Photo: Icon in the Hagia Sophia Istanbul
As part of our duties as Regional Coordinators for Europe and the Middle East, we will be traveling a lot throughout the region. Usually, it will be me traveling alone. I have upcoming trips to France, Northern England, and Scotland for instance. Sometimes we will travel as a family as we did last week when we went to Egypt. We will attend the England CHOG quarterly meeting in London as a family in November. But every once in a while Jamie will go without either of us. This week, Jamie goes to Turkey to help organize a conference in Istanbul. That means Marco and I will be left at home ALONE!!!!!
What this means is that Marco and I will have to fend for ourselves. Who will make us dinner? Who will pack the school lunch? Who will make sure that we get dressed? Who will make sure that we bathe semi-regularly? What will we eat? Did I mention there's nobody here to cook for us?
Of course, this is not the first time Marco and I have been left alone. Yes, it's true we both lost about 10 pounds the last time Jamie left. And yes it's true that when we had our boys weekend last summer in Cincinnati, we forgot to eat. But I think we should be okay. Well, not really. We'll be counting the days until she comes back. She's the glue that keeps it all together all the time.
Actually, there's more to the story.
The gals of 3W will be joining Jamie on the trip and they will be busy helping the Women's conference there.
Meanwhile, we will be getting a guest this week. David Simpson, missionary to Bulgaria will be moving in with Marco and I. And David can cook!!!! So perhaps we will not starve to death. In fact, between Kelley, Aaron, David, Marco, and I, we may have some pretty wild guy times this week sans frau (to mix my European languages).
Marco and I appreciate all that Jamie does for us--and yes, we tell her often. Marco says, "We're dumb and dumber." And guess who is "dumber?" Yup, that would be me. I'm wondering how many things I will get wrong this week. Hopefully no major screw ups involving school schedules, homework, or anything else. Jamie's got all the sophia (that means "wisdom"), but hopefully she'll be busy visiting the sights of one of the world's most beautiful cities---despite the unseemly headlines in today's news. The American response to bombings is complete and utter panic. The European response is: "Well, that's unlikely to happen again for a while and there's nothing I can do about it anyway." I think we tend to fall in the latter category as far as our mindset goes.
I myself can't wait to visit Istanbul someday soon. But I'll be real happy when Jamie is back because we will both miss her a lot. And not just because we are starving to death.