other family

The Pazans, McDonalds, Jones, Peixotos, Orbes, Balsamos... these are just a few of my families.  I have been a part of many families in my life  - particularly in New Jersey.  Families that took me in as one of their own, families that I lived with, families of friends, families that took me in on holidays or over for dinner.  Young families and grown families where I got to know their children, brothers, aunts, grandparents and cousins.  I love family, and it felt natural to join other families.  Sometimes I wished I could share my family with these people - but my family was in another state - thus the reason I had joined other families - and I became this person all on my own without using my family as my identity.  I was just Rachel - from Glen Rock, or Minnesota, or the nanny, or what not.  They opened their doors, and I immersed myself in these families, in these communities.

The Doty's were from my church. The father worked in finance in New York, and was a steady good-natured father who reminded me a little of my own.  The mother played the flute at church as part of the music.  I knew their grandmothers.  Their four children were between six and eleven years younger than me.  Their oldest son was charismatic and flighty.  I later knew his girlfriend and her sister, and her parents.

Brian, their third child has graduated university, worked in New York, and then took off for the past two years traveling the world.  He was the quiet thoughtful Doty - under the shadow of his brother - and I always had a soft spot for him (I knew the feeling - being totally different than the attention grabbing sibling!).

Well, he has been promising to make time to see us, and I've been hounding him along his travels to "swing by" Turkey.  And here he is - having spent about a month in Turkey - I got one too short evening with a Doty.  I had a zillion questions for him - but my mental status was being pulled in too many directions to ask him deep meaningful questions - or even the surface one that's on everybody's mind: how much money do you have for this trip!?!  I wanted to know the best places, the worst places, his best moments, his worst, what he learned, when he stop, what he'll do next.  We talked some of these things, and he asked me about life in Turkey - and I didn't really have any well formed answers for myself.

So, I simply took some pics, and posted them for the family to be bit jealous of ...

Walking out on the pier with the kids, Brian's current travel friend, another Rachael.  Anne said "canim benim" to her (my heart) and I translated this for her and Rachael blushed with pleasure.  It was so sweet, and I remembered how I first felt when I moved here and realize Anne was showering me in these phrases - it is cultural and done as a part of speech - but you still can't help feeling really special.

They stayed for dinner (where we served breakfast things), and dessert - I made apple crisp and strawberry pie