I am sitting in the hotel room, having been here in Tehran for 2 days now. I am listening to Cody read Jules Verne to Taylor, who is sick in bed having vomited 11 times in the last 6 hours! Poor thing. Noah is sleeping soundly next to me on the bed, having eaten and spent time laughing at his daddy. We arrived at 1:30 a.m. in Iran yesterday and it was SO cold here, having just snowed the day before. It was 5 degrees Celsius (so about 36 degrees Fahrenheit) and we had to wrap Noah tightly in blankets to walk to the car. Rahim and Nosrat met us at the airport with a bouquet of flowers and with hugs, having arranged for our transportation and hotel ahead of time. It was so nice to see them and by the time we arrived at our hotel it was 4:00 a.m. and all of us were exhausted! We slept for awhile and then called a realtor that we had communicated with over the internet, and she came and met us at 2:00 to show us some apartments. Her name is Melika, but it could have been Maria Andretti with the way she drives! Wow, I’ve never met a woman driver quite like her. She is a good driver, but very fast. One time we were going backwards on a one way street with someone going the correct way about 6 feet from our front bumper and approximately 25 miles per hour! It was like something from a movie. Anyways, we looked at several places and then went back to the hotel for another nap. I woke up around 7:00 p.m. to find that Cody and Taylor had left and gone out in the rain to find an internet card but came back with sweets from a bakery and a DVD instead. We headed out the other way up the street with Noah tied up in a shawl around my neck and back and under a raincoat and umbrella. Everything was closed because of the holiday, National Day, so we just ate at a little restaurant and came back to watch the movie and go to sleep.

Yesterday we went by taxi to Rahim’s house and stayed there the whole day, returning to the hotel at 10:00 p.m. We had a really nice time with them celebrating Seezdah Bedar and we even ventured out into the rain to the local park where there were lots of people trying to celebrate in spite of the wet weather. We ate some traditional food served during Noruz, including bean pods. You squeeze out the bean from the pod, dip it in salt and sumac, then squeeze the inside bean in your mouth and leave the skin behind. Lots of work, but they weren’t bad. The men spent time looking in the paper for apartments and trying to call a few of the ones listed. Nosrat spent most of the time in the kitchen preparing the meal, so I hung out with Noah, Debra and Tad. Anahita held Noah for awhile and then went to nap due to a headache she had. Taylor and Farzin played computer games for a few hours and had a good time. It is absolutely breathtaking here with lots of snow on the mountains and a chill in the air. The trees have new little leaves and buds on them and flowers are everywhere! Pansies, Primrose, Gerbera Daisies, Stock, Tulips, etc, which are some of my favorites, are planted all over. The flower shops have beautiful daffodils and calla lilies and lots of gorgeous looking flowers, unlike the wilted ones in Bahrain. It is amazing and refreshing to see. Anyways, we played games with the family and ate a huge lunch and had leftovers for dinner, along with lots of trays of sweets and nuts to snack on between meals. It was a nice and relaxing day and we are so thankful to be here in Iran with our good friends and good weather.

Today Cody got up and went to the office to begin the long journey of getting our business visas and finding us a temporary place to live, outside of this hotel. He did find one and we are moving in tomorrow morning. Taylor, Noah and I slept in and then got up and went out with Debra and Tad, walking around the neighborhood trying to find a baby store. We weren’t successful, but we asked directions using our Farsi, and got braver about crossing the street and getting around. We returned to the hotel and had lunch, planning to head out to a big park up north where there are two baby stores but Taylor started feeling poorly so we came back to the room and she began her vomiting then. We ordered in because she didn’t want us to leave her and after Cody ate, he headed up the street to some baby stores that he had heard of. Now, as I am finishing this blog, she has vomited 12 times, but is finally feeling better and it has been longer than 20 minutes between. She even slept some and is propped up reading a book. Praise God for a speedy recovery. Well, I need to get some sleep and feed Noah, not in that order. Hopefully I can find internet to send this blog soon. I will blog again regardless of when they get sent. Good night for now!