https://mailchi.mp/a77d71716ea6/family-adventure-update-march-2022
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| Roshan and Shegufa are married!They got married on February 27th in Alburtis at the lovely barn apartment where the family stayed when they first arrived in PA. Elaine and Dave, who own the property, arranged everything and were expecting around 20 people for tea and desserts. The day before, the guest list expanded to 40 and included a full Afghan meal. It all worked out beautifully! Elaine and Dave are incredibly gracious hosts and Roshan’s family did a fantastic job with the food. Of course, there was plenty of dancing after the ceremony! |
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| Selfies with MoMansur and Mehran love hanging out with Mohamed. |
| Finding a house for Ghani’s family was no small feat. In the end, we found a lovely 4 bedroom house on South Blvd in Bethlehem. It is walking distance from the elementary school, has a two car garage and nice fenced in back yard – and a huge kitchen! But closing didn’t happen until February 10th. |
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| Living with Ghani’s nephews was quite the adventure; we didn’t realize they would be staying with us so long, but by the time we figured out that they would be moving to Bethlehem, it didn’t make sense for them to move anywhere else, so they stayed. |
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| We ate very well, as Sukaina voluntarily cooked just about every dinner. Every once in a while Nolan or I would prepare dinner, but our cooking was not very well received. So far the only American foods that most of the newly arrived folks like are pizza, hamburgers, and tuna melts. We enjoyed the amazing Afghan foods very much, and were happy to go back to a bit more variety. |
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| The younger boy, Mehran, LOVES to wash dishes and help clean. He loves it so much that sometimes his older brother has to get in on the fun. |
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| Abu is in the Air Force!Abu was home briefly – he successfully completed basic training and his job training and is now off to his new gig with the Air Force in North Carolina. He is working in logistics – what is up with that? All my kids are in logistics! I picked him up in Philly in the snow storm and we managed to get back to Allentown okay, then he was back to Philly to get things sorted out in his apartment – he had left in quite a hurry! He was working for his recruiter while home, but we got to see him a couple of times; he got to play a few games of soccer with the boys and we had a nice little party to celebrate his graduation from the Air Force training. We are looking forward to seeing him for summer vacation. |
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| Arif got his CDL |
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| While his siblings are now safe in Australia, Arif is still feeling some pressure to help those who didn’t make it out yet, and others who are still in limbo. And he was feeling a bit frustrated with his classes at LCC. So after the holidays, he stayed with Hedayat for several weeks in Lansdale while he went through the training for his commercial driving license in Philly and eventually got it done. Now he is looking for a job. Driving jobs for those younger than 21 are not easy to find, but we have some good leads and he hopes to get his foot in the door so he can start getting some experience and then when he turns 21, he can start driving the big trucks and making the big bucks. 🙂 We felt really sad when Arif gave up on college and decided to get his CDL. He has so much talent and is very intelligent. But we think he will be okay. He reads, which gives him an advantage. All of our boys are amazing and wonderful, and he has got it all in spades – kind, funny, thoughtful, hard-working, talented, creative, smart… he reminds me a bit of my brothers who are those rare people who have everything – good at math and art and business and people… Arif could write a book, illustrate it, write and perform songs about it, and deliver them to the bookstore. 🙂 |
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| Isa and Sima |
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| Isa and Sima are doing great! Isa’s trucking business is doing really well and he is looking forward to having another driver in a few weeks so that he can stay home and do some projects around the house. He bought a new car. As Sima is working, they found they needed a second car, and he wanted a truck, so we did some research and he ended up with a super fancy new truck/suv kind of thing. I love shopping with Isa. We do a little bit of research, talk about what are the important features, come up with a short list, go see something, and we are done shopping. It was the same story with the first car (now Sima’s car) and the house. Sima is working with a bunch of the other Afghan folks at LVHN, cleaning hospital rooms. She loves it! She is practicing English every day and learning a lot. She loves talking to the patients and gets to have lunch with the other Afghan girls. She wants to go to school, and would love to get a job in the mall for a while. She loves being with people. We don’t see her often, but a couple weeks ago she called and asked if I could help her shop for some gifts for Isa on her day off. So she came over and we did some online shopping, got some great insights from Arif, went to Macy’s and got some lovely gifts, then went out to lunch. We shared a delicious chicken sandwich and shrimp tacos. She loved the chicken sandwich, but the shrimp tacos were even more delicious! 🙂 It was an afternoon of many firsts! I have to say that am pretty sure that I have the best daughters-in-law of all time. Sima and Shegufa are so lovely – kind and sweet, smart and funny… We got lucky with our boys, and we got doubly lucky with our girls! |
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| On April 2 (the first day of Ramadan) they had a party to formalize their engagement! An Afghan engagement party is a lot like anyone else’s wedding – with photos taken beforehand, a big cake, a big party and dancing. There was even a “knife dance” by Hedayat!While the date is not normally reserved for parties, they wanted to do this before a significant contingent of Roshan’s family headed to Florida for truck driving classes, and before Ramadan fasting was in full swing. Our village converged again to celebrate their commitment. |
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| Bowling |
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| One of the things we did with the kids from the beginning was bowling. And when they had their own cars and went out bowling on their own, we were really grateful that they invited us. And now that their families are here, they are continuing the tradition. And we find that for activities like this, having a bunch of people is even more fun!Mahran really wanted to bowl with all the adults and was pretty bent out of shape when he wasn’t allowed. But everyone else had a fantastic time. |
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| Ghani and ClanGhani has been home regularly since he closed on the new house. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but Roshan co-signed the loan for Ghani so that he could get the mortgage. Roshan can surprise us sometimes. He is a lot more of a softie than he lets on! But back to Ghani… |
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| Ghani also got really lucky as far as getting outfitted in a new home. A friend from the Mosque who is moving gave Ghani two truckloads of furniture and accessories – kitchen ware, furniture, decorations, even a grill and patio furniture! It was all stored in Roshan’s garage until closing, and then Roshan, Ghani, and a few of the other boys moved all of it into Ghani’s new house.Sukaina has an amazing new kitchen and has been enjoying using it! As always, Mahran is keen to wash the dishes. |
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| Nolan and I are doing okay. There is a lot going on that I am not talking about here, because this is not supposed to be a novel. 🙂 One very sad thing that we have to report is that we lost our beloved Simba to cancer on Saturday. We are both still quite raw with the grief of it, so that is all I can say at the moment and keep typing. It was really sudden and fast. Life is so fleeting. 12 years or 112 years – it goes too fast. I don’t know how to do it any better than I am doing it, but it seems like there is never enough time to love everyone enough. |
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