Two conversations I don't want to forget.

Haven't written in a while, but that's OK. Does anybody but me even read this? :)

Anyway, I had two conversations yesterday that I don't want to forget, so I thought I'd record them here. If, by chance, anyone is reading, please don't think that this sort of conversation is representative of every day here or that we're something akin to the Walton's, always having heart-lifting moments at every turn. If it was that way, I wouldn't be recording them here as something unique and special. Anyway, here's the first:


MARANATHA: "the best thing in the whole wide world"
I was combing Maranatha's hair after a bath:

She said:"Mom, you are doing the best thing in the whole wide world, you know dat?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Her: "Like, you take care of us, you brush my hair, you play with us, you read to me, you teach us so many tings, you love us, .... like that."

(Yes, she said tings, not things... I want to be able to remember just how she talked.)

I have no idea if she grasped the blessing she was speaking into my heart and life. But she's absolutely right. Though it's devalued by our culture as something meaningless, mindless, or something anyone can do, there's nothing I could be doing right now that would be as eternally or personally meaningful to so many people as "just" being mom and wife to these five, going on six, people. :) And on days when I forget that, I wanted to have this special minute of life recorded here to re-read.

BAXTER: About that bright sun
We were driving home from a mall after buying a birthday present for a young Turkish friend:

Him: "The sun is so bright!" [note: it really was-- it's been hiding for days after snow and rain... so it was particularly bright and shining right in our faces, bouncing off the wet road]

Me: "Yup, it is very bright today."

Him: "I'm so glad that in the next world, there won't be a sun."

Me: "God Himself will be our light and we won't need it anymore."

Him: "Yeah. [pause] Will He stop shining at night time when we sleep?"

Me: [slight chuckle] "I don't know. The Bible doesn't say anything about nighttime or darkness in Heaven. It only talks about days being divided up on earth. It does say that God is light and in Him is no darkness. Maybe we won't sleep in Heaven, but I'm not sure."

Him: "But then we will get so tired at the end of the day!" [keep in mind, this is our nearly 6 year old who still on his own opts for a nap every now and then... the kid likes his sleep. :) ]

Me: "Maybe not. It says He'll give us new bodies; maybe our new bodies won't get tired. Or maybe we'll be able to peacefully sleep even in God's light."

Him: "Yeah. Well, anyway, it sure is a bright day today!"

I loved that... the way natural life just flows right together with Scripture and anticipating Heaven in his heart and mind. I only remember this subject (about Heaven not needing a sun, because God Himself will be our light) coming up a time or two, and not recently, but his little five-year-old brain has stored away this important piece of information and faith, and I'm so glad.

And it WAS a bright day yesterday. :) In many ways.

A budding scientist?

This past weekend, my (Jessica's) language teacher invited me to go to a nearby village with hot springs for a small trip, just the two of us. She told me that we would need to leave early in the morning to catch the right ferryboat and so I stayed the night at her house the night before our trip.

I hadn't worn my favorite shoes (pink converse low-tops) in a while, and so I decided to use them for the trip. As is the custom here, when I arrived there, I took off my shoes and left them on the porch. We had a great evening with dinner and meeting lots of her relatives. The next morning, we woke up early, packed up our bags, and headed out to catch our bus. I looked down and saw many shoes on the porch, but could only find one of my pink shoes; the other was missing. She and her mother looked all over for the other one while I sat on the porch hoping they'd be able to find it. They were unable to find it, and so her mom offered me a pair of wooden sandals to use for the trip, as I'd packed no other shoes.

They explained that about 2 years ago, a couple of dogs had come around for a few nights barking and waking them up, and they figured that it must've been the same dog that came and got my shoe and dragged it away.

Last night, as I was relating this story to my captivated audience (Doug & the children), I got to this part of the story and Ethan scrunched up his face and said, "THAT's not a very scientific theory. A dog came around and barked two years ago, and so he must've come back and eaten your SHOE???" We laughed and laughed. Maybe we have a budding scientist on our hands. At the very least, he's developing his logic skills. :)

We still have no idea what happened to my shoe.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Thought I'd share some pics of the kids & a few funny things about our new neighborhood:

(1) A popular star of a Turkish reality show lives just a street or two over from our new place. Though we have yet to see him, he's reportedly always surrounded by a crowd.

(2) There's a car that often drives down the major road in our neighborhood (it's the one our apartment faces)... and it has a horn that plays the theme song from "The Godfather". They honk it far too often, but it still cracks us up.

(3) This new neighborhood is full of people from all around the world, so it's fun to walk around and see the variety of people God has made. In contrast with America, Turkey (like China) is a nation full of mostly one kind of people, so it's unusual to have a place where there are so many different nationalities in one neighborhood.

(4) We live just around the corner from a place that serves one kind of food we LOVED from our old overseas home... loghman! (Click that link to see a large picture.) YUM!

(5) Though it's an older, more working class, neighborhood, it's right by the Sea of Marmara, so it's a great place to live-- fairly cheap housing, right near the water-- very rare in Istanbul!


We're enjoying the new place. Just thought I'd share some fun trivia about it!

And I say to myself, "What a Wonderful World!"

Most of the time, living in another country, it's just "home". Once you get past culture shock, even if it's strikingly different from what you've always known, it becomes your daily norm.

But sometimes there are moments you look around and think, "my kids get to ride bikes by the sea, with cargo ships and very, very old history all around them?"

Or, "I get to make dumplings from scratch with local friends?"

Covered women admire my children while we're out for walks?

I shop at a local outdoor market where vegetables are this beautiful & fresh?

And in my Sunday shopping, I walk past shoe displays like this?

Our children have a perspective on the world that is unique among their peers...

... and we are blessed to be able to spend downtime as a family at parks with tulips and water all around.

And I say to myself, "What a wonderful world designed by an incredible God!"

Baxter on future plans, money, & work

So I (Jessica) was in the kitchen talking with Baxter (our 4 & 1/2 year old) the other day, and asked him, "Do you think you might be a daddy one day?"

B: "Yeeesss..."
Me: "How many kids do you think you'll have?"
B: "Sixty-seven or ninety-four"
Me: (raised eyebrows) "Hmm... how will you make money to feed all those children?"
B: (confused look on his face) "I don't know."
Me: "Well, it takes money to buy food, and that would be a lot of kids to buy food for. What will you do to have enough money to buy food for your family?"
B: "I will ...(pause)... just walk around ... (pause)... and look and find it on the ground."
Me: "Hmm. That sounds neat, but pretty unlikely. What will you do for a job?"
B: "Like find treasure... gold coins... and dollars, stuff like that."
Me: "That'd be cool... But what kind of job do you think you might like to do?"
B: (another confused look, and a long pause)
Me: " How will you make money? What kind of work will you do?"
B: "I don't know what you're talking about, 'work'."


Hmmm... we have a lot of training in reality ahead of us. :)

Evidence

Sometimes when people leave your house, you'll find evidences of their visit: a toothpaste tube left behind, a note left on the table, or mussed sheets asking to be changed.But here's the evidence Nana & Papa left behind:

• a freshly cleaned kitchen, from Nana as a blessing to Jessica
• a little girl who, while coloring, pauses every few minutes to mention Nana & Papa because they took time to stop and color with her so many times while they were here.
• a baby who probably wonders where that man who flew him around like an airplane a bajillion times got off to.
• a full coffee cup, that Papa meant to drink but left behind because he was busy doling out hugs and loading up bags
• tears in the eyes of this daughter who is so overwhelmed by her parents' love for her children.
• coloring pages on the fridge for the children, colored expressly for them by loving grandparents.
• hearts more full than they were three weeks ago, made full by lots of love and lots of memories of special times together.

THANK YOU, NANA & PAPA, for coming to visit us. We LOVED getting to have you in our home for the past three weeks. We love you!!!

Christmas Gifts

Jess's Mom made this Swarovsky ornament for our Christmas tree!

These soft chewy balls from Papa are PERFECT for our little teething boy.

Maranatha enjoyed checking out her jewelry made by Nana...


...and immediately loved a doll from GranBren & GranPere.

Jenner & Fanny sent the perfect gift... we had a Christmas cross that we brought with us to China and it cracked in our move there... so this one is PERFECT! I love it! Thank you!!!

LSU hats from Nana & Papa were a big hit with the boys:

And they each got a watch from a sweet Sunday School class back in Texas... obviously, Ethan LOVED his. :) (Baxter did too... but this jump was over the top, so I had to share this picture!)

And the kids enjoyed our Christmas tradition (borrowed from Aunt Jill) of unwrapping various members of the Nativity set as Christmas approaches, and hearing their stories as it draws closer to Christmas day:

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Visitors From Afar!

NANA & PAPA HAVE ARRIVED IN ISTANBUL!!!

We're so glad to have them here... for Christmas, New Years, and a quick trip down to Ephesus. Three weeks will afford us a nice long visit with much-missed family!

Everyone's so glad to have them here!

Kid Logic

Ethan: "Mom, is this our oldest Bible book?"

Me: "No, someone gave that to us this year."

Ethan: "Then why does it say, 'My First Book of Bible Stories'?"


:) Now that he's reading well, we're getting lots of questions like this. And yes, that is a red play-doh Stonehenge in the background.


To see more recent kid pics, you can check out my Facebook photo albums.

This is NUTS.

Seriously. NUTS! This little guy is not even five months old yet. (He will be next week.)

Silas totally blew us away this week by starting to crawl.
Within days, he's up on his knees:
Wonders never cease.

Kids & the Thrills of Summer

Here's Silas-- my new Mr. Blue Eyes-- handsome as can be:

Ethan and Silas hanging out

The other day, we looked down and realized that Silas had shackled himself with his baby rings. Poor little jailbird!

Maranatha absolutely loves her new summery skirt & sandals (Thanks, Meos!).

Ethan's riding without training wheels now!

So, in light of Ethan's new skills, Baxter came up with his own new way of riding bikes. :) Ever the little comedian!

I (Jessica) took the kids out for a picnic last night while Doug had a language lesson, and Ethan climbed a tree for the first time all by himself. Baxter was a great "partner", keeping him well-armed with stick "rifles" and such.

They had a blast exploring and running around. We're so grateful for a large scale forest/park near here, since we're without a backyard!

And Maranatha LOVED finding green berries...

The kids are all growing like weeds, enjoying the thrills of summer!

Can they REALLY be Four & Six???

Last week, Ethan turned six, and this week, Baxter will turn four. It's hard to believe our sons are this old. In some ways it seems like yesterday that they were each born, and in other ways, it feels like a lifetime. Here are some pictures of them showing off and enjoying some birthday gifts:

Enjoying a horse "Buckaroo" game:


(Pointing to our "home" here:)

Thanks grandparents for such fun birthday presents-- the boys are having a BLAST!