A new season

I'm trying to keep this blog going, but it has mainly turned into picture updates of our random happenings. I haven't taken the time to sit down and write anything for awhile, which I do miss doing. While I'm not promising that I will be able to actually write something regularly, I do want to acknowledge that I love doing it and it is good for me to process this way. 

So, after 7.5 years in Turkey, I feel like I can finally say with confidence that we are in a good season of life here. For the first 6 years I was pretty much pregnant or nursing and our family dynamic was constantly changing. Don't get me wrong, we love change, but I think it was also hard on us. We moved around a lot, we added more kids to our family, the kids changed schools a few times, but then we bought a house and it felt like we were finally planting some deeper roots here! It has been so good, although I do find it ironic that my heart is finally feeling more settled and at peace here in a time when the country is in so much turmoil and things are only going downhill faster. Really, it is only God that I can have that peace when there are so many uncertainties all around us. 

I have changed so much since moving here (and I like to think for the better). I have learned to be more flexible, be more culturally sensitive, learn a different way of doing things and step out of my comfort zone in so many areas of life. I am forever thankful that my kids are growing up overseas, they are having such a unique childhood. They are learning a second language and having so many amazing experiences that they would not have growing up in the U.S. Sometimes when I am hard on my kids, God reminds me that they are SO brave going to a Turkish school and to be gentle with them. It's not always easy for them and I am so proud of them and that they are thriving here, making friends, learning Turkish and already sharing Jesus with people at such a young age. They are amazing kids and they are going to grow up and be world-changers! But to keep it real, we are still working on learning to make beds, change underwear and wash hands WITH soap. And don't even get me started on showers!! Haha!

I am so thankful for this new season that we are in. It is a sweet season, one where our whole family is thriving and the kids are growing up and becoming more independent and I have been able to step out into things I am passionate about. I am still mostly at home with the kiddos, but I have committed one day a week to helping some friends of ours love on Syrian refugees. They have opened a center that the refugees have actually named the Compassion House, so fitting! We have registered 100 families so far that are receiving grocery store gift cards and prayer, if they want it. Soon we will start distributing clothing too. More than anything the heart behind the Compassion House is to really get to know these families and love on them. We want them to feel valued and cared for instead of just a face in the crowd. Some of them just come and hang out there every day to drink tea and have cookies and talk, and some have even come just to be prayed for. And the Lord is moving in amazing ways and there are so many cool stories and I'm thankful to play a tiny part in it.

I think another thing that has made this season so good is learning how to stay healthy as a family and find the balance. The first few years here, we went to the extreme of only hanging out with Turks, and we kept all other foreigners out of our lives because we wanted to learn language and culture, and heck, wasn't that what we were here for? To meet Turks? Anyway, a few years in and we learned the folly of our ways. We were burned out and ready to pack up and go home. But we started realizing that to make it here we needed other foreigners (and believers!) in our lives to encourage us. We needed people that just "got" us. People we could speak in our own language with, people who could pray for us and encourage us to keep on moving when the going gets tough! It takes a community to live here and thrive here and I'm so thankful that we now have one amazing community!!

It's not always easy to stay healthy as a family while living overseas, but we have learned a few secrets along the way. We've had to set some limits and boundaries for our family to thrive here and to make it for the long haul! Sometimes it is no problem to stay out till 12:00 at night at your neighbors house and have your kids fall asleep on their couch, but sometimes you have to learn to say no when it is not a good time for your family. We have learned this (finally!!) after our time here and after a season of saying yes to every opportunity for relationship with Turks and after inviting everyone in that showed up at our door. But that just burned us out. So after making many, MANY mistakes, we are finally finding the balance. Not that we have it all figured out, I'm sure we will make plenty more mistakes, but that is how we learn.

My heart so longs to be able to give an accurate picture of what life is really like here and the daily struggles and challengers we face, the ups and the downs. I want our family and friends in the US to understand our life here. But how can I put all that into words? I just don't know. What I do know is that I feel more at home here than I do in the US even though I still am the foreigner here and will never quite fit in or have perfect Turkish. But I think that is a good thing. I belong neither here nor there and I think realizing that since moving overseas has helped me to maintain that eternal perspective that this world is not my home and I am a citizen of heaven!