Jodi's Journey: What a great day!

Despite the fact that I slept through my alarm this morning...I had a really fun and encouraging day today! First of all, due to daylight savings, I gained an hour sometime between last night and this morning. Now most people would use that extra hour to sleep...but since I had two friends spending the night last night, I used that extra hour as an excuse to stay up later watching movies with my friends.

Zerrin, Dilek, and I got ready really quickly and headed to Asia. Today was the one day of the year where the bridge from Asia to Europe is open for pedestrians (due to the annual Marathon). The three of us along with some of my other friends had a lot of fun walking from Asia all the way to my house in Europe. After our long walk we all returned to my place and shared Turkish breakfast together.

After we all parted ways, I started heading to the airport to visit some of my friends from Iowa who had a layover there. While I was waiting for my bus, two different buses that were going where I needed to go passed right by the bus stop without stopping! This was a little frustrating, but I noticed that there were other people at my stop that were going to the same place. We all decided to share a taxi together (even though we were all complete strangers). I love it when random things like that happen to you, and when you live overseas, they happen a lot more frequently.

Once I finally got to the airport I was able to meet up with four of my friends from Iowa who happened to be passing through. It was so fun and encouraging to catch up with them for a while. It is always fun for me to hear about what is going on back in Ames. While I was sitting with my friends from Iowa, some of my friends who live in a different city in Turkey happened to be returning from a trip and we ran into each other. It was fun and surprising to see them.

Meanwhile, while I was fellowshipping at the airport with some friends, my friend Elizabeth was giving birth to Jesse Benjamin Johnson! After my Iowa friends left to catch their connecting flight, I took a taxi to the hospital (which happened to be very close to the airport which is such a blessing when you live in a city of 15+ million). I got to meet little precious Jesse. He is so cute!

I love fun filled days like today! My heart is filled with gratitude as I think about how the Lord has blessed and encouraged me today. Life is so good! All praise be to Him!

Some of my friends who decided to run the 10k race...walking across the bridge sounded much more appealing to me then running 10k, so I didn't join them.