The Ziebell Family

09/10/2023

❄️ Welcome to the South Pole Station, Antarctica.

06/10/2023

A partial, faint sun dog appeared at the South Pole today!

05/10/2023

It's amazing how we can always find a way to be in two places at the same time. It seems the farther away we travel, the more we want to be back in the places we've left.

04/10/2023

From Erbil to Istanbul, we've come such a long way. Nothing could be done without you by my side. Here's to all the places we still have yet to go and all the years we still have yet to live and love with each other.

30/09/2023

Off to Istanbul we go. Four years together packed into a few bags. Two children, one family. One wife, one husband. Just trying to make it together. Photo taken on 14
March 2021 at the Erbil International Airport.

At the passport line to get our exit stamps I'll never forget the immigration officer and what he said to us. He flagged us, but politely said that "we had a strange story" in Kurdish. Indeed it is different, our uniqueness fueling our togetherness.

28/09/2023

The day our lives changed forever. The proposal of Zane to Paria in Erbil International Airport. 💍♾️❤️ Video taken 18 November 2018 by .hornby

28/09/2023

🇹🇷 The Hagia/Aya Sophia in Istanbul, Türkiye. Built by Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD. The building is said to have changed the history of architecture and was the center of Christianity in the world for nearly 1,000 years. Converted into a mosque by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror, the current building is the last of three churches built on the site. The Aya Sophia remains a mosque today and is free to enter outside of prayer times.

🇹🇷 ̇stanbul

28/09/2023

Aurora Australis or the "southern lights" at the South Pole, Antarctica 💚 Photo taken by Zane on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 11:07 New Zealand time.

26/09/2023

There is little we cannot do. 🇺🇸

24/09/2023

Kartal, Istanbul - June 2022 🐮

̇stanbul

24/09/2023

You've been the clarity that has gotten me through the 2023 winter season at the South Pole. I'm very much looking forward to making up for lost time and waking up with you three in the same time zone as you!

̇stanbul

22/09/2023

Aziz (left) and Deniz (front right) are definitely best friends. Both were rescued as kittens from Istanbul's Anatolian side. They're both very sweet and our family loves them very much.

🐱🐱

20/09/2023

The sun is almost back after a long absence. The glowing rays on the horizon offer hope and a reminder that nothing lasts forever.

20/09/2023

The sun is truly the herald of change at the South Pole, Antarctica.

bottomoftheworld

18/09/2023

✝️ ☪️ As parents, we are beyond thrilled that our children have had the opportunity to grow and live out the first years of their lives in such an ancient, historic, and significant city in today's world. Being a train ride away from a place like the Aya Sophia, the world's largest church and center of Christianity for a thousand years, is truly incredible, and humbling. Darien was too small to go to the Aya Sophia like Raelyn did in 2022, but we will take him once daddy Zane gets home from the South Pole.

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18/09/2023

The bond of brother and sistes, sibling, that person you grew up with, is something powerful and special. I spent so much time with Raelyn and Darien in this part of one of our apartments in Umraniye before I left for Erbil for a job. I cherish these moments and remember them fondly and with warmth in these cold days at the South Pole. - Zane

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🇹🇷 🇹🇷

15/09/2023

The honor and privelege to be the husband and father behind this photo is something that would take more than words to express and show.

Photo taken in Istanbul, Turkey in March of 2021 in between Zane's time in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

🌼

14/09/2023

🌅 Nothing for hundreds and hundreds of miles.

Nothing but cold, wind, ice, and death. To our knowledge there are no animals, no plants, and absolutely no life save for microbes on the Antarctic plateau. This area sits at an elevation of 9,800 feet on average, and about 9,300 where I am standing. The entire plateau has a diameter of roughly 600 miles and includes the South Pole. This is hostile, deadly, austere, remote, and alien terrain. This is what I imagine being on another planet might feel like. We call this area, "The End of the World."

Photo taken 14 September 2023, one week before sunrise on 21 September.

antarctica

14/09/2023

For most of your life I've been in far away places. I hope one day you will forgive me for all of the precious moments I have missed. Your mother has taken up the mantle and has raised a beautiful, strong, and smart girl and daddy is so proud. As tears fall from my cheeks thinking of you, your little brother, and our family being together again I know that you will always put all of the color in my world and without you there'd only be shades of black and white. 🌼

🇹🇷

14/09/2023

🇹🇷 İstanbul, Türkiye - one of the last photos we got as a familly before Zane's deployment to the South Pole Station in Antarctica. Thise days were haunting, exciting - that haunting feeling before the big unknown.

And while I am due back in less than two months, yes, I should have been home yesterday.
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̇stanbul

14/09/2023

🌅 The sun is rising at the South Pole Station, Antarctica. I plan on letting my family shave my beard when I come back to Istanbul so my wife and children can re-discover the face they last saw in person in July of 2022.

12/09/2023

Zane and Paria

No matter where we've lived or where we have gone, loving animals has been a central theme in our lives. From dogs to cats to ducks to chickens - we've loved them all and have always cherished the value of treating animals well, helping them, and trying to give them a warm place to sleep at night.

🐶🐱🦆🐔

Picture from August 2017, Zane and Paria in Erbil, Iraq.

12/09/2023

🐱🐱 Aziz and Deniz 🇹🇷

Aziz, the full grown tabby, was rescued from Maltepe Park on Istanbul's Asian Side on 11 July 2022. He is Raelyn and Darien's first cat. Aziz is incredibly sweet and tolerable of the kids. He does not scratch or bite them. He lets them pick him up and hold him and loves when they pet him. He also loves to jump up on your chest from a chair or even the ground.

Deniz, the little black and white kitten sleeping with Aziz, is also a rescue from the Ataşehir area in Istanbul. She was found hungry and weak, covered in fleas, and she had one eye closed shut from the puss of a small infection. We took her to the vet and she is all healthy now, growing bigger and stronger every day.
She's become incredibly close with Aziz, playing, learning, and even teaching Aziz how to eat dry cat food better. Den Den, her nickname, was named by Raelyn. She has blue eyes and is also sweet and tolerable of the kids when they pick her up and hold her. They will come with us to the United States when we leave Istanbul.

🐾

11/09/2023

📍 The Ceremonial South Pole - Antarctica

🗓️ 11 September 2023

📣 The sun is due to break the horizon after six long months on 21 September. This photo brings out the incredible blue that paints the icescape here on the polar plateau at 9,301 feet elevation. The temperature outside during this photo was -46 Fahrenheit with low winds.

10/09/2023

🇺🇸 ◾️ 11 September 2017

Paria took this photo of Zane in their apartment in Erbil, Iraq on 11 September 2017, 16 years after the attacks on the United States, and the free world, perpetrated by al-Qaeda. Every year the Ziebell Family remembers the tragedy of 9/11. Join us in a moment of silence today as we remember the infamous and sad day that changed the world forever.

🌹

#911

10/09/2023

I'll be kissing you guys' cheeks for what will likely be a long long time. 😘

Thank you for giving me two more sets of cheeks to kiss. I love you all to the moon and back. - Daddy Zane
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10/09/2023

🇹🇷 🇮🇶 Paria and Zane summer of 2017 on the Iraqi side of the Turkish-Iraqi border in Northern Iraq.
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09/09/2023

28 March 2020. Our life was just starting out together with Raelyn during the initial stages of the Covid Pandemic. From Erbil to Istanbul, our life has been full of beautiful moments such as this one that we are thankful for and humbled to have had.
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08/09/2023

They Don't Love You Like I Love You

🇹🇷 Left, Paria in Istanbul and 🇦🇶 Zane on the right, in an LC-130 headed to the South Pole, Antarctica.

#پریاوزین #قطب جنوب #دلتنگی #استانبول عشق #
#غربت

🇹🇷

08/09/2023

9 September 2023 - In less than two months, the Ziebell Family will be reunited. Our current views of the world couldn't look any more different. Left - Istanbul, Turkey. Right - South Pole, Antarctica.

Zane - Shape of my Heart: In June 2022 I finished up my physical qualification (PQ) packet at the Hisar Hospital in Istanbul. Changing trains to get on the Marmaray line and head back to Kartal, a man was playing music and singing Shape of My Heart by Sting on the platform in between the lines. I vividly remebember the moment, and knowing in a short month I'd be gone from my family for a very long time. As the man kept singing, I gave him 10 Turkish Lira and boarded the Marmaray line headed to Pendik.

̇stanbul 🇹🇷 🇹🇷

08/09/2023

🌅 🇦🇶 8 September 2023 - Zane, our family leader and provider, has been at the South Pole for 297 days. The sun is slowly returning, bringing with it these incredible twilight views. Today was also the start of Civil Twilight at the South Pole, the last period of twilight before the sunrise on 21 September. The sun set at the South Pole on 23 March earlier this year.

07/09/2023

🌅 A Ziebell Family Sunrise ❄️

Our view on 7 September 2023, from opposite end of the Earth. Paria and the kids in warm and sunny Istanbul enjoy a daily sunrise as Zane awaits a once-a-year sunrise at the South Pole, Antarctica after months of no sun light

The beauty of both views is stunning but a reminder that we are seemingly worlds apart.

🇹🇷

01/06/2022

25/07/2021

Having a delicious seafood lunch in Beykoz!
̇stanbul

24/07/2021

Afternoon shower in Istanbul, Turkey - July 2021

21/07/2021

سوراخ چانه ش 😍

21/07/2021

دختر شجاع

15/07/2021

Heading out! Elevator time ⏰
̇stanbul 🇹🇷

15/07/2021

🇹🇷Turkish flags everywhere! 🇹🇷
̇stanbul 🇹🇷

15/07/2021

Having fun with two under two in Uskudar 💙
̇stanbul 🇹🇷