Our journey

Thursday, September 18, 2008

New Hair

I got my hair cut again. I think I like it a lot. Ryan likes it, so that's good. I took 2 friends with me to make sure that the guy didn't do anything crazy because this was a real test of bravery for me. The great thing is that I accomplished the style this morning with 10 minutes of blow drying and 2 minutes of spot fixing with the flat iron. Looking at the pictures, it reminds me of one of my best friend, Stacie's hair styles.
Here it is:



Saturday, September 13, 2008

Selah 21 months


Selah is sporting a cool outfit that just came in the mail from Grammy. When we receive packages we have to pay about $1.50. But it's worth it to try to hear the delivery guy pronounce my name.


Selah was being a good girl helping mommy out making a cake. She enjoyed the spoils of her labor. She also enjoys Kool-Aid and a sugar-free popsicle everyday after her nap. She knows that she only gets one a day after her nap, but that doesn't stop her from asking for one 20-30 times per day. Also, we think she just said one of her first sentences the other day when we were looking at old pictures. "I see Daddy!" She is learning so many words so fast. It's hard to keep up.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Spaghetti Anyone?

We don't get too many of these kinds of things over here. But I saw this in a gas station last night and had to pick it up. Looks like some delicious spaghetti indeed.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Year in Review

August 2007


August 2008

She can't help dancing anytime she hears music.

Today my language tutor is out of town so I decided to do some studying at a place that serves good coffee (for a high price), has good music and a good view. Some days it seems my life is so different than it was 15 months ago. Some of those days, I'm okay with the change and some days, I really long for quality stress-free time with family or friends. I know that, for me, the U.S. will never be quite the same again and that I must accept the fact that my citizenship is not of this world. In spite of all those serious thoughts, I still like to come to Starbucks to sit in the AC, have a nice drink, study and listen to eclectic music. Today, I think the CD is a 50's hits compilation.
"All my love, all my kissin', you don't know what you've been a-missing..." just started. Is that from the 50's, Dad?

I had a request to make a review post of the last year. The first thing that comes to mind is that things are starting to feel familiar--smells don't seem odd anymore and the tall apartment building in our concrete jungle are starting to NOT seem so stark and cold. I can understand about 75% of what people say to me...not word-for-word, but the paraphrase....I get the "gist" of what people say to me. A year ago, I could tell people that I am an American and so is my husband. I could tell them I was nursing (women ALWAYS asked); I could tell them how long I have been here and sort of tell them how old Selah was. I could use a lot of nouns, but like Selah speaks now, I didn't put a sentence around those nouns. Now, I have a lot of grammar in my brain but not enough nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Ryan and I both spent most of our time over the last year learning how to do things. He learned how to look over the shoulder of those that are doing any sort of work for us and make them do things to his standard. We've both learned to drive in a city of the world's most selfish drivers (That's the best way we can describe the traffic issues here). We know how to get to a lot place and we have quite a few acquaintances. We are still learning the language and plan to be doing so over the next few years. Ryan is so blessed to be frequently told that his Turkish is perfect. Apparently I speak too slowly and need more confidence. Though, I have learned from a friend that mumbling, in fact, helps you to be understood better. Enunciating less apparently makes a difference. Selah is learning tons of words everyday and currently counts to 10 (with a little guidance) in the national language, but not in English. Selah has a few friends that she meets with the babysitter, but I haven't gotten their babysitters/parents to talk to me very much yet.

In summary, we are thankful for all the ways God has provided for us over the past year. He has allowed us to be blessed in many ways, make some friends, start learning a language, and more.