Morning, Noon, and Night

Blog Post About December 2021

The day after the fancy holiday party at the hotel, Keira and Karis performed at another fancy hotel.

This time, there wasn't a big party, but one of the ballrooms was set up where vendors could come to advertise and sell their wares.

Keira performed with her ballet group, and Karis and Keira's teacher (below) performed a duet.

Karis and Keira's teacher performed a duet. 

I've never embedded a video before, so I don't know if this will work.

That afternoon, we returned to the hotel again for Keira to perform a gymnastics routine.

This picture makes me laugh because Keira is the only one with her legs crossed.

December 10, 2021 

Arriving and First Week

Blog Post About June 2021

When we arrived in Istanbul, we were all SO tired. It had been a big week and we had such a late flight.

This is Karis and Keira after a small breakfast.

June 20, 2021

When we landed, we were finally in the same time zone as Kylie, but it would be another two weeks before I would see her. 

First, I had to get my cell phone hooked up, and then we had some shopping to do before we started traveling everywhere.

The dance studio that we have been a part of in the past told me Keira could come to their dance camp, so that helped tremendously!

After Karis and I went to Old Navy, Kohls, TJ Maxx, and two Targets, we were worn out and we hadn't found much. Selections were scarce. We decided to just go sit somewhere and order things online.

We also had a few advisor visits at Texas A&M.

After four days, it was time to travel to see my parents. This is how the six of us communicated while we were apart. Three of us in South Texas, one in Tennessee, and two in the Middle East.

June 25, 2021

We stayed three nights with my parents and we also went to church, and then we went to see Doug's parents.

June 29, 2021

We had high hopes of finding better shopping options in their town. 

We went to Target, Old Navy, Kohls, Claire's Boutique, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Ollies, Sam's, and Walmart in a two day span, and I think we found enough to get by :) The tough item to find was good, reasonably priced luggage (I was going to take some things back for a friend, and I needed some extra luggage space)

After three nights with them, we headed back to our base.

A Mad Race to the Finish Line

Blog Post About June 2021

The girls and I planned our departure to the States after all the end-of-the-year dance performances; however, things kept being added that we weren't ready for.

Keira had two ballet performances at a local hotel arts and crafts fair. 

Karis also performed a solo.

June 18, 2021

The next morning (Saturday), I had a "goodbye" breakfast with two friends at one of their homes.

June 19, 2021

After breakfast, Doug and I had to rush Keira to another local hotel where the gymnastics class was invited to perform at a Kindergarten graduation??

This is one of those events we didn't plan for.

June 19, 2021

Then that Saturday afternoon, there was a "garden show" at the dance studio for the parents to attend. It was outside and smaller because of covid.

The girls repeated their performances from the day before and Keira added gymnastics.

June 19, 2021

When the show ended, Karis had to leave, and as Keira and I were getting ready to call a taxi, my friend who lives RIGHT ACROSS THE FENCE from the dance studio, called me and Keira over.

Her daughter was having a 16th birthday party in her garden with a few friends, and she wanted us to come.

It was a beautiful night! The teenagers gladly let Keira hang out with them, and I visited with the mom and aunt of the birthday girl, helped bring out the food, and became the official photographer of the group. After the food was set out, they spent FORTY-FIVE minutes taking pictures of the food and each other before we ate :)

We had a lot of fun, and I'm so glad this impromptu invite happened.

June 19, 2021

The next day (Sunday) at the same hotel as the kindergarten graduation, there was now another arts and crafts show where our girls performed (which we had not planned for either).

June 19, 2021

After the performances, we went home, showered, finished packing, left for the airport around midnight,  and flew out at 1:55 in the morning.

Keira didn't get to finish her last two weeks of school, but this is a picture of her 3rd grade class.

Whew!  Now on to America!

Dancing in the Cold

Blog About Fall 2020

The girls danced Friday night in the studio, and on the following day, and an exceptionally COLD day, the girls were scheduled to perform on an outside stage...in very little thin clothing (but at least they could take their masks off).

I was so proud of these girls. I definitely wouldn't have been tough enough to dance in the cold. They also had a fountain spraying in the small pond behind the stage, and the wind would blow sprinkles of ice water on the girls as they danced! 

Karis on the left

Keira on the left

Karis on the far right

A sweet coffee shop nearby provided hot chocolate for the ballerinas

 

Bits of happiness and sadness

With the dance studio shutting down and whispers of a lockdown coming, the girls' dance teacher, Mrs. Natalia, decided to go back to Greece early. She had already planned to go at the end of May because she wanted to be reunited with her family. Corona just fast-tracked her plans.

Kylie and her friend Khadijah made a quick plan for a going away gift.  

Khadijah ordered some sweatshirts, and Kylie came up with a logo for their adult dance class, and together, they wanted to present their teacher with her own sweatshirt before she left the country.

Khadijah, Kylie, and Karis

Everyone got their name initial on the front

And the name of their dance class on the back

They said their goodbyes for the last time because we had already attended a big going away party for her the night before.

March 3, 2020

It had included LOTS of food...like every good party does.

From several different countries

Mrs. Natalia had many friends from many walks of life.  She choreographed the pageant each year where a regional princess was chosen, she did pilates, yoga, aerial yoga, and ballet classes nearly every day of the week either in the studio or in her home.

There was dancing, eating, speeches given,

 hugs goodbye,

and pictures with crying red-eyes taken.

Most of the people at the party were adults, but these four special girls were also invited to come!

March 2, 2020

On March 8th, the girls got their braces off on the same day. After a sad month of seeing their teacher leave, this was cause for much celebration!

March 8, 2020

And on March 10th, Keira spent the day at the apartment of her friend that was in the picture with her above. We had dropped off Keira with her bike, and the girl's mother took them out to the grassy courtyard and helped Keira until she learned how to ride her bike!  Big day!!

It's also kind of interesting that Karis and Caleb also learned how to ride their bikes on our grass in Africa.  Kylie is the only one who learned on cement :)

March 10, 2020

Save the Last Dance for Me

Little did we know that last Christmas, our girls would be having their last semester-end dance presentation.  

They did one performance Friday night and another one Saturday morning, and then two and a half months later, their dance teacher moved out of the country right before lockdown.

The funny thing about this first picture is that this is on the way to the Friday performance after a long day of school.  Keira hadn't even performed yet!

She woke up when we got to the studio, and she made a lovely "Snowflake."

Kylie and Karis handed out their end-of-the-semester certificates to both of their classes after their girls performed for the parents.

Keira also finished gymnastics for the semester.

Two nights later, the older girls performed their last class.

This was Kylie's last performance.  

The production of "Peter Pan" that the entire dance studio was working on for May was cancelled...

as so many things were.