Look! A diversion!

Last week we were on our way to church, all piled into one large Uber, when we saw a big sign with flashing lights proclaiming: DIVERSION!! →

"Look!" I whispered to Miriam. "A diversion!"

"Where?!" she gasped, playing along.

One of the oldest tropes in the book. Unfortunately, I was too slow to take a picture.

What it really was doing, of course, was pointing out a detour route.

*****

Miriam was called as the ward pianist on Friday morning. She's the first one in the family with a calling! 

And it's pretty good timing, too, because we just got Miriam's organ manuals set up! Her pedalboard will soon be on its way from Germany. We shipped them to our friend's house because...we don't have a permanent address yet...and they brought them along with them when they dropped Zoë and Alexander off after their sleepover (Wednesday to Thursday). They arrived a lot sooner than I thought they would, all things considered.

Here's Phoebe helping to open the box:

And here's Miriam playing a song after she and Andrew got the computer system all set up:

Our church building only has an electric piano, but we're hoping we can get her some practice time on a real pipe organ. Some other friends of ours attend a church in church city that has an organ, so it's possible she'd be allowed to practice there on occasion. 

We're working on getting a (used) piano but it's...proving trickier than I'd hoped. 

Update: We got a piano! The first piano I was hoping for was sold before we committed a pick up time, but immediately after that another piano person I'd messaged (like a week ago) finally messaged me back. It was actually the very same piano for the very same price, but in much better condition. This second family had moved here just before the, uh, conflict...and decided not to return after evacuating. So they had only used the piano a few times before they left (the pedals were still in bubblewrap and everything). As it happened, the father of the family was arriving in Qatar on Saturday afternoon to work on emptying out the apartment a bit so if I could arrange for pick up Saturday evening the piano would be ours.

Luckily, a friend in the ward had offered us the use of their vehicle. They actually just went and picked up the piano for us and dropped it off at the hotel, which was very kind.

The kids have been loving (and fighting over) practicing the piano again!

*****

Our numbers at church continue to swell. When we arrived at the beginning of August, attendance was still paltry. Many families were still away for the summer (or even longer, having been evacuated), but they're slowly trickling back in. 

Benjamin and Miriam are amazed at how many youth there are. 

The primary still feels somewhat small. Zoë and Alexander are both currently the only children their age. 

Phoebe was alone the first week as well—in fact, there were so few kids that all the primary children met together in the same class! But they're splitting into classes now. And today a family with three little girls sat behind us and they were all very interested in Phoebe. They started passing her stickers to put on her drawings, which was quite cute, and then right after the closing prayer one of the little girls said to me, "Can Phoebe come inside my house?"

"She is very interested having Phoebe come over to play," her mother explained (this family is from Finland). 

"Are you the same age as me?" the girl asked Phoebe. "I'm four!"

"Then...yes!" Phoebe said, delighted. "I am also four!"

She just invited Phoebe to her birthday party next month (like, in September).

It sounds like we might still have a few kids yet to arrive, so things are looking up in that department!

*****

The youth went bowling for their first youth activity, which Miriam and Benjamin reported was fun. They're excited for their activity this coming week as well!