Life with the Hildebrands

Well here we are 2.5 years later. I recently read through all my blog books. Yes, I had all my blog posts printed into nice hardcover books using Blog2Print. It's amazing how often the kids will pick the books off the shelf and read through them. I love having that season in our life documented if for no other reason than for our kids to read back through and remember. 

We are now living in the States. We left Turkey, our home of 9.5 years, and arrived in America with 5 weary kids and all our worldly possessions packed into 14 suitcases on June 27, 2018.

We still miss Turkey every single day. Our hearts are both here and there, so we always feel a little homesick no matter where we are. I feel like we grew up in Turkey - we spent most of our 20s there and it was a place we made some deep and life-long friendships, where our family grew from 4 to 7, where we learned a new language, embraced a beautiful culture, where we were stretched beyond what we thought was possible and where we were humbled almost daily. Most importantly it was where we learned more than ever before to depend on Jesus for everything, every single day. I'm so thankful for the experiences we had there and the relationships we made that have changed and shaped us into who we are today.

 

As I reflect on these last two plus years of living in the States the recurring theme has been that God is SO faithful. It was extremely hard to leave Turkey after it finally felt like home and then to experience such extreme reverse culture shock after landing back in PA. But God planted us where he wants us for this season and he has provided so specifically for all our needs. 

God gave us the perfect house to settle into and call home, a mile away from my parents and my bother and sister-in-law and right next door to Adam and Melanie (who moved back to the States a year before we did). It has been so amazing to live close to our families again and when I stop and reflect on how God put all these pieces together, I'm just in awe and can only praise and thank him for his goodness to us. What a good Father we have, he is in the details and his timing is perfect. We don't know if we'll be here forever, but we are SO thankful and we are cherishing this season of living near our families.

 

God knows just what we need: our house was the ultimate project house. We love to fix things up (and by "we" I pretty much mean Joel. I just have lots of ideas of how I want things to look and my sweet husband just smiles at me and says, "You have no idea how much work that is!" HA!). After much blood and sweat (Joel's) and tears (that's where I contributed), our house finally feels like home. I love it and the sweet reminders of Turkey scattered all throughout our home, from our Turkish rug so lovingly given to us by our dearest friends, to our pictures on the walls reminding us that Turkey still is and will always be a huge part of our lives!