Can you conceive of something more random?

Eating kosher ice cream on the border of the Gaza Strip with 3 children from Iraq who just had open heart surgery and their mothers... That's 4 or 5 levels of randomness on one occasion, and yet this seems to have become typical of my daily experience working with Shevet! I think it partly explains the decrease in my frequency of blogging in the last week or so. What 3 weeks ago would have been a tremendous parting from the customary has become normal in my routine; to such a degree that it did not occur to me until hours later that I am probably the only person in history that could truthfully utter such a phrase. I can't post for a while about a couple things I've been doing though I'd really like to.

Arazoo went in for her surgery yesterday and should be on the road to recovery (more on Arazoo later). I'm going to the hospital tomorrow morning to take 3 of our children in for their final echocardiograms. If they show everything normal they will be on their way home to Iraq in a week or two. It's interesting to see how excited they were, for many, going to Iraq would be a nightmare.

At last weeks echocardiogram for Azhin (the one in the red jacket covered in icecream) for example after just a short time in the doctor's office, Azhin and her mother emerged with big smiles. Azhin's mother doesn't speak English but she understands when the doctor says, "Very good!" Azhin's mother repeated to me "Very good!" and was visibly excited as she used hand motions to explain to me they could go back to Iraq soon. She motioned to her wrist and said "Monday" (when the final echocardiogram is scheduled) and then made her hands like an airplane taking off and said "shooom! to Iraq!" with a huge smile. Azhin and her mom called back home to tell their family the good news.