When it Rains...

It pours.

But this time it's pouring good things!

A couple weeks ago I mentioned to my Turkish tutor that we've had packages mailed that have never shown up. She said, "you need to talk to the post office!" Huh? In the States if a regularly-mailed package doesn't show up, well...too bad. I figured the same was true here.

Guess again.

We went to the post office and inquired about all the packages that have been mailed to us over the last six or so months that haven't shown up. They told us to give them a day to search for our missing packages and to call back. We called back the next morning and yes!, they did have a package for us. They'd deliver it that day around 3:00.

It showed up at 12:30. And then another one came at 2:00. And then another one at 3:30. Whoop whoop!

The curious thing is that one of the packages was mailed almost two months ago. The second one was mailed last month. The third one was mailed a week ago. And we're still missing four other packages, two of which were mailed in, oh, March or so (so we'll probably never see those) and the other two were mailed about a month ago. One of those was mailed at the same time as one of the other packages that we received on Friday. Both from my mom, both mailed at the same time, from the same post office. And the fourth package was mailed about a month ago, too, but from a different friend. It's just so weird that some things come quickly and some take forever. It makes me wonder if we have more packages sitting out there in no-man's land just waiting on a phone call!

Anyhow...onto the goods!

Package #1: from some folks from our church back in N.C.

Look at all that awesomeness! Water flavoring packets (aspartame-free for the pregnant lady!), Ovaltine, pickle relish, chewable vitamins for Lane, a Mrs. Potato Head and two books for Lane, hair clips for Lane, paprika, taco seasoning, ice cube trays, and Reece's pieces! Yummy! What a fantastic package of things that we can't get here!

Package #2, from my mom.

The package from my mom was full of mostly stuff for Lane, although you can see the TWO POUND bag of Reece's pieces, which are obviously not for her. They are Shannon's birthday present. He's very excited. =)

Mom sent some dresses and pajamas, a bathing suit, a pants suit, a couple of Sesame Street books, bath toys and a bath net, some beanie babies (saved from 10ish years ago when the McDonald's beanie baby craze hit), and:

Lane's first legos!

These legos were my brothers' when they were little. So far Lane has thoroughly enjoyed playing with the animals, most of which were spread throughout the house when I took this photo. But trust me, she's enjoying them!

Package #3, from my friend Sarah.

Sarah read a post of mine awhile back from when I was having a rough day, so she put together this package for us. Everything to make enchiladas! Now, I've gotten pretty decent at making Mexican food from scratch over the last year or so, but enchilada sauce and chopped green chiles...you just can't fake! She also sent some pregnancy magazines, which I am SO looking forward to reading (one of these days when I have a spare moment...maybe in the bathtub while I soak my aching, pregnant feet!)!

And now, what follows was not a package, per se. But our friend Becky took some vacation in Istanbul and came over for dinner one night. She brought us these goodies from Senegal:

Peanut butter! Who knew you could get Skippy in Senegal but not in Istanbul? Crazy, huh? And the little basket is for Lane...she loves putting small items in it, closing the lid, and then taking them out. Crazy kid.

And this carved wooden boat. Gorgeous, huh?

So those are the newest additions to our stash of goods! What an awesome Friday it was! Thanks so, so much to our friends from the Summit, my mom, Sarah, and Becky...you are all super awesome!

***For anyone who still actually reads this blog, even though I've been horrible about updating, I'm very sorry. We are still getting things caught up from moving in (for example, we just bought lampshades today and I just cleaned a couple of our windows for the FIRST time last week). Between playing catch-up on moving in and from going on vacation, studying another language, keeping up with a toddler, and being pregnant, blogging has definitely taken a back seat. We're hoping that by October 1st we'll be back to normal and have a schedule worked out. Until then...I'm sorry for the lack of posts/photos/information/etc. Hopefully we'll return to our regularly scheduled blog posts soon!***