lucky us

preface: sort of a stream of thought post- forgive me. 

Growing up, my mom was always very good at recognizing and, in a way, celebrating holidays.  She goes to town with the big holidays like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, but she still did (and does) a little something for the smaller ones like St. Patrick's Day.  Nothing too fancy, we of course had something green to wear to school, probably corned beef and cabbage for dinner, and I remember a few times waking up to green milk in the fridge that she claimed the leprechauns dyed in the middle of the night.

We had our own little visits from the leprechauns here in Dubai, only they left the milk alone and went straight for my children's faces.  Ivy and Canyon both have green coming out of their noses and the not-quite-green-but-yellow-ish goopy eyes.  Thanks a lot leprachauns!  I would have preferred food coloring in the milk.

So we spent much of the afternoon at the doctor.  Asher came along too- although his nose and eyes are fine. We got a list of purchases for the pharmacy, and heights and weights on all of the kids. Asher is 1 meter tall and Ivy weighs 2.7 kgs LESS than Asher (this was a surprise to us), and Canyon has gained approx. 1 kg since birth.*

The doctor was wonderful.  So nice, so close to home (an easy walk from our house to her office), and very thorough.  Since we were her last patients of the day, and the baby needed to eat, I nursed Canyon and talked some more with our doctor about non-doctor/patient stuff.  We talked about where we were both from, why we moved here, what we miss about home, etc.   Seemingly normal stuff, but because she is Iraqi (and only recently moved from there), our conversation touched on a lot more things that the basics and therefor was not just "normal".  She left Iraq and moved here just over 5 years ago.  I remember the US entering Iraq while John and I were on our honeymoon.  We'll be celebrating 6 years next week, that means, whoa, she left after the war started. What was that like?  How?   

Does she have any ill feelings towards the United States?

or toward me because I am American?  

Does she want me to say I don't like Bush?

or that I didn't vote for Obama?  

Or vice-versa?  

Should we talk about the war?  

should we not?  

Should I say I'm sorry- I didn't make the decision?

Or should I feel proud that I'm a citizen of a nation that rescued her country from an evil dictator?  

I guess it all depends on how she feels. Oh boy, I wish I was better informed and really had a good solid stance on how I feel about every aspect of this war.  

I decided to tell her what I thought based upon what little I know and have read, despite what she might think of my answers.  But, I was also curious as to her feelings and her thoughts about what I think I know.  

Is it accurate?

While I realize that we didn't go to war to "rescue" Iraq from an evil dictator, we went first and foremost for other reasons, I am happy that we could save the Iraqi people from the terror of Suddam Hussein, and to be perfectly honest, after reading some of the stories of things he did.  I often wonder if getting him out of power could have ever been cause enough. Because what I have read sounds like terror.  Evil and terrible.

I asked if this opinion was valid and she acknowledged the great price that both countries have paid in this war, but that she felt Iraq is much, much, better off now than it was before the war (those were her words). That made me feel better. 

When reading about Iraq under the reign of Saddam, I often think of Hitler. 

Is it valid?  

Her opinion:  "Saddam was worse than Hitler".

In spite of the mistakes that have been made and the terrible cost in lives and in money as well as national moral and support.  It was nice to hear that in her opinion, Iraq is a better place now. 

This experience was another reminder for me to step up my game.  To be more informed, to understand my world enough to be confident in my opinions.  Not that everyone will agree with my opinions, but I will be confident in them because they are based on my own personal study.  

AND I was also reminded of how lucky (or more accurately- BLESSED), I am to be an American.  Blessed (and lucky) for sure!

and the kids should be feeling better soon.

*I haven't really converted to using the metric system yet, I just think it's funny.