Summer 2016 in America: Week 11 (Our final week)!

Joel and my sister-in-law, Rachael, tackled a kitchen/dining room renovation in the farmhouse. It was a huge project, but Joel LOVED helping out when he had some free time!

Getting set up for the Open House for our pottery auction.

It was a beautiful evening and we had a good turnout. There were lots of yummy snacks, good conversations and it was just a lot of fun to get to see and say good-bye to so many people all at once!

62 of Joel's pieces were displayed in the tent.

All set up! The Open House was the kick-off for our online auction, which was hosted at 32auctions.com. We were so blessed by everyone's support and the auction was a big success!

These two cousins were pretty much inseparable this summer!

And the rest of these are from some family pictures we took in my brother's orchard . . .

Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop with 7 of their 11 grandchildren.

(We missed you Adam and Mel!!)

My brother, Jordan, his lovely wife, Rachael and their two beautiful kids, Eve and Paxton!

I can't help but smile when I look at these pictures!!

I can't believe we celebrated 11 years of marriage this summer! Every year just keeps getting better :) 

Love my sis-in-law!!

Yohanis and that sweet, sweet smile!

My crazy brother!

I loved watching these two deepen their friendship this summer, it was truly precious!

And that sums up our time in the US - sorry for the photo overload! We had such a great summer and saying goodbye to our families never gets easier. It is bittersweet and sometimes we feel like our hearts are in two places. But we also feel incredibly thankful for all the Lord has done in our hearts, especially in the last 3 years, and how he has made Turkey feel like home! As hard as it was to say goodbye to our families, we were very ready to come home to Turkey and I felt such joy and peace in my heart about returning (which was so opposite from the last time) and all I can do is praise God for his goodness and faithfulness!!