We Made It!

Well we finally made it here in Turkey. It has been a long time coming followed by one problem after another after another. These are the many problems we have encountered thus far:

1. Ruby's Passport: We put in for an emergency passport with note that it was needed by the 22nd of February and no later. Well the 19th comes along and it is done but still at the Embassy. So on the 23rd we went down to London, as planned, to stay the night before our morning flight. Once we got there, Steven left us at the hotel and left and headed to the Embassy. After a four hour trip he came back with passport in hand! Thank God!

2. GTC: Steven's GTC has not worked since he paid for the plane tickets and billeting at Mildenhall. We got on the bus to the airport and had to pay the 250 pounds out of pocket. Thank God for our tax return money or we would have been SOL. We also had to pay for the hotel at the airport out of pocket. We have spent about $1000 in two days for everything that should have gone on the GTC. Hopefully it gets fixed soon and we can get reimbursed ASAP.

3. Our flight to Istanbul got in a 6:10pm last night. Our flight to Adana started boarding at 6:35pm. We finally get to the front of the passport line and the guy says we need Visas. Now the passport line is super long and we're freaking out. So we go get Visas and Steven's GTC still doesn't work, so there's another $80 out of pocket. We cut the line and piss everyone in line off, but the passport guy waved us forward anyways so oh well. We get stamped and start racing for the domestic terminal. On of the guys that works there helped us to the domestic terminal and kept telling us he wanted a tip, Steven was a little annoyed, but I could care less as long as we made the flight. He ended up with 5 British pounds which is almost 12 Turkish Lira. We made the flight with 10 minutes to spare.

4. This morning Lilly played with the passports and we couldn't find hers for about an hour. Needless to say I was freaking out. Then Steven left his backpack at one of his stops today. He found it but was freaking out too until he did.

The girls were all SO SO SO good on the planes too. I was super shocked. Sadie fell asleep as soon as we got on the plane and woke up as soon as we reached altitude. Lilly loved everything, her meals, the movie (FAME), and even got some airplane toys for the flight attendants. Ruby was great, she either ate, slept, or looked around. She was only fussy when we were landing in Adana. I am truly amazed at how well they traveled. Now I can't wait to fly back to the states on leave, except that it is a much, much longer flight.

Tomorrow we get to move into our new house! I am beyond excited. I can't wait to be all settled in and unpacked. Oh, and have my car back. I don't mind walking but it is inconvenient when you need to go shopping. Now all we need to do is find a way to get all of our stuff to the house from the hotel. Thankfully this PCS is almost over, but I'm not looking forward to Steven going back to work.

I was going to upload some photos, but the uploader is taking FOREVER! So I will try again time.

-Kristen