#1,000

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
    incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
 I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will utter dark sayings from of old,
 things that we have heard and known,
    that our fathers have told us.
 We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

 He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
 that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
     so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments...

Psalm 78: 1-7 ESV

Little did we know the journey the Lord had for us when we started this blog 6 years and 1 month ago!  But here we are and on this one thousandth post, we want to thank Him for His faithfulness to our family.  We hope this blog serves to remind us, as well as Ellie and Reni, of His goodness both in this generation and the one(s) to come.  What started as a means of keeping our family and friends updated on the process of bringing Ellie into our lives turned into a recurring online journal of our family's experiences and lessons learned in our walk with the Lord.  We know the children of Israel were prone to forget all that Almighty God had done on their behalf so this this has been our attempt to remember!  It strengthens our faith!

There have been many times the Lord has made His involvement in our lives evident.  Sometimes those moments have been quite evident, others more subtle.  Every moment though, is a gift from Him and I thought I would take the opportunity of this, our one thousandth post, to share some of the biggest moments in our lives since we started this journal in the fall of 2006. 

Here are my "top ten" posts:

1.)  Introducing Ellie -- the inaugural post, you can sense our giddiness at the news of our first child as I recount the moment we got 'the call.'  Perhaps one of the most emotional days of my entire life.  I love that it's become a part of Ellie's story that she requests we share with her.  Her favorite part is that 'Mommy cried.'

2.) Meeting Ellie -- This features photos and a slideshow from our first moments with our girl.  The post is actually quite brief on text which wasn't a good disguise for the shock I was experiencing reconciling my expectations with reality.  I also misspelled her name!  Ouch!  

3.) We're Home! -- my thoughts and feelings on coming home with Ellie after 5 and a half weeks in Albania.  After all the waiting and waiting, the last 8 hours were a RUSH, and of course full of emotion!  We were really parents!

4.) Big Steps 'n Little Uns -- named after an episode of All Creatures Great and Small, this photo essay showed Ellie taking her first independent steps at 25 months old.  After tremendous delays from institutionalization, walking served as evidence to us that Ellie was indeed making progress. While it has been easy to get discouraged when progress felt slow, this blog has been a great means of referencing just how far Ellie had come. If we forget where we came from, we can't praise Him for the miracle of growth!

5.) Ellie Has Some News to Share -- this post is one that isn't complete (for me) without reading the comments.  What a joy to share of our pursuit to bring Reni home and read the congratulations of our friends!  It was Nathan's idea to share the news in 'Ellie's voice'.  I thought it was a sweet way to share of the big change coming our way!  Of course, we had no idea what an amazingly awesome little boy was about to join our family! ; )

6.) Meeting our Son -- unlike my post about meeting Ellie, this one was full of much more description about those first moments together.  In re-reading it just now, I smiled to see how much of my first impressions of Reni were spot-on.  I'm also reminded that no two adoption experiences are the same, even from the same country. There is no hiding the fact that Reni's adoption trip (though holding its share of stressful moments) was much, much more enjoyable for us... there were so many factors which impacted our differing emotional responses in each adoption: one was in the winter, one was in the summer; one was as a brand new, very insecure parent-to-be, the other to one who had had a few years of parenting under her belt; in one we were very much alone, stuck in a hotel during long, dark nights;  in another we had visitors and met new friends with longer days for exploring a new-to-us city;  Ellie was in an incredibly depressing state orphanage (which probably contributed to the overall feeling of heaviness) and Reni was in a group home full of love and warmth from lovely Sisters intent on loving as Jesus loved... I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

7.)  Revisiting Vlora -- while re-reading journal entries is a good way to revisit moments, there is nothing like a bodily visit back to a sacred place to remember where we've come from.   "Revisiting Vlora" recounts our summer 2010 visit to the city and orphanage where Ellie lived her first 18 months of life.  Sometimes we think the passage of time might exaggerate past experiences, 'Was it really like that?"  In this post we share about taking Nathan's parents and Ellie back to see her first home.

8.) Reni's First Independent Steps in His Legs -- We can't overly express our pride!  This has to be SO hard!  Yet, he overcomes his fear and goes for it!  Of course, after this post he gets much more confident and walks greater and greater distances, but this was on GRASS, people!  Lumpy, uneven, grass!  And always with a grin.  Just a sign of things to come...

9.)  Big News from the Waggoners -- after 13 years in campus ministry, we announce a MAJOR CHANGE!  The exit ramp we didn't see coming! Pack up your bags, kids!  We're moving to Albania!

10)  To Elbasan and Back -- a special day that was a true love gift from the Lord to experience.  I imagine many adoptive families would love to return to their child's first home and show their child's caregivers that he is thriving and growing.  Many would love to say 'thank you for caring for my child before me', or give their child the opportunity to see the place from which they had come.  For us, it was a little of all of the above.  With frequent staff turnover, we knew our window to re-visit Elbasan was closing before many there would remember Reni anymore.   Eighteen months after taking Reni out, we returned for a very emotional visit.

In looking back over this list, I see that the majority of these memorable moments took place in Albania.  Is my heart already over there, ready to live?  Probably.  
We want to thank you, our family and friends, for loving and praying for our family!  You are very much part of this story.  Thank you for your interest and love.  We hope that in some small way we can encourage your faith as we live life together.

Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.