Day 19: Ankara to Adana - home base!
/Other than the dial up internet from my highschool years, this is the slowest internet connection I've ever experienced. So, I have found typos in this, but I'm not going to go through and fix them all just yet because the page spazzes out anytime I click on anything. Know that I see them, and that I'm educated and know why they are wrong. :) With that, read on and enjoy!
I laid in bed last night thinking over what I would write in this post. I was going to write it last night but the hours slipped away as we arranged the TLF (temporary living facility) and did a mass laundry project to safe guard against the possible bed bug issue we picked up at the filthy place we stayed at in Barcelona - pretty sure it's not bed bugs, but you can ever be too careful. Elijah was covered in red bites the second morning we woke up there but they stopped when we left and there hasn't been anymore, so we are hopeful that it's not, and it if was none of them would have survived the extreme heat we used to wash EVERYTHING last night. We facetimed with some old friends from med school that we haven't seen in.....gosh....6 years? It was so crazy to talk to them! Facetime is a wonderful thing, indeed! We talked with Josh's mom for a bit and then got back to work getting things set up in here. So, all that to say that's why this post wasn't up last night - but I wish I'd stayed up late to do it because it was all fresh in my mind. Things always look and feel different after a night of dreams.
So, for day 19 - the final day of our crazy cross-European move - Luke woke up at the crack of dawn since there was really no way to block the light out of room that faced East. Josh was dead to the world and I had that awful feeling you get when you feel like you are glued to the bed - like getting up is simply impossible. Not to mention that Ankara had almost NO humidity (compared to what we are used to), so I woke up feeling like my eyes were fused shut and my throat couldn't possibly be any drier. We all drank our weight in big city tap water and got to packing up the place. We hadn't spread out that much the night before, so there wasn't much to pack. We fed the boys a quick breakfast and got the heck out of the stuffy place. We laughed as we walked out of the elevator at how cool it was on the ground floor. SO cool out. Never would have known that being up on the 7th floor. We still don't really understand why our host put us up there in that half done apartment. Josh looked back and found several reviews of people who said they'd booked the place only to be moved to a different place, so we're wondering if maybe that it typical behavior. Either way, we were SO glad to be out of the place. It wasn't the worst we'd stayed in, but it was pretty bad. So we got out and walked the long stretch of sidewalks to where the van was parked and climbed in. It felt good climbing in knowing this was our last day for a loooooong while to be in that van. We parked it here yesterday in front of TLF and we aren't allowed to drive it (except around the corner to whatever house they give us) until it's registered with Turkish plates, and apparently that takes a very.long.time - like, months. I think we all are ok with that at this point. Perhaps we'll feel differently after a few months of walking everywhere in the heat. Anyway, we got in a drove. I had woken up with a heavy head ache and was desperate for some caffeine to battle that and the fatigue. Both Josh and I felt like zombies. We stopped at three gas stations before finding one that contained the liquid gold. The first has a Nescafe machine, but apparently it wasn't working? We weren't sure. He had free coffee out front but it was all gone and after thinking on it for a while after we drove way I realized he was filling up a pitcher with the hot tea water to pour over the Nescafe instant packets he'd shown me. I feel so rude about it. Gracious. It was so bright and so hot. I rubbed my temples as we drove down the road, looking through half open eyes for the next gas station that looked promising. The second one we stopped at also had a Nescafe machine but it was out of order as well. We drove on and found a 3rd place to stop and saw canned, cold Nescafe (that.is.delicious!), bought two flavors and drank them down in just a couple of gulps. We weren't picky about savoring, we just needed the buzz. ha! My headache delightfully melted away within several minutes and I could feel energy for the first time all morning. They must contain a lot of caffeine! We drove on through the desert scenery and marveled at the heat waves glimmering in the distance. I found myself daydreaming about the vast array of green hues on the island and fighting drowsiness at the wheel - I do fine driving when there's stuff to look at, but on this drive there was really.nothing.to.look.at! It was so brown, and yellow and dry and barren. We happened upon a lake out in the middle of no where but I could tell coming up to it that it wasn't normal. I mentioned to Josh that the chalky white residue that made up the banks of it looked like salt. Sure enough, it was a salt lake. We saw people out walking on it so we decided to pull over and explore with them! It was seriously incredible! All shades or powdery pink, cold refreshing water (once you walked out far enough to get to the water) and beautiful, glistening crystals of salt.
Back on the road again for a few more hours and many more miles of desert. The desert eventually turned into rolling brown hills, and then higher brown hills polka dotted with tiny green trees and then small mountains and then towering, jagged mountains that were so picturesque and reminded me much of the mountains I grew up by. We will definitely be paying a visit or many back to this area, as it's only just an hour from base. Certainly there's some good camping tucked away in all this beauty!
We drove down out of the beautiful mountain range as the boys were napping. We was relieved that they all fell asleep (but not without Josh sitting clear in the back and dealing properly with the giggling and pillow fights) before we arrived. We pulled up to base just before 3:00 and waited for Josh to get processed in. Our sponsors (a couple that is put in charge of helping us on base) were at the gate waiting for us and helped us get loaded into our TLF - we walked in to air conditioning, snacks and chocolate on the table, food in the fridge and toys for the boys. Thank you, Eric and Joy, for blessing us in that way!
The afternoon was spend unloading the van and chuckling about the things we found piled under stuff that we'd been looking for, and figuring out what had gone permanently missing during the trip.
We are without:
a water bottle that was JUST in the van yesterday afternoon - NO clue where that thing fell out!)
a beloved stuff duck that was left in our rental place in France
a much needed cell phone that was left in our place in Roma
the right foot side sandal to a pair of Luke's sandals
the right foot side of a pair of Luke's tennis shoes (yes, we pulled into town with a shoeless baby!)
there are others, but I'm not remembering them right now
We unloaded a bit of the van and Josh got on the phone to call up the housing office and ask about where we were on the wait list for a house. He talked for a few minutes and then hung up the phone and said with great delight, "Praise the Lord! They have a house for us and we should be in it by Friday or next Monday! And it's in Eagle!" Eagle housing is the newer and larger houses on base. They are renovating a lot of the houses, so getting into Eagle has been a challenge, as it's been packed full for some time now. Apparently the house they are currently inspecting for us is the only one available (that we qualify for) - there was a chance of being in a 3 bedroom house in one of the other areas with really no back yard to speak of. We were praying for Eagle, but confident that whatever house we needed to be in would be provided - the Lord knows where we need to be. If it's a smaller house than we are accustomed to, that will be ok. He knows our neighbors and our location and why he wants us there and we take great comfort in that. The home is a big deal to me - Josh is pretty ambivalent to it all, but as the one who's home most of the time and takes great delight in creating that safe and comfortable place for us all, I take a lot of stock in where our home is. In the past I've over thunk it. I've worried and fretted (and did a bit this time to, but only for a tiny bit), but have been able to walk into it this time knowing that it's already taken care of (and has been every time), so no amount of stewing will do me any good. That doesn't mean I don't wonder how to make a small back yard work for us - we've been so spoiled in the last two places we've lived - having huge fenced in areas for our boys to explore complete with trees and climbing and exploration galore - like I said, I don't know how to live in a neighborhood where my children can run free (at least the older two) and where a backyard isn't that big of a necessity.
So, we are waiting for this potential house. I say potential because things can always change. It may not pass inspection and then we are back to waiting, which we are happy to do. We are really happy to just be in one place.
We walked to the commissary to drool over the fully and variety stocked shelves. If you were not stationed at Lajes in the last year, I assure you you don't know how good you have it with your commissary or grocery store - my.goodness! haha! Pitiful! I will not complain, because we had food that we could walk in and buy and oh for the whole world of people to have access to food like that! But as for a 1st world comment about it - they'd recently stopped stocking all crackers but ritz and saltines. There were only 3 types of cheese available in block - cheddar, mozz and sometimes pepperjack. The frozen juice section only had orange juice and cocktail mixes and the white grape juice they had there had expired in April of 2014 (we learned this the hard way after three separate times purchasing and opening curdled and sour frozen white grape juice) and was never replaced. The soda section took up 2/3 of the back wall of the building, but the meat section was about 7 feet long and often only had one shelf of meet to pick from instead of the 3 shelves it contained. There were many other funny things that gave one good practice in patience, but I will move on.
We marveled at all the options before us, not really wanting to buy any, just being excited that they were there. We bought a few essentials and moved on to the BX to buy a pair of shoes for Luke, who'd successfully misplaced (yes, it was him - he carried his sandal off and hid it and then kicked his tennis shoe off in Ikea - but it's our fault that we didn't see) the right foot for both pairs of shoes we'd packed him. The cheapest available pair was a pair of green chucks that are adorable and were on clearance for $21!!!!! Those explanation points aren't because I'm excited! Those are because I exhausted all other options before paying TWENTY ONE dollars for a pair of baby shoes! It made me squirm - I have hoards of boys shoes coming in our shipment (whenever that arrives) that I purchased for $1 at the Bargain Box in Florida. I am seriously against paying high price ($21 is high price for this skin flint!) for boys stuff. They ruin everything or grow out of it before they've destroyed it. So Luke is walking on adorable little gold nugget shoes now.
We heard "it's hot!" multiple times from each kiddo while walking back from the BX. It is hot! Over 100 Fahrenheit with the heat index, hot. But there's cicadas, which are a delight! OH how I'd missed their beautiful song! And the base reminds me a lot of Eglin. The high top pines, crunchy grass, heat and cicadas bring back fond memories of our time in Florida. Speaking of, we arrived on base exactly two years after arriving at Lajes after leaving Florida. So crazy! What an insanely full two years!
Throughout the evening as I unloaded groceries into cupboards and put various other things away there were times that left me with a painful lump in my throat. We have several peanut butters. I packed a lot in the van and the folks that bought groceries for us left us with some. I was excited putting it away and thought, "Oh, I'll just give the extra to Manuela!" (who LOVES peanut butter and can't get it at the Portuguese grocery store for under 10 Euro for a tiny jar. But then I remembered. And the lump was there. A bit later it was something that reminded me of my precious friend Shelby and I thought for just an instant about facebooking her to come over - and then remembered, and the lump hurt again. There were several times like that last night and there have been several this morning as I flip through facebook pictures and see parts of the island that we loved dearly. For just tiny little instants I would think, "Oh! We need to get back up there to see that again!" and then would realize that we may not ever, again. It's the usual things that happen after a move, just happening later than usual because I was so distracted on the trip here.
But we are here, and God is good and he knows. He brought us here and will bless us here and we will do our best to bless and glorify him in our lives here. We are eager to go to Chapel on Sunday and find out ways that we can serve. We've learned (a bit too slowly, I fear) over the years and the many many times that we've moved that serving is the best way to get connected.
Here are some fun pics of how we had the van packed for the trip. This, obviously, is after it's been gutted of most of it's contents, but you get the idea.
We will post a couple more times, some of thoes will be written by JOsh. Lessons learned, tips for traveling, deep thoughts, etc. I will continue blogging, but it probably will not be every day. This takes more time than I am willing to commit to every day outside a crazy trip like this, but I hope to write more than I have before. Writing through this trip has renewed my love for documenting life and the way that writing helps me defuse, learn and relax.
Thank you sincerely, all, for following along with us. What a blessing you all were with your encouraging words and your prayers! It's a beautiful thing to know that we had such a large network of believers, friends and family rallying together to support us through this move. We are delighted to be here and to find out what God has in store on this end of the epic Eurotrip!
Blessings to you all!
If you wish to continue following along with us I will be blogging at a new link, once I figure out how to make a new link. Or maybe I'll write Shelby, our trusty web designer back on the island, and have her insert a new link for an entirely new blog separate from this one or the "into the ocean" one. Who knows. But it will be there if you like.
Love you all!