Turkey {Our Last Day}

Part 1: {Hatching the Plan} by Jess
Part 2: {Getting Ready} by LA
Part 3: Saturday {Surprise Time} by T
Part 4: Sunday {First Day} by Kasey
Part 5: Monday {Second Surprise} by Jess
Part 6: Monday {Being Surprised} by K
Part 7: Monday {Double Party} by T
Part 8: Tuesday {Grand Bazaar} by Kasey
Part 9: Wednesday {Sightseeing} by Jess
Part 10: Wednesday {The Cisterns and Ice Cream} by K

Part 11: {Our Last Day}
Thursday was our last full day in Turkey with our dear friends. We talked about what we might do on this day, maybe a traditional Turkish breakfast at a restaurant, but finally decided, we just wanted to be together as much as possible and that meant staying at The L's.

C went out that morning and picked up some traditional pastries and bread. Yum!

Then a bit later, after packing up, The E's came back over from their hotel. They were flying out later that afternoon. We all knew this special time would have to end, but no one wanted it to. The rest of the morning was spent sharing and laughing and singing and praying for one another.

The girls all LOVED Mr. Brent!

 

I also bought each girl, including Claire, identical bracelets to remember one another and pray for each other. E (on left below) is 3 months older and SK (right) is 5 months older than Claire. So they are her friends and peers, but they were having a hard time remembering her. And Claire is the same way. They were all so little when they moved away. I wanted them to have something to help bond them together. And of course pictures and videos help too. :)

Later on, I shared a video of Lyla Hope's sweet life and with some of my closest friends who were not able to be physically with us during our loss. I know they were with us. I know. I know they interceded for us. I know. They still are. Even though oceans separate us, they were with us. It was a sweet time of sharing and letting them be apart of our time with her.

And then, they prayed boldly for our family.

We also prayed for The E's since they were leaving a few hours later.

And we sang! I love to sing with these people. And K recorded it. Of course, we put the mic closest to Jess! :)

One of the songs we sang was called "Never Once" by Matt Redman. The E's shared that this song had been apart of their family worship time for the past few weeks and how our visit revealed God's faithfulness and provision for them in a tangible way that they never expected. We all go through times a deep struggle or sadness or difficultly. But God is always faithful. He always provides. We are never alone. He is always with us. And sometimes He provides surprise guest visitors to bring refreshment and encouragement. Or for Brent and I, an unexpected trip that we always wanted to take but so many things were happening that we thought it would never happen. God provided a way. And it was healing for us to be with these people again and share and cry. God is good to us. All the time.

Never Once by Matt Redman
Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we’ve come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Never once did we ever walk alone
Carried by Your constant grace
Held within Your perfect peace
Never once, no, we never walk alone

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

After this amazing time together, it was time to eat! C made us a delicious lunch and I was made fun of about how much mustard I enjoy. :) I like a lot. I'm okay with that.

After lunch, it was time to say good-bye to The E's. No one wanted to let go. We LOVE you guys and will see you again soon!

And there was some down/relax time.

Later on that afternoon, C took us on a hike to our other friend's house The B's. They are currently in The States right now, so he checks on their apartment and airs it out, etc. They have also adopted a sweet little girl and wanted us to pick up some clothes from her room.

We loved the hike to their apartment. It is also where C runs. Lots of hills.

When we arrived at The B's, Kasey, Jess, and I loved getting the opportunity to prayed over their home and their daughter's room and her transition to her new home. She hasn't been there yet.

Once we returned to The L's, we organized our belongings and condensed the amount of bags down to 5 that we would be checking. Then we headed out to dinner.

At this point, I knew we were going to dinner but I didn't exactly know names of places so I was just along for the ride. We looked at several menus, so I finally figured out, we were still deciding on where to go. We finally decided on a place. It was cute. But after looking over the menu again and again and nobody really finding something they just had to have, we left. Have you ever done that before? So awkward. haha. Oh well. We tried to be quiet about it but I think Kasey bumped something on the run out. Whoops. It's a good story to tell later. It really was for the best. Because where we ended up was AWESOME!

 

We finally arrived at one of The L's favorites and it is also the bakery we were at earlier in the week after T's doctor's appointment. Delicious!

 

 

After dinner, the girls went shopping. Again. We love it. What can we say? And then walked home at 10:30pm. Walked. Late at night. I point that out because I would never do that at home. My city is not set up to walk like theirs, but also I don't know if it would be safe. Many people asked about our safety before we left and T asked how we felt while there. I felt totally safe. Completely.

For the rest of the evening, we set up talking and laughing. And finally decided that we might should get some sleep about 2-3am. Didn't want to miss a moment.

Many have asked what my favorite part of the trip was for me and it was just being together again. I loved the sightseeing and food but just sharing life again beat it all by a long shot.

Stay tuned for the last installment...

Part 5: Turkey {Monday/Surprise #2}

Read all about our trip of a lifetime! Below is the story about Monday {our second day} and the SECOND SURPRISE!

 

 

Part 5: Turkey {Monday/Surprise #2} by Jess

Part 4: Turkey {Sunday}

Read all about our first day in Turkey!

Part 4: Turkey {Sunday/First Day} by Kasey

Part 3: Turkey {The Surprise}

Catch Up: here

Part 3: Turkey {The Surprise} by T

Turkey {Getting Ready}

{This is trip was epic and deserves more than one post about it. All the girls will take different parts of the trip and write their story. I will post each entry here in order, so don't miss it!}

To read the part of our story start here: Turkey {Hatching the Plan} by Jess

Turkey {Getting Ready} by Leigh Ann
At the beginning of September, Brent and I and two of our closest friends, Jess and Kasey, went on a trip to Turkey to visit more dear friends, The L's and The E's, who work there. One of the best parts of this trip was planning because it was a SURPRISE for both of the wives in those families!

For three months, we planned, shopped, packed, repacked, sent countless emails and had a garage sale. We continue to talk to K and T during those months through email and phone calls and did our best not to ruin the surprise. We waffled back and forth whether we should give them the pleasure of knowing we were coming. The husbands knew and were SO excited. We wondered and worried if the wives would be upset not knowing. They didn't get to plan or be prepared. But their husbands kept reassuring us this was for the best and it would be one of the BEST moments of their life. EPIC.

We were under strict orders not to tell anyone we were going to help keep the surprise. That worked for me for awhile, but then we wanted to bring these two families gifts and food and how were we to do that without letting people know what we were doing? Slowly, I began telling a few people. Then people would come up to me and say, "Hey, I hear you are going to Turkey!" What? Who told you!? So I wasn't the only one telling people {Kasey ;)}. I thought keeping this a surprise was going to be impossible.

Kasey and I decided to host a garage sale at my house in order to raise money for the trip to buy gifts for these two families. Our friend T is expecting a baby boy, she was 37 weeks while we were there, and we wanted to have a baby shower for her. We thankfully had many people hear about our sale and donate items for us to sell and use the money for the trip. It was AMAZING! The week of the sale, Kasey and I called ourselves the "Two Girl Movers!" Seriously, we could have had our own business.

The sale was a HUGE success! I wish I had pictures of the entire set-up but our sale started at 7am Friday morning and we had a constant flow of people beginning at 6:30am! We couldn't pull it out of my garage fast enough. There were always people shopping until 11:30pm. It covered my entire driveway to the street and my entire front yard. Big!

Grand Total: $830!!! We couldn't believe it!!

Thank you all who donated to the sale! You helped bless these two families more then we could have imagined! We are all incredibly grateful for all your generosity.

Because the number of people in the know about our trip kept growing, we had several other groups and friends send gifts for these families and Baby L. Thank you, thank you for all your help!!

The Friday before we left for our trip, Kasey, Jess and I headed out to shop! Walmart was our first stop since they have literally everything baby, toy, food, etc. We took our two shopping carts around through the store just filling them up for The L's and The E's. What fun we had being able to buy for our sweet friends and what a blessing to be given the funds to do so through the garage sale! I only wish I took a picture of all the shopping. Kasey's trunk and backseat was loaded down!

The next step for going on this trip was PACKING! Our airline was awesome and gave us two FREE checked bags (50lbs each), one FREE carry-on and personal item (purse/backpack). That made a total of 12 bags plus two backpacks and two VERY large purses! All at maximum weight capacity. We borrowed a ton of suitcases in a variety of sizes and types (hard case/soft duffle). We wanted the option of condensing on the way home. Let's just say, we only have five suitcases and 3 carry-ons during the flight home. Brent and I didn't even have a suitcase on the way there. All our belongings were literally stuffed in all 12 bags wherever they would fit. We had SO much stuff to bring to these two families!

It was finally departure day! We all could hardly believe we were doing this. We were all BEYOND giddy like small children on Christmas morning. So silly.

Brent drove Kasey and I to the airport and we were incredibly early because we couldn't wait at home any longer. And Jess met us there. It was good to have a bit of waiting time before Jess arrive because some of our suitcases and carry-ons were overweight. Yikes! Thankfully, we were early and they provided a scale to use before you arrived at the counter.

Kasey and I took turns weighing all the suitcases while Brent parked the car and shuffled things around as needed. We finally got it all set. When Jess and Brent arrived, we were ready to check in! And it all went smoothly and everyone was super sweet and helpful.

Security was a breeze until Brent was pulled to the side for his bags to be searched. Funny thing is Brent didn't have a clue what he was carrying and neither did I. We did so much shuffling we were all carrying each others things. The lady helping us was SUPER nice about it all and joked around with us. Can you guess what we were stopped for? Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Icing! Because cream is a liquid. Who knew! Not bad for all that we had with us. And Kasey even got through with her icing! ;)

After security, we headed over to another terminal for dinner and hung out before our flight. Our airline really loved Jess' name because they kept calling it over the loud speaker for her to come up to talk to them. She would go, they wouldn't know why she came, she would leave, and be called right back. I think everyone was a bit confused.

Time for take off! The 12 hour direct flight went great. They fed us constantly for the first three hours (good food), put the plane to sleep after that and we all got a few hours in and then enjoyed some movies. The movie 42 was my personal favorite for the trip.

 

 

Once we arrived, we were given very detailed orders, from our host C, to first buy our $20 Visa and then stand in line at passport control. There was not a line for the Visa but my word was there a line at passport control and no one knew how to wait behind one another. Cultural experience #1. Once we were approved to come into the country, we headed for our bags, hoping they ALL made it. They did! Our sweet friend Abby even gave us 1 Lira each before we left to purchase a luggage cart. Best/most thoughtful gift ever! Because we totally needed the help with our bags.

We made it through customs and out the door and to the right was C!!! It was so wonderful to see him there waiting for us! 13 months was way too long not to hang out with that guy!

He and his friend came to pick us up from the airport. T was at home with Em thinking C was out working on a project. Little did she know. Thankfully, C thought enough ahead to turn off his GPS feature on his phone so T couldn't track him down.

We were all bouncing in the airport with excitement but the car ride over showed just how tired we were, so we just sat back and relaxed.

From the airport, it took about 2.5 hours to travel to The L's apartment. I wish I knew the distance we traveled. I don't think it was all that far. The airport is on the Europe side and they live on the Asian side with only two bridges connecting the two. And 16 million people in rush hour trying to cross.  Can you imagine the traffic? Let's just say it's nothing like Houston. You literally could be sitting for hours. People stand on the freeways selling anything from water and food to cell phone chargers. Seriously. In the middle of the highway. We also saw people hanging out on the side of the highway having meetings or picnics. Kids rolling down the hill. It was their green space.

 

{Please notice the designs made out of flowers on side of the highway. Impressive.}

About 8pm (Turkey time), we arrived on C's street. We didn't park right in front of the apartment because they leave their windows open at all time and T would have heard us. We literally tiptoed down the street with C telling us to be quiet and waving us into the apartment building. More tiptoeing up the stairs...

Cameras ready...

SURPRISE!!!!

{Stay tuned for more of the story....each blog post will be linked to my blog. Trust me, you will want to check it out!}