Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Ağustos August August has been a time of growing (physically!), exploring, reminiscing, as well as looking forward . We found the geocache we placed on top of Pikes Peak four years ago!   Rebecca went to her 10 year high school reunion. We discovered the secret to successful toddler hair cuts-- lollipops! And we found out that this guy is going to have a baby brother!!! Meet the new Mr. Mefford!  

Çç Çocuklar, Çay Tea and Sympathy by Frank Renlie, courtesy of Getty Images. Having birthed our first child in Turkey, we know first-hand how much Turks love çocuklar, children. In fact, we would not hesitate to say that living in Turkey is like living in a country full of mother-in-laws. Everyone—strangers or friends, youth or elderly, men or women—have no hesitation telling you to put that extra jacket on your child so they won’t get a chill, stuff them with chocolate cake, and spoil them with all kinds of choke-able toys (and our real mother-in-laws don’t even do that!). Everyone is an aunt or uncle, grandma or grandpa, sister or brother, and everyone cares for each other. Another essential element of Turkish culture of course is the çay , or tea. Our son, Lincoln Umut, probably had his first sip of tea around six months. Actually, most babies start their tea addiction when they are in the womb. At kindergarten black tea with sugar is a normal part of snack time

Cc Cami, Cemevi   Turkish religious roots run deep. Around AD 924 Turkic peoples began converting from shamanism to the monotheistic religion of Islam. During the Ottoman Turkish Empire the Sultans acted as the Caliph, the political and spiritual head of worldwide Islam. Today the Turkish Republic is ruled as a secular nation state, but 99.8% of the Turkish society would identify themselves as Muslim. The place of worship for most Muslims is the cami , or mosque. In fact, Istanbul, having been the seat of the caliphate and capitol of the Ottoman Empire, still has the highest percentage of mosques per capita in the world. Even the highly visited Blue Mosque still closes its doors to non-Muslim tourists to host the five daily prayer times. There is a segment of the population known as Alevi Muslims who worship in the cemevi, or assembly house, rather than the cami. Alevi’s are a tight-knit community whose worship beliefs and practices slightly differ from mainstream Islam.

Bb Baklava, Bö rek There is a hotly debated dessert in the Mediterranean world known as baklava, a flakey, nutty, honey-syrup drenched pastry famed from Greece to Tunisia to Jordan to, you guessed it, Turkey. All of the countries listed above have something in common: they were at one time in history part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. So, no matter where this delicacy originated the Turks like to claim it as their own. And believe me, they make it good! But the gastronomic tide within the Ottoman Turkish Empire did not stop at desserts. B ö rek is a savory pastry, most often infused with feta and parsley, which is still made in Eastern European homes today. What Turkish cuisine has migrated as far as the United States of America? Look no further than your backyard grill—shish kabobs! Şiş means “stick” and kebap means grilled meat, or barbeque! What this means for us: - We get to eat good food when we are in Turkey! - Don’t dare talk about “Greek yogurt” to a Turk. Know