Update from the Beach

I apologize to those blog followers who have been checking faithfully for new posts, and have all but given up on me. What can I say…? Well, just to ease your fears, the answer is “no” – Sahar has not run away from our family, as we feared she might – she’s still here with us, safe and sound, and fitting in quite well. I thought she might run away after Caroline’s 4.5 hour dance recital, but thankfully, she was too tired to run. At the moment, we’re all vacationing at Hammock Beach, an oceanfront resort in Palm Coast, just south of Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

Updates on Sahar…

She has had two major dentist visits recently, both of which involved multiple tooth pullings and fillings, but she’s been a great patient. It’s such a blessing to have our own dentist and friend, Dr. Rick Mullens, working with Sahar – he and his staff could not be more gracious and caring towards Sahar and all the other Solace children.

Here’s a new flash – Sahar likes potato chips. Okay, maybe I should say she deeply loves and covets potato chips… We don’t have chips around that often, but one taste and Sahar was hooked. So, we’ve been keeping chips on the grocery list lately. I mean, this girl can sit down and eat a regular-sized bag of Ruffles in a matter of minutes. For those of you grimacing about us letting Sahar indulge on a less-than-healthy snack, I would invite you to come and watch Sahar eat the chips – I promise you’d let her eat them, too.

A unique bond has definitely formed between Caroline and Sahar – I would describe it as a sort-of little and big sister relationship. Sahar is very mature, and Caroline is – well, she’s our challenge (a sweet, beautiful challenge, but a challenge nonetheless). So, it’s nice to have someone else around (besides Sara and me) reminding Caroline to stay out of trouble, and Caroline typically responds to Sahar’s reminders quite well. At the same time, the two of them have become really good friends, and enjoy being silly girls together. Most of Caroline’s good friends have embraced Sahar as well, and it’s so neat to see all of them together, just being girls.

This blog has been a topic of discussion between Sara and me recently, mainly because of my delay in posting new entries. In general, Sara finds it funny that I am the blog author, since I, of all our family members, probably spend the least amount of time with Sahar. However, let me be clear in stating that Sara has full access and permission to post to this blog, also. Regardless, she’s not posting – and it actually all goes back to a fateful night in our marriage at least 10 years ago, when Sara was finishing her MBA and asked me to proofread a paper for her. I think I made some comments about her writing style, etc…you get the picture.

Sometimes I worry that Sahar thinks our family watches too much TV, because when we’re at home, the TV is often on. That’s simply what happens when you have three children who each have different preferences on TV programming, and they each hope to get to watch one of their shows each day. So, Sahar is taking in a good bit of Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, and some girly Disney Channel shows.

I wish I could read Sahar’s mind and know what she thinks about this experience with us – I mean, what she really thinks… Does she think we do too much or do too little? Is she immensely happy here, or is she homesick? I would love to be a fly on the wall when she returns to Afghanistan and first speaks with her friends and family.

More updates soon…

Bryan