Cross-cultural Kiddos attract attention!

Like most days/weeks here they are filled with mixed blessings. Yesterday, it seemed like all the kiddos were homesick for friends. 
Kiddo #1 misses her cousin and friends she met in Florida now living in Ohio. Kiddo #2 misses her Florida friend now living in Azerbaijan & her Kuwait friend now living in Canada. 
Kiddo #3 misses his friend from Kuwait now living in Florida & a friend from Florida now living in Azerbaijan. 
When they were little, they didn't miss friends as much when we moved from place to place. But as they have grown, so has the missing. It's not that they don't want to live here-they do-it's just that there are days when they miss friends from all around the world. Friends that are no longer living here. Friends that they met in Florida that have moved. Friends from Kuwait that are no longer there. Friends from here that have other friends now and don't have time to be their friend any more.
It's not easy being a cross-cultural kiddo. We can't just move to one place/country and keep everyone happy.

But today brought lots of smiles.
My Sweet took us all on a home school field trip to a BOOK FAIR! We love books. There are no public libraries here and since we are not in the private school system here we can't access the international school libraries. One of our kiddos won a Kindle a while back and so we can access books electronically. But, there is nothing quite like the feel of a book! We miss books. So today was a real treat.

It was our first time at this exhibition centre and so cool to see our country's flags represented.  
I have blogged about this before. We forget that we are foreigners here! We love to explore the city and see new things. We don't tend to hang out in the "expat" places. So today WE were the attraction! 

We arrived during the morning hours as we figured it would be less busy! As it turned out it was girls school day and there were bus loads of girls from local schools everywhere. As is usual, kiddo #3 was the centre of attention! School girls everywhere we coming up to him and touching his white skin and cooing over him! As a baby, this happened, but to an 8 year old boy it was a little shocking. He took it all in his stride and couldn't understand why all these girls were fussing over him!

These three girls in particular couldn't stay away from us. They wanted their photos taken with our family, but mostly they wanted to show off our boy kiddo to their families back in the village. We posed for photos with the everyone watching us!
The school girl on the left here asked to have her photo taken with our boy so she could show him off to her husband. Yes. Her husband.
I think our girls saw their lives with a new appreciation today. They got to come home with a new book and to a family where they have immense freedom.
I will never forget these three faces and the images of the thousand or so girls that we encountered today. They live a life we cannot even begin to imagine. 

The kiddos left the exhibition each with a new book. I have decided to stop calculating the Omani Rial back into Dollars-it's too depressing! They have been reading their new books with smiles on their faces. As the foreigners today, we ended up getting a few freebies. I love how things work out.

 They all came home with free t-shirts-a little reminder of one of our homes. Yes, we miss our friends from all around the world. But it is only because we had the joy of meeting such amazing people, that we miss them so. Today we smile as we think of our friends, the countries we have lived in and are thankful for the new friends we are beginning to connect with here.