  It was incredible. And it coincided almost exactly with what the other patients/clients had told me - that we would see significant improvement within about three months of the treatment.  I am sure that my daily prayers during that three-month period didn't hurt either.  And I don't know whether the fever had anything to do with it, but Jeremy and I had the same thought, that it was related.

The eczema stayed away for six whole weeks before coming back just slightly.  She still has it, but it is nowhere near as bad as it was before we went to Nunisi.  We were already planning to return this summer before we head home, but now we may stay longer.  Honestly, it was hard on me to be so isolated and alone with all three kids last time, but now that I have seen change, I am more motivated to go for a week.  But since Nunisi only opens in June, and we are leaving in early July, going there means we won't get to do some of the other Georgia travel we had hoped to fit in before the end of our tour.  Some regions of the country are only accessible in summer and we had planned a road trip in June.  But this is more important.

Sadly, Gabriel seems to have developed some eczema too, in an odd spot - all over his back.  Last time they told me he was too young to take the waters, but I'm hoping that this time they'll allow it.

I really hope this does the trick for us.  One other reason I am really scared to go home is that Natasha's eczema flares up every time we go back to DC.  It doesn't happen if we fly into Nebraska first, or to the Outer Banks.  But without fail, within 24 hours of a return to Washington, she always breaks out.  It has happened enough times now that we see a causative effect.

Now that we know about Nunisi, though, I suppose we could return to Georgia in future summers just to go there.  It shouldn't surprise me that we ended up here, as many tears as I have shed praying for relief for Natasha.  But it is remarkable all the same.

Where to Next?

That's the question, right?

Here's the answer.

Yep, we're going home this summer.  Jeremy got a very good job at the State Department and we anticipate we will be in Washington for two or three years.

And I am scared.  We've only been out of the U.S. for four years - but all of a sudden it feels like a lot longer.  When we moved to Moscow, my first child was just eight months old.  I have spent almost my entire parenting life overseas and suddenly, that seems significant.

I should be clear.  I am very happy that we are going to be able to spend time with family, that our girls and boy will get to know their relatives, get to play with their cousins.  But my priorities have shifted during the last four years, and moving home brings with it challenges I wouldn't have thought about five years ago.

I think the things I am most apprehensive about are:

1) The relentless availability of stuff, and

2) GMOs and the general quality of our food.

On the first point, we have too much stuff.  OK, so pretty much every American I know has too much stuff.  But just how much, too much, stuff we have, is made clear to us in stark relief every day.  Every day when I drive past the scrap-metal shacks near our house, I remember how much un-needed stuff is in my garage.  Every time I slip a coin to the gypsy children begging on our route to school and look at their ragged scarves and dirty fingers, I think about all the toys that lie, un-played with, in our playroom.  I send bags of stuff out of the house every few weeks, to shelters, to my housekeeper and to her neighbors.  But it feels like we are still suffocated with stuff.

I know that, theoretically, this should be under my control.  That I will just have to keep our trips to stores brief and infrequent.  Here, we never go shopping for recreational purposes, and I have even cut down significantly on online ordering lately.  It feels great, honestly.  While in the States, though, I have definitely found myself going to Target just because I was bored.  Maybe I won't have time to be bored.  One can hope.

On the second point, I am not naive enough to think that we are not eating genetically modified stuff in Georgia.  After all, they do import produce (even sweet potatoes from the U.S., for which I am very thankful).  But I do think hormones, antibiotics and GMOs are fewer in our food supply here.  I already told Jeremy we'd be spending a lot more on food when we go back to the States, as I will try to buy hormone-free and organic as much as possible.  Our checking account is already quaking in fear.

So anyway, yeah.  Back to DC in summer 2014.  Ready or not.

Kid sewing

Today I have a post about teaching my girls to sew.  Check it out at The Itinerant Seamstress.

In case you care about what we did 15 months ago ...

I never did blog about our trip to Yerevan in November 2012, and I really want to. 

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you may know that Jeremy and I met in Yerevan in 2005.  I was at the Embassy for my first tour, and Jeremy was finishing up three years in country - two in the Peace Corps and one teaching 5th grade at the international school - when we met at a poker game.  Shortly after I departed post, we got married.  So for me, Yerevan is filled with memories of early dating, falling in love and wedding planning.

We wanted to take our kids back to the place where we had met, so we drove down from Tbilisi over Veteran's Day weekend.

View on the road:

We spent two nights at the Aviatrans hotel in downtown Yerevan (good location, reasonable accommodations for a reasonable price) and spent most of our time reacquainting ourselves with the city and making the rounds to see old friends.

The girls in front of my old voice teacher's apartment building.

My teacher, Susannah, and her daughter Astghik had us over for lunch.

Natasha was into sticking her tongue out in pictures.  Thank goodness that phase is over!

Just strollin' around town ...

Taking in the sights ...

Posing for old time's sake in front of Mount Ararat.  Seeing this photo made me feel so old.

We took the girls to Square One, the "American" burger joint that really isn't, but which was the closest thing available eight years ago.

And to Tumanian Shwarma, which was one of our favorite spots for a quick lunch back in the day.  Natasha liked the shwarma.

Zoia, not so much.  (I was about six months pregnant with Gabriel at the time of this trip).

We took in a great music and lights show at the Republic Square fountain one night.

And had dinner at another old friend's house.

Then it was time to go home.  Past Lake Sevan ...

... and stopping over in Dilijan, to have lunch with Jeremy's host family from Peace Corps language training days.  

It was good to visit, but hard, too.  Georgia has made such strides since the last time I had been here.  I had forgotten all of the challenges Armenia faces - its geographic isolation, closed borders, extreme poverty and the ongoing tug-of-war between Russian and Western influence.  Sadly, not much has changed there.

Snow

We have had two days of beautiful, fluffy snow.  Gabriel woke up projectile-vomiting on Friday, so I kept the girls home from school to spare him the long car rides for drop-off and pick-up.  He napped most of the day, so the girls and I spent a lot of time outside.  Today it kept coming down - there has probably been a good 6 inches, if not more, of accumulation.

 
Cleaning the cars was their favorite activity ...

... closely followed by making snow angels.

Throwing snow is also great fun.

There was also the playground to explore.

I didn't manage to get photos of the snow cookie factory they set up in the yard, but here are some bonus pics.

And an unrelated one of Gabriel since he hasn't been featured much lately.

Rubbing some soup into his hair before bed.