Surprise photos

I was pleasantly surprised to open my e-mail yesterday afternoon and find a message from Kerri in Elbasan with several never-before-seen photos of Reni! They are from a lady who visited the orphange four different times over the past year to love on the babies. She graciously agreed to share and Kerri extracted them from a Power Point presentation for us. If you've ever adopted, you know how precious each and every image of your child is, especially those from the time before you even knew their name or face...

(Above), Reni with Duzi, a special woman we'll never ever be able to repay...

(Below) Reni is in the yellow bumblebee sleeper. I believe that's Helena (adopted in July to a couple in Vlora) up in the pink.

(Above) Reni is in the red walker and Helena is behind him in the yellow walker.

It's funny how we now know those expressions and faces. Yep, that's our Reni!

Happy Birthday, Gyshe!

Here are a handful of photos of the kids during a surprise, whirlwind (less than 24 hour) visit to central Illinois this past weekend. I will have to post another blog of pics from my other camera which includes Reni meeting his great-grandparents on my side.

Today is my dad's birthday and he entered a new decade in life. I feel old because I remember his surprise 30th birthday party (30 years ago) that my mom planned (and I somehow managed to keep secret in spite of being Ellie's age at the time)! It was in the basement of the Forest City church...

Tonight we called him on my phone and Ellie sang a great rendition of Happy Birthday. Reni was interested in getting in on the conversation too, though he had much less to say.

And lest you wonder where my mom was... she was off partying in Ft Myers with her sisters. We were mean and texted her a few photos to clue her in as to where we were. Actually, I should say we sent them to 2 of my aunts because Mom doesn't text (yet).

No trip to Illinois is complete without the requisite tractor pics. To say they enjoyed their ride with Gyshe is a bit of an understatement. I think we could drop them off here in May and pick them up in October and they'd never miss us. Ah the pleasures of farm life as a child. Gotta love Ellie's knees in the photo above.

Reni seemed to instinctively know what a steering wheel does. He is ALL boy.

Now he's discovered the throttle...


Ellie's turn. She LOVED revving the engine!

And taking it for a spin around the driveway... check out that grin!

We don't have prairie wind like that down here in Kentucky!

Here's a tire more their size...

Walking Practice

What precious gifts from our Lord. My heart is so full. Just love these kids.

(Ellie was completely spontaneous. Wasn't that sweet?)

Many thanks to PaPa Waggoner for the tubes!

Video: Reni's first moments in his new legs

Check the post below for accompanying photographs...

Momentous Day -- First Fitting

We got a phone call on Tuesday from Chris at Shriner's that Reni's new legs were ready for a fitting. Could we come in on Wednesday? Of course we said, YES! As always, Reni LOVES the toys at Shriners! He even tried to crawl inside (like he does in our cabinets).

(Below) We got to meet one of Faith's co-workers who followed Reni's story this summer! She was very nice and we look forward to seeing her on future visits!


Here is Chris putting on Reni's new legs. All Reni could remember was that he was the same guy who cast his legs a few weeks ago. Not sure what was going on, Reni was all tears but they didn't last long.


Those tears disappeared pretty quick when he got to stand up taller than ever!

As you can imagine, it was a pretty thrilling moment to experience.



Reni figured out pretty quickly how to move those feet. Like his shoes? Shortly after we arrived we were given Reni's shoe size and basic instructions on what kind of footwear would work best. We visited three different stores before we found one open. We bought four pairs and let Chris select the most appropriate ("flatness" was key for optimal balance). The others were returned after our appointment.

I LOVE this photo of Reni (above). I wonder what he's thinking?

These legs will proceed with a bit more 'finish' work and straps cut to size before we can pick them up early next week.

After about 20-30 minutes in his legs, his skin was evaluated for irritation and he passed without any time restrictions. Chris called these his "training legs". They're basically for Reni to learn how to stand and balance and perhaps take a few steps. They're not meant to be worn all the time. Already, he said Reni was demonstrating remarkable balance and mobility. We look forward to getting them home to practice more!

By the way, Ellie was SO excited to see the photos and watch the videos. She's made a special request to come with us when we pick them on next week after they are finished.

We encourage you to check back again soon as we have some videos that are slowly uploading. They should be ready to view sometime Thursday...

Orchard Visit

Today we took Aunt Hannah and Gigi to the local orchard. I really wanted to shoot down the long rows of apple trees but alas, the sun was shining the wrong way. And yes, it is THAT dry down here. So sad.

Nothing wrong with Reni's eyesight. Whenever he saw Ellie and Nathan at the top, he got really excited.

At the end of her first slide, Ellie hollared, "Yahoo!"

Here Ellie is saying, "I'm driving the tractor!"
Not exactly sure where that came from, except perhaps that the slide was bumpy?

Aunt Hannah comes to visit

This week Aunt Hannah came to Kentucky to meet her new nephew. Ellie and Reni have been savoring special love and attention from her and Gigi! Ellie has told Gigi a number of times that she wants to go to her house so she can see Gjyshe. We miss having him here but alas the weather is too nice and the volume of work too great for him to take a break from field work. We're glad, though, that Aunt Hannah could finally meet Reni in person and the timing was great to coincide with Ellie's fall break from school.

Co-Pilot

Impressions of Albania

Ellie and I happened upon this video of Albania on YouTube. The cinematography is beautiful. If you're not familiar with Albania, this will show you some of it's incredible natural beauty (mostly the interior, it lacks much footage of the coast) and give you a glimpse of what this tiny country holds. It's only a few minutes long -- enjoy! (If you have been to Albania, you'll see the ruins of Apollonia, Butrinti, Shkodra, Kruje, & Lezhe, to name a few... Melissa, near the beginning I think it shows where your took your frigid river cruise -- am I right?)