Three years passed since our last visit to the 'home' country (the UK). During that time our three year old son has come to consider Turkey as his home country (even though he had been born in Hong Kong), and we have added one member (our ten month old son was born in Turkey).
It seems that the longer you spend away from the 'home country' the stronger the tint on the rose colored spectacles. The country you left behind becomes a mix of the country you like to think you left behind and the country you read about in newspapers and see on the BBC and CNN.
My wife and I were looking forward to renewing old acquaintances with favorite foods, drinks, places and people. The thought of eating a fish supper (fish and chips to anyone outside Scotland) in a rain-washed car while we waited for a ferry to visit relatives on a west coast island had taken on a mystic-like aura. Though we also worried about using the new money that had appeared since our last visit, driving on the other side of the road again and meeting up with people we had not seen in such a long time. And worst of all, we worried about whether England would be safe for the kids and us parents after having read all the newspaper reports about child abductions and parents being sent to jail for disciplining their children.
Our oldest son was excitedly looking forward to seeing granny, nana, aunts, uncles and cousins that were little more than blurred memories or pictures on the book cases. He was also rather confused as to how the seaside could be at grannies house in Scotland as well as here in Turkey.
Our youngest son had no idea what was happening.
My wife and I have lived abroad for more than seven years and our children were both born 'abroad,' so we arrived 'home' with the mixed emotions of excitement and trepidation and a bewildering feeling of visiting a foreign country and worries about how much the UK had changed in our absence.
The Turks are friendly, welcoming and child-friendly and the family has got used to that way of life. We can go to just about any restaurant, hotel or guesthouse we want to in Turkey and can be sure that the staff will welcome us, play with the children and nobody will worry about the noise (except other foreigners). The last time we were in the UK we were met at doorways far too often with the phrase, 'We don't do children.' This time it was not so bad, there are definitely more child-friendly establishments, but the UK still has a long way to go.
