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.