Happy Birthday Angelica!

My dear friend Angelica (aka "The Interiorista" on my Blog) is celebrating her last birthday of her 30's today, and I wanted to give her a shout out.

I may have told this story on my Blog before, but when I moved to Turkey, I was truly praying for "my people." I wanted a really awesome community living SO far away from all I knew and loved.

A few days after arriving on Base, I was out for a walk, and I ran into Angelica's husband Dan, and their two children (at the time) Noah and Rowan. I chatted with Dan briefly, thought he was a very cool guy (I mean he flies an F-16. How can you not be cool?) and then walked away.

As I walked away, I truly felt the holy spirit whisper: "You need to meet his wife."

It was that statement, whispered into my heart that lead me at church the next day, to seek out Dan and introduce myself to his wife, Angelica.

The rest they say, is history.

Angelica became one of my greatest friends -- a lifelong friend for sure. She was born and raised in Spain and met her husband there. He was a missionary kid, and their families grew up together. 

We travelled together quite a bit in Turkey. Firstly, when I was about 25 weeks pregnant with Abigail, and Angelica was newly pregnant with their third (Reese -- whom we would later be asked to be the godparents of), they took us on a five day tour of Spain. Oh was this wonderful. You can click here to visit past blog of this trip. It was so wonderful to see a country through the eyes of people who "know" that country so well. I especially enjoyed watching Angelica in her element. While she is an outgoing person, in America, speaking English, and especially on the Base in Turkey and traveling around Turkey, she would let me take the lead (probably because I learned Turkish). But in Spain, she was large and in charge, and it was so fun to travel with them.

Here are a few more pictures of us around Spain:

We also spent our first Christmas in Turkey in Istanbul with our family and the Stebbins family. We had a total of five children under four on this trip. Are we crazy or what? Here are two favorite pictures of mine from that weekend:

We also took a girls' trip to Cyprus with Linda and Stebbs as well. Here is a photo from that adventure:

Oh there is so much more we did during that two years, like the Air Force Ball for instance:

It took a bit for all of us to end back up in the USA after our two years in Turkey drew to a close, but once we did, we reunited -- where else? Washington D.C.!

She came to visit me on my farm. and we took all of our kiddos to Dollywood for the day:

And I went to see her in Boston:

I could go on and on, but I will leave you with two of my favorite videos of Angelica. (After I quickly mention that they just added a fourth child to their family -- an adopted son from South Korea!) 

I have always said that pictures don't do her justice. They just don't capture that "flair" that make her who she is. But these videos come a little bit closer to capturing my friend. Thank you dear  friend for being a special gift from God during two of the most challenging and wonderful years of my life. And our friendship continues. Here are the videos:

On her visit to my farm

With Abigail in Turkey