A hug

My friend Patty. Such a beautiful person. I avoid hugs. Avoid tears. But you can't avoid hugs with Patty. She doesn't take no for an answer. I had no idea JB snapped this picture while we were saying an early good bye. We'll see each other again before we leave. And it's not good bye forever. They plan to visit us soon in the Azores. But we both know the days are numbered. We didn't say good bye. But as I gave her this hug, we both knew that that's was this hug was. A good bye to a huge part of my support system in Turkey.

While it's hard on me, Patty is staying another year, and most of her "people" are not. She could really use some extra prayers as she manages her last year here in Turkey with a brand new baby boy. In fact, it is the people who are here another year that I worry the most about right now. I didn't make a lot of friends who were a year ahead of me when I came in. And even if I did, I was stork-nesting in Germany when they left. But many of my new friends came in on the "second boat" as I like to call it. They are watching a lot of people leave. And it's hard on them.

Christina lives right behind me. They already have workers in our house, getting it ready for a new family. "I mean c'mon," Christina said to me today as I dropped Scrubs off to play in her yard for a bit. "Couldn't they give me a few days before they started turning it over?" 

This photo with Patty and me was at an last-minute bbq we had at the park across from our hotel. I took a ton of pictures at this event last night. To see more pictures of this bbq, click here.