They're here!!!

Sorry for the lack of posting. My parents made it here safe and sound and the last 4 days we've been busy, busy, busy. Here's a quick update for you . . .


We had fun eating cookies and drinking tea on the balcony



We played at a bunch of different parks because the weather was so nice.



Vienna walking with Pop-pop.



Giggling with Mom-mom





We took my Mom and Dad to see Ephesus . . . it was a great time of year to go, the weather was cooler and there were hardly any other tourists.



the stadium




Mom and Dad sitting on the steps in the stadium

view from the top of the stadium

I love this picture of my Dad with the library in the background

the Celsus Library

Merry Christmas from the Hildebrands

hey, at least 2 out of 4 of us are smiling and looking at the camera :)

In 4 days . . .

. . . my parents are coming to Turkey!!! I am sooooooo excited that they are actually getting on a plane and flying halfway around the world to come see us. This is a huge deal for them; they don't travel a lot . . . they must really love us ;)

Can you please keep them in your prayers? They are a bit nervous about flying, but we wrote them a step-by-step instruction guide for navigating the airports (since we're experts by now) so I think they'll be fine. We told them it should be a piece of cake, especially since they aren't traveling with small children.

I think back on our flight here and do not have very fond memories. I remember trying to juggle two sleeping children and 4 carry-ons between Joel and myself as we ran through the airport in London to make our connecting flight to Turkey. Our double stroller was supposed to be waiting for us when we got off the plane in London, but got checked with the rest of our luggage instead. Not cool! It would have been SO helpful to have that stroller since we had to book it to make our flight.

Anyway, my parents will will leave JFK airport on Friday morning and arrive in Turkey on Saturday afternoon to spend Christmas and New Years with us. YAY!

And just for fun, here's a picture of my family from that last time we were together, which was last Christmas.

We will miss you Jordan and Rachael and little Eve!

Pajama Party

Today was a rainy and cold stay-in-your-pjs kind of day, so that is precisely what we did! We stayed inside and had fun snuggling, laughing, singing and dancing.


Here's Vienna in her cute polka-dotted footie pjs



I tried to get a picture of Colson in his jammies, but he never stops moving. Most of the pictures I have of him, he's just one big blur. And I'm not sure why he looks so sad in the picture. Oh well.



Lovin' on each other :)



"Look what I can do Mom"



My girl



Colson being silly





Haha, I love how Vienna is pinching Colson's cheek in this one



I love this one even though it's blurry. Vienna was going in for a kiss (she still gives open-mouthed kisses) although it looks like she's trying to eat Colson's head. So funny!

It was a fun day.

The End!

Wordless Wednesday

Best Friends

It is such a neat thing for me, as a mom, to see how much my kids really do love each other. Colson and Vienna are about 20 months apart and they have such a special friendship with one another. It has been an amazing thing to witness it grow and develop as they get bigger.

Colson is fiercely protective of Vienna and he doesn't like when someone he doesn't know comes anywhere close to her. Whenever we're at the park and other Turks are oohing and aahing over Vienna, Colson protests rather loudly.

As soon as Colson hears Vienna wake up from her morning nap, he goes running for her room and is just so excited to see her! Vienna loves mommy and daddy, but no one can get her laughing quite like Colson. She adores her big brother.

Colson loves to help Vienna walk, she just started a couple weeks ago and is still a little unsteady on her feet. He's always encouraging her and helping her by holding her hand. It's just the cutest little thing you will ever see!

Of course there are days when they just don't get along AT ALL! Sometimes Colson will come up to Vienna when she's walking and push her over for no apparent reason except that he's bigger and he can.

And then there's lunchtime, when the 3 of us enjoy a peaceful lunch together listening to my sister's beautiful CD of piano music (let me know if you're interested, her CD would make a great Christmas present for someone special) in the background. Or not!

Lunchtime usually consists of Vienna yelling at the top of her lungs just because she knows it drives her brother crazy, then Colson responding with a loud and emphatic "Hayır!" (which means "no" in Turkish) which makes Vienna scream all the more loudly. Seriously, this girl has a set of lungs! And I won't even mention the amount of food that somehow bypasses their mouths and ends up on the floor! Yup, that's my lunchtime - loud and messy. I gave up a long time ago wondering what the neighbors think of us.

Yes, these are my kids and I love them very much! Even though they don't always get along, I am so thankful when I see them loving, sharing and helping each other out. It is quite a beautiful thing!

P.S. Sorry about the shameless advertisement plug there. But my sister has recorded a beautiful CD of Christmas music and I enjoy it and think you will too :)

Rich

My world view is changing, that's the beauty of living in another culture.

When we first landed in Turkey we had no idea where we would live. Stepping off that plane and into the unknown was a scary feeling, but we were trusting God to provide homes for our families. And provide He did!

We found an apartment on our 2nd day here and we were all moved in by the next weekend. It really was a miracle considering things don't usually happen that fast here. We were in survival mode for a few months just trying to get by. Simple things like going to the grocery store become a daunting task when you live in a foreign country and don't know the language yet.

By the grace of God we survived our first couple of months here and by the summer we really did feel like our family was thriving and that Turkey was becoming our home. We were learning Turkish and our neighbors had become great friends.

Things were getting comfortable. Then God began stirring up some things in our hearts. We began seeing over and over again in God's Word the commands to help the poor (not like they weren't there before, but we were missing it). We. were. challenged. Really, what were we doing to help the poor? What were we doing to help the "least of these?" God used some verses out of Isaiah 58 to speak to our hearts.

Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

Let me tell you something: we are rich! Of course, when we first moved to Turkey we didn't think we were rich. But living in Turkey has opened up our eyes to how blessed we are and how selfish we were being. We were not being good stewards of the things God has given us. God began giving us more of a global perspective and it has truly changed us.

Really, how do we define rich? Is it how much money we have in our bank accounts? What kind of car we drive? The kind of clothes we wear? How big our house is? How often we can afford to eat out?

I think not. We are rich because we won't die from a preventable disease because we don't have access to health care. We are rich because we don't have to worry about where our next meal is coming from. We are rich because we have clean water to drink; we don't have to walk for miles to find water that could potentially be contaminated and make us sick. We are rich because we have always had a bed to sleep in and a warm house when it's cold outside. We are rich because we actually own a car. We.are.so.rich!

Another verse that really affected us was Isaiah 58:10 - "And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light shine in the darkness and your obscurity and gloom will become like the noonday."

That verse hit us hard! God was showing us where He wants us to give from - He is asking us to give from that which we sustain our own lives with, not whatever we have left over after all our needs are met. If you read previous verses in Isaiah 58, it talks about fasting which is really interesting. It shows the kind of fasting God wants us to have. It's talking about a lifestyle of fasting. So how can you have a lifestyle of fasting?

Let's be honest, if you want to help the poor it's uncomfortable, time consuming and sometimes dangerous - a big step outside of my box. So I see that as our fasting. Fasting makes us uncomfortable. We seek and trust God more in those times. The best part about the whole deal is when you see the last half of verse ten - "then shall your light shine in the darkness and your obscurity and gloom will become like the noonday."

Sounds like God is giving us a promise that when we care about the poor and the things that are on His heart, "our light will shine in the darkness."

5 for 5

Did you know that today is World AIDS Day? I'll admit, I didn't know much about AIDS before we started this adoption process, but I have been learning SO much.

6,500 people will die today as a result of AIDS.

6,000 of those people will leave children behind.

Those children will join the 15 million children that have lost parents to this treatable disease.

2.3 million children in the world are infected with HIV.

Without treatment, it is estimated that 50% of HIV+ children in resource-poor settings will die by the age of two.

These are overwhelming numbers and it seems impossible to make a difference. But I will tell you how you can; there is something YOU can do to help. Do you have an extra $5 to give? You have a chance to give $5 for 5 days to help HIV+ orphans around the world. Please visit From HIV to Home to help out! You can make a difference.

"We ♥ Tooshies" Photo Challenge

Today is "We ♥ Tooshies" day over at I heart faces. I love this picture of Colson at the beach this past summer. We live about an hour from some of the.most.beautiful.beaches! I just love the clear blue water in this picture and Colson's stance as he's getting ready to jump the next wave :)



Go check out some more fun tooshie pictures over at I love faces!

I had a date today . . .

with this little stud!


We had a tea party on the balcony. Yes, my son loves to have tea parties! Colson isn't taking a nap everyday anymore, so on the days he doesn't nap we get to spend some one-on-one time together while Vienna is sleeping. I love it! Colson's "tea" was really just hot water with a little honey in it, but he loved drinking it in our çay glasses.

Weekend happenings

Boy, what a weekend! It was busy, but lots of fun.

On Friday night Adam and Melanie and Joel and I hosted some of our Turkish friends for dinner at our house. I was nervous because Mel and I tried our best to make some of our favorite Turkish dishes and I wanted everything to be just right.

This is Kuru Fasulye; I forgot to take a picture of my finished product, so here is one via google. It's a white bean and meat dish. You serve it with rice and it is SO yummy!



Mel made Patlıcan ve Köfte, which is like a meatball dish with eggplant. It was also delicious! I love me some Turkish cookin'

Our friends came over at 8pm, which is normally Colson and Vienna's bedtime. I put Vienna to bed before they came, but Colson and the rest of his cousins got to stay up late and have fun and even eat some cookies.

Everything turned out great and our friends all liked it (at least I think they did). The only awkward moment was when they asked us if the meat was pork. I'm not sure where they thought we would have bought pork, but we reassured them it was beef and all was good :)

I was also nervous because it was a night of only speaking in Turkish. Ahhhhh! I feel like I can understand a lot of what is being said to me, but trying to think fast enough to formulate an intelligible sentence in response is so hard!

But no one said learning this language was going to be easy, it's actually quite humbling. And because we're living in another culture, I'm constantly worrying about if I'm doing something the right way or saying something the right way. But it was a fun evening and our friends are already trying to plan our next get together!

Melanie and Adam actually spent the whole weekend at our house. It was lots of fun! We played at the park with the kids, ate lots of leftovers (we made WAY too much), prayed together, talked a lot, laughed a lot and broke up a lot of fights - between the kids of course ;-)

Our kids ages are 5, 3.5, 2.5, 22 months and 13 months, so there's always lots of craziness when we're together.

Here's all the kids in our van, affectionately called "Big Blue"




This is my oldest niece, Joanna.



Colson absolutely LOVES Joanna, she's so motherly towards him.




This is my nephew, Andy. Colson and Andy are only 9 months apart. They don't always get along well, but I think they will in a year or two.




This is my niece Katie who is exactly 9 months older than Vienna.






After Adam and Mel left we decided to scour the city and try to find a Christmas tree, not such an easy find in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas. But we succeeded, thank you Ikea!

Joel and I put the Christmas tree together, listened to Christmas music, drank hot chocolate and ate cookies while the kids napped. The kids had so much fun looking at the tree (and trying to touch it) when they woke up from their naps. Now I have my work cut out for me trying to keep Vienna away from it for the next month!

We finished off our afternoon by taking a trip to the local bazaar and bought our fresh fruits and veggies for the week and then came home and made homemade pizza! The kids get so excited about pizza and love, love, love to watch it bake in the oven!

Since Colson had a nap today he got to stay up a little bit later than Vienna. He knows that on the nights he stays up late we make popcorn. He looks forward to it so much and can hardly wait for Vienna to get to bed. He keeps asking her, "Vienna, can you go to bed?" We make it on the stove top and he has a blast watching it pop!

Now Vienna is fast asleep and I am sitting on the couch relaxing beside my two boys, one of whom is fast asleep, can you guess which one??? : -)