Firstborn's Fall

Firstborn is truly doing great! She misses home, she misses us, she misses Turkey. But she's adjusting well, making friends, and doing great in her classes. I love it when she sends me pictures! Here are a few of her "perks" recently.

Her cousin C and family came down to visit the college and her. What a bright spot for her to see family!

She had all kinds of parties and events leading up to her induction into her new "tribe." She was assigned a "troll" theme. With the help of Walmart, she and her buddy whipped up some great costumes! She made her skirt. It makes me laugh every time I see it. And that hair! In a Coke bottle!

A big joy came when my folks came down and spent the weekend with her.

It was the mother-daughter tea where she would be pinned. I was really sad to miss this with her, but nothing could have made me happier than for my mom to stand for me!

For Halloween, she dressed as one of the Despicable Me girls.

I am so proud and so happy that she is doing well.

As you may know, the Turkish government and the US government are not offering tourist visas to the other right now. This was the visa with which she would have entered for her Christmas visit. When we hit about 7 weeks until her flight, I asked some friends for prayer about the matter. A friend emailed and said she could get us a home in Spain to stay in for the break, while some friends traveled. As hard as it was to tell her she could not come home, we did not feel the risk was worth it. Maybe she could have made it in, but maybe not. And if not, then we would suddenly be facing Christmas break with no plan to be able to get to her easily (or cheaply). So, we made the difficult decision to change our plans. We will all be going to Spain for the break and are deeply appreciative of the housing. It involved an entire day to reroute her ticket, get refunds on the Turkey segment, get one way tickets for us back to Munich where her flight to the US leaves. But it's all done. I will admit seeing her bed (and remembering that we were going to set it up on Christmas break) made me so sad this week. We are trusting that God opened this door for us, as we asked Him what to do.