Madaba

How can it be so difficult for a married couple with no small children to get away for a couple of days together? Perhaps we make it difficult for ourselves. Better, perhaps I make it difficult for us. I am the one who finds it difficult to disengage for all the physical and emotional needs of our home and family, even when I am looking forward to spending time alone with Dear Husband, talking, reading, and relaxing. We had a small window of opportunity during the week after my return from the States and the arrival of houseguests, and later, more home-coming children. and wee took it.

The typical getaway for our area is a Dead Sea resort hotel, which has it charms: pool, sun, nice hotel rooms, wonderful breakfast buffet, but it is also expensive, crowded in the summer, and local color is limited to pool attire of Jordan's upper-crust. We did stay in such a Dead Sea hotel the second night of our getaway, but for the first night we chose Madaba, a small Jordanian city with a long history, dating from the Middle Bronze age and mentioned in the Old Testament as a Moabite border city. It was later ruled by the Roman, Byzantine, and Ummayad empires, and is now most famous for its mosaics dating back to those times. Ninety Arab Christian families from Kerak (south of Madaba) re-settled Madaba in 1880 under the leadership of two Italian priests, and it was at that point that archaeological endeavors commenced.

Though Dear Husband and I have visited Madaba before, this was our first time to sleep there and to visit sites other than the famous Church of Saint George. We arrived in the afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Mosaic City. The most important ammenities of any Jordanian hotel in the summer-time are air conditioning and cleanliness, and I rate this hotel fives stars for both. It was tastefully decorated, offered a satisfying buffet breakfast, and was less than half the price of the Movenpick at the Dead Sea. I'd highly recommend this hotel, which is run by members of the Sawalha family.

After some rest and reading (Tim Keller's "The Meaning of Marriage"--excellent!) we walked through town to have dinner at our favorite Madaba restaurant, Haret Jdoudna.  On our way to dinner, we stopped in a local rug store and had a nice visit with the owner. He was sure that he knew Dear Husband; interestingly, this sort of  recognition happened at least three other times during the weekend. We are trying to figure out which foreigner who looks like Dear Husband has visited Madaba and the Dead Sea so many times! The shopkeeper was a member of the well-known Maiah family, and so, of course, knew our language teacher of many years ago, who is also a member of that clan.

This picture doesn't quite capture the charm of our courtyard surroundings, but if you can imagine fragrant jasmine winding its way around stair-rails and balconies, and a fig tree growing in the corner, you'll have a better idea of what we enjoyed.

On Friday morning, we did a walk-about of Madaba and all the sites that we wanted to see. This was easily done on foot and Friday morning is the perfect time for walking around: it is the day off, the day for sleeping in and staying home, and so the streets were mostly empty, except for other tourist-types. Though we avoided the regular hustle and bustle of a work-day, we enjoyed stopping by a few shops which were open along the way. Cooking-for-a-crowd is a major theme of my summer, so I thought it might be nice to have one of these beyond-large cooking pots. Dear Husband pointed out that they wouldn't fit on our standard size burners so I passed them by.

Fresh bread was being taken out of the oven on wooden paddles as we passed by this makhbaz (place of baking).

An interesting juxtaposition of signage and religious architecture:

This church was built on what looked to be the highest point of the city. Dear Husband  spotted this ancient ashlar stone next to the stairway leading to the church.

 Our first stop was the Church of the Apostles, 578 AD, to view some mosaics floors:.

This is a partial view of "Personification of the Sea". The church is open and so all the mosaics had a layer of Jordanian dust, i.e. fine dirt over them. The size of the mosaic floors in this church was impressive.

A few more walk-about views as we made our way to the other sites:

Sounds like a good idea to me

We stopped next at the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George, built over the Byzantine church and which houses the famous Madaba Map, a mosaic map of the Palestine, including the Holy Land and Jerusalem, dated 542 AD.

Saint George and the dragon

The remains of the Madaba Map

A pictorial key of the map

Modern mosaic of Elijah and the ravens

Walking a couple blocks to the Archeological Park, we were able to view more ancient mosaics, outside and inside the church of the Virgin Mary.

The church of the Virgin Mary was built over a Roman monument in the 6th or 7th century.

I've no pictures from our time at the Dead Sea--recall my previous comment about local color. 

Flowering Jordan Calendar~July 2013

Paris Beauty

I'm a reluctant tourist and thought nothing of hanging out in the Charles de Gualle airport during our eight-hour layover in Paris. I had my Kindle and they have good coffee. Tayta had other ideas, which she put into action via some internet searching and Facebook messaging the morning that we traveled. Dear Husband encouraged these plans by going to the money-changer and buying enough Euros to get us into Paris by train.
And so we enjoyed a Paris morning full of beauty.

We arrived at the airport at about 5 o'clock am after a red-eye flight from Amman, and arrived in Paris, the city, at about 7:30 am. The weather was beautiful: sunny and not too warm, and we were traveling light--no carry-ons to contend with. This is notable for us. Tayta even thought ahead for breakfast and so we enjoyed her homemade banana-walnut-chocolate-chip muffins in front of Notre Dame cathedral. And for the next three hours we enjoyed as much enduring Parisian beauty as we could.

We enjoyed Notre Dame from every angle, taking in its complete form.

And then we enjoyed the details...

We found more enduring beauty inside the cathedral. I had so many ponderings about the role of beauty in our places of worship as I enjoyed the magnificence of the cathedral's interior.

On our flight from Paris to Chicago, Tayta chose to watch a documentary on the Georgian-born French sculptor Goudji, who, it turns out, created a baptismal found and a candlestick which now reside in the Notre Dame cathedral. The theme of beauty continued and Tayta recorded this quote from one of the commentators in the documentary:

The basis of the Christian liturgy, and not only the Catholic liturgy, is beauty. we approach the Lord through beauty; not just the beauty of the text, but the beauty of gestures, the beauty of the objects we use. Of course there are the people who say, "but that money could have been used to do this...why Lord, waste this perfume on your feet?" It's Judas who says that. It's always the same question: Why? But nothing is too beautiful for God.

Happy and content to be surrounded by so much beauty, and looking forward to this:

We emptied our pockets of our last euros to buy a cappuccino for me and a hot chocolate for Tayta. 

The hot chocolate was served as a layer of  melted chocolate, decoratively arranged in the cup into which Tayta poured hot milk.

We had a little more time to walk-about after coffee, so we ambled slowly along the river Seine.

Art quilt inspiration?

With just about 30 minutes until we needed to head for the train station to catch our train back to the airport, we explored a few nearby blocks and marveled at the beautiful architecture on every corner. I've not yet had time to investigate as to what famous (I assume as other tourist-types were taking pictures) buildings we had the privilege of beholding.

Tayta has decided she would like to return to Paris. We'd both like to visit the Louvre, but that will require a planned, longer layover.  Another encouragement to return was the opportunity Tayta had to use her French. At one Parisian information center the woman spoke no English and so Tayta was had to ask for and receive directions in French. She understood and was understood. I was just impressed (Thank you, Carol!)

New Friends

It has been one week since Tayta's revision surgery and tonight we are packing our bags, preparing for our drive to Chicago in the morning and our flight to Jordan  tomorrow afternoon. Kristen had her post-op appointment with Dr. Siebert yesterday; he removed her stitches and told her that she looks great. I agree. Residual swelling should subside over the next six weeks.

At our last dinner in the Madison Ronald McDonald House, we met the Melendez family. Kristen, with her natural social astuteness, noticed them first, noting that their son appeared to suffer from Parry-Romberg Syndrome. We introduced ourselves and asked if they were here to see Dr. Siebert. When they understood the connection and we explained that Tayta had just undergone her second surgery with Dr. Siebert, an instant bond was formed. They were so happy to meet us. Though they had been in contact with other PRS families, they had never met another PRS patient in person, let alone anyone who had undergone surgery with Dr. Seibert.
Tayta talked with Diego--he was concerned about the pain he would feel and Tayta explained how all the nerves in his face would be cut. He would experience discomfort, but hopefully no pain.

Diego's dad and I took pictures of our PRS kids together. Tayta and I were touched by their family's story: Diego showed signs of PRS when he was two years old, and soon after Diego's father moved their family from their home in Puerto Rico to Orlando, Florida, so that they could find a treatment for Diego's PRS. Their long and persistent search and research ultimately led them to Dr. Siebert, and they are filled with hopeful anticipation as they prepare for Diego's first surgery on Monday. Diego's bone and tissue atrophy are quite severe so he'll likely have to undergo a few surgeries; he will need bone reconstruction as well as the free-flap tissue transplant that Tayta had.

Please take a moment to visit the blog which Diego's family has set up on his behalf. You can read more of his story and meet his family (in Spanish). While God has provided for most of the expense of Tayta's surgery via our insurance coverage, not all families enjoy this benefit and must raise money via donations to cover the cost of these expensive surgeries. Please consider donating and praying for Diego and his family on Monday as he undergoes his first surgery. We will be praying and cheering for him back in Mafraq, Jordan!

Not Just Another Pretty Face

For nearly a year, Tayta has been sporting the look of someone who just had her wisdom teeth removed on the left side of  her mouth, and she has done it with grace and confidence; confidence that came not only with knowing that the extra tissue in her face would eventually be removed, but confidence that God has called her His child and has given her a purpose for living, a purpose which did not depend on the symmetry of her face.

Many of you know of Tayta's diagnosis with Parry Romberg Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease which causes the tissue, and sometimes the bones, on one side of the face to atrophy. I have written a few posts about Tayta's journey with this disease and about her free-flap tissue transplant surgery which took place last August. You can read those here, beginning at the bottom of the page. (I include these again as these posts have put me in touch with others who have children with PRS and I'd like to share information about Tayta's treatment which might be helpful to others.)

Tayta expected that she would have to wait until next summer, our regularly scheduled time to visit the States, to have the revision surgery, in which the surgeon would complete the cosmetic aspects of her treatment, but God provided the means for Tayta and I to travel to Madison, Wisconsin this week so that she could have the surgery sooner than later. An extra bonus of our trip was a visit with Oldest Daughter, living in Evanston. She treated us to a wonderful performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but the best part was spending time together and being there to help her move out of her apartment for the summer. God has been very generous with us!

Here we are, packed and ready to fly out of Amman's new international airport. We're also trying our hand at taking pictures with my tablet--I like my camera better.

Tayta's surgery took place yesterday morning: it was a three hour surgery in which her surgeon "de-bulked"  her cheek, took  a couple stitches above her left eye to correct the pulled skin, and filled in her left lip, using tissue from her right lip. The picture below shows just how great Tayta is looking several hours post-op.

One day post-op, the eye and lip swelling have increased and there is more discoloration of Tayta's skin, i.e. bruising, but that is to be expected with such a procedure. Her surgeon predicts a six-week recovery period. While this surgical intervention isn't technically a cure for PRS, it has arrested the affects of PRS in every person who has undergone a free-flap live tissue transplant.

Our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude to God for providing this surgical option for Tayta and for the many friends, old and new who have helped us, cared for us, and prayed for us along the way. Thank you!

I will leave you with some wise advice from Tayta, given to me this afternoon: "Don't ever have plastic surgery unless you have to."

Wildflowers of Summer

Yesterday Active Son needed a ride to Jerash where he was meeting up with a physical therapist to do some shadowing. Jerash is about a 40 minute drive from Mafraq and the bus was a hot, lengthy possibility for Active Son, but since I love the country back-road drive from Mafraq to Jerash and I love spending time with Active Son while he is home for the summer, I volunteered to drive. I took my camera as I had noticed a couple previously unobserved species of flowers along this road the week before.

Though summer doesn't officially begin until June 21st, summer weather has arrived and is here to stay without much variation: No.more.rain. We've had some temperatures in the high 30's (100 F) and look forward to the pleasantly cool days in the high twenties/low 30's (mid 80's). The landscape of the countryside now tends toward shades of brown, with a few spots of sage green  and even fewer spots of color. Though many of the thistles have dried up, the purple Echinops is now beginning to bloom.

Echinops polyceras

This is my first observation of the Spotted Golden Thistle, which was blooming for about a half mile stretch along the road.

Scolymus maculatus

Golden Spotted Thistle

Riotous clumps of pink Convolvulus produce flowers that appear out of place in a harsh summer landscape. Their delicate pink blossoms belie their sturdy, drought resistant nature.

Convolvulus dorycnium

Convolvulus

And the caper bushes are blooming--there is no doubt that summer has arrived.

Caparis spinosa

Caper

The caper flowers, with their beautifully tinted, showy stamens always convince me that one photo is not enough. 

Flowering Jordan Calendar~June 2013

Wildflower spotting: Wadi Dana