Big Day. A Big, Big Day.

with Uncle Jack and Aunt Ruth in Indiana a week ago last Sunday, the 21st.

Today our Reni boy turned four.  He requested donuts for breakfast (a special treat -- I don't even know where he got that idea!). Later we joined up with Gigi and Gjyshe, Tua and Pippa for an afternoon in town. He got a Happy Meal for lunch (which he called a present to himself, whatever that means) and time at the play place.  Then he jumped, and rolled, and bounced, and giggled, and slid, and laughed some more at Monkey Joe's.  He was the perfect age for the bounce house and amazed everyone with his ability to access just about everything independently.  We had the family over for supper tonight, including "all the cousins".  He was excited about his cake, his presents, and all the special attention. Nonna and Papa called on the phone and chatted a bit, then he wanted to get back to enjoying his gifts.  Our hearts are a pile of mush about this little boy who is our son and I'm glad someone had the idea to make a big deal out of birthdays so we can 'push pause' on life to have a day to celebrate those we love.  I promise photos will be forthcoming...

As if all that wasn't enough we had two other momentous experiences today...

If you are a frequent visitor to our lil' blog, you might remember the photo of a special little boy from Reni's former orphanage in Elbasan.  It's been sitting on the right hand margin of this blog for fifteen months. We met him three years ago as an infant, then during our return trip in February 2012 the Sisters BEGGED us to 'find him a family.'  Oh, if only it was that easy.  It's been a long wait and I had even considered taking his photo down, but on Friday I was contacted by a couple who was hoping to call him their son. Unbeknownst to me, they had been pursuing him for a while... BUT, they just learned last week that they were not exactly eligible to adopt from Albania.  Yesterday a special meeting of the Albanian Adoption Committee was called (right before the August recess) and I learned today that the committee granted an exemption to this couple so they could continue working towards bringing him home!!!  Nathan and I were high-fiving each other in the kitchen and remarking over and over throughout the day how happy we were to get this wonderful news. JM has a family!!!  Praise God!

Finally, I can't believe I'm typing this but (drumroll)... we bought our tickets to Albania today!  It's remarkable the provision that has come in during this past month-- just the past couple of days!  It's all part of God's confirmation for us that we don't want to forget.  The travel agent warned us, "They're non-refundable!"  We assured her that we had had time to think about it and we most definitely wanted to buy these tickets.  Now that we have a departure date, (September 9) we can start planning the next pieces of our transition to Albania. We can't wait to share this news with all of those who have jumped behind us with their support. God has been so good to us.

Now, to try to go to sleep tonight. What a day.... what a day.

Country Girls

Eight more days. 

Squeezing in memories.

 

We had a sleepover with Ellie and Reni's Vermont cousins Wednesday night.

The next morning there was a chatter at the back door and three girls proudly presented me this:

 

 

We had told Ellie that it was impossible to catch a wild bird.

I guess there is power in numbers!

 

Not to worry.  He/she was promptly released after this photo was snapped.

St. Loo-ey

Last week we drove 2.5 hours southwest and met up with Nathan's family for three days together in St. Louis.  This was a popular destination for my family when I was growing up, but I haven't returned since I graduated from college and I was excited for Nathan to see it (yeah, there's like a whole new baseball stadium and everything there now!).  

One other point before I jump into pics... I know it's called "Instagram", but in my case, it should be called LAZYgram.  Most of the photos you will see here are swiped from my Instagram feed.  It was hot.  I was relaxing.  The big camera didn't make much of an appearance on this trip, sadly.

I think our kids would have been happy to spend their whole time in the hotel's indoor/outdoor pool!

But we also ate very well too...  (below left, California Pizza Kitchen thought it would be easiest for the kids to sit at the bar and play with dough while the grown ups sat at their own table -- I can't blame them for not wanting to set up tables for seventeen!).  I can't speak for Steve and Rachel's, but my kids felt quite cool to sit on the tall chairs.  I was just excited to get to eat chipotle chicken pizza at CPK one more time before leaving America for the land that has never before heard the word "chipotle"... or lime cream sauce...  Okay, done talking about food.

Oops.  Not.  The hotel provided all-you-can-consume popcorn and soda fountain service in their lobby. Lounging on the bed after a swim in the pool, eating popcorn and drinking mom's diet coke while watching Animal Planet is the height of vacation luxury when you're not yet four years old.

 It was hot.  Therefore ice cream was called for...

... especially when Aunt Rebecca turns 30!!!

One thing I learned was that Panera originated in St. Louis... where they were originally called the St. Louis Bread Company, and have not changed their name.

Bottom right:  we stayed at a Drury Inn & Suites next to Forest Park.  What made this hotel ideal for all of us (with ten children!) is that they provided a huge hot breakfast bar as well as supper too!

We visited the Magic House one morning -- it was unrecognizeable from the time I visited as a child.  Pretty cool place!  I'm sharing a fraction of the photos from there... Below, we visited the "Oval Office".  As Nathan snapped the pic, I asked Ellie what they told her on the phone.  Without skipping a beat she said, "Ob*ma's invading Chin*."  Ha!  I wonder where she hears her news?

'What kid doesn't want to envelope themselves in a giant bubble?

Ellie couldn't quite work up the courage to keep her hand on the electro static ball for more than a few seconds, but Becca showed us how it was done!

The next day we visited the Science Museum (free!).  It was HUGE!

The food court has this enormous ball track.  I think we watched it for over twenty minutes.

Nathan saw the sign (below right) and got a kick.  

We viewed a really interesting short film about mummies in their Omnimax theater (a wraparound movie screen).  It was quite fascinating and at one point they show you the face of the mummy of the Pharoah that talked to Moses and the narrator says, "This is the only face from the Bible that you'll ever see."

 In case you have never been to St. Louis, you can ride to the top in a little capsule.  Ellie poses in front of the model at the visitor's center.  Yes. That is actual size.  And yes, that holds five people.

Reni was especially mesmerized with his view.  He whispered, "You can see EVERYTHING from up here!"

After a very hot visit to the Arch, we traveled out to the university part of town to enjoy floats at Fitz's Root Beer bottling store.

We have no idea how long the kids could have stayed and watched the 1940s-era bottling line chug out bottles of soda, but it was interesting to watch (especially the labeling mess-ups).

Due to the size of our group, we opted to eat on the patio.  It was a race to distribute our orders before everything was a melted mess!

Lots of memories to tuck away as we prepare to leave...  Thank you, Mom and Dad, for a great trip!

Dear Blog...

Hello Dear Blog,
I have not meant to ignore you. We have some memories to record, but that has taken a back seat to living those moments.  The calendar is flipping faster and faster.  It seems to flip faster when we haven't been home.  But now we are in one place for a nice little stint of 10 days. 
Ten straight days.
To pack up our home.  To celebrate family birthdays. To enjoy special cousins visiting from Vermont.  To pack for a month of training in Colorado.  To pack suitcases for Albania.
To gaze at tasseling corn and ever-taller soybean fields and feel prairie breezes.
To check and re-check lists.  To say goodbyes.  (Surely not yet?)
Hang on.  We'll be back soon (I hope).

P.S. And since every post is more interesting with photos, enjoy Ellie's little shoot after church a few weeks ago, modeling a birthday gift she received from a special loved one who doesn't live close enough to enjoy seeing Ellie wear her gifts.

The halfway mark...

I can't believe it's the halfway point of July already! I've been woefully negligent with my camera, but here are a few highlights from the month thus far...

My sister, Hannah, at the fireworks in Hopedale

 Yes, it was so chilly watching fireworks we were in sweatshirts or under blankets by night's end.

Nathan got some beautiful images of fireworks worth sharing...

Nathan found a great little app for practicing about 300 Albanian words and phrases, complete with games, tests, and the ability to record and playback your own voice.  Occasionally I can get the kids to play it (without giggling too much and making fun of the words).

waiting for the fireworks to start turned into a little opportunity to practice our Shqip (Albanian)!

My admonitions to take language learning seriously must have sunk in because Saturday night in her prayers Ellie asked God to help her 'learn the hard Albanian words.'

Some days we just might take more than one bath per day 'cause we really want to play 'farmer' and that can only happen in dirt...  (incidentally, Reni's shirt appropriately reads, Dirt Don't Hurt)

You must have been praying with us, because within a few days of sharing on the blog that Reni wasn't taking to his 'stubbies' he suddenly had a change of heart and saw their benefits.  We now call them his Power Boots.

I forgot about the reminder of summer's progression through the growth of the corn and soybeans.  The photo below was taken on July 4.  Most corn is now as tall as I am or taller.  The sprinklers are always on, but much less stress for Dad thanks to the ability to turn them 'on' or 'off' via a cell phone app.  That is unless the detasseling crew has flipped the electricity off at the end of the field... There's no app yet to override that. Technology in farming has changed so much since when I was last living in Illinois (in college).  It makes me feel old...

The photo above is a bit outdated (I had to share it here because we have so few images of us speaking -- thanks, Steve B!), but goes to show that though we're at our 'home base' we are still sharing about Albania!  This was at a community picnic last month in Delavan.  The last 4 Sundays we have re-visited supporting/partner churches to say 'thank you'.  But at the end of the month we share at another local church for the first time.  Someone asked me recently if this season has been 'hard', but honestly, we enjoy talking about what we love:  Albania, adoption, missions... it's a privilege.

Finally, because we have chosen not to draw a salary yet (in order to build up our ministry account for Albania), Nathan has been working for my dad whenever he can, and dad seems to have no shortage of projects on his list.  Sometimes that means working in the evenings when the temperatures are cooler!

Saturday was Nathan's last day of work for a while.  Tuesday (tomorrow) we leave for 3 nights in St. Louis with the Waggoner family.  We are looking forward to a little time away with nothing on the agenda but to relax, swim, and be together.  We return for a few days and then leave on Sunday for a mini-orientation at WGM, before we will have a week to pack up all of our personal stuff in the farm house. We leave August 3rd for a month of training in Colorado.  

Summer is flyin', but I don't think I have to tell you that!

Quotables | Man Overboard!

Images from reading time yesterday afternoon...  Ellie felt superior because she was reading 'true' stories and not imaginary stories.  I think having a brother has made her competitive. This time, Reni didn't really care.

The other night in family devotions we read the story of Jonah.  Ellie is quite familiar with this account from the Bible so to introduce it from a different perspective I asked, "Do you know that many people say that Jonah was the first missionary?  That he went to tell others about God just like we're going to Albania to tell people about Jesus?"

To which Ellie replied, "I hope our pilot doesn't throw us out of the airplane!"

We quickly assured her that Jonah was willingly thrown overboard because he was running AWAY from God's call and not towards it!

Other Ellie quotes (in case you missed them on Twitter):

(6/28) "I thought I got bit by a lion!" Ellie quote after her first encounter with an electric fence, visiting my cousin's hobby farm. "I thought my bones would fall out!"

(6/23) "I don't want to have a baby in my tummy... 'cause then they'd have to dissect me to get it out."

(6/28) "Mom, Did Pontius Pilate fly airplanes?"

(6/12) "I'm going to watch the Jesus movie so I can get tight with Jesus."

(6/2) "I'm gonna marry that boy!" Ellie, after the teen waiter at Bonanza delivered her hot chocolate chip cookies to our table.

(5/18) Nathan: Reni, you're heavier than 4 gallons of milk!
Ellie: Well, I'm heavier than a frozen TURKEY! 

(5/16) At Shriners Hospital registration desk to the intake person, Ellie: "Is this school? I haven't been to school in a REALLY long time!" #homeschooled!

(5/15) Watching her dad jump rope, Ellie said, "You're shaking the whole earth!!!" #elliequote

(5/3) Ellie: "Wait, wait, wait. I can do better than that." After her brother prayed to bless lunch...

(4/9) Ellie:  "I want to go to heaven badly. I'll bring my brother and my Kindle."

(4/4) Ellie: "Do I have to die to go to heaven? I don't want to die. I'm gonna have to think of another way to get there!"

(About the talking bird she wants to get in Albania) "He'll talk like a human. He'll speak English."

(About moving to Albania and learning the language) I don't want to talk all weird and say stuff like, "Gooey, gooey, ploo ploo."

But Ellie's not alone in spouting memorable lines...

Me: What did you play tonight with the church kids at the park? 
Reni: "A ball game. It was called 'throw it at the kid'." 
[aka Dodgeball?]

(6/12) About wearing a tie, "That's only for marrying a girl."

(6/6) "In a lot of days, after I grow up, I will buy you another one, Mommy." Reni after he broke my highlighter.

(4/23) Reni:  "Only daddies are drivers. Not mommies. They can't turn around, back up, or turn left!" Apparently I'm raising a chauvinist!

(4/18) Visiting Ford's Theater, Reni asks. "When's the MOVIE going to start???"

(3/23) About to chew a piece of gum, 3 y/o Reni asked, "Do I chew on my left teeth or (pausing, pointing to right cheek, then points to his left) or my 2nd left?"

Jonah illustration from this book (great for holding the attention of the 3-5 yr range).



There are giants in the land...

It started late in May.  I woke up from a vivid dream.  In my dream it was a bright winter day.  Snow was on the mountains and I was riding in the white Volkswagen Planters van, pronouncing Albanian words with the help of our colleagues, Arjan and Mersin.

The night before the dream I had been working on designing a photo book of images from Albania.  I always thought it would be nice to have a book of this sort on our display table when we shared at churches, but I never had the time to design one. Then I was contacted in early May by our former adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services.  Would I be willing to write up a travel aid for adoptive families with suggestions to fill their days of things to see and do in Albania until they could return home to America with their children?  I kinda got a little carried away as I morphed this 'document of suggestions' with my photo book vision to yield a 24-page PDF file.  No doubt revisiting my favorite places in Albania through the images on my computer monitor instigated the dream.

So yes, my imagination has been camping out a lot in a little Balkan nation lately.  Some other signs that Albania has been on our mind include:

• Nathan bought a language learning app for the iPod last week.  We all (kids included) are having fun with it.  Though I admit I'm getting nervous about being self-sufficient in Shqip -- you know, the kind of nervous that you push down and try not think about but really should in order to adjust your expectations to reality.
• I finished up our Field Manual for volunteers and teams coming to work with us and sent it off to Anna and Abby.  This doesn't sound very significant but it's to prepare American volunteers coming to minister with us in the village.  It attempts to address most of the basic questions a typical American visitor would raise from what to pack, how to dress, what's to eat, available ways to communicate back home, to how to prepare for ministry, books to read, etc.  Needless to say, I felt grossly unqualified to author it.  I'm sure it will undergo many revisions over the course of time.
• Nathan bought a replacement charging cord for his razor.  He was excited that it came with a European adaptor.
• We wired money over for the purchase of our car (gulp)!  It will be purchased sometime next month in Germany, driven to Albania on our behalf, and await our arrival.
• I'm starting to buy things 'for Albania' too. The pile of shopping bags in the corner of my room is starting to topple over.  On top of language acquisition, I might be panicking about luggage space too.
• Reni's birthday is at the end of the month.  You can't NOT give a four year old gifts, yet with our impending move and limited luggage space, what do you give him?  Please don't say matchbox cars.

• I have a day-by-day list of things to do before we leave for our month-long stay at Missions Training Int'l (MTI) in Colorado on August 3.  We. Can't. Deviate. From. The. List.  We want to leave for Colorado in such a way that we are pretty much just living out of suitcases when we return.  That means packing up our home of the past ten months.  Leaving Kentucky was just Phase One.  Phase Two involves things like scanning documents, backing up computer files, giving away the kids' too-small clothes, packing up our monster-sized office, organizing the storage unit LOGICALLY so when we come back for visits we can find the essentials in a reasonable amount of time...  Any other Type-As out there feel that tightness in your chest with me?
• Our fridge went out this weekend. It was probably a blessing in disguise.  Are we really going to use Worcestershire sauce in the next month? Pumpkin butter?  Did I even buy this? How many bottles of salad dressing could I possibly need? Certainly not 11! A lot of condiments went to mom and dad's house, a lot of mostly empty bottles got pitched to squeeze our essentials into a mini fridge until a full-sized replacement could be delivered. Scary thing was, cleaning out the fridge hadn't even made it onto the Phase Two list.  What else might I have forgotten?  So much to plan...

But like any story or film, it wouldn't be exciting without the element of conflict or uncertainty, would it?  

Our departure date is still based on conjecture.  We have looked at the calendar, researched details like the commencement of language classes, considered the children's school needs and determined last year that we should set our goal to leave in August.  

Then MTI revamped their programming and changed the dates of their course offerings making an August departure impossible.  So our next goal was to leave somewhere around September 8 or 9.  That wasn't a significant deviation and besides, flights are cheaper in September.  

But... we can not leave until 100% of our budget has been committed (we are currently at 84%).  We are SO grateful for God's provision through his people.  We are nearing the end, but we still can't say with certainty when we will be leaving.  This year has been full of lessons and learning, faith-stretching experiences and opportunities to trace His hand.  Yet I sense there is more He wants to teach us.  He wants us to draw closer to Him to hear what he has to speak, to learn new levels of dependence upon Him.  Because in spite of this past year, the closer we get to the end of our support raising, the bigger a hurdle that decreasing amount seems to be some days. 

Or maybe I should have known.  There are times when I feel much like the children of Israel as they looked into the Promised Land and in spite of provision through parting seas and falling manna they couldn't envision the provision to defeat the 'giants' in Canaan.  I look at our need and study our 'resources' and from a worldly perspective they don't seem to balance.  It doesn't seem enough!"

Then the other night as I'm putting the children to bed we discuss the story of the loaves and fishes and how Jesus performed a miracle that not only met the need, but resulted in leftovers.  It was a timely reassurance to my heart. We give Jesus what we have, we let him use that to meet the need with abundance. Then this morning I was convicted that I haven't been giving him my all. Like the disciples in Gethsemane, I'm still falling asleep.  

Thank you for joining with our family through your prayers and support. Thank you for following along with our journey.  For us the giants in the land relate to moving to ministry in Albania, but for you no doubt it relates to trusting for something else...  May we all have courage to be Joshuas and Calebs.

Road Trip!

The third week of June we took a mini road trip (technically it was 9 days -- but for us, that qualifies as 'mini').

We didn't take Winnie, so I got to enjoy sitting in the front seat again!

Next to the handsome man below!

These two missed Winnie.  Reni's oft-repeated phrase was, "My bottom's hot!  My back is itchy!"
Yeah?  It's called sitting in a seat! :-)

Thankfully he can sleep well in a car too, though I don't know how.  The photo on the right looks absolutely miserable.

   All those photos I promised from Kentucky?  Um, I basically got two shots.

   I plead the fifth.
   I think dental appointments (for C&N), an annual check-up (Ellie), and screening new tenants for the duplex were not especially exciting events.  Squeezing in visits with a few friends in between, were special, but so sadly short the camera was definitely an afterthought.  It was definitely a visit so jam packed our heads were spinning by the time we left with everything we got done.

   We were so happy to get to worship at our home church, First Alliance, and share a bit in both services.  On Tuesday night we held a little coffee/baklava gathering to share more in depth about our call and what we'll be doing in Albania.  So good to be back with our church family in Kentucky!

On Monday Reni had a Shriners fitting for his new set of stubbies.  I got a photo of Shriners because I don't think I've ever shared one on here before and it's in the works that they will be moving to the University of Kentucky.  I don't know how soon that will happen, but if it's within the next year or two, I don't know if we'll get to revisit this facility or not!  The campus is really a lovely, lovely place.

On our way out of town on Wednesday to head up to Indiana we got a phone call just in time and were able to swing by and pick up the finished stubbies from prosthetics. 

   I wish I could say that Reni has embraced his stubbies, but he hasn't yet and we can't exactly figure out why.  It's one thing to impress upon your child certain non-negotiables (like family rules or acceptable behavior), but it's another thing to say, "You WILL wear your legs."  We don't want to make him hate wearing his legs or stubbies, but in this case, he seems to prefer his tall legs (we thought it would be the opposite).  I'm starting to suspect that he just desires to fit in and look typical, but it's hard to know because he can't articulate that kind of thinking just yet.  I do think he thinks these stubbies are strange because they don't have feet with shoes, and boy, does this boy like shoes.  The left leg is also bulkier and heavier, and I think he just doesn't want to have to deal with it. Ugh. We'll give it some more time and hopefully he will come around!