It's been another AMAZING day.
Over the last few months, I have been adopted by an incredible Azeri family here. They treat me like a daughter/sister/neice/granddaughter, and I LOVE THEM. Today, the extended family gathered to celebrate Orxan’s 20th birthday. He’s actually older than my youngest sister by just 3 days, so it was especially fun to be celebrating his 20th while Holly celebrated with my family at home! Last week, I introduced Geoff (teaching partner) to my Azeri BFF’s immediate family, and today, I brought him along to the party and he met the REST of the family! We ate WAY too much Azeri food, told hysterical stories, laughed a LOT, ate some more, shoved some cake in the birthday boy’s face, played some guitar, watched some tango dancing, etc. This family is SO MUCH FUN. What the heck, my name could be Jillann Ismayilova (that’s about as un-dutch as it gets!).
Why do I love this family so much? They look out for me, they check in on me, they always are eager to include me in every family outing and event. They’ve loved me right into their family. Join me in asking that the FATHER help me love them right into HIS family.
With my beautiful friend, Elmira:
Love this life, yes I do. [orxan, geoff, me, elmira.]
Happy 20th Birthday, Orxan!
On the fridge, there just happened to be magnets from both TEXAS and CHICAGO! Perfect picture opportunity. Fortunately, Geoff puts up with ALL of my crazy picture requests, though some of those pictures turn out like this: :)
What a great FAMILY we are apart of! I love my host family here in Costa Rica. Our families make is possible for us to survive :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't read your blog in a while so I am going through them now and I will be lifting this family up. How neat that they have let you be such a big part of their life....that is not by mistake....He is working through you to reach them!
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