My dear friend Abdul

Abdul, myself and sweet, sweet Saja. The search is on for Strawberry Shortcake in Arabic. Anyone got one? ;)

Luly waving Goodbye for now to Saja as we were transfered to the Immuno Comprimised Unit this afternoon.

The Iraqi man I mentioned before became my friend when I shook his hand and we've just become better friends everyday. He is accompanied by a beautiful, wonderful American soldier who has spent countless days here at the hospital by his daughter Saja's bedside. I'll call her St. T. She is a second mother to all his 6 children, they love her dearly. She has done 3 tours of duty in Iraq. She is such a hero on so many levels. And that is all I will say about her. :) Another hero in their story is Warrant Officer Russel Hayes of Idaho. He, being a father of a Little Person made it his mission with the help of Matt Roloff (Little People, Big World. TLC) to get this family out of Iraq and provide their 3 dwarf children with life saving surgeries as well as Abdul with his brain surgery around the corner. It would not have been detected without the intuition of Warrant Officer Hayes.

As I said before, Abdul speaks very little English and Arabic interpreters are only sent for important care meetings with Doctors and other experts. St. T doesn't speak Arabic although Abdul's children speak English very well, thanks to her. I know first hand as I spoke with 3 of them on the phone yesterday. So needless to say, it must be very hard for Abdul to have no one to talk to, no one to fully communicate with.

James and I put our heads together and thought...."who do we know that speaks Arabic?" Most Utahans would probably not know anyone but LUCKILY we do. One of James' clients and now a friend named Waleed is from the Middle East. With excitement we called him and within hours 2 Iraqi consulates were at the hospital meeting with Abdul. VICTORY! He now has visitors everyday. Tonight he will be dining on authentic Iraqi food and speaking in his own tongue to people that are familiar with him, his beliefs and culture. He's been surrounded. He deserves everything good that can come his way. Religious leaders will be meeting with him soon and allow the means for him to worship as he pleases.

This man is also a Hero. In Iraq he was asked by Al-Qaeda to help with their terrorism against American soldiers. He declined. They then offered him money. Declined again. Then they put him on a death list. He was able to find refuge for him and his family in a green zone, his nephew not being as lucky. Tortured and killed by AL-Qaeda for his non-cooperation. They were granted visas under the Specail Immigrant Program to the amazing US of A. His daughter Saja has made improvements in the last 24 hours. Please pray for her and his family as you all have for my LuLu and ours. Please take the time to look at the links below to get to know Abdul and his precious family better. Saja is now LuLu's first Little Friend, but hopefully not her last.

http://www.dwarfchildren.org/

www.facebook.com/pages/International-Dwarf-Advocacy-Association/239523298386?v=wall

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/little-people-big-world-meet-the-iraqi-family.html