We believe people are more important than things – in loving others around us and sharing life with those people. We strive to respect and serve others around us.
We believe debt is not a tool. We value a budget and living (as much as possible) debt free.
We value generosity and serving those in need.
We believe that life is a journey and enjoy traveling and embracing other cultures.
We value intentional and simple living.
We make plans for our family in 3 – 5 year timelines that help guide your decisions.
We believe that marriage and children are blessings from God. We want to be a family that supports one another in all areas of life so that we and support others outside our family.
We value education and the joy and the continual discovery of learning new things.
We believe in Jesus Christ and his teachings to love others. This is the starting point, the foundation, to all other virtues and goals in our family.
In 2016, we moved to Izmir, Turkey. Prior to our move, we make this vision statement to help remind us along the way why we wanted to move there.
Why?
There are a number of reasons: Together desired to live and serve people in another country. Plus, we wanted to have the adventure together as a family and are fortunate enough to have the skills and ability to do so.
Why now?
We have been on this timeline since we got engaged. It was something that we wanted to do while we were still younger but after we’d been married for a little while. With where we are in life; we believed there was never any easier time than now.
Why Turkey?
We have both spent time in Turkey before we were married and enjoyed the culture, people, and food. We have traveled back twice since we were married and both times had our desires confirmed. In addition to our own desires, it is a country in which we want to share our culture with others!
Why Izmir?
Both of us had spent time in Istanbul in the past and liked the city. In fact, it is where we met! You can read more our story here. However, there are some lifestyle benefits that Izmir offers that Istanbul does not. Primarily, it is more affordable, less crowded, and more laid-back city. Also, as Turkey’s third largest city containing ~4 million people, there should still be plenty of both work and personal opportunities.
Do you work in Turkey?
Yes and no. No, we don’t work for any Turkish companies. Yes, we do work. Prior to our move, Jason worked to create a software consulting business in the states, and thankfully it is fruitful! Jason’s business is able to be done via the internet at any location while supporting our family. Catie is working part time on this website and language learning.
What will you do?
Our first few years we will focus on language learning. The goal is to quickly develop a strong base on which to stand. We both have a background in Turkish (Catie more than Jason) and spent a month persuing language full time to get us to a good starting point. After these, Catie has continue to focus on learning the language more full time while Jason spends a 1/4 time of language and the rest on his consulting business. It is the goal for both of us to become relatively fluent as quick as possible but due to being supported by Jason’s business – it won’t be possible to spend years with language learning as our sole focus.
After these first few months, the vision becomes a little more cloudy. Initially, Jason focuses on working for, maintaining, and growing his current client base. Due to the financial and legal difficulties with working in Turkey, the easiest transition will be to avoid working directly with or for Turks; since this requires a difficult to obtain work visa. While Jason does has some good ideas about how to expand his business into the community, they will have to sit on the back-burner at the beginning.
Personally, we are involved with a local community. We enjoy meeting our neighbors, going out to eat, hanging out by the seaside, etc. We love our neighborhood and are so happy here!
How long will you stay?
We plan on staying for 3 years. We think this will give us enough time to get a better feel for what our life would look like there and help us to make longer term plans. At this point, it feels short-sighted to make plans beyond this. There are too many unknowns. After 3 years, we may decide to stay for another 3 years or we may decide that it would be best to move. At this time, we are certain that 3 years is a good amount of time.
Great question. As we moved and are still transitioning, part of our communication plan is continuing our bi-monthly podcast as well as extra emails along the way for those who are subscribed here. We hope that this website will start to be a central point for our family to record memories and dreams as well as help to inform others of our lives overseas.
More questions?
The easiest way to catch up is via our podcast started back in January 2016. We are happy to answer what we can via email. Oh, and subscribe to catch our update.
Çok memnun oldum! (Turkish for ‘Nice to meet you!’)
No worries. We happen to think it is a beautiful country with a warm friendly culture. One of goals of this website will be using this space to write about sites, culture, and travels around Turkey.
But to get you started, here are a few handy resources:
Catie and Jason met for the first time in Turkey in the spring of 2009. She had moved there for a few years after college and he was spending 6 months there. Catie’s roommate was teaching English at the same place as Jason and eventually got introduced. After a couple months, they became good friends and while there was mutual interest in each other, Jason (being the sensible-minded man that he is) decided against pursuing a relationship with her due to Catie living so far away. However, God had other plans in mind. While on the surface the meeting seems accidental and their future seemed separate, the threads of their lives would be intertwined in ways that were unexpected. The story actually begins many years before when Catie’s friend and children/youth director moved to Turkey for a time. This friend (*cough*Mandy Bee) met some people who had connections with Cornerstone Church in Ames, Iowa and eventually got hired there as a children’s director. She invited (or Catie begged…) Catie up to have an internship for a summer in 2005. Jason was attending Cornerstone Church at the time but moved back home over the summer break to be a summer camp counselor. Jason and Catie didn’t meet that summer but she did meet Jordan Bradley. Jordan and Jason would become good friends later in their college careers. During that summer, Catie’s sister, Emma, came up to visit for a week. This is where Emma and Jordan first met.
In the fall of 2008, as providence would have it, Jason and Jordan were asked if they wanted to go to Turkey with a couple of their friends. After some discussion they decided to go. Jordan had been to Turkey a few years prior when his brother, Ben, who ended up marrying one of Jason’s good friends was living there. (Ben married Sarah who was one of Jason’s good friends. They started dating shortly after meeting when Sarah came home to visit for Christmas. At the time Sarah was living in, you guessed it, Turkey.)
While Jason was meeting Catie for the first time, it was a reunion for her and Jordan. One day they were at Catie’s apartment when she was Skyping with her sister. Catie casually asked Emma if she remember Jordan and they talked briefly. That quick talk sparked into some Facebook messages, which snowballed into some emails, then some Skype dates, and eventually to their marriage in November of 2010. It was at Jordan and Emma’s wedding that Jason and Catie saw each other again since he had left Turkey. It was good for them to reconnect but Jason was otherwise preoccupied with life and didn’t think too much of their reunion.
The following Christmas Jordan and Emma had their first daughter, Isabel. Catie returned from being overseas to meet her niece and spend Christmas with her family. Jason ended up spending a lot of time with Catie and her family that week. Something was beginning to spark but again Catie left and nothing came of it. All throughout this time, Jason and Catie would have seasons of talking/chatting/skyping and seasons of distance but they always remained more or less friends. There were plenty of people in Jason’s life who were encouraging him to pursue Catie but it never seemed very practical to him. He knew there was potential but because she lived in another country – he didn’t want to take the chance. But that all changed in the spring of 2012.
After a conversation with Sarah, Ben’s wife, who knew and spent time with Catie in Turkey (they even went on vacation in Egypt together), Jason thought more and more about Catie. The frequency and length of their conversations increased. This coincided with Catie’s decision to move back to America. Jason knew that he wanted to take action. Jason, on July something of 2012 – over 3 years after they first met, called Catie and asked her (with a parable that he had written) if she wanted to go on a date with him when she visited Iowa in September of 2012. Catie said yes. They were both a little uncertain of the future but were excited for the chance to try.
When September came Catie and Jason went on their first date. They went on a few more that month and things were going pretty well. At the end of the month she moved back to Louisiana. They continued to date and Jason visited her a couple times. On Christmas Eve, Jason and Catie packed up her car and started the 14 hour drive to Iowa. Catie had decided to move.
They continued to date through the spring and summer of that year. Like any relationship, there were good times and bad times; but they endured. Finally in the fall of 2013, Jason decided that he would marry Catie.
On October 25th, Jason took Catie to Ledges State Park to watch the sun set. After some small talk he reminded Catie of the story he told her when he asked her out. She remembered it well. Jason then asked her if she wanted to hear the ending of the story since the original story ended with a cliff-hanger. Jason finished the story and pulled the ring out of a fake rock and proposed. Catie, with tears in her eyes, said yes.
On March 22, 2014, they continued writing their story together as man and wife.
What does it look like to move to the other side of the world?
Catie has done this once before back in her single days and the company she worked for did a lot of the leg work… So this time it was a little more of an adventure as we moved and settled as
1. a married couple
2. self employed business folks.
Follow our transition of creating our ‘home’ as we move here.
