7 Take-aways from our 3700 mile, 2 continent, 6 country roadtrip

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Now that our trip is complete and we're settling into our new place, I thought I would jot down some thoughts about the trip, as much for our memory as for an outside reader's information.
1. People are people, wherever you are.
    Whether we were sightseeing ancient Rome, wandering castle-cities in the South of France or shopping the market in Turkey, people are people. The language changes and the clothing certainly changes, but the interactions and the reactions our family of 6 encountered were generally the same. 
People are generally kind and helpful if you start off in their language: Bom Dia! Obrigado! Hola! Gracias! Bonjour! Merci! Buongiorno! Grazie! γεια σας! ευχαριστώ! Merhaba! Teşekkür ederim!
Most people love kids! The affection displayed for the boys in order of country: Turkey>Greece>Portugal>France>Italy>Spain. There are few frowns that would not turn upside down when curly-haired Joel would strike up a conversation on the tram, and when asked reply: "No, I don't know English". As a parent, once you get over the discomfort of having strangers reach for your kids, feed your kids random treats, touch your kid's hair, etc, you can appreciate the genuine love they are being shown and what they are learning about loving people.

2. God's glory is apparent all around!
We witnessed the glory of God revealed in sunsets over the Pyrenees, sunrises over the Mediterranean, like-minded believers for fellowship when we were worn out in Barcelona, soft and comfortable beds when arriving 6 hours late in Avignon, a whole Army post full of English speakers in Pisa, moments of Lego-assisted calm on the budget ferry, adopted grandparents in Greece, a smooth border crossing into Turkey and our eventual arrival at our new home.
All these small blessings served to remind us of how great is the Father's love for us, how He loves to give good gifts, how He protects and sustains us always.

3. In some ways, kids are more resilient and adaptable than their parents.
    Probably due in part to youth, naievity, ignorance, hopefulness, and other traits, the boys were better at handling the stress on this trip than their parents were! We were driving around Barcelona on a spare tire looking for a repair shop for an hour and a half on Elijah's birthday! They just sat happily in the van, listened to Adventures in Odyssey and didn't seem fazed. Meanwhile, Bek and I were a ball of worry and stress, trying to think about what we were going to do. Same could be said the next day, as we drove until midnight to make it to our place in France, and while Bek and I struggled to keep our attitudes bright despite our fatigue, the boys had a blast playing and watching movies and enjoying the "night drive" so much that asked to do it again every day for the rest of the trip...
I think as parents our culture tries to tell us what we can expect from our kids, and what they're capable of- but we must be cautious to not sell them short because of our own low expectations. I continue to be impressed by their ability to rise to the challenges we place in front of them.

4. Sometimes it pays to pay!
Those who know me know how cheap I am. Or if you too are cheap, you would probably call me frugal. Either way, I like to save a buck or two, given the chance. On a trip like this it's worth paying for the following:
-good food. not expensive food, but good, fresh, nutritious food that will give kids and adults alike energy and comfort.
-comfortable accomodations. Our worst Airbnb places were also the cheapest(in relation to others around them). Barcelona was 30 euro per night cheaper, and we were miserable. Madrid was one of the cheapest available and it was awful. Ankara was the last on the trip and actually the only option left, but was also half price of other comparable apartments. It was also half completed, half roasting and half cleaned. While two adults can roll with these punches, doing it with a family is harder. Doable(we did it!) but harder.
-reliable transportation: Our van(see below) was not cheap, but proves a valuable resource. There are some time when I should have just hailed a cab rather than try to navigate public transportation.
-a good GPS. The TomTom was amazing. I hate how reliable I became on it, but Bev(our name for the voice) was a trusty companion and never once failed us.

5. The best treatments for hot summer days are air conditioning, swimming and gelato.
One thing to change about this trip, if I had a magic wand, would have been the time of year. We were consistently sight-seeing in 90F+ heat, even in the mornings. This significantly decreased the amount that we could do with the boys. While we don't regret this, and there was no way to change the time of military moving cycles, a fall or spring trip would have been more conducive to most of our activities.
That said, air-conditioning is amazing. Losing the AC in the van was one of our worst-case scenarios. In Italy, gelato serves as an excellent cool-down and kept the boys quite happy. I'll never forget the sweetness of an 18-month-old in the backpack leaning over my shoulder for another bite!
And when in doubt, swim! We took advantage of public pools, waterparks, beaches, lakes, sprinklers, bathtubs, fountains and homemade tarp-pools to beat the heat and work some energy out of the boys- these were some of our sweetest times as a family, too!

6. Minivans are awesome. Especially our minivan.
While Beast has accomplished many feats(4-wheeler paths to fourteeners, towing our car from CO to FL, salvaging 8 pallets at a time in the Azores), this is by far the most impressive. Beast lugged 6 people, a week worth of food and water, a hitch rack with extra tire and stroller, bags, toys, tools, etc across 3600 miles and over a couple of mountain ranges in daily average temps of 90-95 degrees(topped off at 108F in Italy). The auxillary outlets supplied a GPS, a DVD player, speakers, and charged an iPad. The under-seat compartments held enough food and water to supply us in the event of a boonies-break down or late night arrivals. While we had some tire trouble early on, the van ran like a dream with nary a peep. We are so thankful for a reliable vehicle!

7. My wife is awesome.
Allow me a moment to brag on my bride.
Rebekah is a creature of consistency and roots and home and nostagia and a million other things incompatible with the lifestyle of a military spouse.
Nevertheless, she has borne the upheaval and inconsistency of the past month with a grace and peace that belies their Source.
This trip was HARD. The exhaustion of travelling, the misfires with lousy apartments, the unloading and unpacking and repacking and reloading over and over and over- Bek persevered without complaint and never once questioned my sanity in proposing the adventure in the first place!
I suppose I am just so proud of her and impressed by her and in love with her that it would be a disservice to have a summary of the trip without mentioning her constancy and grace.

8. God is good, all the time.
We worship a mighty Creator, who spoke into being the world that we travel, and who sustains it daily. While we were in awe at the history we witnessed in Rome, the art we saw in Athens, the vastness of Istanbul, and many other things- all these man-made wonders paled in comparison to the imposing majesty of Mount Olympus, the peace of a quiet morning on the Aegean, or the sweetness of family fellowship and prayer. God gave us this adventure in part, I think, to remind me that even thought I've now witnessed some of the most wondrous things in the world, He is the wondrous, awe-inspiring, joy-giving treasure that we were created to enjoy forever. May that thought be the one thing that sticks with me the most.


Day 19: Ankara to Adana - home base!

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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!

Day 18: Istanbul to Ankara

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We are tired.  There is really no way around it.  We are plopped on this brand new furniture in this really old, dirty, poorly stocked apartment way up on the 6th floor, listening to sirens and honks and ridiculously loud show off motor bike engines.  Josh was just facetiming with his mom and she asked if we'd do it all again, and we said yes, but we are done.  Tomorrow is the final drive.  We are ready.  We were just watching a video short that someone had posted on facebook about how to make hassle back potatoes and at the end Josh chuckled and said, "I wahnt that!  I'm ready!  I'm done!"  We are both so done.  SO blessed that we've had this opportunity.  Seriously, a once in a lifetime (for reals, with kids this age one can only handle ONCE in a lifetime something like this - goodness!)  The boys have been the hard part, really. Elijah at 8 years old is a little bit of a help, but only sort of.  It's the driving in the cities, and finding parking and holding a million hands and dealing with fingers in mouths, and kids sitting down with their hands on the ground in foul places and near misses with traffic and my ridiculous fear of me, or them or anything for that matter falling from high places (like the 7th story apartment we are in tonight - with no screens, and no balconies - just low slung windows that open straight to certain death on the hard street below)   It's all that, and the heat, and the finding food, and getting sleep.  These aren't complaints, just reality.  Beautiful reality, really - God has been so good to us and yes, we would go do it all again.  A bit differently, but again for sure.  But that's neither here nor there, because tomorrow.....we are done!  SIGH.OF.RELIEF!  

We've had to keep reminding ourselves that this is not a vacation.  It would have been a kinda lousy vacation, no doubt about it.  No, it's a move.  And for a move from one continent to the next, it's.been.epic!  

The morning started with another wake up, breakfast on and cleaned up, bags packed and load! Luke wanted to sit in the empty diaper box while the olders watched PBS, so we let him.
Big mistake.
He wasn't siting for a minute before he tipped himself forward and went face first into the tile. 1 bloody lip, 2 worried parents and three chipped teeth later, he was pretty miserable. Ibuprofen kicked in after 30 minutes or so. We'll put some pics up later.

Alright, we left Istanbul and drove drove drove. First we crossed the Bosphorus River into Asia- big bridge, big river, big traffic! There was an accident on the highway that put us in stop and go for 30 minutes, but then we were off! Turkey is beautiful! We drove through some evergreen forests, deep canyons and rolling farm hills. 

We hit up Ikea in Ankara and bought nothing after walking like heat stroked zombies for a good hour.  Luke pooped and smelled awful well before we made it to the strategically planted half way point of the cafeteria and we had failed to plan ahead and bring in a diaper.  We made it through the whole store, got screeched at by the security gates at the checkouts when we tried to open them and leave - because again, we didn't buy anything (I was much too tired and hot to care that we were leaving empty handed - perhaps I'll regret that apathy tomorrow - or whenever we get into our house on base and I realize that that entry shoe storage dealy-bob WOULD have been perfect where I thought it should go!).  We got out to the van and realized that Luke had kicked one of his shoes off.  UH.  Josh said I should run back in and check if it was in the first cart that we'd tried using that got confiscated by security because......who knows, but I realized on the way in, as I walked - not ran - that he had had it on when he was climbing all over my uncomfortable backed up guts when we were at the cafeteria and Josh was in the bathroom with 2 boys who all the sudden were dying of near bladder explosions.  So it wasn't going to be in the cart.  I retracked all our steps, and came back to the van dejected and shoe less.  Luke has now successfully rendered himself shoeless. He likes to carry shoes around when they aren't on, and lost the mate to a pair of sandles that has been through all 4 boys.  When we put shoes on him he likes to see if he can get them off.  He did, and we are the goons that didn't realize it until too late.  I guess we'll be hitting up the BX tomorrow for a pair of shoes for him to last until our shipment of house stuff arrives.  

After IKEA we only had 20ish minutes to drive, according to "Bev" the gps who has awful and hilarious pronunciations of things.  She, however, doesn't account for nut head drivers that honey badger their way through the city nor the seriously HUNDREDS of pedestrians who walk the streets as a free for alll.  We arrived, honey badgered our own parking spot and waited for Josh to find our host for the key.  He came back, we moved the van and parked illegally in a taxi cab spot and darted up to our 7th floor apartment, not the 1st floor one we'd reserved.  Our host said he'd moved us because this apt is bigger, but it's really just.....ih.  I think the rugs and couches are new, but it's almost like he's just kind of half way through getting it ready to list on Airbnb, because it's just not well stocked at all.  It really just looks half done.  Very strange.  Anyway, Josh ran back down to move the van and bring some stuff up.  I expected him to be gone about 10 minutes, not the 30+ that left me pacing the apartment, checking the peep hole in the door and wondering what on earth I should do with no internet, no phone to call him and no idea what had happened to him.  I walked around to get the apartment ready and found windows open in every room.  There are no balconies.  There are no screens, no bars, no protection.  These windows are about high thigh height on me, and there's convenient climbing stations for young, expecting children to venture onto beneath each window.  I raced around shutting and securing all windows and while doing so heard Joel and Luke hollaring outside.  I panicked, ran into the living room and found them out on the balcony - yes, it's harmless and fairly safe unless one gets adventurous and climbs - I let my fear get the better of me and yanked them both in by their arms, barely stepping onto the balcony myself.  I have a very unreasonable fear of heights.  I dream about falling.  I hate high places.  I hate looking at high places.  I HATE my children being in high places.  Luke was terrified of me for a good minute - I must have been a scary raging monster mom yanking him in by the arm like that.  I shut the door and picked up to kiss on him and calm him down.  I kept on eye on the time - or...didn't, because I didn't have a watch.  But time was ticking and I still didn't know where Josh was.  After waiting as long as I could I hauled all the boys out into the hall, let the apartment door lock behind us and tip toed through the left over trash sludge that someone had left on the landing infront of and in the elevator to go down and look for my long lost husband.  We came out on the street and just kind of loitered.  I'm not sure what I thought I was going to do, but for some reason when I was up in the apartment I thought being down on the street would be better.  I regretted the decision, but it was too late as I didn't have the keys.  The boys and I sat on the curb and prayed and I fought back the tears.  Luke was griping and fighting to get down, but he didn't have shoes on so I wasn't about to let him down.  We must have looked pitiful - the passerbys made that obvious.  Josh eventually came around the corner and I let the tears flow as he explained that the closest parking garage we'd been told about was closed and he had to find one 5 minutes away.  He was loaded down with luggage and we all smashed into the elevator to head back up to our apartment.  We'd planned on making spaghetti from our food stores in the storage compartments in the van, but there are no cooking utensils here, so Josh and the three olders went out looking for food.  I found some chicken I'd forgotten we had in the cooler and drenched it in grape jelly so I didn't have to battle Luke to eat it.  He downed it happily, in his adorable little way, and I showered him and put him to bed. Josh and the boys came back with some delicious and strange looking Turkish food and we sat and ate at the tiny, high top table by the balcony door.  The boys are in bed now, and I'm fading quickly.  We don't plan on lingering tomorrow.  We are very antsy to get out of here and get this job done.  

Thank you all for reading with us and praying with us and being with us in heart.  We'll update once we get to base tomorrow.  What a grand adventure it has been!

Day 17: Down day in Istanbul

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I'd fussed a bit after we got into our place late.  I really was just feeling done with it all.  Done with the driving.  Done with the crying and disobedience and upheaval for the boys.  Done with seeing new things.  Done with remembering that as homesick as I feel, we aren't going back to our house on the island.  That we aren't going back to a familiar yard for the boys to spend hours roaming.  These last few days that has been heavy on my mind.  I'm not sure what to do with four boys, in 100+ degree weather, on an unfamiliar base with no yard to roam and no one that we know.  I have NO idea how to navigate that, and the closer we get to our end goal, the closer that scenario gets.  Life on the island was so slow and calm and at ease.  The boys had full roam of our place and it wasn't ever too hot or too cold for them outside.  Idealic, yes.    They have some learning to do.  I have some learning to do.  

Many of the nights on this trip I've found myself in the shower with my face streaked with tears.  As I let me head hang back and the cool water stream on my face I've had to fight fear, anxiousness, stress, irritability and complacency.  I am so tired, but God is good.  My body hurts, but God is good.  My boys are so confused, but God is good.  I miss my precious friends on the island so intensely, but God is good.  I am desperately home sick, but God is good.  I don't have a CLUE how to do things once we get to Incirlik base, but God is good.  He is good, and will always be.   

Josh said we didn't have to go out and do anything the next day if I didn't want to.  We could just stay in the air conditioning and watch movies all day.  The boys would love that anyway.  Not Luke - that boy doesn't care a lick about movies and only ever wants to be outside.  But we didn't stay in.  We all got a hefty night sleep under our belts and were ready to explore the next morning.  We got up and did breakfast - eggs and toast never tasted so good! I still had some of my gf loaf that Josh bought for me at the commissary in Naples, and he'd found eggs at a market just under our apartment the night before.  We hadn't had eggs in a long time!  Josh took the older three to explore the surrounding area while I stayed in while Luke was napping.  I updated the blog and waited for their return.  They came in sweaty, hot and excited to have found a park nearby.  We waited for Luke to wake up and went out all together to explore their find. 

We went back to the apartment and ate lunch and took naps in the beautiful air conditioning after our trek through the very hot park.  After naps we loaded up and ventured out to the subway to make our way to the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern.  Very cool stuff!  Look them up on google!  Especially the cistern.

We hopped back on the tram and then on the subway to head back to the place, but got all turned around when we got off the metro stop and came up the escalator.  It took us some looking and asking the locals to figure out where we were but thankfully we did it before it got too dark.  We got the boys to bed, talked for a bit and then I headed to bed while Josh stayed up to plan the next day, as he's done every night of the trip.  He's been the mastermind behind all this, and I've been blown away at his determination in it all.  

Day 16: 6th and final country - into Turkey we go! Thessaloniki to Istanbul

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We'd asked if we could stay an extra day/night, but our hosts sadly told us no, that they had another family booked already, but that we could stick around until 2pm.   We were all awake by 7:30am local time - I think we've transitioned - ate breakfast and we were out the door headed for the beach by 8:15.  The water was glassy still, a nice chance from yesterdays waves that the boys had a hard time navigating.  The water was shallow for a few yards but then quickly dropped off to deep, so the boys had to stick close to the shore.  We collected more of the beautiful purple and coral colored rocks that we'd been picking up yesterday.  They are wonderful!  Not sure yet how I will use them, but I'll find a way!  

Josh took Luke back to put him down for a much needed morning nap and started getting the apartment cleaned up and packed out.  I sat and watched the boys delight in the water and the sand and breathed in the therapeutic smell of the sea.  I didn't want to leave.  It seemed like I couldn't dip my head under that salt water too many times before coming out for good.  The ocean had become home to us on the island and this was really the first time I felt like I could truly relax.  Like my painfully heartsick home was being rubbed with soothing balm.  The boys were so carefree.  There was no complaining about heat or thirst or fatigue or boredom.  It felt as close to home as we could get.  The Mediterranean is 45 minutes from the base - there will be water.  Pools.  Sprinklers.  But not the sea.  I'm not complaining, just trying to come to terms with it.  I knew all this, but having this place by the sea I think just solidified it all in my mind.  I'd left the Atlantic and our beach adventures there behind and then got another little taste of it at this place.  It pulled back up all that love I have for the sea and made it all hurt again that we won't be near it.  Yes, very trivial in the grand scheme of things, but with all the emotional and physical fatigue that has come with the last two weeks, it seemed at the time, difficult to process. 

I ducked under one last time and came out with a heavy sigh, ready to barrel forward - ready to follow the Lord into whatever he has in store for us in this new land we are driving to.  A little heavy for the travel blog - perhaps.  But all stuff I want to be able to remember - so growth and trust can be tracked.  

We headed back and finished packing the van and tidying our place and headed back to the same restaurant for lunch.  After lunch we loaded the boys, said our goodbyes to our wonderfully gracious hosts and drove off to meet our new land.  The mountains faded behind us and the land became more brown and barren as we approached the border.  We kept seeing signs for entrance into Turkey and with each passing sign I found myself growing more and more uneasy.  I was confused trying to process through what I was feeling.  I've not had an qualms during this trip with leaving one and entering another country.  There really has been no to-do about it all, at any point. No official border, no signs, no guards.  Passing into Turkey was very different, as we'd anticipated.  The customs process was lengthy, and seemed a bit intense to me.  People were edgy, pushy to weasel their cars in front of others in the long line and the folks in the booths asking for documents seemed terse.  I suppose all very fitting for that type of process.   

We made it through the border, stopped to take a bathroom break on the other side and drove on to find gas and somewhere to exchange our Euro to Lira- all with the prayer that nothing would go wrong, since we'd realized between Thessaloniki and the border that our 2nd phone had gone missing.  We'd loaded two Portuguese cell phone with more than enough minutes to get us to our new home, but we've now lost both of them.  Talk about an uneasy feeling - goodness.  I hopped in the drivers seat after our bathroom break so Josh could sit in back and feed the boys the dinner we'd packed.  It was 7pm local time and they were clamoring for food.  I drove more cautiously than I have the whole trip.  I'm not sure why.  I suppose I have to be honest - my thoughts wandered to all the possible scenarios.  I'm prone to buying into all the media hype just like every other person and I've let my stuffy, sheltered, gullible and fearful mind go places about the Turkish people and the Turkish country that made our drive uneasy for me.  I'm not sure what I expected would happen, but I found myself a bit surprised that no one was forcing us off the road or telling us to go away.  Embarrassing, yes.   I'd let my imagination run wild.

I had noticed an aching pain starting in my chest all the way up my left side into the base of my skull.  It started slowly, but was pounding harder and harder the further we got into Turkey.  I found myself gripping the steering wheel as if my life depended on it and the more I thought about how fearful I'd been of crossing the border, the more embarrassed of myself I became.  We found a gas station that would take our credit card and that had wifi so Josh could contact the host to our place here in Istanbul since we had no phone to call him once we arrived.  I sat and watched the station attendant fill our van and let the tears stream down my face.  He was just a man making money to feed his family.  There were women and children walking around, some with head coverings, some in short shorts and tanks.  There were men and women eating and drinking and laughing and resting.  
People are people wherever you go.  No one was looking sideways at us.  No one was out to get us.  No one cared a lick about who we were or what we were up to.  It wasn't until then that I realized the main reason why crossing the border was so difficult for me.  It wasn't just because of my ignorant fear, but because it just finalized everything.  Up until then this trip had just been a crazy trip.  And CRAZY it has been!  I've been able to kind of forget, not intentionally, that we are moving and that is why we are even on this trip.  It's been a grand adventure, yes, but has felt more like a strange drawn out vacation that hasn't really been a vacation for rest.  Crossing into Turkey finalized everything for me.  Other countries were just passing by.  We drove into them, through them and out of them enjoying the culture and food as we went.  Turkey though, is where we will stay.  It's our new home country.  While our trip still has a few days left, our destination country has been reached, regardless of whether I want it to be here or not.  It yanked up all the heartache of leaving the island and our precious time there and our precious friends there.  As I buried my face into Josh's chest last night and cried I found myself frustrated but thankful that his heart doesn't work the same way.  He just keeps his genuine smile in it all and is truly and honestly so excited for the change.  It's just the way he works.  If it hurt him as badly as it hurts me, I think I would hurt even worse.  And the boys, though emotional as all get out, have been really wonderful all along.  There have been struggles, but they have done great!

We drove in and out of small towns that lined the highway, got caught up and lost 25 minutes in construction and finally came into the city in the dark, in crazy traffic.  I was white knuckled driving sandwiched in the experienced city drivers.  We arrived at our place and Josh took the iPad in search of wifi to contact our host.  The boys and I waited for 30 minutes or so in the van, parked on the sidewalk on a tiny street.  I was nervous at first and then humbled by watching the people passing by.  Mothers with babies in strollers.  Couples, friends, children.  A woman tripped and a man darted across the street to help her up and be sure she was ok.  He kept looking over to check on her and asked multiple times if she was ok.  A couple guys stopped and few and stroked the back of a stray cat.  Josh came back and we met our hosts friend who let us in.   
Josh addendum: My failure as a leader was once again revealed in a lost cellphone- I had it in my pocket when loading up in Athens and then it was gone! No big deal, just driving in two foreign countries with NO COMMUNICATION!! Not to mention that I had to call our Airbnb host in Istanbul when we arrived to get the keys! But God is gracious and merciful, and this is especially revealed in bone-head situations like the one I had gotten myself into. I went looking for a payphone and an ATM(still no Lira), and instead found an ATM and a TurkCell store that was OPEN at 9:30pm on a Saturday, and the proprietor spoke amazing English and sold me a prepaid phone, sim card and enough minutes to call my host in Germany, which I did right there in the store. So once again His blessing are poured out- we found the place, got in, and now have a new Turkish cellphone(all of it cost me less than 60 bucks, 20 of which is minutes on the phone!).

It was well after 10 by the time we got everyone down and quiet.  We've noticed a big difference in the places we stay where the hosts are not present, or anywhere near for that matter.  The ones where the hosts live in another country tend to be a bit dirtier, less stocked, less straight forward and therefore less comfortable.  This place falls into that category.  It's wide open, has AC and is a place to sleep, so it works well in those respects.  With places like this, however, we miss where the hosts meet us and show us everything.  It's a game trying to figure out how everything works, from the toaster oven to the wifi and the water heater.  There's a clothes dryer here, which is crazy!  It's all in Turkish, so we kind of just pushed buttons and turned knobs until it whirred to life.  ha!  

We have a down day in Istanbul, so that will be our next post.  Thank you for following along with us and for your prayers and encouraging words.  We are still in awe at the way our Lord protects us and continues to provide in beautiful ways along this trip.  It's a grand adventure for sure, complete with a vast arrange of emotions and unexpected experiences.  

Day 15: Athens to Thessaloniki

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First off, when Josh told me we had the option to come up to Thessaloniki on our trip, my jaw dropped.  I didn't know what to expect, but it's pretty spectacular in between Athens and here and it's pretty spectacular here!  The landscape looks so much like what I would imagine Bible time landscape looking like.  Short, shrubby trees, wide stretches of beautiful blue Aegean water and patches of dessert like areas all surrounded by hills and mountains.  To know that the Apostle Paul was in these areas that were are in creates such a sense of wonderment!  

Our host from the place we stayed at in Athens came to meet us in the morning and was so gracious!  He helped us load our van even though we were a bit behind schedule getting out of his apartment.  He had a delightful personality.  It was so nice to meet the actual host of the place - that was a first.  We headed out of town and drove with only two short stops, the six hours to Thessaloniki.  

 

We arrived at our Airbnb place here in Thessaloniki and met our delightful hosts.  They truly are great.  An older retired couple who's one son is doing his required 9 months in the Greek Army.  We stayed in their upstairs apartment.  It's been a very different experience than our other places.  These are only the second hosts we've actually met and the first who've lived in the home.  We talked with them for a bit and unloaded the van and then made a bee line for the sea.  It was so good for our hearts to walk out a door and on to a beach like we did on the island.  I choked up a bit as I sat last night on the balcony looking at the sea.  Oh how I miss our place on the island!

We swam for a bit and then walked a few hundred meters to get some authentic, non touristy Greek food!  It was so delicious!  The restaurant is in a line of other shops and restaurants that faces the sea.  The boys ran around for a while in the shady grass while we listened to the Aegean waves, cicadas and beautiful Greek music playing through restaurant speakers.  It was a beautiful experience, indeed!

After some good grassy play time we headed back to our Airbnb place and settled the boys in for the night.  Josh and I enjoyed some time on the front deck of our place, listening to the cicadas and watching the waves on the Adriatic.  We'd discussed asking if we could stay an extra night, but our hosts said they had another family coming in.  I was a bit heartbroken.  Leaving this place was difficult for me.  I was able to see the reason I loved it so much, because it was so much like home being right on the ocean, but my other struggle with continuing our trip didn't become clear to me until we were 20 minutes or so past the Turkish border.

There are more pictures I'd like to go on this post, but our upload speed here at our place in Istanbul is very slow, so they'll have to wait.  

Day 14: Down day in Athens!

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WAHOOOOO!  I'm typing this ON the day that it is for.  All caught up again!   if I get this done tonight.  I say tonight, because it's 9:14.  That means is 12:14 for family in Mountain time.  So.WEIRD!  I'm going to try to cut this short so I can call my friend, Shelby, on face time.  

So, get got up and around today about 8 local time.  We ate breakfast quick-like-rick and then buzzed out the door to catch the metro to the "Happy Train" that would take us around a loop to see all the ancient Greek ruins.  It stopped at each place for 4 minutes or so and you could get off and stay off and catch the next train if you wanted to.  We stayed on until we got to the Parthenon.

 We hiked up the little hillside to where the hordes of sweaty bodies were standing in the parching sun and mulled over what to do.  The heat is bad here but nothing like it was in Spain or Italy, and for that we are very grateful.  It's really very tolerable in the shade.  The boys and I sat in the shade while Josh, with Lukins on his back, stood in line for tickets to make the sunlit, slippery gravel climb to the ruins.  The boys climbed trees and I had several women ask me, as I have had each location, "Are all those boys yours?!"  We, as a family of 6, are quite out of the norm.  It's been fun here in Greece because the folks seem to really admire the boys.  They have other places to, in the other cultures, but it seems different here.  The only reference I have for how Greeks feel about children is from "My big fat Greek wedding" when she says that Greeks marry Greeks and have a lot of Greek babies.  That led me to believe that Greeks like children, so I'm going to go with that reason.  :)  

After Josh and Luke stood in line for quite some time, he waved me over.  He'd passed the little shack that looked like the ticket box, but was in fact NOT the ticket box.  The ticket box wasn't for a lot longer.  We shaded our eyes and peered up the hill to see the ruins and gave each other that, "is it worth it?" look.   We decided it wasn't.  I'm sure the ruins are incredible, but seeing them wasn't worth ruining the mildly good moods our boys were in.  We don't make a habit out of catering to our children's schedules/comfort, but we knew that this went beyond that.  This went into the discussion about sanity.  To stay sane meant to take a smaller bite and head downhill to the Acropolis museum.   It was air conditioned and contained more than a fair share of sculptures and chunks of ancient chiseled marble.   Very neat, indeed!  

 

We headed back to our place on the metro instead of waiting for the happy train.  My stomach was grateful for that, as the train bounces.  A lot.  It felt great to walk into an air conditioned apartment and collapse into bed after a quick lunch.  After naps we stuck around here for a few hours to kill time before heading out for dinner.  The boys watched "angry birds" cartoons on the tv here (never knew those existed) and Josh worked on folding our almost stiff enough to stand on it's own laundry while I did some blog work.  I looked up restaurants within walking distance that have traditional Greek cuisine and we found one just a block away.  It.was.delicious!  HOLY SMOKES!  We ordered a Greek salad, zucchini pie (which was off limits for me),  grilled sweet peppers (YUM!!!!), grilled lamp chops, Chicken souvlaki and Pork souvlaki.  Essentially  the most delicious possible grilled juicy meat chunks on a stick.  GOODNESS they were delicious!  They came with lemon to squeeze on them and fries that were all soaked in the olive oil, salt and pepper and oregano they use to season the meat.  YUM YUM YUm!  

We were even treated (sort of - we paid him) to an old guy playing the accordion.  He was beautifully talented at it and it was just perfect in the setting.  

Luke got antsy after dinner before we had paid, so he and I walked a bit down the stairs and found a dumpster with some old windows in it.  And what do you suppose I did?  I wiggled a window up and out of the dumpster filled with things that would make any person grimace and hauled it back up the stairs to my husband, who was shaking his head and saying, "You have a problem, woman!"  hahaha.  I KNOW I do, I just don't care.  The trick is to find space for the window.  It's small-ish and long and skinny.  I think it should have a good washing, though, before it touches anything we own.  

We started our walk back from dinner on the quiet, quaint streets and I realized that of all the places that we've been on this trip I think of any this is the one I would like to be able to stay an extra day and night.  Walking around it seems that the neighborhood knows each other well.  I took the boys down to the park they'd played at last night while Josh brought Luke back to put to bed.  The park was beautiful!  It's nestled under towering high top pines that are wonderfully fragrant.  It's all safety fenced in, with just one opening and I was delighted to see several couples there, both mom and dad playing with their kids.  The couples were interacting with each other, laughing joyfully and enjoying playing with their children.  I don't know that I have ever seen anything like that before.  There were no smart phones in site.  There were no distractions.  Just parents enjoying their littles.  It was beautiful.  Between the meat being smoked at the nearby restaurants, the aroma of the pines and the laughter of children, it was easily one of the most relaxed and enjoyable parts of our trip so far for me personally.  I would love to stay another day and just spend a good chunk of the day in that park, and eating at these little restaurants that are so far out of the tourist areas.  It feels much more authentic Greek out here, away from the showiness geared toward tourists.  It's beautiful.

Josh's addendum: Yep, Greece is awesome. We'd come back and stay longer in a heartbeat. Kind and welcoming people, good food, great place to stay. We feel recouped and ready for the last 20 hours of our trip! God continues to bless us with safe travels and times of growth as a family!
For fun, see below for a photo reel of Luke testing his limits. He is by far our most difficult child to date- he is independent and stubborn, and he's only 18 months old! We're excited to see how God grows us as parents through these trying stages! Fortunately for him, he's still cute...


Day 13: Patros Greece to Athens

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We disembarked the ferry a little early, around 12:30 Greek time. We've now entered our final time zone- GMT+3.

We had eaten lunch on the ferry, so the boys went down for naps, assisted by a white noise machine piped through the car speakers, personal blankets and pillows for all, and multiple stern warnings to HESH UP and GIT TA SLEEP!

We drove across the Greek peninsula from Patras, past Corinth and into Athens. Interesting Hellenic driving tip- when there is a moderate shoulder, you drive on it so that other cars can pass you in what remains of the single lane.
There is construction right now along most of the road, so we enjoyed the drive at 60kph(about 40mph) the whole way. Really beautiful, and striking to drive past Corinth and imagine the Apostle Paul sailing up the bay, looking at the same mountains as we were!

We made it into Athens without trouble, and found it easier to navigate than Rome OR Barcelona, despite its reputation- I think the Metro has eased the traffic considerably.

The Athens place is great- big and open and artsy- reminds us of our friend Shelby, who would probably have a similar apartment here, sans nude photographs and gin...

Because of the state that Greece is in right now we figured this was the most likely place to have our car busted into.  So, as we've done with many places we completely emptied the van of any temptations.  It's much less taxing when there's an elevator that opens to our apartment door and past that apartment door is wonderful, beautiful, life giving AC!  With the van unloaded and sweaty, sticky, too much energy boys terrorizing the place we decided to search for a place to eat.  I got on the Air BnB app and found the map for where we are staying and looked for little circles with forks in them on the map, indicating restaurants.  I clicked on the one that is literally just around the corner from us and we decided to go there.  Not Greek food, but we didn't really care.  While the boys have been eating PB&J a lot lately and able to get protein that way, it has been much harder for me to keep a consistent flow of protein down my gullet.  Sitting down and eating at this Brazilian cuisine restaurant was a dream come true.  I realized while I was eating, trying to ignore my still queezy stomach, that it was the first actual meal I'd had in nearly 2 1/2 days.  That very well could have added to the nasty feeling I had been having.  Not all of it, but certainly part of it.  I've never been truly "stoned", but I very much wonder if the Scopolamine patch that I had on on the ferry and the ambien I took because I felt too sick to sleep made a wicked stoning combination.  I felt like a whisp, a very nauseated whispy cloud floating around observing things, but not really able to process or partake.  Yuck.  Really I think it was a combo of not eating enough, not drinking enough, not sleeping enough, spending a LOT of time in extreme heat and eating things that are on my migraine trigger list.  :/  Bad combo.  Anyway, the Brazilian restaurant was PERFECT.  The food was incredible and it was the first time in over two years that we haven't had to PAY for water!  They brought it out in a pitcher, and filled our glasses over and over again.  It.was.BEAUTIFUL!  

After our late dinner and short walk back up to our place we put the boys to bed and soon after crashed ourselves.  

Day 12.5: Ferrying from Italy to Greece

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We decided when planning the trip to ferry from Italy to Greece.  This allowed us to see Rome, Pompeii and Athens and skip driving through some of the smaller countries(maybe next time, Macedonia!).

We arrived 2 hours ahead to load the car and waited a bit. As other large families know(and as 1 of 7, I don't even count four kids as large, more of a medium), most situations are not designed for us. The ferry was a case in point. To load a vehicle you must unload all baggage at the door on the side that you see there. Only one person can drive the vehicle onto the ferry, all others must go in the little door. So Bek stayed with the van as she is a dainty flower and didn't want to carry four bags and a baby, hold onto Joel across the gangplank, ensure Elijah didn't collapse from the exhaustion of carrying a 5lb tent and Judah didn't wander through the open door of the engine room and create a Titanic moment.

So the four boys and I went through said door and waited for the elevator. I had the opportunity to teach an object lesson in courtesy when a 40-something Italian lady cut in front of us, the Dad and four small boys, who had been waiting for 10 minutes and jumped on the elevator with her two teenage sons.

The ferry was a budget option- and I chose this route NOT because I'm cheap(though I am).  Unfortunately, it was the only boat that had reasonable times(disembark in Greece at 0500? Nope. Sleep in the airline-style seats? Negativo. Grimaldi it is! 700 euro for 6 people and a van and breakfast and lunch isn't TOO bad.

The staff did a nice job of making you feel like an inconvenience, and made sure to institute on-the-fly rules for safety to prevent the boys from having TOO much fun. The rooms were cooled off to a comfortable 87 degrees, but it's ok, because there is a 50 euro fine for opening the windows to let in the sea breeze. If you needed to cool off you could always take a shower, but had to step through the puddles leaking onto the bathroom floor from the toilet to get there.
Breakfast was fun as I navigated with four little boys and, despite having explicitly explained that I had paid ahead for the business breakfast, was still upcharged for the eggs that were included, then not included.
Bek was sick when we got on the boat and stayed miserable for the whole trip. It wasn't seasickness, and we aren't sure what it was, but she was out of it most of the time, and was bummed to have missed some of the scenery.

On the whole, the boys and I actually had a great time, mostly because of the adventure of it all. It was a beautiful approach into Greece as we sailed through the islands and the water became a brilliant shade of blue. In the morning, Joel got up and looked out the illegally opened window, laughed with pure joy and said "thank you for taking us on the ferry, Daddy!".  So I suppose I'd do it again in a heartbeat, though I might try a different ferry line.

Day 12: Cava de' Tirreni to Brindisi

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Day 12: Cava de' Tirreni to Brindisi and the ferry

We were up and at 'em first thing to beat the heat to Pompeii.
We've done almost all of our breakfasts on our own, with fruit and bread and milk/yoghurt or cereal and milk and fruit, or oatmeal! This has greatly reduced the cost of eating on the trip. We packed most of the dry/non-perishables with us in the storage compartments on the FamVan.

We arrived at Pompeii before the park opened, but found the markings for where to go were fairly poor, so we parked about 1/4 mile from the entrance to the site.
Pompeii was awesome. Really incredible- the amount of detail still present to give insight into the way of life 2000 years ago was really awesome- definately captured our attention, and the boys were engaged for a lot of it, too. This is a place we would definately return to see, given the chance. And for kids it's great, because they can run and roam most of it.  Bek forgot to put a battery in her camera before we made the drive here, so these are iPad picks and she says it's painful to look at them because of the lack of quality.  

After Pompeii we jetted back to Cava de' Tirreni, ate lunch in the apartment, packed up and hit the road. We drove across the Italian Peninsula to the port town of Brindisi. On this drive we encountered very little traffic, and the hottest temps of the trip so far- 107F! In Brindisi we boarded the ferry on Grimaldi Lines(apparently pronounced budget cattle-car Lines in the Italiano) for Greece.

More on the ferry in the next post. It really deserved it's own dedicated bit.

My favorite part of the day was driving large swaths of Italian highway, 4 lanes, 80mph speed limits, WITH NO LANE MARKINGS. It was awesome. Aaaaaand, I honeybadgered the junk out of it.

Yep, this is a 130kph four lane highway. Just use your imagination for the lane markings...

Yep, this is a 130kph four lane highway. Just use your imagination for the lane markings...

Day 11: Roma to Cava de' Tirreni

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This post may be short, as it was a few days ago and we didn't have WIFI, therefore it requires remembering how the day went.  We've essentially lost touch of time, lately.  One would expect nothing less.

We loaded up at our place in Rome and drove a short 25 minutes to IKEA.  Yes, IKEA.  They boys LOVED it, as they should.  Because really, what's not to love? We picked up a few small things and got ideas for things to grab when we hit up the IKEA in Ankara, Turkey, right before we drive to our new place of residence.  After leaving IKEA we drove to Lago Albano that, atop it's beautiful hillside, holds the Pope's summer mansion.  The lake was BEAUTIFUL and the temp was just chilly enough to be refreshing, but not chilly enough to keep us out of it.  It was a ridiculously hot day, like they all have been, so a mid drive swim was welcome!  We planted ourselves under a big sun shade, but quickly got shood (sp?) out of that spot.  I tried to play the "I don't speak Italian" card, but "Privato", which the man said over and over again is a pretty universal world.  So we packed up our few things and moved 100 yard away behind a bush where he couldn't see us.  :)  haha! We've developed a tactic called 'honey-badgering', which is essential to getting things done with a large family in Europe. We basically take what we want, and make people tell us no. This results in lots of interactions with the locals- usually positive!

The swim was delightful and we followed it up with gelato, because why not?!

After Lago Albano we loaded up for a short drive to Cava de' Tirreni- a little town south of Pompeii. Southern Europe will be remembered by us, in part, as the land of a thousand tolls. I'll add up our totals when we are done, but we're easily over 200 euro at this point.

Cava de' Tirreni is charming and beautiful!  We arrived, cooked up some spaghetti, and got the boys in bed. Bek was feeling rotten, so she went to bed too, and I wandered into town to find somewhere with WiFi so we could plan the following day.

Overall, it was a good, albeit busy, day! More later on the trip across the peninsula!

Day 10: Another day in ROMA!

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I was up early this morning as the iPod making noise for Luke in our bedroom ran out of battery.  I have conditioned all of the boys to love sleeping with white noise.  it's a blessing in times when you want to drown out noise, and it's a curse all other times.  Like when there's no other noise to drown out early in the morning, but if the white noise shuts off they wake up.  Or they can't fall asleep because there is no white noise.  

Anyhow, the iPod ran out, so I woke up.   Not Luke.  I wandered around in a stupor for a bit trying to find an adapter to plug it in and fire it back up.  After about 10 minutes of aimless feeling around in the dark, because Judah sleeps in the living room here, I realized I could just swap out the iPad.  Funny how long it takes the brain to function early in the morning.  Well, by the time I finally figured that out I was wide awake.  It was 6:15 then and I decided to just stay awake, having the grand idea that I would wake everyone up around 7 or so and we'd try to get on this schedule.  After a week.  It's still.not.happening.  I didn't wake them up, I just sat at this darned computer and fought with it to open my pictures, or lightroom or anything to do with photos.  It was having none of it, so I uploaded the pics from yesterday as-is and finished bringing the blog up-to-date.  

Everyone else woke up around 8ish...I think....I was tired again by then. ha!  We ate a quick breakfast and went to a water park nearby that Josh had tracked down when we decided to not do two days in a row of walking around melting our shoes on the cobblestone streets of Roma.  The water park was refreshing, but PACKED.  SO.MANY.PEOPLE!  SO many teenagers with their lovey doveys!  :/  Ih.  Smoking here is so common.  We saw several kiddos today that looked no older than 12 or so, barely developed, lighting up and taking long drags.  It's really kind of sad.   We stood in line just to get tickets for at least 30 minutes, but probably much more than that.  It took forever and made for great people watching.  Or...people feet watching.  The boys and I sat and took in all the second hand smoke while Josh was elbow to elbow with the sweaty masses.  There was no line to speak of.  You are aggressive, or you wait an extra 30 minutes.  Italians work ticket lines the same way they work traffic.  :)  

I didn't want to wear my camera the whole time, so we locked it up in a locker at the entrance to the park.  These are the couple of photos I got there.  The second pic there is the area we spread out.  The two families that were to the left of us on the lounge chairs were quite put out that we camped there.  I am still a bit baffled as to why.  It was just the wives, but they made certain to give me eyes and let me know they didn't approve of us pulling up a nice square of concrete next to them.  (Josh: it IS possible that this was a cultural issue- maybe in Italia muttering under your breath, rolling your eyes and glaring is actually a sign of respect. or affection. or something...)  They never so much as smiled, but their husbands and children seemed unaffected by our presence and interacted with us normally.  

We left the water park......wait for it.......later than we'd hoped (that seems to be the running theme for this trip - maybe we should just stop hoping or planning departure times) and Luke was just done.  He's become an expert at sleeping in the van and did just that, even with Elijah and I trying to tickle him awake, all the way back to our place.  I transferred him to his tent in our room and he slept another hour and a half.  Josh stayed up and researched our next stop, but the rest of us passed out for a bit.  After naps we loaded up and headed back to the tram to make our way to the Pantheon.  Josh and I tried to go see it when we were here last summer, but arrived just 5 minutes after the door shut.  Yesterday we arrived a short 15 minutes after closing time.  We checked the time for Sunday closures and made for sure and certain that the third time would be the charm! And it was!  What a sight' to behold!  And to think that the columns we leaned against were there in the time of Paul the apostle(or thereabout!). Each column in the front weighs 55 tons and is a single piece of granite! The domes roof is a marvel of engineering- still the largest all concrete dome in the world!

After the Pantheon we sauntered back through Piazza Navona, saw a living cowboy statue, bought a fedora, and ate at the same gluten free place as last night- penne with bolognese, a margherita pizza and a salame pizza. Delish!


The tram home takes about 20 minutes, and Joel strikes up random conversations with strangers the whole way- he's so stinking cute that everyone wants to talk to him, or get talked at by him! There was one curmudgeonly lady who shushed him, but we'll assume she was having a bad day... On a side note, teaching a four year old to respect his elders and obey when some of them act like jerks is a tough lesson to teach...

Now we're off to bed- we'll load up the van and get on the road to Pompeii tomorrow!

Day 9: Roma!

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This was a full day in Rome, and what a blast!
I was reading travel advice on where to take your kids when travelling in Europe- one recommendation was to take them to the grandparents house before you got to the airport...

While seeing a big city like Rome is a challenge with four little boys, we're starting to learn a little about managing expectations and arranging our day to maximize the pleasantries.  We've been struggling through our patience with the boys and we help them through what seem like the same conflicts day in and day out, all day.  Each of them has had a different way of coping with being uprooted from their home, routine and slow life in the Azores and brought on a cross continental trip in the heat of summer.  And I do mean HEAT.  GoodNESS!  It.is.sweltering!  The boys have been fighting a lot.  They've been crying a lot.  They've been whining a lot, but I don't suppose we expected anything less than that.  Elijah understands moving, as much as an 8 year old can, and Judah too, to some extent.  But Joel and Luke haven't a clue.  And because kids thrive so much in routine, they tend to kind of do the opposite outside of it.  I know for certain I haven't done as well as I can with loving and being patient, and I'll continue to work on that.  In my selfishness I find it even harder to be patient with all their crazy emotions when I am feeling the same way.  I understand it, but I'm wiped too, so I have a shorter fuse.  Certainly not an excuse, just reality.  Only with Christ's help am I able to continue on in this state of fatigue and painful homesickness that I am feeling.  And love the boys through their pain, I will, but again only with Christ's help.  He alone is sufficient.  

So, our day in Rome.  We got out the door just before 9 (the earliest for us so far!) and made the short hike to the tram stop just up the road.  We rode the several stops into the heart of Rome so we could take the boys to see the incredible pieces of history that Josh and I saw just under a year ago when we were here without them.  We walked off the tram, around a corner and there it was.  The Colosseum. Josh and I are both so awe struck by it and I think Elijah maybe was a bit, but as you can guess the other boys just didn't really care.  ha!   

Our computer is struggling with anything photo right now, so these pics are essentially point and shoot.  I've had to dial back my expectations of the pics I take on this trip and just snap the shutter as we go.  I don' have time, with trying to wrangle 4 little boys in crazy crowds and nutso traffic, to take "Manuel" setting photos, so iAuto it is - and lightroom won't open for whatever tempermental reason, so plain jane pics is what we get.  

Josh had downloaded at iPad app that gave us an audio tour through.  We got a bit through it, but the logistics of having 5 people plugged into a headphone splitter in one iPad and trying walk close enough to the the stroller to keep headphones in their ears is a bit too much.  So we ditched the audio and just enjoyed the view.  

We left the Colloseum and Josh and I talked through trying Palatine hill or the Forum and decided, wisely we believe, that they boys would probably get nothing out of either.  Nothing other than a sunburn, of course.  So we walked and found the gelato store than Josh and I had gone to last August, and sat in the shade to enjoy our cool treat.  We headed back to our place for lunch and a nap.  A very long nap in the air conditioning.  It.was.wonderful!

We bummed around here for a while after naptime and then ventured back out to find a gluten free Pizzaria that Josh had looked up.  The food was TOP notch!  I haven't had that many carbs in one sitting in YEARS!  It was delicious!  

After our dinner we walked a through a couple squares and admired fountains, performers and art.

Then it was off to get more gelato and head back to our place for the night.  Something tied up the tram system for a good chunk of the evening, so we started back on foot and eventually caught up with where the trams were stopping.  We saw a trumpet band marching and stopped to enjoy them for a few minutes before hopping on the tram to head home.

It was an tiring, but delightful day.  The smoothest so far, for sure!


Day 8: Pisa, pit stop in Florence, then Roma!

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Day 8 starts with a sleepy wake up, simple continental breakfast in the TLF room and then packing up the car.
A couple of lessons that my boys taught me this morning:
First, when did I stop getting excited to pick out my own cereal? That's amazing! We live in a culture where we have unprecedented access to food. Watching their enthusiasm to try all the continental breakfast items was a reminder of the importance if giving thanks in all things.
Second, we went out to the park to play and another little boy was there with his mom. His name was Angel, and he was wearing a Batman cape. Elijah and Judah went running onto the playground and immediately engaged with Angel and began to play joyously. When did I stop engaging with people in this joyous, uninhibited manner? Why not go running in with such wild abandon?

We left Camp Darby and drove the 1 hour to Florence, since our waiter the night before convinced Rebekah it was a good idea. Maybe it was the Italian accent or something...
We checked out the downtown area, rode the Picci family antique carousel, walked to the Bartolucci toy store to see the Pinocchio carvings and then got some gelato- yum!! We've found that for the six of us, three small gelatos is the perfect cool-down snack...

Lunch in the car on the way to Rome, then naps while driving.
We arrived in Rome around 5pm, and were met at the apartment on the outskirts of the city by Marco, our next Airbnb host. He. was. awesome. He met us there, had a basket of food for breakfast in the apartment, showed us around his beautiful, huge, AIR CONDITIONED flat and then left us to get settled in.
We had our budget meal for dinner: Spaghetti and tomato sauce with fruit, then got into bed to rest up for a couple of days in Roma.

Rebekah's addendum - I had practiced my creative writing for this day and was in the process of uploading pics when I decided to open light room and beautify a couple of the pics I didn't like - I haven't taken the time to edit any up to this point because of the sheer quantity of them and because of lack of time.  I really had NO idea how LITTLE time there would be!  Anywho, our computer is quite cheap and had a nervous break down when I tried to open lightroom as it was uploading pics to the website.  So Josh wrote this post while I was napping and now I am going to attempt an upload once again.  


Day 7: A day in Pisa - the beach and the famous leaning tower!

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Day 7: A little slice of the USA: Camp Darby
Camp Darby is a NATO base in Tuscany, and what a relief to arrive here! We stayed in a Temporary Living Facility(TLF in military speak) with two bedrooms, Air Conditioning, and a kitchen.
Camp Darby is small- it seemed about the same size as Lajes Field, our last station, but it was awesome to get to shop at a commissary and replenish our food supplies. And everyone spoke English, which we're learning is something that we start to miss after a while.
We woke up around 8:30 local time- our body clocks are all out of whack what with changing two time zones, staying up late and sleeping in such a wide variety of places.
One of the dilemas on this day was what to do about the bites.  THE bites. After the first night in Barcelona(see previous post for description of the apartment) Elijah complained about some itchy spots on his legs. We assumed that he has been bitten by mosquitoes. But then no one else got them, and they got big and red. You're all thinking it. Two dreaded words. Bed bugs. AAAhhh!!!!
We don't think that that's the actual culprit, since no one else got similar bites and all the beds were gross, but it still gave me the heebie-jeebies.
So do we wash ALL our clothes on high in one day and play it safe, or wait and see? This highlights the differences in the two spousal units of our family- Rebekah would like to burn everything to the ground and go from there. I'm willing to chance it. After some convincing, we decided to chance it. No laundry bonanza. We let the insect-fates decide. If more bites show up on anyone we'll find a laundromat, wash it all, then burn our clothes, our suitcases and our van, then lock the ashes in an airtight box and bury that in the desert. If not, we'll press on.

Ok, so Campy Darby was great- resupplied our food, our gas, and our enthusiasm. Saw the leaning tower, swam in the Med, ate some gelato and had our first cathedral-awe experience. 
Also, all our tires remain fully inflated, the transmission shifts appropriately, no one is hurt or sick, and Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again whether we make it to Turkey or not.

Rebekah's addendum:
Camp Darby reminded me a ton of Eglin AFB, Florida- our first station: high-top evergreens, cicadas, prickly grass and hot and humid!
Also, I loved the commissary! Our Lajes friends of the last couple years know of our commissary frustrations, as they simply stopped stocking things like oh, crackers. Or lunch meat.
But this commissary was a cornucopia of foodstuffs! I spent a good 45 minutes just staring at all the options, and was asked three times if I needed help finding things. No, just marvelling...
I told Josh that this stop has renewed my enthusiasm for the trip, and hopefully we're learning how to do things better to make it more fun for everyone. Tomorrows adventure to Florence then Rome will be a good indicator...

Here are the pics from the day, from beginning to end.  This first one was our attempted breakfast outside.  But the mosquitoes are AWFUL, and we only stayed out long enough for the shutter to snap.  

Seeing these sites, ya'll, is quite surreal.  It's hard to really grasp what we are looking at when we are trying, yes trying, to wrangle four little in transition, under rested, under exercised, rambunctious boys who really don't have a rip about some leaning tower (ok, they DID care about the tower, but have struggled to care about monuments up until the point that we saw the tower).  Even so, it's a treat. 



Day 6: Avignon to Pisa

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Our place in Avignon was the nicest, by far, on our entire trip so far.  We were in it for well under 12 hours.  It's comical, really.  After the issues with our previous places, walking into the house was so refreshing. 

Since we arrived so late into Avignon, I requested that we stay a bit through the morning.  I've, for as long as I can remember, wanted to go to France.  It was a bit painful for me to think of crashing for just the night and then driving to Italy without walking through a French village.  So we stuck around (a bit longer than we meant to) and walked the sweltering and bustling streets of Avignon.  We were there during Bastille, so it.was.packed!  We found a crowded parking lot that had a free bus into the town center and sat waiting for the bus for a bit. While we waited we got to talk with the sweetest old French lady that ever did live.  She and her grandson were waiting for the bus and her English speaking was beautiful.  We rode the bus in and enjoyed people watching.  We walked around the town center for a bit and then found a place to eat lunch.  

  We ate lunch at a restaurant in the village by just pointing to something random on the menu and hoping for the best.  I'd asked about foods safe for Celiacs and our waitress spoke Spanish and Josh speaks enough Spanish that she was able to understand to bring out an allergy menu.  The menu had numbers that indicated what dishes were ok, so I pointed to one and wondered for the next 45 minutes what it was.  Our waitress apologized several times that our lunch was taking so long and no one was quite sure why it did.  Luke and I walked around, as he was very tired, fussy and hungry, and then Joel and I walked over to a market across the town square from where we were sitting to pick out some bread, cheese and fruit for dinner on the road that night.  The market was beautiful!  Like a for REAL whole foods, not the overpriced fancy market in the States (that I will admit I love).  There were counters for everything imaginable from produce, so salted, dried meats, to house plants and flowers.  It smelled amazing.  I could have spent an hour just walking around looking at all the beautifully simple displays of local, every day food.   

After eating lunch as quickly as we could , and it was delicious, we sped walked to the bus stop and hurried back into the van.  We didn't get out of town and on the road for our 6 1/2 hour drive until 2:30.  MUCH later than we'd hoped.  

The drive was incredible.  The Apennine mountains are truly a site to behold.  They reach so high and are so jagged.   The road system that runs through them between Avignon and Pisa is mind boggling.  It's a series of towering bridges and extremely long tunnels.  There was a 3 or 4 hours stretch there where we were either on a bridge or going through a tunnel.  That was all.  On the bridges we could look right and see the Mediterranean and to the left gorgeous, sprawling Italian villages crawling up the mountain sides.  My pictures of it are simply aweful, as there was literally NO where to pull over and the Italian drivers are a bit crazy, so even if there were a tiny side space to pull over, one would be putting their life at the mercy of aggressive drivers.  So, it was roll down the window and do the best you can type of picture taking.  But I would encourage you to google image Apennine mountains, and you can see what I mean by a site to behold.  They.are.stunning!

We drove late into the evening, once again, because of getting out later than planned.  We arrived at Camp Darby in Pisa, Italy around 10, got the boys to bed as soon as possible and collapsed into bed.  

Day 5: Barcelona....more Barcelona...more Barcelona.... to Avignon

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Josh here. I'll start and Bek will be sure to pretty-fy this post later.

What a blessed day of trusting in God's timing!
We awoke to another hot Barcelona morning, had some yummy pastries, fruit and hardboiled eggs for breakfast, and set about getting ready to leave. We had a lot of time, since the new tires for our van weren't supposed to arrive at the autoshop until 4pm, mas or menos.

We went for swim break to the same pool we visited last night. As Providence would have it, we happened to set up shop right next to a church group of American Christians all doing missions work of some kind or another in Barcelona(hope to post more about their ministry later). Rebekah was refreshed by sweet fellowship with two women there, and the swimming was delightful.

Quick trip back to the apartment to take 90 degree stale-room naps, then we loaded up and went downtown for tires. Sike! Mas o menos means Mas. 2.5 hours mas. so a little after 7pm we left the autoshop, but with 4 reliable tires!!  Thank God for little spares that can! I don't know what the wear life is on a donut spare, but we put at least 300 miles on that sucker.

A 4.5 hour drive north was filled with travelling mercies- a beautful sunset over the Pyrenees, fireworks along the route, and a fair in Avignon, which is apparently one giant castle!

We arrived at midnight local time to a beautiful, clean, modern home with ceiling fans, a washer AND dryer, and clean floors! Praise the Lord for these things that we otherwise take for granted.

I will end this post with the thing that impressed me most today. Every bump in the road, every turn I've made in the past 3 days has been wrought with anxiety, expecting a tire to blow out, leaving us REALLY stranded. Getting new tires on the van was such a relief, but I still cringed today with every speed bump or turn. It struck me how we take for granted these simple things, like a tire that stays inflated, for years! I believe that the things that work in this world work because our Creator binds them together with His sovereign power, but I so rarely stop to truly appreciate the vastness of a power that can accomplish such a feat. So as I took the corners fast and plowed past speed bumps I sang a little praise with every cringe.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

Day 4: Full day in Barcelona

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We scheduled in a full day (2 night stay) in Barcelona.  Our plan this morning was to get out the door as soon as we could gather ourselves up and head to the tire shop that is right smack in the heart of the tourist loving area of the city.  And this is tourist time of year, ya'll.  For reals!  We drove the same 10 or so city blocks for a good hour and a half looking for the entrance to an underground parking garage where the tire shop was located.  We got a really good look at the heart of the city.  It's gorgeous.  Beautiful fountains, monuments and a lot of wonderful attractions for the thousands of tourists we saw.

 Josh stopped the van, parked illegally (if there is such a thing here) and asked for directions 4 different times before we decided to pull over at a random tire shop we were about to pass. The guided us into the garage and we were setting up to unload the boys while they repaired or replaced the back tire when they informed us that no tire our size was available.  We backed out of the garage and gave one final, and finally successful, attempt at finding the place we'd originally planned on going.  Down the ramps we went into the belly of the city, only the be told, once again, that no tires were available in the size we needed.  Of all the vans and trucks and car in this ENORMOUS city, not ONE requires tires in our size?!?  Josh walked out of the office and toward the van looking utterly dejected.  I haven't seen that look on his face in a very long time.  It takes quite a load to get him down, but he was just so down today.  All day.  We both felt clueless about what to do next.  On the way out of the area Josh decided to head to the first shop we'd stopped at and ask them if they could order our size of tires in.  THEY CAN!  They won't be in until 4 pm at the earliest tomorrow, but at least we can get out here tomorrow (Lord willing!)  We are experiencing all sorts of unfamiliar circumstances that are testing our trust.  But trust we do.  Because our God is sovereign and he will provide, whatever that may look like.  

I'm going to move on here and cut this short, because I NEED to sleep.  Very much need to.  

Today was Elijah's birthday, and while the boys were SO good in the back of the van, almost ALL morning, we felt just absolutely awful.  We'd had this whole fun day of local events planned to do with them for Elijah's birthday, and by the time we got our tires ordered and out of the middle of the city, it was lunch time.  We let him choose from a few different things we'd found and he chose to ride cable cars up to a castle that sits high on a hill, overlooking the city and the Olympic complex.  The view was stunning and he was very mature and grateful about the whole experience.  I sit here and type this and my heart sinks to think that in the midst of all the stress and chaos and discouragement that these two boys may not have felt all that special or important on their birthdays.  We told them over and over again.  They know they are loved.  sigh.  Josh is usually the one to carry the weight of stress, and he just couldn't today.  There was simply too much.  We have no option but to continue this trip, and for a good chunk of time there it looked as though we were going to have to backtrack to Madrid just to MAYBE find a tire that would fit our van.  Anyway, that's not happening.

So, we did the cable car thing and ate lunch at the strategically placed, high priced cafe at the top and were delighted to have slushies, food and shade.  We came back down on a cable car and headed back to the apartment for naps.  Everyone laid down but naptime didn't last as long as we hoped it would.  Boys were up and noisy just an hour or so in.  After some discussion and research we decided to load up and pray our way in our gimpy van, to a pool that is a bit of drive from where we are staying.  This place was INCREDIBLE!  It's all shallow and it made to look like a beach.  It sits down beneath high cliffs that are adorned in an abundance of vines.  There's palm trees, a sandy play ground and cool water to refreshen weary heat worn bodies.  It was perfect.  We swam for about two hours and dried off to head back to the van.  I could tell Josh either had something heavy on his heart or wasn't feeling well.  He had a migraine and asked me for tylenol and zofran.  I know it's bad when he asks me for meds instead of waiting for me to suggest them.  Elijah was complaining of stomach pain, as well.  We drove to the "Magic Fountain" after a bit of a drive and got out to see the incredible show that they put on in the evenings, once again though with my go to phrase these past couple of day, "only to find" out that it only runs on weekends.  We'd decided to skip it last night and go tonight because we were too tired.  :/  Bummer.  Apparently it is a site to see!  

We came back to the apartment, put boys to bed and now I'm here typing this.  I'm down.  I'm out.  I'm going to bed.  Love you all dearly.  Thank you for your continued prayers.  Again, please continue.  We would prefer to not battle through the next two solid weeks this way.  But we are confident that God will be glorified.  We are running to Him in all of this and he is proving faithful, as he always does.  Blessed be his name.  

Good night, sweet friends and family.  Pictures hopefully tomorrow.   

Day 3: Madrid to Barcelona

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This post won't have any pics tonight.  I'll load them tomorrow.  It's too much work for tonight.  I will be completely honest and say that my patience is being tested in so many areas right now, but God is still good.  All.the.time. 

The morning started delightfully.  We'd been up late with Luke, who was totally adorable running around all sweaty in his diaper.

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 We got him showered off and put back to bed and he was up at 4:30 island time this morning.  6:30 Madrid time.  Josh laid down with him for a bit in the bedroom he was in and then decided it was time to wake us all up and get the morning started.  It took some doing, as our bodies are still very much on island time.  Two hours difference in the morning is a LOT, especially for travel weary bodies.  Today is Joel's birthday, and it took some serious convincing for him to come around and be excited about his birthday instead of just wanting to go back to bed.

 He eventually got excited and we celebrated with a yummy breakfast at a bakery, where he picked out a heavily frosted pig shaped cookie.  Josh stuck a fork in it and we sang happy birthday.  He was giddy and it was adorable.  We then walked to a nearby park and were able to see the "Temple of Debod".  An Egyptian temple that was deconstructed and then reconstructed in Madrid.  It.was.very.cool!   We witnessed and awkward swim suit modeling session on the walkway by the water at the temple.  Awkward really doesn't begin to describe it.  It was just plain weird.  HA!  We got a kick out of it, for sure!  We walked back to the apartment and hastily loaded the van to get back on the road.  There are a lot more pictures to come for this post, but they are taking FOREVER to upload.  

The drive to Barcelona was....loooong.  Longer that it should have been, just like the drive to Madrid.  Why?  

We got ANOTHER flat tire.  We pulled over at a gas station to get out and stretch and make lunch and could only find shade to part in back behind the building.  It was still paved, but something dove into our back tire and hastily drained the air from it.  Josh noticed it as I was loading boys in the van to get going.  I unloaded boys and we piddled around for another hour while Josh changed the tire to the spare, more use than it's seen EVER, and went into the gas station to see if some "fix a flat" would work.  It didn't, as he could never get it to go IN to the tire.  Most of it ended up on the ground and some ended up on his face.  Maybe a nozzle size difference?  

The first half of the drive was just absolutely bleak.  I mean, for you Wyoming knowing people picture Rock Springs, a teeny it of Gillette, Evanston......oh bother.  I'm not going to name all of them.  Just picture all the armpit towns of Wyoming combined and then add in a little more dry, and a little more desolate and you have the middle of Spain.  Seriously, SO dry.  And.......

I'm just glad we drove out of it!  

The second half of the drive, while WAY slower due to our max 80km/h donut tire, was WAY more beautiful.  It actually looked a lot like the Grand Junction, CO area where Josh's parents live.  TONS of orchards and vineyards, surrounded by evergreen covered mountains and beautiful flowy disiduous trees.  I didn't spell that right, but I don't care.  

That being said, we drove like a snail for the rest of the 2 1/2 hours to Madrid and arrived around 7:20.  We were scheduled to meet our host for the place we are staying at 7:15, but she ended up being an hour late.  I will say, while it is very enlightening and quite humbling to see the kinds of apartments local folks live in, this whole Air B&B thing has been frustrating to boot.  None of the places have been a smooth in so far.  But it's ok.  God is good.  We are less melty in this place here in Barcelona than we were in Madrid, but still quite melty.  This place has two fans, which helps.   I was walking around our place tonight trying to gather my head after a long day in the car, and these are the challenges that we have faced:                                                          The heat, for sure.  The size, as we are used to large - again, it's enlightening and humbling.  The electrical situation - there are just very few outlets (thankfully we remembered to bring a transformer and a couple adapters!)  Having to stay much quieter than we are used to because of being in apartment buildings.  For me, the heights has been a huge issue - the windows have no screens and no bars and have all been low enough for curious little boys to climb up to - I tend to keep them shut and deal with the sweltering, unmoving air inside the apartment.  The kitchen in our current place is.......really teeny.  And really not clean.  Really the only clean thing was the towels on the beds and the sheets.  The floor has left our feet black and stuck with particles.  There's a lot more, but I'm way tired and my eyes sting and I have sweat running down my belly.  ha!  

Please remember that I am mentioning challenges, not complaining.  I honest to goodness consider this a privilege to travel this way and am learning so much from it - though I will say I nearly had a breakdown moment earlier when I looked at the bottom of my feet - I don't like dirty and cramped and hot, but ALL of those and really everything else we are experiencing is just the run of the mill every day life for SO many people.  It's been an uncomfortable reminder of how spoiled we've been all our lives, and especially recently with our incredible house on the ocean.  

There are so many more things, but a cold shower is in order again and then off to bed to get enough sleep before the boys wake up.  My brain will be fresh tomorrow, hopefully.  Pray that not bats fly in our room, because it's simply too stanking hot to shut the window.  

Blessings to you all.  Thank you for following along with us and please if you would, pray that we can find a shop tomorrow to repair our tire and that NO more tires would pop.  Goodness.  The odds!  

                                                                                                      

Day 2: Lisbon to Madrid

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We didn't switch our clocks, since European countries tend to run later in the day than America.  So we decided we'd just run off island time and that way keeping the boys up until 9 or 10pm local European time wouldn't be a big deal.  

We left Lisbon a bit later than planned, just because of the sheer mass of stuff we have to haul in and out of each place we stay.  In a few of these locations we are staying in the heart of the city, which means our van should be emptied of any temptation, and while nothing in it may look all that tempting just the amount in it could prove temptation enough for a smash and grab. 

The trip should have taken us about 5 1/2 hours, but alas, road trips come with surprises.  All sorts.  But before we discuss the surprises we'll take a look at some pics of the drive.    Hover your mouse over the image to get the description

The first surprise was a blown out tire.  A big ol hole blown out.  NO idea what we hit, was it was a gonner.  It happened right before an on ramp, which was our only option for a place to pull over so I got out and directed traffic away from us while Josh cranked and changed our front driverside tired to the spare donut in 103 degree heat.  

The second surprise came when we arrived at our destination.  We found that a misunderstanding in the translation meant that the office where we were to get our key was not in fact at the same address, but 10 minutes away.  So back out into the post-siesta traffic we went.  We found the office, got the key and came back with just enough to run everything (and we've got a LOT of junk in that trunk!) upstairs before Josh needed to dart out the door to try and catch a mechanic that the apartment office guy had given him the address to (thank you, Jesus, for TomTom gps!).  He got us unloaded in the apartment and began slapping pockets to be sure he had everything he needed before heading out.  We had to update our cell phones to roaming and then he pulled his wallet out for whatever reason only to find that he'd left his credit card with the office guy.  *breath*  I was in the kitchen trying to figure out how to light the stove and I could hear his whispered hissing, "OH no!  SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT" over the boys watching a spanish dubbed Spongebob blaring on the tv.    He explained the situation to me and left in a whirlwind after apologizing several times and giving me really sad eyes.  There was no sign of a wifi router, no way to cool the apartment which I'm guessing is sitting at about 90 degrees.  No breeze to come through the screenless, low lying windows that drop down 6 stories, no way to get ahold of the guy with our credit card and no way to know if we'd be getting a new tire at 9:00 local time on a Saturday night.  The boys and I stopped and prayed and then I fought to keep my cool with them as tension was high and things were heating up inside the apartment, literally.    But God is good.  All the time!

I got the boys to bed, all dressed in just underwear, put the iPod in the teeny living room on the table and turned it all the way up so all the boys could hear it from their seperate sleeping spaces.  Luke had been sleeping soundly before I sent Elijah to bed, but once the iPod had been pulled out of his room, where he is almost literally baking in his tent as I write this, he woke up and remains away.  That was an hour and a half ago.  I'm not sure what to do with him, but considering taking a cool shower with him since he's a dripping ball of sweat in there.  The poor little guy.  

On that note, I think I will go do just that.  He's just not calming down.  God is faithful and provides.  This all has really brought to my attention my dependence on circumstances to feel.....happy.  It's been an uncomfortable situation to say that least, and the temp inside this apartment has only compounded the issue.   I've been praying my way through the evening, trying desperately to keep at the forefront who is sufficient!  And it's NOT air conditioning, or even a tiny breeze to cool things.  Only Christ.

Blessings!

Addendum, by Josh:
What a day! Despite a flat tire and arriving in Madrid with said flat tire at 8:30pm on a SATURDAY, and then leaving my credit card at the check in office(BONEHEAD!), God is good!
I dropped Bek and the boys off in a sweltering downtown apartment(note to self- ensure future Airbnb rentals have AC), and drove like a madman 20 minutes away to a store that the office clerk had suggested might be able to replace my tire(thank God for GPS!!). I arrived 30 minutes before closing(what? a mechanic shop open until 10pm on a Saturday?) and in my broken High School Level 2 Spanish explained my plight(Nececitamos ir a Barcelona manana, pero tengo un pneumatico con [insert tire exploding hand motions].  Nececito un pneumatico novo. Tienes? Instalar este dia?

By Gods grace, not only did they have two tires that fit, but they installed them both in about 20 minutes, and the store was having a sale- second tire 80% off!

A few months ago I was sitting with a mentor of mine, marvelling at God's small mercies- the things that non-believers might look at as chance or good luck. My mentor looked across the table at me and said: "God loves you, Josh!".  It struck me how that simple truth can get swallowed up in other details, how little I consider or acknowledge the vast love of God and how He chooses to manifest that love in big(think the cross) and small(as in, Madrid tire company changing my tires at 10pm on  Saturday for less than it would have cost in the states) ways.
In addition, when I arrived back at the room I was able to contact the office clerk, and he'll have my card for us tomorrow on the way out of town.
I sang as a drove back to the apartment:
Could we with ink the oceans fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

Tomorrow is a new day for us to see our Creator revealed all around us!

josh