We celebrated Easter with the Reimers and our new friend Samira, who works for Rahim in the same office as Cody and Jeff. She is so sweet and was very charming. She speaks English superbly and is willing to help us with our Farsi. Last night she offered to take us shopping for scarves and manteaus and so she picked us up around 7:30 and we headed through the busy streets to the south of Tehran for some stores where there are good sales. She said her friend told her to take us to a mall in Tajrish, but I told her it was too expensive and asked if there was somewhere cheaper. She laughed and said her friend told her not to take us to Fatemi Square because it was too cheap for Americans and that we would like somewhere more expensive. I told her that Americans like a good bargain and that we aren’t all like what is portrayed on television - all glitz and glamour. So, that is exactly where we headed to and we were successful in our endeavors. I came away with two manteaus and two scarves, Taylor had two scarves leaving the manteaus for another place that caters to teenagers, and Debra got one manteau and I think one scarf. So, we were all pretty grateful for her help in finding us cheap prices for good quality, for translating, for inspecting the stitching and telling us what was too much or what wasn’t good quality, etc. She is very kind and I really enjoyed my time with her. She is courteous as well and always enquired as to how we were doing each step of the way. I am thankful that God brought her into my life and that she is eager to help us settle in to her country. When I mentioned that I used to do the same thing for international students when they came to America, she said, “This is God bringing me to you because of what you did”, and yes, that is what I believe to be true. God is blessing me for being a blessing in the past, and He will continue to bless me so that I will be a blessing in the future.

Since I don’t have any pictures of our Easter dinner or our time yesterday, I will throw in some of Noah in the shower (did I mention how much he loves his showers?) for the grandparents and anyone else who wants to see pictures of him. Can’t resist… Oh, and I must mention that I bought a leg of lamb at the butcher shop and communicated all in Farsi. That was an adventure. So was cooking it. We live and learn and each day is a new opportunity to gain new knowledge.

Oh, one funny thing that happened yesterday while we were out walking our neighborhood as a family I just have to mention: a young guy was walking by us and said, “Hello. I am fine, thank you”, just like that. It was pretty funny and seemed to be the only English he knew.