J’s favorite color is blue. She likes ‘boyly’ things. This is a word that she and N have created on their own in contrast to girly things! She loves to help me in the kitchen and with taking laundry off the clothes line. She is curious about anything medical and always wants to study and take care of any wound in the family. She is reading well and enjoys her school work. She is an incredible runner. I love to watch the fight in her face when she is racing someone! She wants her hair to be as long as Rapunzel. When she isn’t doing something boyly, she likes polly pockets and la la loopsie dolls.

We love you J!

It’s a dad, a mother and their infant baby wrapped in a blanket in-between them.

Front yard. There are about 45 houses in the complex, all very close together. But, I’m still thankful for a place for the kids to run and play. In the center, there is a park, basketball court and soccer field. I hope it will be a good place to meet neighbors.

Kitchen

Living room

Balcony off the living room. We had asked the owner if he would allow us to put up bars around this balcony so that it would be safer for SK. He said, ‘how about I just glass it in?’ This will be much better than bars but I’m not getting my hopes up until I see it actually done!

Stairs from the living room to the bedrooms. There is an office/home school room/guest room on the bottom level adjacent to the kitchen. Up a half flight of stairs to the living room, up another flight of stairs to the kids shared bedroom, master bedroom and a bathroom. Up a final half flight to a roof terrace. We would have really liked one more bedroom but the family consensus was that we all wanted to sacrifice inside space to have outside space. And this place definitely has outside space!

View from the roof terrace. You can see the ocean in the very far distance!

The very best part about the place, in the eyes of the kids is the basement! It is an unfinished storage area separated into two rooms with a tunnel like walkway between them. PERFECT for a kids hideout! I want to paint it fun colors and make is a very special place for them! Here’s the tunnel.

And the hideout!

I can’t wait until we are moved and settled in this new home!

Skate boarding is popular in our new city. Since N has a super cool uncle that skateboards, he was thrilled when he saw the skate parks around town! He couldn’t wait for the chance to actually skate board. On our first day in town, the best we could do was run around and slide on the ramps, which was also fun!

The first chance he got, we borrowed a friend’s board and headed to the park!

N got his first skate board for his 3rd birthday, from Aunt L and Uncle J. Uncle J, and artist and skater had painted the bottom of the board, just for N. This was his first time to try on a larger board. His center of gravity is so low that he did quite well! We only wish Uncle J could have been there too!

By the end of our week of apartment searching, N had decided to use all the money he saved from selling his toys when we left America to buy his very own skate board! He found an awesome one with a shark on the bottom and it was love at first sight! We gave him an early birthday present and bought him a helmet and pads. He’s ready to go! I’m thankful for this excitement toward our new city for him.

The other day as we were processing our move to a new city together, N observed, “Everywhere is nice, no matter what you don’t have.” What a great perspective!

The creepy weenie dog/cow combination.

The figurine somewhat resembling Cinderella with her pumpkin coach complete with green horses.

The Flintstones family, minus one head.

The random village lady, milking a cow!

The doggy breath slide.

The smurf mushroom.

The circa 70′s dinosaur.

There were more but I’ll spare you at this point. I’m sure there were absolutely no copy write infringements in the creation of this park!

At our hotel, we were parked next to this truck.

I wonder how in the world this truck can drive around without cabbages flying out! It was also fun to see such a shiny, nice, new truck filled with… cabbage! I wonder if any passersby decided they’d cook cabbage for dinner and helped themselves to one! You never know what you may see around here!

When we arrived in town, for the first time, the first thing we did was go walk along the sea side. Our very first picture, on our very first day, full of hope for the good things to come in this city!

We tried to make the search more about the journey than the destination for the kids. We did our best to have fun along the way although we all had our bad moments! We took time to meet people and get to know them along the way, noting those who we would like to continue friendship with later. At one apartment, the kids got to go for a little bike ride.

On national children’s day, we stopped off at a little festival where snow white painted faces.

There was plenty of park time as well.

Sometimes we spent an afternoon just walking through an area or neighborhood to get a feel for it and discern if it was the place for us.

On the 7th day, we finally found a home. It took 7 days in our previous city as well. I had really hoped that we would find one on the first or second day here. But, we really took time to get to know areas and different housing options which just took time. At one point, we were sitting in an office, literally signing papers for a lease when we realized the apartment had one less bedroom than we thought it did. We had just seen so many by then and the relator had shown us one with one less bedroom but we somehow didn’t catch it because we assumed he would only show us what we had asked him to show. We were so tired and ready to be done that we almost signed anyway. But, now that it is over, I’m glad we apologized, walked away and started our search yet again.

Here’s where our search ended. It is a free standing house with an apple, orange, lemon, pomegranate, apricot and plumb tree in the front yard! I hope that this will be a fun place for the kids to get to run, play, ride bikes and be outside. Time will tell…

I’ll post more pictures of our new home soon!

First, the chef rolls out thin dough and sprinkles on it a mix of finely chopped meat, parsley, onions and spices.

Next, he stretches the bread until it is long and thin. Then, he places it on a board with a very long handle.

He slides the bread deep into a wood burning oven where it cooks by a fire on a wood block for about 5 minutes.

It is served down the center of the table along with fresh vegetables.

Everyone can share this communal meal.

Before we intervened, SK preferred to use her green onion as a musical instrument rather than eating it.

When we travel, I’m always thankful that I don’t have to cook. On this particular day, we were all thankful for delicious Konya Pide!

Just before we left our temporary home, there was a hail storm. The weather was fairly warm when suddenly rain turned to hail in a matter of minutes! All the white in the picture is pieces of hail, covering the ground. We didn’t quite know what to do! We didn’t know at what point we should protect our car with something but we sure didn’t want it to be damaged! J also didn’t like the idea of going out in the hail to protect it! We ran around in circles in the house for a couple of minutes, trying to decide what to do. I grabbed some blankets and J went on the front porch with the intent of going out to throw them on the car. I think he ran in a little circle in the front yard, or maybe stayed on the porch. Either way, he surmised that we could wait a little longer before resorting to blankets on the car. Or, he surmised that getting out to the car would cause more damage to him than to the car! So, we all sat at the window, watching the madness until the hail subsided.

There was quite a covering by the time it was finished. But, the car wasn’t damaged at all and the hail never got much larger than maybe an inch in diameter. The kids found a frozen lizard in the yard that they put in a bag to try to resuscitate.

Upon concluding that the lizard was really dead, Baba put it out in the yard to be eaten by predators. Later that day, the kids saw the lizard and concluded that he was alive and well! After celebrating, they wanted to carefully make their way around mud puddles out to the lizard for a reunion. Uncle K quickly discouraged them from trekking out to reunite with lizard. It wasn’t until a few days later that I found out the reason why. He was dead as a doornail and the reunion would have only produced tears! I’m thankful for the quick thinking on Uncle K’s part! Sorry kids. If you  read this when you’re older, you’ll know that the lizard didn’t make it through the hail storm!

Even though J’s 6th birthday isn’t until May 20th, we decided to celebrate in our temporary home, before we moved on. She had made some sweet friendships there and we didn’t know how quickly she’d meet friends in our new city. I HUGE thanks to our dear friend LA P who bought and sent over birthday decorations for all three kids birthdays!! Thanks to her, J had a wonderful Rapunzel party complete with plates, decorations and party favors! What a gift in itself!

The kids started by making creations with peanut butter play dough, made with peanut butter, powdered milk and  honey. They had fun creating and eating, all a the same time!

Someone even used some of the eyes to dress up Rapunzel!

Next the kids did a craft thanks to another sweet friend KM who sent over hobby lobby crafts, just perfect for 6 year old girls!

Of course, we also had cake, presents and games!

Lastly, there was a surprise guest appearance of Rapunzel herself!

I had thought that the birthday girl would have wanted to wear the Rapunzel costume but she is the one who came up with the idea of SK being Rapunzel. What a fun party. We are so thankful for both the friends the Father provided in our temporary location and the friends in America who were so generous and thoughtful!