My Giz

When Micah and I first got married we had my childhood dog, Rusty.  In our first month of marriage my 14 year old yorkie passed away.  I was so sad!  Micah decided the cure to my crying would be for us to get another dog.  I researched breeds and one day we went to a breeder and looked at her puppies.  Micah instantly fell in love with Gizmo.  I was looking at other dogs and playing with them but Micah only had eyes for Gizmo.

Gizmo has been a great puppy and our first "child" for the last 6 years. He has moved around Houston and across the world with us. Recently, Micah and I made the decision to send Gizmo back to the USA to live with his Sperling grandparents.  It was a difficult decision and we are going to miss our Gizmo puppy so very much!  We  are concerned that with Gizmo's age and his tendency to freak out in his cage that he wouldn't safely make the flight home in a few more years.  Plus, we aren't sure where we would have to leave Gizmo when we go on vacation in Doha.  Here in Saudi we have been blessed with so many great friends who have been willing to keep him while we are gone.  We aren't sure about our situation in Doha and the idea of leaving him in a kennel for 3+ weeks isn't something we wanted.  So, all that being said, I made the arrangements and put Gizmo on a flight to the USA.  It was really hard to say goodbye but I know he is going to a great home and will be very spoiled! Micah's parents are excited to have a pup in the house and will love Gizmo just as much as we do. Of course we will still get to see him when we visit.

Here we are on the way to the vet to drop Gizmo off.  We didn't want to have to deal with any of the Saudi customs and such so we paid the vet clinic to take care of that.

Luckily, we were able to get Gizmo back to the USA while Micah was home.  Even though it was hard for me to send Giz off alone I was happy Giz would have a familiar face on the other side.
Here he is, safe on the other side.

We will miss you Gizmo!

Picture Day

D-day is getting closer.  Micah and I realized that today was most likely his last day off without a baby.  How crazy is that?  Doctor is wanting to induce next Saturday, June 16.  I have an appointment this Wednesday and am assuming he won't change his mind.  Micah and I's Mom's will be here Thursday night, June 14 so they better get over jet-lag quickly.  I can't believe we are so close to meeting our little boy. 


Since I know the day is coming in a week (or less if Jacob decides he's ready) I decided I wanted some pictures before baby.  I forced Micah to get dressed and we went out on the compound for no reason except to take pictures.  He was a really good sport!

 Of course I had to get a picture of our fur child as well.  

5 Years!

Can you believe it? Micah and I have been married 5 years today.  I don't know why 5 seems like the magical finally made it past the "newlywed" stage but it does.  What's funny is that after 5 years I feel like we actually have each other "figured out" and now we are about to throw a baby in there and mess it all up again :)

What a great 5 years we have had.  We started out with a fabulous wedding followed by a romantic honeymoon.

After all the hoopla we moved into our first tiny apartment in League City, TX.

Then we adopted our first child. The fur ball we named Gizmo. What a cutie.

Finally we made the big move (actually before our 1 year anniversary) and bought a house! This one was technically in Houston but it's the north Clear Lake area.

During our time in Houston we made some wonderful friends, had a church that we loved, and enjoyed our home. We traveled the Caribbean and New York City. But then after 3 years of marriage and living in Houston our marriage was moved to Saudi Arabia.  Once again we were back in an apartment.

After 2 years in Saudi we have traveled the world, made life-long friends, continued to love on Gizmo, and once again moved from an apartment to a "house".  In 5 years of marriage we have lived in 4 different homes. The walls around us don't matter because as long as I'm with Micah I am home.

I feel so blessed to have such an amazing husband that makes each move and change easy and fun.  I'm blessed to have someone to share such great adventures with and someone who enjoys the adventures as much as I do. I can't wait to see what THIS next adventure in life will bring:

New Place for our New Baby

When we first moved to Saudi we moved into an apartment on our compound.  This is the living arrangements the company gave us since we didn't have any kids.  Since we found out we were pregnant the company moved us to a bigger place on the compound where Jacob will have more room and now Gizmo has a yard!  I was having a hard time imagining having to take Gizmo out on walks and get Jacob's stuff (car seat, stroller, etc.) up and down the apartment every day so the move was a huge blessing.   So, here is our new place.  It's still a work in process but I'm feeling pretty settled.


This is our "extra" sitting area that will one day become more of a play room.  Notice the changing table in the corner. 

Dinning Area

Entryway with Abaya hanger and bag hanger. It's looking into the kitchen

Downstairs bath

Living room

Backyard 

View from back porch.  Giz is in the back corner.

Kitchen

Our bedroom

Our bathroom

And now what everyone's been asking me for...Pictures of Jacob's nursery!

This will be his "changing table" upstairs.
Eventually a changing pad will be there instead of the nap nanny.

Pictures aren't quite hung yet and not sure about this corner.
Again, a work in progress.

These pictures will be hung over the crib.
These are pictures I took on our Safari that we had put on canvas.
I LOVE them!

There you have it. When we finish Jacob's nursery I will post updated pictures but that won't happen until my Mom gets here to help.  

Reunited and it Feels so Good!

At last Gizmo has made it to Saudi Arabia!  He had a pretty crazy journey to get here and I'm sure he didn't appreciate the ride but we are so happy to have him here.  It was definitely a process getting him here with us.  As you may or may not know, Saudi's do not like dogs and they don't make it easy to get one into the country. Let me start from the beginning. 

At first, I thought I could do all this for Gizmo on my own.  Then I started researching and realized, NO WAY!  There are so many forms and time restraints AND some have to be done in Arabic.  So I began searching for a "pet moving" company.  I talked to many different companies and started getting an idea of price (whoa!) and what each company would do for us.  I finally settled on "Animal Land Pet movers".  Let me just say, it was not cheap but now looking back it was totally worth it.  

The first steps were getting Gizmo's shot records the way that Saudi's would want them.  He HAD to have a rabies shot less than one year from entering Saudi and more than 30 days before.  Then we had to get his air safe carrier and start getting him used to it.  Once this part was done there was nothing else we could do until 30 days before departure.  

After all the waiting, it turned out that Gizmo didn't get to leave Houston as soon as we wanted him to.  The pet movers were having a hard time getting an airline to agree to take Gizmo because of the temperatures in Houston and in Saudi.  We finally got one to take him.  Gizmo flew on Lufthansa airlines. But by this time Micah and I had already left for Saudi so I left my wonderful Mom with lots of things to do.  Luckily I have a great Mom and she took care of everything.  

First Mom had to get Gizmo to a USDA certified vet to sign off that Gizmo was safe and healthy.  The funny part is that the vet also had to sign a form saying that Gizmo was being brought to Saudi for "guard dog" purposes.  Doesn't little Gizzie look like a "guard dog"?!  

Not only do all of these forms have to be filled out and signed but Gizmo also had to arrive in Saudi within 10 days of the signature! Stressful! After trying to find a vet that had everything we needed it dawned on me.....I have an Aunt that is a vet!  And it just so happened that my parents were going to be in Oklahoma during the time frame needed for Gizmo to see the vet. Thanks to my wonderful Aunt Sandra for taking care of his papers.  After they were all signed Mom had to overnight them to the Oklahoma Department of Ag.  They had to sign them and overnight them to Washington D.C. to the U.S. department of Ag.  Then they were overnighted back to Houston.  CRAZY!  And I thought I could do this on my own ;)

After some set-backs and stressful days on me, my mom, Micah, Gizmo, and the pet movers, Gizmo finally left the ground headed for Saudi.  48 hours later he was safe and sound in our arms!

He passed out on the car ride home.

Giz was so excited to see his new apartment and we are so excited to have him in it.  It finally feels like home again!

Gizmo's travel accommodations. 

Thanks so much to Micah for paying for our pet movers, Mom for taking care of the final stressful parts, Aunt Sandra for signing the papers, the pet movers for getting everything done and getting him here safely, Riyadh vet for getting him through customs with no problems, and Gizmo for surviving the trip!