About a week ago Joel decided to make a cheesecake. No, Joel does not usually bake; however it is a tradition for the men in the Hildebrand family to make cheesecake. And for some unknown reason it must be made late at night (why is that, Dad H?). We had to alter the recipe a little since you can't get all the ingredients to make cheesecake here in Turkey, but it was still yummy!
So anyway, this was Joel's second time making cheesecake, the first time he made it, we took some over for our neighbors to try and they LOVED it. Since then they've been asking us when we're going to make cheesecake again. They were also really impressed that Joel made it. So we told them the next time we make some cheesecake we'll have them over.
So I went over in the afternoon to talk to my neighbor and I invited them all to come over in the evening after her husband got home from work. He works really long hours and usually only gets home around 9:00. She said they were going out that evening but maybe they would stop by after they got back.
I thought that it would probably get too late and they wouldn't come. So Joel and I went to bed at 11:00 and a few minutes later we heard a knock on our door. We thought we would just ignore the door and they would think we were sleeping. After all, we were in our pajamas and it was late. But then they rang the doorbell. By the way, our doorbell is loud and rings to the tune of Beethoven's "Für Elise."
We thought we better get up and get dressed because they just might keep ringing and wake the kids up. So we got dressed as fast as we could and went and answered the door. They didn't even ask us if we had been sleeping because it was 11:00 and, for goodness sakes, no one in Turkey goes to bed at 11:00! Turks stay up so late, even the children. So we invited them in, along with their 10-year old daughter. I quickly ran in the kitchen and started some Turkish tea.
The husband just loves Vienna, so right away he wanted to go peek at her sleeping. Now Vienna is SUCH a light sleeper so as soon as we cracked open the door she was awake! So we got Vienna up because we knew there was no way she was going right back to sleep now that she was wide awake. We brought her out to the living room with us and their daughter had fun playing with her. They stayed till around 12:00 and we had fun drinking tea, eating cheesecake, talking and laughing. Vienna had fun too, even though her sleep was disrupted for an hour in the middle of the night.
What is so cool is that our neighbor's don't know any English besides a few words. So the whole conversation was in Turkish and WE WERE ALL UNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER!! It was
so. much. fun. Of course we had to break out the Turkish dictionary every once in awhile to look up a word we didn't know, but we were actually communicating, not just sitting there and nodding and smiling (which is how we spent many of our first few months here). God is answering are prayers and I am confident that some day soon we will be able to communicate well and from our hearts!
We really love our neighbors! God is definitely blessing our relationships with those around us. Colson even loves to go over to their house and play. Every time we come home, instead of going in our front door, he wants to go the neighbor's door and knock. They always invite him to come in and if he's fast enough, he's in the door and around the corner and off to play before I can catch him! This is so amazing to me, because it usually takes Colson a while to warm up to people. What a testimony of how faithful God is in taking care of us and helping our WHOLE family to thrive here!
We are thankful that God has provided this apartment for us, we are surrounded by some of the nicest, friendliest, most hospitable people you will ever meet! We keep asking God how we can bless them when it seems like in so many ways they are blessing us!
Joel's Cheesecake. Yum! He even made a strawberry glaze to go on top. When Joel does bake, he goes all out! You know you want some :)
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