Trip to Istanbul!

We went to Istanbul for the week of Eid which is right before Thanksgiving. It was the last mental hurdle I have had to feeling settled into life (= Not that all the dust has settled, but at least I know that it is just normal life from here on out for awhile. No trips or conferences or anything. Yipee!

Thanksgiving!

There are a group of Americans in town and we got together for Thanksgiving. The couple on the end hosted us - he teaches English at a local school and she is in language school. The couple in the middle are attending language school and the wife is a midwife. We had lots and LOTS of food as the local neighbor family were invited but didn't show up. So hard to cook all that food knowing they may or may not show up! There were seven kids under the age of 4!! It was a crazy time. We did round 2 of TG dinner the next day since we kept all the food at the same house (=

The bottom picture is Layla and Ryan playing with a little boy just 3 weeks older than Ryan! It is nice to have other moms around who are in the same stage of life.

It was a great Thankgiving and we have much to be Thankful for this year!! As soon as we get our last piece of official paperwork I am going to lay it ALL out on a table at take a picture so you can see the sheer volume of red-tape that has been our life the last few months.

6 months old....a comparison (=

These are both kids at 6 months of age in our rocking chair. Don't ask me HOW I remembered that I took photos of Layla at 6 months in this rocking chair. I forget everything else important! Fun to see how they are similar and how they are different!

Wrestling!

Ryan has just turned 6 months old and is a real fun baby. People comment that he smiles with his whole body (= He is much more responsive than Layla was at this age which is fun.....Lj was just such a laid back baby (=

We were in Turkey for one week over Eid for a conference and we had a great time meeting lots of new folks. We love Turkey and love the people and all the green trees, grass and bushes! Our hotel had THE MOST fabulous buffet at every meal. It was stunning. I just wish I could have focused more on the food without little ones to tend to (= Silly, I know!

Lj's eye problem diagnosed!

For those of you who have followed our little family happenings, you may know that Layla has had a wierd eye thing for most of her life. We went to two specialists in the US and never got it properly diagnosed. After a double whammy of two back-to-back episodes last week(usually lasting 4-5 days each) we went to the small local hospital in hopes of at least getting something to help the pain.

The doctor took 10 mins and said it is VKC or Viral Conjunctivitis. It is essentially an allergy so there is no cure other than dealing with symptoms and the hope that she will outgrow it as she gets closer to puberty. It can be triggerd by an allergen OR any time her immune system is depressed. This would explain why it was SO difficult for us to track a consistent triggering event.

It is nigh on impossible to get Layla to open her eyes during an episode so I had taken photos one morning while Layla was distracted while Tom was reading a book to her. The doctor said these photos were very helpful and certainly confirmed for him that he had diagnosed it correctly.

It is very painful for her and usually keeps her in bed in a dark room for the first 3-4 hours of the day. She perks up by late afternoon but we have one crying and whiney girl on our hands until the whole thing passes. The eyes are painful to open in the morning, feel gritty, have blurred vision and are usually itchy.

Thankfully we are no longer using the steriod drops given to us in the US and it has been confirmed (yet again) that is not a problem that will affect her vision. Long-term use of the steroid drops, however, would. So we have some good medical help for her right here in town and we are so so grateful for some resolution to this pesky and painful issue for her!

Whole lotta cash!

One of the things of living in a "2nd/3rd world" world is that some transactions are still in cash.
Since we moved here back in April, we have had the generous loan of three different cars and had put off buying a car since we were hoping that our residence visas were going to come "soon". Registering a car in someone else's name is a hassle for all parties involved and if we were just going to turn around and reverse the process to put the car in our name a few weeks later, it didn't seem worth it.

Well here we are 6 months later finally buying a car (= In cash!

Once we decided on the car it took a mere 24 hours to open the bank account here in town, transfer money to my dad, to friends here the country, from their account to our new account and to withdraw it all! We needed to add the step of using our friend's account because of the different weekends between the US and here. We knew we needed one full day for our account to work, and by that time the US banks would have probably closed and we would have had to wait several more days.

Some things can go so much faster than in the US and some things are slower. There is no predicting what category something will fall into. I would not have predicted 'financial gymnastics' to be in the fast category.

Because Tom was opening a new account and trying to transfer a chunk of american dollars, the bank manager now things we have some sort of wasta (= The combination of that and taking Layla into the bank has made sure that we will be remembered (=

All in all, we are so grateful for the resources to do this, the resources of friends' we've used along the way and for His provision of it ALL.

We're not trying to teach Layla to love money here...it's just that there aren't many ways to make pictures of cash interesting (=

Some things Daddys do, mamas would just NEVER do!

Sorry to post twice....just couldn't get the video the right size for my blog....plus I didn't want all the extra You Tube videos showing up.....you never know what you might accidentally click on! Yikes.

Ryan is 4.5 months old here.

Get a job; throw a party!

In the culture here, when someone gets a new job, or buys a new car or has a baby, they treat their friends to a big meal. We aren't quite up for doing that, but I made a TRIPLE batch of chocolate chip cookies (yes, all in one go in my FAB mixer).

Can you see sweet Ryan peeping through the chairs? Tom bought that walker for him and I thought it was a bit much, but he really enjoys it so I am grateful to have a place to put him where he is happy for a long stretch of time.

It has been very fun and gratifying for me to remember so many things that we used to do with Layla that are the same with Ryan. I've said it before, but we've had SO much change in our last 8 years that having two babies in the same hospital and the same house has been very grounding for me. It has been wonderful to remember Layla in the same bouncy seat on the same kitchen table while I cook at the same stove (=

We have been nesting like crazy - today we bought trees to plant! Our neighbor went with us to get the trees. You should see their yard - all kinds of jasmine bushes, a fig tree, guava, lemon, and bunches of other things I don't remember. They know what they are doing! Anyway, he and Tom are going to dig holes early tomorrow morning and I am finally going to have trees to look at out my kitchen window!!!!! I'm probably more excited than I should be about this (= This big tall trees are pretty wimpy looking but rather tall. I can't believe they are only $8 each. I'll have pictures soon!

Part 2: Finished Construction - Oct 2010

House Improvements!

After being in the US for 18 months, we moved back in April of this year. We had a baby one month later and have been working on trying to get our residence visa. During this time we had considered moving to a slightly larger house and were casually looking around. We decided for sure that we were going to stay a few weeks ago and as a result we are doing some improvements around the house.

The major construction stuff was supposed to take 10 days but they finished in 5! It was a little hard to trust the construction process at the beginning because things are made soooo poorly here.

Anyway, Tom did a great job managing the guys and making friends with them and they really did a great job for us. They even cleaned up which is UNHEARD of! Part of having men work on your house is supplying them with water and chai (tea) and sometimes even meals.

These guys didn't expect meals as they brought they own. Layla got a kick out of watching their picnics in our yard under the shade of our massive palm tree.

Sorry this is in two slideshows - I made a mistake in my uploading and I'm not going to take all the time necessary to correct it. I'm happy I even have this done in the same month as the construction!

Enjoy the pictures!