And now I give you the many faces of Colson . . .
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
An Update and a Circumcision Ceremony
First of all, thank you all so much for praying for the family I wrote about! Joel and Adam were able to go to the hospital and pray for the little boy, and the family was so blessed that they came the whole way out to their village to pray for their son. They even told them they could spend the night with them at their home. They would have invited two men who were practically strangers into their home! Now that's some Turkish hospitality for ya.
Sorry I didn't update you sooner, but we really didn't know much more until today when Joel and Adam went to visit the family at the hospital in our city where their boy had been moved to. He is out of a coma, he is awake and alert and doing a lot better! The family is able to leave the hospital and go back to their village! Praise God! He is so good!! They still need to come back to the hospital for his weekly treatments, he is still a very sick little boy with MPS, but what is crazy is that the husband just told Joel and Adam that the morning after they prayed for him is when he started getting better!! Sorry I don't have any more specifics, all of this conversation was in Turkish and most of the time we get the general idea of what someone is trying to communicate, but not quite all the details. But keep the prayers coming for this family.
Also, the couple has not found out the test results for their twins yet, so please keep praying that their twins are healthy! I can't thank you enough! It means so much to me that all of you are praying along with us for this couple. I am amazed by the internet, it can keep us connected with people all over the world, and so many of you whom I've never even met in person before are praying for this family!
In other news, we got to attend our first circumcision ceremony. Yup, you read that right! Now let me explain a little. Circumcision is a very important celebration in Turkey. Boys are usually circumcised when they are 7 or 8. It is a rite of passage from being a boy to being a man.The young boys are dressed like kings, paraded around on horses, and they receive lots of money and presents.
We were invited to attend the ceremony (not the actual circumcision - don't worry, just the after-party a week or so later) for our friend's brother's son. The ceremony started in the early afternoon with a reading from the Quran. It was outside and the men and women sat separated while the Imam recited the Quran for about an hour. Then he prayed and everyone put their hands up and it was over. Then we were all given pide (a soft, chewy flat bread with meat on top) and ayran (a salted yogurt drink). We all love pide and everyone but me loves ayran. It has a very interesting taste, but it's ever so slowly growing on me.
After we ate, our friend told us their would be dancing later in the evening. We went home for a few hours and came back at 8:30. The music was SO loud, but watching everyone dance was just so much fun. Vienna and I even went out on the dance floor for a little (after someone practically pulled me in), but I totally felt like an awkward foreigner and had no idea how to do the dance that everyone else was doing. But I wish I would have taken a video of all the dancing - it was really was SO much fun to watch!
Sorry I didn't update you sooner, but we really didn't know much more until today when Joel and Adam went to visit the family at the hospital in our city where their boy had been moved to. He is out of a coma, he is awake and alert and doing a lot better! The family is able to leave the hospital and go back to their village! Praise God! He is so good!! They still need to come back to the hospital for his weekly treatments, he is still a very sick little boy with MPS, but what is crazy is that the husband just told Joel and Adam that the morning after they prayed for him is when he started getting better!! Sorry I don't have any more specifics, all of this conversation was in Turkish and most of the time we get the general idea of what someone is trying to communicate, but not quite all the details. But keep the prayers coming for this family.
Also, the couple has not found out the test results for their twins yet, so please keep praying that their twins are healthy! I can't thank you enough! It means so much to me that all of you are praying along with us for this couple. I am amazed by the internet, it can keep us connected with people all over the world, and so many of you whom I've never even met in person before are praying for this family!
In other news, we got to attend our first circumcision ceremony. Yup, you read that right! Now let me explain a little. Circumcision is a very important celebration in Turkey. Boys are usually circumcised when they are 7 or 8. It is a rite of passage from being a boy to being a man.The young boys are dressed like kings, paraded around on horses, and they receive lots of money and presents.
We were invited to attend the ceremony (not the actual circumcision - don't worry, just the after-party a week or so later) for our friend's brother's son. The ceremony started in the early afternoon with a reading from the Quran. It was outside and the men and women sat separated while the Imam recited the Quran for about an hour. Then he prayed and everyone put their hands up and it was over. Then we were all given pide (a soft, chewy flat bread with meat on top) and ayran (a salted yogurt drink). We all love pide and everyone but me loves ayran. It has a very interesting taste, but it's ever so slowly growing on me.
After we ate, our friend told us their would be dancing later in the evening. We went home for a few hours and came back at 8:30. The music was SO loud, but watching everyone dance was just so much fun. Vienna and I even went out on the dance floor for a little (after someone practically pulled me in), but I totally felt like an awkward foreigner and had no idea how to do the dance that everyone else was doing. But I wish I would have taken a video of all the dancing - it was really was SO much fun to watch!
I didn't get many good pictures from the evening, but here is a picture of the boy of the day! Sorry it's blurry, but if you look closely you can see him all dressed up in the back of the picture.
Vienna gets her groove on from Joel Hildebrand on Vimeo.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Urgent Prayer Request
I just posted the story of a family who has a toddler with MPS and is now pregnant with twins who have a very high chance of having MPS. If you didn't get to read it, just scroll down to catch the whole story.
Anyway, we just received a phone call from a friend who told us this family's child is in the emergency room. His heart is swollen and he is in a coma. The doctors said they can't do anything else for him.
Joel, Adam and another friend just left to go visit them and pray with them at the hospital. Please pray with us for a miracle for this little boy!
Anyway, we just received a phone call from a friend who told us this family's child is in the emergency room. His heart is swollen and he is in a coma. The doctors said they can't do anything else for him.
Joel, Adam and another friend just left to go visit them and pray with them at the hospital. Please pray with us for a miracle for this little boy!
Tough stuff - please pray!
Joel and I have been confronted with a tough situation. A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to attend a picnic for families with children that have MPS. MPS is a genetic disease caused by the body’s inability to produce specific enzymes. The missing enzyme prevents the proper recycling process and the result is lots of storage of materials in pretty much every cell in the body. Because of this, the cells do not perform properly and it causes lots of damage throughout the body including the heart, bones, respiratory system and central nervous system (you can click here to learn more). We had a great time at the picnic hanging out with these families and we are hoping that our non profit, Get Bridged, can do something to help (once it’s up and running).
Many of the children can’t walk or talk and are confined to a wheelchair. MPS affects each child differently. Some of the children had mild MPS, but some of them had very severe MPS and were just waiting to die. It was very, very sad. There is no cure for MPS, just treatment that will prolong their lives. There is also a stigma and shame surrounding children with special needs here. A few summers ago, when we first visited Turkey, we met one of these families, but we didn’t even know their child had MPS because we never met him. They didn’t ever bring him out of his room the whole time we were there. It’s so very sad.
One family we saw at the picnic is from a village a few hours outside of our city. They are very poor and they already have a toddler with MPS and are now pregnant with twins. The chance that their twins have MPS is VERY high and they just took a test to see if the twins have it (they will find out the results in another week or so). If their twins have MPS, they will most likely abort them. This was a heart-breaking situation for us to hear about. Joel and Adam (my brother-in-law) got to meet with this couple last week. They looked tired, without hope, and ready to give up. They don’t like the idea of aborting their children, but they feel like they have no other option if the twins have MPS.
We are praying for healing for these children and that when they find out the test results they will hear that their children are perfectly healthy! Please, please pray with us for this couple!
But my heart has been so heavily burdened for this couple and I’ve been thinking about all the possible outcomes: what if they find out their children have MPS? What if they want to abort them? BUT what if we could offer them another option? Joel and I have been praying a lot about how we can help them.
Of course we are pro-life, but as Shane Claiborne said: “I am passionately pro-life, I just have a much more holistic sense of what it means to be for life, knowing that life doesn’t begin at conception and end at birth, and that if I am going to discourage abortion, I had better be ready to adopt some babies and care for some mothers.” I whole heartedly agree! So Joel and I have been praying about what we need to do in this situation. We have been made aware and what is our responsibility now? If we're going to discourage abortion then we need to be ready to do everything we possibly can do help this couple.
We feel like God is asking us to be willing to do whatever it takes to help this couple – if that means supporting them financially to be able to give birth to these children and then providing them with live-in help – we want to do that! If that means adopting their children, we feel like we have to be open to that option too! Crazy, I know, and we don’t even know if it’s possible for us to adopt them or if this couple would even be open to that idea. There are just so many different options and I could go crazy thinking about all the what ifs. But that is not how God wants us to live; He wants us to trust Him! We have been made aware of this situation, so how can we just do nothing? Of course, we could just sit back and do nothing and most people would think that is fine. We don’t know this couple; we have no obligation to them. And a few years ago, I would have said the same thing. But God has completely turned my life upside down since then and changed me in so many ways! And I believe we DO have an obligation to help. These are our neighbors and we need to love them like we love ourselves and go out of our way to help them!
All that to say, would you please join us in praying for this family?
Many of the children can’t walk or talk and are confined to a wheelchair. MPS affects each child differently. Some of the children had mild MPS, but some of them had very severe MPS and were just waiting to die. It was very, very sad. There is no cure for MPS, just treatment that will prolong their lives. There is also a stigma and shame surrounding children with special needs here. A few summers ago, when we first visited Turkey, we met one of these families, but we didn’t even know their child had MPS because we never met him. They didn’t ever bring him out of his room the whole time we were there. It’s so very sad.
One family we saw at the picnic is from a village a few hours outside of our city. They are very poor and they already have a toddler with MPS and are now pregnant with twins. The chance that their twins have MPS is VERY high and they just took a test to see if the twins have it (they will find out the results in another week or so). If their twins have MPS, they will most likely abort them. This was a heart-breaking situation for us to hear about. Joel and Adam (my brother-in-law) got to meet with this couple last week. They looked tired, without hope, and ready to give up. They don’t like the idea of aborting their children, but they feel like they have no other option if the twins have MPS.
We are praying for healing for these children and that when they find out the test results they will hear that their children are perfectly healthy! Please, please pray with us for this couple!
But my heart has been so heavily burdened for this couple and I’ve been thinking about all the possible outcomes: what if they find out their children have MPS? What if they want to abort them? BUT what if we could offer them another option? Joel and I have been praying a lot about how we can help them.
Of course we are pro-life, but as Shane Claiborne said: “I am passionately pro-life, I just have a much more holistic sense of what it means to be for life, knowing that life doesn’t begin at conception and end at birth, and that if I am going to discourage abortion, I had better be ready to adopt some babies and care for some mothers.” I whole heartedly agree! So Joel and I have been praying about what we need to do in this situation. We have been made aware and what is our responsibility now? If we're going to discourage abortion then we need to be ready to do everything we possibly can do help this couple.
We feel like God is asking us to be willing to do whatever it takes to help this couple – if that means supporting them financially to be able to give birth to these children and then providing them with live-in help – we want to do that! If that means adopting their children, we feel like we have to be open to that option too! Crazy, I know, and we don’t even know if it’s possible for us to adopt them or if this couple would even be open to that idea. There are just so many different options and I could go crazy thinking about all the what ifs. But that is not how God wants us to live; He wants us to trust Him! We have been made aware of this situation, so how can we just do nothing? Of course, we could just sit back and do nothing and most people would think that is fine. We don’t know this couple; we have no obligation to them. And a few years ago, I would have said the same thing. But God has completely turned my life upside down since then and changed me in so many ways! And I believe we DO have an obligation to help. These are our neighbors and we need to love them like we love ourselves and go out of our way to help them!
All that to say, would you please join us in praying for this family?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
It's HOT!
(I cropped these pictures because Vienna's little tooshie was showing, and although it is so darn cute, I didn't think it would be appropriate for a public blog)
Today was HOT! We stayed inside most of the day and only ventured out after dinner when the sun started going down. And tomorrow is going to be a scorcher - 103! Ahhhh! I wish the kids could have spent the day splashing in the pool, as pictured above, but those pictures were taken last week - when we had a pool. You see, after the kids were done swimming in it the other day, a certain someone (I won't mention any names, but I am married to him) emptied the pool (which sits on our balcony on the 4th floor) and forgot to put something heavy on it to weigh it down. It was a very windy evening and let's just say someone got a nice surprise falling from the sky :)
So tonight we rectified our little dilemma by going out to the store and buying another little pool - for 6 lira (about 4 dollars) might I add! I love a good deal! So bring on the heat, we are prepared. And I may or may not be splashing around in the kiddie pool with Colson and Vienna tomorrow :)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Beach day!
On Sunday we went to the beach with Adam and Mel and a few other families. It was a fun, but exhausting, day. And Vienna threw up two times in our friend's car on the way there. Poor little thing! But she was back to her normal self by the time we reached the beach and she saw the water! This little girl just LOVES swimming!
I think this picture captures the joy on her face so well!
I think this picture captures the joy on her face so well!
Even though it was tiring (both physically from running around in the sun with two little kiddos with endless amount of energy and also mentally from speaking in Turkish all day) it was such a fun time being together with our friends!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Big Talker
Colson just loves to talk and talk and talk! He is always giving us a running commentary on everything that is happening around him. And lately he loves to repeat everything.we.say!
You never realize just how often you say certain words or phrases until you have a 3-year-old. And of course, they always love to repeat the bad things you say. They are always listening and watching even when you think they aren't. "Holy crap!" has now entered Colson's vocabulary. Yeah . . . looks like it's time to stop saying that one.
But something else Colson has been saying all the time lately is "I love you." And I never get tired of hearing it! He used to only say it to me after I told him first, but now he will say it on his own initiative. At random times throughout the day, he will look up at me and tell me he loves me. It's the sweetest thing ever! Just yesterday, when we were at the park, Colson stopped what he was doing (throwing rocks in a mud puddle), looked up at me and yelled at the top of his lungs: "Mommy, I love you!" and then went back to playing. Made this Momma's heart melt! He didn't care who heard him (not like it mattered, most people don't speak English here), but I know it won't always be like this and there will come a day when the I love yous are few and far between so I'm just soaking it up now! Sigh, I just love this little guy!
You never realize just how often you say certain words or phrases until you have a 3-year-old. And of course, they always love to repeat the bad things you say. They are always listening and watching even when you think they aren't. "Holy crap!" has now entered Colson's vocabulary. Yeah . . . looks like it's time to stop saying that one.
But something else Colson has been saying all the time lately is "I love you." And I never get tired of hearing it! He used to only say it to me after I told him first, but now he will say it on his own initiative. At random times throughout the day, he will look up at me and tell me he loves me. It's the sweetest thing ever! Just yesterday, when we were at the park, Colson stopped what he was doing (throwing rocks in a mud puddle), looked up at me and yelled at the top of his lungs: "Mommy, I love you!" and then went back to playing. Made this Momma's heart melt! He didn't care who heard him (not like it mattered, most people don't speak English here), but I know it won't always be like this and there will come a day when the I love yous are few and far between so I'm just soaking it up now! Sigh, I just love this little guy!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Recent Happenings
I'm here! These past few weeks have just been busy and life feels like its going full-speed lately. We've had some interesting situations come up and I hope to share more later, but to say the least, God has been challenging and stretching our thinking a lot on what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.
The weather has been really hot lately and it is only the beginning of June! I'm scared for July and August, I remember it being unbearably hot last summer and we were told that it was a mild summer! If that was a mild summer, I'd hate to know what a hot summer is! A lot of days Colson and Vienna just run around without clothes on inside and I only get them dressed when we go out. I feel like a bad mom sometimes because we just do things SO differently than most Turks. Our kids are allowed to drink cold water, be in air conditioning, sit on the floor, and eat ice cream in the winter - all big no-no's here because apparently all these things make you sick. That's just how it is and everyone follows these rules! Kids are also supposed to be bundled up to their eyeballs in winter clothes until May no matter how hot it is. They don't dress according to the weather; they dress according to what month it is. I have been scolded numerous times for how my kids are dressed. And just the other day I was scolded for being outside in the middle of the day and not being in the shade. I'm not quite sure what other kids do all day during the summer if they can't be out in the sun at all!
Last night we went to our first Turkish wedding. The daughter of one of our neighbors got married and everyone in our building was invited to the wedding. The celebration started right outside of our apartment building with some fun, loud music and then a long procession of cars filled up our street. The groom got out of one of the cars and waited for his bride to come out. A crowd of others started gathering and waiting too. When she came out the groom did a traditional Turkish dance and people threw money on the ground. Here are some short videos for you to see, it was lots of fun and Colson and Vienna enjoyed watching from the balcony.
Then everyone hopped back in their cars and off they went to the wedding. We went together with our next door neighbors, but we only left at 8:15pm! We even went out to dinner with them first so we only arrived at the wedding around 9:30. They told us our kids are becoming Turkish because they are learning to stay up so late. It is a little stressful sometimes keeping our kids up so late when they are used to being in bed by 8pm, but we are learning that we just need to sacrifice some things for the sake of relationships. One or two nights out of the week staying up till all hours of the night and consuming lots of sugar (everyone in Turkey just loves to give sweets to kids) isn't going to kill them. So we are learning to be more flexible and try to adapt more to this culture.
The weather has been really hot lately and it is only the beginning of June! I'm scared for July and August, I remember it being unbearably hot last summer and we were told that it was a mild summer! If that was a mild summer, I'd hate to know what a hot summer is! A lot of days Colson and Vienna just run around without clothes on inside and I only get them dressed when we go out. I feel like a bad mom sometimes because we just do things SO differently than most Turks. Our kids are allowed to drink cold water, be in air conditioning, sit on the floor, and eat ice cream in the winter - all big no-no's here because apparently all these things make you sick. That's just how it is and everyone follows these rules! Kids are also supposed to be bundled up to their eyeballs in winter clothes until May no matter how hot it is. They don't dress according to the weather; they dress according to what month it is. I have been scolded numerous times for how my kids are dressed. And just the other day I was scolded for being outside in the middle of the day and not being in the shade. I'm not quite sure what other kids do all day during the summer if they can't be out in the sun at all!
Last night we went to our first Turkish wedding. The daughter of one of our neighbors got married and everyone in our building was invited to the wedding. The celebration started right outside of our apartment building with some fun, loud music and then a long procession of cars filled up our street. The groom got out of one of the cars and waited for his bride to come out. A crowd of others started gathering and waiting too. When she came out the groom did a traditional Turkish dance and people threw money on the ground. Here are some short videos for you to see, it was lots of fun and Colson and Vienna enjoyed watching from the balcony.
Turkish Wedding from Joel Hildebrand on Vimeo.
Turkish Wedding 2 from Joel Hildebrand on Vimeo.
Then everyone hopped back in their cars and off they went to the wedding. We went together with our next door neighbors, but we only left at 8:15pm! We even went out to dinner with them first so we only arrived at the wedding around 9:30. They told us our kids are becoming Turkish because they are learning to stay up so late. It is a little stressful sometimes keeping our kids up so late when they are used to being in bed by 8pm, but we are learning that we just need to sacrifice some things for the sake of relationships. One or two nights out of the week staying up till all hours of the night and consuming lots of sugar (everyone in Turkey just loves to give sweets to kids) isn't going to kill them. So we are learning to be more flexible and try to adapt more to this culture.
I wish I would have taken some pictures at the wedding, but it was crowded and hot and we were all smooshed together in a little booth. We only stayed at the wedding for about an hour, and basically all that happened during that time was the bride and groom and a few others danced while everyone else just sat and watched them. You couldn't even really have a conversation with the people around you because the music was SO loud. Our neighbors told us that at weddings you usually pin gold or money to the bride's dress as a wedding gift, but we didn't see anyone do that while we were there. But when we left our neighbor gave some pieces of gold to the bride's mother. It's also common to bring housewarming gifts to the bride and groom after they get settled into their new place. Anyway, it was a fun night! The kids enjoyed watching the dancing and Vienna even busted out a few moves of her own :) I love having new cultural experiences! Things are ever so slowly going from foreign to familiar.
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