Sweet Farewells

Our last week in Jordan, we said lots of see you agains...One day, our office had a really sweet going away lunch for us at Nadine's house. All the the families were there, and they ordered food from our favorite Lebanese restaurant Faroujna and kanafeh from Habibah. It was low-key and a very nice way to spend time with everyone. Nadine is a special friend and like a sister to me, and and we love her and her family dearly.

Her wonderful husband Joe and our friend Lisa...and the amazing spread of food!

Reed, Angie, and their oldest son, Jonah.

You know those two guys on the left, and Sean and his wife Jadyn.

The trampoline was a big hit, especially for Eliza. She spent most of the afternoon in there jumping, if she wasn't busy climbing stairs.

Nadine and Joe's eldest daughter, Eve. Our kids are good friends.

Their younger daughter, Elle. They also have a newborn baby brother Milo. The girls got plenty of baby practice with Eliza this past year, in preparation for his arrival.

Nadine gifted me this beautiful necklace! And Caleb and the boys gifted all the parents with a big muddy mess by the end of the afternoon :).

Benjamin playing with Reed and Angie's youngest son, Mailon. 

I'm not sure how many homemade donuts baked by Angie, that Benjamin ate that day. Angie is a very talented baker and one of many benefits of being their across the street neighbors, was receiving lots of baked treats over the past 2 years!

Elle and their youngest daughter, Mary.

These boys. Benjamin with Mailon and Ethan. This was at the end of the day and as you can see the water in the pools turned into a muddy mess. Yes, that is the water they were squirting each other with...

Benjamin loves dogs. I wish we could get him one, I know he would take good care of it, but for now he can enjoy others' dogs. This is Canaan, Reed and Angie's foster puppy.

In Arabic, this shirt says, 'kween wow' meaning Queen W...the 'w' stands for wasta, which is an Arabic word that roughly means using your connections to get what you want. In the Arab world, it's all about who you know. Some people use their familial or social status to get their way, but this woman does it 100% with her niceness and can somehow talk anyone into doing anything. She freely shared this gift with the entire office, and all of her friends, so if we ever needed anything we couldn't do on our own, Nadine got it done. This shirt is so appropriate for her, and she loved it so much she said she is going to get more made!

Benjamin was with the dog most of the day, it was really sweet.

Remember his cast...it got really nasty, cracked, and the duck tape holding it together was falling apart. Benjamin was basically running on it, so Nathan performed surgery and took it off. He was scheduled to go to the doctor in a couple days anyway, and the cast and crutches were not slowing him down. 

It was a really fun day and we are so thankful for the amazing co-workers and friends who have been family to us over the years. We love them all and will miss them!

The boys had a few really good friends that they enjoyed spending time with . Norah and Ilyas are our neighbors, and David lived down the street and had class with Benjamin this past year. They got to hang out all summer in camp too. The Friday before we left, we made one more trip to the Embassy pool.

We will miss the lifeguards, Mahmoud and Tamer. They always say our kids are like their little brothers and it is sweet how they have always watched out for them.

I got lots of good Arabic practice speaking with them over the years, since they don't speak much English.

The boys also love David's dog, Louey. They want 10 Louey's!

These boys were sweet friends and it was fun for them to have 1st grade and the summer together.

We are thankful for our great neighbors this past almost year. The kids played together all the time, and their mom is wonderful. We will miss them and I think the feeling is mutual. They played most of the day until we left and there were lots of tears with Caleb and Ilyas.

And of course, their dog, Petra. The boys wanted to see Petra every day. Benjamin cried a lot of tears too, but it was for all the dogs!!

Another evening, we went to Sean and Jadyn's house for pizza and to visit their kitties. One of their cats was too skittish, but their newest kitten loved the kids.

Sean and Jadyn arrived just about a year ago. Sean was a great co-worker and friend and they are such  nice couple. We are glad we had the year to get to know them, and they say they will come to Turkey for travel, so we hope we will see them again soon!

The day before leaving, we took a walk to our neighborhood park, Jounia park. We love this park and have spent many hours playing, bike riding, scootering, and kicking balls over the years.

Eliza is a daddy's girl!

Bye, bye park, thank you for all the fun memories :).

On the way home from the park, we usually stopped at this market for treats.

Eliza made a friend she played with often the last few weeks, and it turns out we are friendly with his parents. Tes and their nanny met recently, we wish it was sooner because they were good play mates.

That evening, we went to our our neighbors across the street, Angie and Reed. Reed has been a great co-worker and their family has been really nice friends these past 2 years. We will miss having them across the street (and the delicious baking), and we hope to see them again! 

This family. We love them so much and have been so thankful for their friendship the past 4 years! They are moving to Bahrain in a couple of months and said they will come to Turkey. We know we will be seeing them again.

It was a really sweet week to visit with our favorite people before heading out. We are thankful for each one of their family's friendships over the years. They have supported and loved our family, and we look forward to the next time we can visit again!