Heading to the US of A

We leave bright and early tomorrow morning, 5:30AM to be exact. The kids are tucked in their beds, fast asleep and we're just finishing up packing some last minute odds and ends. Tonight we visited a lot of our friends to say goodbye before we left. Many of them even sent gifts along with us to take back to our families!

Would you please pray for our flight home? We fly from our city to Istanbul and then it's an 11 hour flight from Istanbul to JFK in New York. Joel's parents are picking us up at the airport and then it's about a 5 hour drive back to their house! That's a lot of flying/driving with two small children! Pray the kids do well on the trip home (and that we stay sane)!

I'm going to miss this . . .

I just have to add that my face is not normally that round, I had just had one of my wisdom teeth taken out that week

But I just CAN'T WAIT to see him . . .

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days where nothing goes as planned? Well, today was one of those days.

We slept over at Mel and Adam's house last night to hang out and pray together and then this morning we left right after breakfast so that we could come home and get some packing done. The plan was to have a relaxing day at home getting things done and then going to visit some friends later in the day. Yeah right!

As soon as we got home, our good friend calls us up and asks us if we're at home - in Turkey that means, "I'm on my way over!" So a few minutes later our friend and his son knock on our door and our friend says, "You guys look tired! So what are you doing today?" Pretty much all in the same sentence.

We invited him in for some coffee and then he asked us if we wanted to go on a picnic by the sea and if we could watch his son for two hours since he wife was working and he wanted to get the food ready. So our kids had fun playing noisily in the house while I got some laundry done and Joel took down the Christmas tree (yes, our Christmas tree was only up from November 1st until November 28th).

Then our friend called us to tell us the food was ready and we better hurry up and come over to their house so we could go. We got there and loaded up all the food in the trunk and then all 7 of us piled into their little car for the 10 minute drive to the sea. It was a beautiful day, the weather was in the 70s and we spread out our blanket under a tree and the kids ran off to play at the nearby park.

The guys started grilling the meat and my friend and I started preparing the salad. Well, basically she cut everything up and I watched because she cuts everything with a GINORMOUS knife and super fast while I sit by amazed and wonder if I live in Turkey long
enough if I'll be able to cut up things like her without chopping off a finger! Seriously, this girl can whip up a salad in about 2 minutes flat!

When the food was ready we all sat down and ate and it was delicious! I am really, really
going to miss Turkish food while we're gone! We had a lovely afternoon that included kite flying, a walk by the sea, playing at the park and, of course, the yummy food - all with great friends.

When it started getting dark, we loaded up all our stuff and headed for home. I was tired and
thinking that a quiet evening at home sounded pretty nice to me. Alas, it wasn't to be had! When we arrived at our friends' house they suggested we bake cookies together. There are no American style cookies in Turkey and their son really likes my chocolate chip cookies and they wanted to make some to take to his school this week. 

So it was off to our house to bake 9 dozen cookies. After the cookies were cooling on the counter and the kitchen was officially trashed, it was nearing dinner time and we were getting hungry. Now remember, we are leaving the country for 3 months or so and are trying to empty our fridge, so there weren't too many options for dinner. So our friends were introduced to quesadillas and refried beans and we also fried up some peppers and called it a meal!

Wow, what a day it was! I was completely exhausted physically and mentally (from speaking in Turkish all day) by the time our friends left at 9:30, but was so thankful for a fun day with dear friends. And God is ever so slowly teaching me to let go of my schedule and the way I like to do things and make more time for relationships. Sure, I could have got a ton of things accomplished today, but I am learning to see what is more important!

So enough about me, what did you do today? :)

Long Time, No Post

Hey there! I know it has been awhile. There has been so much going on lately, but I will spare you the not so interesting details of our lives and jump straight ahead to the good stuff:

We got the best news ever yesterday morning - we have been scheduled for a December 15th embassy appointment!!! That means we will be traveling to pick up our son in a little over two weeks! We are so excited and praising God for his goodness! 

Our original plan was for Joel and I and the kids to all go to Ethiopia to pick up Yohannes and then all travel back to the US for a few months to finish all the necessary paperwork before returning to Turkey. After praying about it, we have decided that all of us will first travel back to the US and then Joel and his dad will travel to Ethiopia together to pick up Yohannes while I stay back with Colson and Vienna. I am really bummed that I won't be going to Ethiopia, but we think this will be the best thing (and actually the cheapest option) for our family. 

Sooo, that means that we will be leaving for the US on December 1st, which is only 5 days away! AHHH! I feel so overwhelmed right now. I have so much to do in the next 5 days. We need to pack, tie up some loose ends here as we prepare to leave the country for awhile and get together with all of our friends here before we go. But the good thing about living in a country like Turkey is that nothing is scheduled, we can call up our friends and say: "hey are you home? We're coming over!"  Heck, you don't even have to do that, you can just show up at someone's house without calling first - it has been done many times to us! But I love it, we're not tied down to a schedule, life just seems to happen and we like it like that. We're so thankful for the friends God has brought into our lives. 


Anyway, I'm kind of rambling now.


We are also excited because it has been almost TWO years since we've been to the US and we cannot wait to see family and friends!

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement during this adoption process, we are so
excited that the end is finally in sight and it won't be long now until Yohannes is home with us forever!! Praise God!

And now what you really want to see -  the pictures of our beautiful son! There were many families from our agency traveling for court last week and we were so blessed to receive so many new pictures of Yohannes. Ahhh, his smile gets me every time! 

We're coming soon, Yohannes!

Songs about God for kids!

I am SO excited to tell you about my amazing sister's latest cd! You are just going to love it!

As a mom, I am always wondering how I can hide God's word in my kids' hearts and what a better way to do that than by putting it in a catchy song!

Melanie's music is so great, even for adults! We are all singing these songs all day long. I love hearing my kids proclaiming truth from God's Word!


My sister is a very talented piano player. She has two other cd's besides her latest: 

Quiet Times is a beautiful collections of hymns. 

 

 A peaceful Christmas is a collection of 11 of your favorite Christmas tunes - a must-have for this Christmas season!

 You can learn more about my sister by checking out her blog (YAY! I'm so excited she finally gave into the pressure and started a blog).  Hop on over there and check it out!


Also, check out her website and buy a cd (or 2 or 20)! They will make great Christmas presents!

Weekend Pictures!

I know, I'm a little late, but I just had to share some cute pictures from our weekend with you all! 

 

On Sunday we went with some of our friends to go horseback riding. It was SO nice to get out of the city for a little! Our kids had a blast! I thought they might be scared to actually get on a horse, but they did great! Colson could have sat on the horse all day. Vienna was a little unsure at first, but was riding like a pro till the end. She loved petting the horse while we rode. It was so cute!