Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

This bride is the daughter of a neighbor's friend, and we were lucky enough to get an invitation! Her beautiful gelinlik, wedding dress, is an example of what a covered woman will wear on this special day. Just like anywhere in the world, summer in Isparta is wedding season. Because Ramazan fell during the summer months, there was a spurt of weddings before the fasting season started, and we anticipate seeing more once the month is over (generally people do not get married during Ramazan). Every weekend we see tents pop up on side streets, scattered with stackable plastic chairs, ready for a host of family, friends, neighbors, and even newcomers like us to celebrate the wedding of fellow Ispartans. Düğün salonları , wedding halls, are decorated. Huge pots of soup, rice, meat, and dessert are prepared to cater. Extravagant cakes are made. Dummers and keyboard players get ready to play until way after the sun sets. The actual wedding, nikah, is a simple official ceremony in

We do love painting Easter eggs, but we're trying to make sure our kids know what we are really celebrating. With Ramazan , Ramadan, in full-swing we often find ourselves having comparative conversations about Muslim and Christian holidays and religious practices. For example, our friends often wonder if we have, as they do, a set time of fasting. In the tradition we were raised in, no; we do fast but it is a lot more flexible and dependent on self-initiative. We do find ourselves explaining Lent. It may not be something that we grew up with, but Lent is one of those set times of fasting that ties Christians of many traditions together as we prepare our spirits for Easter. Because of that, since we have been married, we have made an effort to be more intentional about our days leading up to Resurrection Day-- what should be the climax of our calendar. Back in the spring, when it was about Easter time I mentioned our holiday to a new acquaintance. She said, &qu

Hudson and Miço, a cat that hangs out in the preschool garden . This week it is Hudson Kerem’s turn for an update. What is our lively little one-and-a-half year old Hudson up to these days? He has seven teeth and more on the way, which he likes to use to eat snacks. He loves sitting in Mommy’s lap and looking at books, wrestling with Daddy and Lincoln, playing with trains and cars and playing at the park. Whenever someone is getting ready to leave (including Lincoln every morning for preschool) he gets his shoes out and stands at the door, ready to go on an adventure too. His linguistic repertoire is expanding, starting with words like “ball,” “nose,” “moo,” “cuv cuv” (the Turkish sound of trains), “anne” (mommy), and especially “cici”—a bit of Turkish child’s language that is used in reference to soft or pretty things such as cats. It is used in the same way we would say “gentle, gentle” when instructing a child how to pet a cat or dog. Hudson has uncanny cat and dog

The summer schedule at preschool makes lots of time for playing in the bahçe, the backyard (or "garden") of the school. You may be wondering what Lincoln Umut is up to this summer. He’s going to school! In February Umut (as his Turkish friends call him) began going half-days to preschool. He is getting a lot of great preschool experiences like coloring, painting, playing with dough, singing songs, planting strawberries, and playing in the sandbox. The best part—the real reason why we started sending him at three years old—is that besides English class, all of his playing and learning is in Turkish. Over the past few months we have seen our son go from being reserved and uncomfortable around Turkish speakers to fluidly interacting. He still has a lot of learning to do, but before we know it he will be speaking better than us. What does Lincoln like to do when he is not in school? Play with / pick-on his little brother, play at the park, go swimming,