As a refresher, let me tell you about my Turkish daughter, Kader. We met her 4 or 5 years ago through a Bridges program put together by the churches in northern Door County. J-1 students come here to work for the summer and their employers provide housing and a bicycle for getting around. The churches decided to pair them up with Christian families who could take them around Door County, invite them over for dinner, or take them to Bridges events that are planned to give the students a chance to meet each other and do something fun.

We were actually assigned a young man named Merih, and I offered to take him and show him around Door County. When I went to pick him up, he asked if he could bring a friend, and it was Kader. She was really shy about trying to speak in English at the time, but Mark and I took her into our family as well and she has been like the daughter I never had.

A couple of years ago, she flew down to Tucson to help me drive my car to Wisconsin while Mark drove the RV hauling his motorcycle on a trailer. Kader and I had a lot of time together in the car, but it took her several days to finally tell me she’d met a nice guy. We immediately made plans to stop in Milwaukee and meet Zak. They began dating long-distance, and then Kader moved down to Milwaukee, and on August 1st this summer, Kader’s birthday, Zak proposed to her. Then a couple of weeks ago, she asked Mark and me if we would represent her parents at their wedding on December 3rd, and Zak’s sister contacted me to invite me to a bridal shower today. Mark and I spent the weekend in Milwaukee.

Then Zak took Kader and me to the shower and he and Mark hung out at a coffee shop for an hour.

We left late enough that Mark and I have stopped near Green Bay for the night. I have my last day of work at the Welcome Center tomorrow, so we’ll need to get up early and get me to work. I can’t wait for the wedding now!