A Year in Cairo (Heaven on Earth?)

We've been in Cairo for a year. I know, weird. Right? One year in Cairo to recover from one year in Pakistan.

The Pakistan year was hard in surprising ways. It had an echo. One year is enough time to completely reset habits. I was a bachelor returning to a wife and children. I think they call that reverse culture shock. I got mad for totally illogical reasons more than a few times.

But all that is gone. We're settled in nicely. Katie and I just agreed to run the American expat Cub Scouts program in the area next year. I just ordered a scout belt with a really big scout logo belt buckle. Yep. I did that.

We're coaching in all the leagues. Katie is on something like three thousand committees at the school. Thankfully, they all have super brief ALL DAY meetings (!). We're involved and loving it (except did I mention about the ALL DAY meetings?).

My kids grew up this year. Yeah, yeah, they grow up every year. But this is different. They grew up. They're, like, mature and stuff. Maddie still asks for help preparing cold cereal for breakfast (?), but she turned the corner in all kinds of other ways. She gets stuff. Long gone are the days of free-speaking "grown up" conversations in front of the kids. She knows everything that is going on.

Maddie also turned the corner in baseball this week. All at once the rules and the nuance all clicked. She turned to me at practice and said, "Wait, I just have to tag the base because the runner has no where else to go." The game clicked. For the rest of practice, I no longer had to give her any tips about where to stand, where to throw, when to go for the ball versus cover the base. She got it.

Then she asked if she could stay after and throw the ball around with me. Um, that's a yes. I've been waiting nine years for her to ask me that. And she turned the corner in throwing as well. From 30 feet, she was throwing right into my chest, with heat. Afterward, she announced her new goal of playing for BYU's softball team. Like it was Father's Day or something. I have no need of heaven. I've got paradise right here in dirty, dusty, noisy Cairo.