2020 Reflections

2020 has been a challenging and unique year for all of us. I must say that whilst there have been significant hurdles and difficulties, 2020 has been one of the best years of my life. It was on 29th December 2019 that I legally married the man of my dreams. We had a beautiful wedding in Istanbul, Turkey. But then, it was 15th February 2020 that we finalised our marriage with a fun celebration wedding party with our loved ones in England. So, these past two years, for me signify love, unity, celebration, marriage, weddings, happiness and cultural dialogue. 

My husband is of Turkish origin and we met in China. We have a diverse array of friends from across the world and we thankfully had so many of them join us for one, or even all, of our weddings. When I think of 2019/2020, I think of love. This is mainly due to the fact that in my own personal life love prevailed. We did face lots of cultural difficulties in regards to our marriage. But ultimately, our love won and everything was just perfect. Our families embraced each other and we couldn't have asked for more in regards to our marriage/wedding/celebrations. 

2020 is always going to be the covid year. In fact, Furkan's best man, and a few of our friends, could not attend our February wedding due to the virus. Furkan's best man was in China and it was around that time that the virus was erupting in China. Fortunately, he left a brilliant video speech which we played at our wedding party. But ultimately, we are extremely fortunate because most people we see say that our wedding was their last big event of the year, before everything went awful. We are so blessed and lucky to have gotten married when we did in December/February. For this we are so grateful. 

The only negative experience for us was the cancellation of our Morocco honeymoon & general abroad travel plans that we had for the year. I can't dwell on this though, as we really made up for it with beautiful staycations to the Cotswolds, Cambridge and Devon. We also took a roughly 2 week trip to Turkey in the Summer where we were able to have a short honeymoon getaway to Trabzon, the Black Sea region of Turkey, for a few days. This was amazing and so much needed, as we had a crazy busy time straight after our February wedding. It was such a beautiful break in a beautiful bungalow in the mountains and nature. Furkan surprised me with the whole bungalow decorated so romantically with flowers, candles and gifts. It was truly stunning and I feel so blessed and grateful to have such a caring and thoughtful husband. 

But ofcourse, this year has been a test too. A month after our wedding, the UK went into a 3 month (was it more?) lockdown. This even meant that schools were shut. I found myself joining my husband in working from home. At the time, we were living in our cosy flat in Edgbaston. We spent the first month of lockdown together in that flat, making fires in the garden, doing jigsaws, working, cooking, painting, enjoying being married. Those are some of my best memories. No we didn't get our dream honeymoon, but God did send us a beautiful amount of time to be with each other. I know Furkan loved having me there rather than being alone, even if I did distract him sometimes. 

Another blessing came soon after as we made the decision to move out of the flat and into my grandma's house to company her during the lockdown. We stayed there for 3 months and it was the best, of course, challenging, three months ever! I felt so warm inside watching my husband connect with my granny who I am so close to and love so deeply. The lockdown weather was gorgeous, so we spent lot's of time outside washing carpets, varnishing, making fires and whatever else. It was such a beautiful time. I will cherish those 2020 memories forever. Whilst everything happening was horrid and tragic, so much beauty, love and happiness occurred for us. After staying at my grandma's for three months, we then had about three months with my parents too during the Summer before getting our first home together! 

Again, our memories spending quality time with my parents and brother were amazing. We had lot's of fun in the garden and of course got to enjoy being spoiled by my mom's amazing cooking. To be honest, I am just getting into the swing of cooking again since I had so much time off living at my parents! Looking back, I can honestly say for the both of us that we had the best 2020. We got married, had lot's of time together as a couple, had beautiful quality time with my granny, parents, brother and even my late nanny(very recently passed away) who stayed at my parents for a week in the Summer.  I am so grateful that Furkan and I got to have that, albeit short, time with nanny ji. We will cherish those memories forever. 

After a beautiful 6 months of wedding, time at our flat together, time with granny, time with my parents, time in Turkey, where by the way we got to do so much like visit Istanbul, Bursa, Trabzon and Samsun, and see so much of Furkan's beautiful family including his grandparents, we definitely could not complain about 2020. After a rewarding first half of 2020, we were  then further blessed to find the house of our dreams, in our budget, in July of 2020. In fact, it was right before our Turkey trip that we had our offer accepted on the house and then the lawyer was sorting it all out for us! 11 weeks later we had the keys! It was amazing. 

I had savings from working in China in my account, and Furkan and I used wedding gift money from our February wedding to take the plunge to buy a house. We love our house. As soon as I saw it on the Rightmove app, I knew it was the one for us! Ever since getting the keys on October 19th we have been mainly focussed on the house. We stayed at my parents for another month as we wanted to renovate the walls and floors before moving in. After completing the back half of the house, we moved in! Right now, we are still finishing up the front part of the house (living room downstairs and study room upstairs). We are enjoying every second of the journey. We feel so blessed to be married and have a home together. It truly is a dream come true for both of us. Sometimes I pinch myself to check it is real. 

So that is where I am at. Reflecting on 2020. I am at the point of still fixing the house up ready to fully start enjoying in 2021. We have had a lush log burner fitted into our living room and we can't wait to finish the walls and restoring the pine floorboards so we can enjoy it. We have our one year anniversary TOMORROW. This time last year, I was getting ready to fully legally marry the man of my dreams. Tomorrow will make it a year since my beautiful family and friends flew to Turkey to celebrate our love. This was the first time my family even met Furkan's family, and to be honest it was absolutely precious and perfect. I have warm memories of them meeting each other and loving each other. I also have perfect memories of the girly henna party (the day before the wedding) full of dancing and joy, relaxing Turkish hammam spa, exploring Istanbul, seagulls flying around the feribot (ferry) and my excited family arriving to the airport on Christmas day/night! 

To sum up 2020 - Love, family, friends, marriage, wedding, travels, nature, home, England. 

Goals for 2021 - Health, exercise, home, travel (if possible), write, read, languages, community.