The Body

One of the downsides to our "Life in a Foreign Land," is the distance from home. The trip from Turkey to the midwestern United States takes 24 hours door to door. It's uncomfortably long for adults, and pure torture when attempted with small children. As a result, in the last two years, we've missed weddings of close friends, graduations of siblings, and funerals of family members.

Last week, however, Zach flew back to the United States. His Aunt Lynn, who was very special to him, lost her long battle with cancer. He went to be with his family as they grieved the void she left here on earth, and celebrated the fact that she is now cancer free and experiencing the full glory of her Savior. It was important for him to be there, and thankfully, even at the last minute, all of the logistics worked out for him to go.

Just a few days after Zach arrives back from the U.S., he will take off again, for Amsterdam. He will be attending the World Physical Therapy Conference where he will present some of the research that he's done/assisted with while living in the Middle East. It's a big deal, and I'm really excited for him.

That means, however, that during the month of June, I will be in Turkey, alone with my children, for a total of 19 days. While I desperately love my children, the thought of that makes me want to break out in hives; sleepless nights, early mornings, countless hours of entertaining and disciplining without breaks. Uggh.

Thankfully, I'm not actually alone, alone. Since the Church in Turkey is extremely small, it's members have to support one another. And, I've been supported over the last week. I've gotten emails and calls from believers who are just checking in on me. I've had friends come over to keep me company and to supervise my children while I attempt to get my house in some sort of order. And, I've gone to others' houses where I've been fed and my kids have been entertained. It's been really nice, and I think we're going to survive the month of June.

So, what have we been doing in Zach's absence? Well, it finally hit the 80 degree mark here so we pulled out the swimming pool. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting the hose working correctly so I started out hauling buckets of water from the bathroom to the pool. It only filled about 2" before I needed a break. About an hour later, Eli figured out the problem with the hose.

We've been playing lots and lots of instruments. For entertainment purposes, we attended the local international school's band concert on Friday, and every day since, per Eli's request, we've been having our own "concerts."