Turkish Birthday Party

Catapulting off the post I wrote a few days ago about my near inability to get off-Base to attend a birthday party, we did in fact make it to the party. It was for Aksel and Mia. They are the children of our new off-Base friends: Jake and Rana. Jake is an American and Rana is a Turk. We met them through Tristan and Shannon who were friends of our's at Eglin and who then came to Turkey for two years leaving only weeks before we got here.

Dan and Angelica joined us for the celebration as they have gotten to know Jake and Rana as well. Here are a few pics of the party (stolen from Jake's FB page):

I love my boys for all their differences. Elijah wound up and clobbered the pinata. Isaac, in typical Isaac style, turned the bat backwards and gave it a nice tap.

Either way, it took Jake clobbering the home-made pinata himself before it opened up and candy came spewing forth. Both my boys emerged on the pile although Elijah really wasn't interested in eating the candy. Isaac, on the other hand, not only started eating it, but quickly discovered where Mr. Jake had put the cleaned up candy, and continued to return to the pile throughout the party. That kid loves sweets!


A look at a park in Turkey and a view of downtown Adana.

Some of our crew hanging out on the bridge whiel the party is going on.

Here is Rana with Mia. She's pretty popular around these parts as the Turks don't see many blue eyed kiddos!

The boys got their faces painted at the party. Here they are back at home. Elijah got the works and loved it! (Even though you can't tell from this photo.)

And my Isaac? He did let them put on a red nose before he said he wanted no more to do with this paint idea! No whiskers for him. (But take a look at the scratches on both cheeks! Poor guy!) The one on his right cheek is Exzema that has been there since October! And then he scratched himself the other day on his left cheek. He looks a bit beat up!

After the party, we went to McDonalds with Dan & Angelica and kiddos and then headed home for some late naps.

In the evening, we decided to take a trip down to Achibadem hospital with Ryan & Sarah while Elissa watched our boys. Our friends Dan & Sarah have been in the hospital for a few days with their little guy Peter who has been sprouting fevers of an unknown origin. Praise the Lord they were released today and are finally back at home. However, Peter is still sick and they got word while there that he will also need surgery for a hydrocele in the very near future. A bit weird to go to their room for a visit -- right next door to the room I occupied just two weeks earlier.

While there, we discovered that our good friend Shane had also been admitted to Acibadem. He fell while on his mountain bike and broke a bone in his shoulder! (He then had to walk 3 miles to the bottom of the mountain and take a 1.5 hour ride the ER!) Shane had surgery yesterday and was then disccharged home, but he has a long recovery road ahead of him. Pray for Shane as he is a bit frustrated by this sideline after just having surgery and recovering from that back in December!

Okay Incirlik Crew! No more Acibadem for any of us for awhile, okay?