Military Moments: When Families Come Visit

Way back in my first post, I explained some of the pros and cons of moving a lot in the military.  One of the cons was that we are so far from our families.  Sometimes, when we live overseas, we don't get to see our families at all unless we are able to make it back home.  The expense of flying and just the traveling in general is high, so it's easier in a lot of ways to just see them when we can go home to visit.  But there is something magical and wonderful about our families coming to us.

We can show them glimpses into what our daily lives are like in whatever country we live in,  We can show them places they've never been to before and experiences they didn't think they'd ever have.  I was happy last year because my mother came and stayed with us here in Spain for almost a month.  She went with us to Germany and Italy and we just had a great time.  However, a little over a year later, she came here and brought my dad with her.

I meticulously planned out their 20 days.  I wanted everything to be perfect and for them to get to experience the Spain that I love and to see things none of us have ever seen.  Thus began the most whirlwind tour of Europe that I've ever been a part of  (and also the reason I didn't have a post last week).

We went to Africa for a day, saw the Rock of Gibraltar and toured the island, spent 3 wonderful, relaxing days on Omaha beach in Normandy, had a crazy few hours driving through Paris traffic to see the Eiffel Tower, spent an entire day exploring Seville here in Spain, and countless hours just hanging out with people that I love.  I'm not going to bore you with hundreds of pictures, although I have them!  I'll just pick a few of my favorites from each place we visited, and tell you my favorite part.

Africa:  We had a tour guide to lead us around the city of Tangiers in Morocco, after a quick ferry ride from Tarifa, Spain.

Gibraltar:  Quick day trip to see the tip of Southern Spain.

Seville:  Day trip to see the Cathedral and take a carriage ride around the beautiful Spanish city.

France:  Normandy and Paris.  Just beautiful in different ways.  I loved the Eiffel Tower even though I wasn't sure I would.  I was afraid I'd be disappointed after building it up too much in my mind.

It was great to get to see my parents, and it was great to get to see new places.  It was great seeing my kids reconnect with their grandparents, and probably the first time I've ever seen my daddy on a swing!

The best part, however, was experiencing those new things with my parents.  Here is the post my dad wrote after we left Normandy.

"As I stood in the sand looking out across the channel toward England with the remains of the German fortifications behind me there are no words to express the respect and gratitude I felt for the men who poured onto this beach that June morning over 70 years ago. Not knowing if the next breath would be their last...
Their bravery and dedication to our country and those allied with us should still inspire us today. They, as well as those like my father who were fighting another enemy half way around the world, did what was called for to defeat the evil they faced. This was truly the greatest generation.
Now we have another generation of young men and women who are willing to make the same sacrifices and commitments as the brave men who fought and died here so long ago. God bless and protect them..... and God bless and protect America."

Have a great week!

--- Amanda

Spain (By Veronica)

Our dear Veronica took over our home and our two most prized possessions while we were in Spain. We got to Skype with the boys nearly every day, and Veronica emailed me every evening to fill me in on the day's events. It seemed from my conversations with Veronica both during and after the trip, that the little guys were basically, in normal attire for our trip. They had their good and bad moments ... their good and bad days.

I made a point to have a morning break for Veronica nearly every day. Shane and Linda took Scrubs for her, and they also took the boys one morning. Stebbins helped out tremendously by making grocery store runs and watching the boys on numerous occasions. Veronica also had help from Sarahbee one morning and had two different days that she could utilize the Co-op. I think this helped her tremendously.

She wrote down her thoughts on "motherhood" and being in charge on Facebook. I wanted to share her words with you here. Quite interesting to read her perspective on this thing we call motherhood.

10 Things I learned this Week

1. Single Moms are some very strong women. I had it easy this week compared to what single moms go through. I didnt have to work and I had help from some pretty amazing ladies here at Incirlik. I don't know what I would've done without the help and company they offered me. I can't even come close to imagining what it would be like to work, and take care of a kid/kids. I realize that some mom's have help from family, but what about the moms who are completely on their own? They have to be strong.

2. My parents are awesome. Right now I am definitely appreciating what my parents did for me when I was a wee babe. I'm sorry Mom and Dad for any unwanted stress or annoyance or worry that I put you through. For all the times I wouldnt take a nap.. I am very sorry haha

3. I want to have kids when I grow up. For those who know me well, this is shocking for me to say.

4. Nap time is the best time. That one is self explanitory.

5. Little boy kisses just might be the best kind of kisses. On the rare occasion that Isaac and Elijah give me a kiss, it just makes me happy. I was putting Isaac's shoes on yesterday and he turned and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Just adorable.

6. 2-year-olds immitate what they hear. Isaac to Elijah: "Cmon buddy, lets go play over here" (John calls them buddy). It's mainly Isaac that immitates what he hears right now.. "Oh man! I spilled only one cracker!"

7. I have to pick my battles. There are some things that arent worth fighting with a 2-year-old about.

8. It's better to not give options for dinner. "Do you guys want quesodillas for dinner?" "No, I want granowa bahh (granola bar)". Umm.. Nope sorry.

9. I like background noise. I have learned that I can't sit in the house with just the boys playing. There has to be music on or it's just too quiet and creepy.

10. I made the right choice by coming to Turkey. I am enjoying it a ton and this a huge prep course for when I have kids. I've always had a worry in the back of my head that went like this: How the heck am I going to be a mom? I dont even know where to start. I have no earthly idea what all I would need, or when to use baby creams, or how to tell when a baby is hungry vs tired vs dirty and that stresses me out. (Yes, I am such a girl.) Well thanks to John and Wendi, I wont be as stressed for the future. This is definitely a God thing. Don't worry about tomorrow, let tomorrow worry about itself. Today has enough evils of its own. -Matthew 6:34

Spain -- Part V (Dunkin Coffee)

I hope you enjoyed my flashbacks from our time in Spain. We feel so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to see the world as we have. And I truly feel that I want those I love to "see it" along with me. The world is such a big place. Massive actually.

The remaining days in Spain were spent relaxing and spending time with Angelica's amazing parents. Neither one of them speaks a word of English, but thankfully, Dan and Angelica are both fluent and thus translation was the name of the game. We even got to spend a day at her parents' house in the country. Her father is a real outdoorsman (just like JB) so they got along great, even though they couldn't speak the same language. For dinner, he made us snails that he had collected! (I passed but JB had to get a new plate he had so many shells.)

The day before we flew home, I also had a very neat opportunity to meet one of the faithfuls at Hannah's Prayer. Most of us only know each other online so the opportunity to meet in person is always a special treat. Tina is a missionary in Madrid, and actually only lived a few minutes away from Angelica's parents.

Not only was our time together spiritually uplifting as we shared about having kids close together, living in a foreign country, and our passion of infertility and adoption education, but she also took me to Dunkin Donuts!!! Oh heaven!

Tina is an adoptive mom and then a mom to biological twins. A bit different but definitely facing the same journey we have.

Forget knowing Spanish. Pointing and begging my way to a dozen donuts to bring back to those who weren't there to enjoy this with me!

A taste of home! (Yes, I ate more than one!)

What a wonderful time we had in Spain! Dan & Angelica were fantastic travel partners. We liked to eat the same and moved at the same speed -- even the time we got up in the morning was pretty similar. They are fantastic Christian people, and we were so lucky to get to visit the country with locals. I am so blessed by their friendship.

I am incredibly glad that JB and I decided to take the time away from our boys and travel together -- just the two of us. Many people ask me how we took 6 days away from our kiddos. I must be honest. It wasn't easy. We missed them terribly, and by day 4, I was so anxious to get back and see them, I was practically going crazy. But I also know that my marriage needs my attention as well. I needed time to hang out with my husband, and we knew this will be the last time in many, many months (maybe a year or more?) that we will be able to do this. We were also blessed by having Veronica. She knows the boys so well, they got to stay in their own house, and she had some of my great friends (like Stebbins) there to help. This made it even better.

Needless to say though, we were so excited to get back and hug those little guys. We walked in the door on Thursday evening right at bedtime and were greeted with, "Where's my surprise!?" They really didn't care that we were there, truthfully. They were more excited to see the cars we had bought them at a Spanish toy store the day before we came home. But we were excited to see them and kissed them to our heart's content. (Or until they told us to please stop!)

Stay tuned for a post on how the boys (and Veronica) fared during our absence.

Spain -- Part IV (Córdoba)

On Monday, we headed back to Madrid -- the time of "no kids" now over. It was a long travel day, and so we broke it up a bit with a stop in Córdoba. This is a city in Adalusia in Southern Spain. It has been estimated that in the 10th century and beginning of the 11th century, Córdoba was the most populous city in the world and during these centuries it became the intellectual center of Europe. Today, it has a populous of about 325,000.

Our first stop was the magnificent Roman Bridge. From what we could gather, this was built in the 1st century -- but it faced extensive renovations in 2008.

We then opted for another delightful horse and carriage ride through the city where we saw people dancing, beautiful flowers, and the famous "courtyards" that make this city famous. Apparently there is a courtyard contest every year to see who has the best one. (I now am making plans for JB to make one of these in our future home.)

This particular Monday was a holiday in Spain. Something about a cross, but I never really found out for sure what they were celebrating:

How amazing to just be walking/riding down the road and see ruins like these:

We then visited the Great Mosque of Córdoba. The site was originally a pagan temple, then a Visigothic Christian church, before the Umayyad Moors at first converted the building into a mosque and then built a new mosque on the site. After the Spanish Reconquista, it once again became a Roman Catholic church, with aplateresque cathedral later inserted into the centre of the large Moorish building. Since the early 2000s, Spanish Muslims have lobbied the Roman Catholic church to allow them to pray in the cathedral. The Muslim campaign has been rejected on multiple occasions, by both Spanish Catholic authorities, and the Vatican. In 2010 there was a violent incident over the matter. The building was begun around the year 600 as the Christian Visigothic church of St. Vincent.

We arrived back in Madrid late on the evening of Monday. We ordered Chinese take-out (yum!) and then Dan and Angelica left us at her brother's house and they returned to her parents' apartment across town where their kids were being loved on.

I'll have one more post to fill you in on our last few days in Madrid. Stay tuned!

Spain -- Part III (Sevilla)

Seville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. Seville is more than 2,000 years old. Truly, this is one of the most delightful cities I have ever visited. It was quaint, peaceful, and so rich in history and culture. It was, by far, my favorite day of our six day trip to Spain. There was so much to see, so many beautiful pictures. I fear I am not coming close to doing this wonderful city justice, but here you are nonetheless:

A beautiful fountain in the center of town.

There was lots of street entrainment. If you paid this "statue" a coin, she came to life and let you take a picture with her.

A view of the Cathedral of Seville (built from 1401-1519). It was once a mosque and then taken over once again to be a church again. It is amongst the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals.

The cathedral with the horse and carriage we took around the town.

We took a 45-minute ride throughout the town with the two couples. It was so peaceful and beautiful and a great way to take in the sites in an easier way on my foot.

One last shot of the Cathedral (of which they were selling lotto tickets outside of.) Dan and Angelica explained to us that while most of the country are devoted Catholics, the devotion is often very religious and something that "has" to be done -- not something that comes from the heart.

Torre del Oro was built by the Almohad dynasty as a watchtower and defensive barrier on the river. Since all boats had to pass through this port to get from the New World, Columbus would have passed through this port.

A government building.

Dan and Angelica on the horse ride.

I can't remember what this building was. But it was so beautiful I had to include a picture on the blog.

Breathtaking!

Loved these trees everywhere.

Andalusia is an autonomous community of Spain and recognized as a nationality in the preamble of the State. It is the most populous and second largest. It is a culture in and of itself. It has Muslim (or "Moorish" influences) and has also been influenced by many other cultures that preceded the Muslims as well as Castilian and Christian nationalities. This was just a tiny little parade in preparation for a big festival that was coming to the area after we left.

According to Angelica, these hats are specifically Andalusian and can only be found (and will really only be worn) in this area.

Here we are enjoying our second-straight day of Tapas for lunch. We found a good spot for me to put my feet up while we ate in hopes that the swelling would not get any worse. Tapas are basically, appetizers, and they are AMAZING! I tried so many new things. The world gets started much later in Spain. Traditionally, lunch starts around 2pm and dinner will begin into the 9pm hour. (We slept in a lot more!)

Amazing food was one of the best parts of our trip.

Before dinner that evening, we had the opportunity to attend a 45 minute flamenco dancing demonstration. Flamenco is a Spanish genre of music and dance which originated in this region in the 18th century. There is singing (cante), guitar playing (toque), and the dance which all come together to form this genre. We thoroughly enjoyed this presentation! (And the baby I am carrying was going CRAZY during the music and dance. Not sure if she loved it or hated it.) Attending this concert was one of the highlights of our evening. We ended our evening with an Italian dinner (which, by 10:30, we were the "early" attenders; there were people coming in as we were leaving -- people with young children!)

We stayed at another Parador that evening: The Parador Carmona. This one was even more lovely than the one we had stayed at the previous evening.

Loved staying at these Paradoras!