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.
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!}
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