The Waggoner's Summer Itinerary

Praise the Lord for His Goodness and Faithfulness!  We had a very smooth, uneventful journey from Albania to the States yesterday!  The children were troopers, even when we reached Chicago (sans any sleep on the flights) and their internal clocks were up more than four hours past their regular bed time. Ellie had one moment of anxiety with ear pressure during our descent into Istanbul, but she was able to rein it in -- a real sign that she's maturing! After Happy Meals (conveniently located outside customs in Terminal 5), they promptly fell asleep in Gigi's suburban and slept the entire trip down to Pekin.  We unloaded all of our stuff and collapsed into bed around 10:30 PM, central time!

As we have shared different photos from our trip on social media, friends have (understandably) asked where we are going to be and when, here in the States.

We will be sending out a more detailed schedule in our next e-newsletter.  In the meantime, our general plans are as follows:

May 21-31:  Central Illinois
June 1-4: Lancaster, Ohio (visiting Nathan's parents)
June 5-21:  Wilmore, Kentucky
June 22-26:  Indiana
June 27-July 31:  Ohio (with a trip to western PA and another trip to Indiana for mission meetings sometime in there)
August 1-31:   Illinois
September 1:  Depart for Albania!

We look forward to seeing lots of friends and family and church partners during these weeks!

Don't be surprised if...

The paper chain is finished  We leave for the airport in a little over an hour.

It has been interesting to hear the children vocalize their thoughts about this impending transition.  Reni has been saying with more frequency that certain details about his life in the States are becoming hazy memories (after all, he was a newly-minted 4 year old when we left).

While our memories are hopefully more keen than his, the more time passes, the more we realize that our time here is making a difference in what we view as normal, changing the way in which we do things, and even altering the ways in which we interact with people.

Before the Waggoners touch down on American soil, we thought we might prepare you for some potentially odd or unusual behaviors as we re-acclimate to our home culture... 

1.)  At that first meeting if Reni pulls back in wariness, that's because Albanians love children and show that love with lots of hair tousling, cheek pinching and kissing. He really dislikes if we've gelled his hair because ironically gel seems to entice even more attention and hair touching, from men and women alike.  After kisses, Reni typically responds with vigorous scrubbing of his cheeks with both palms and hiding behind mom or dad.  He may be Albanian by blood, but he's managed to retain an appreciation for personal space -- which is very American.

I (Cydil), on the other hand, may go in for a kiss. That's because here you greet all fellow female friends with cheek kiss, or kisses on both cheeks.  It was not natural for me at all when we first came but now it's second nature.  If I start, spare me embarrassment and just go with it.

2.) If we show up at your home and kick off our shoes at the door.  It's a Turkish custom here, but also extremely practical.  We live in a village with livestock that regularly pass by our front gate. Enough said.

 3.)  If we are barely in the door and our kids ask, "Where's the candy?"  That's because we have visited a lot of Albanian homes (about 50 in just the past 8 months alone) and without fail, we are offered a piece of candy from the crystal candy dish practically before our seats have hit the couch.  I don't know where this tradition started, but it might be why the candy business is a thriving industry here.

4.) The next question they will ask is if your children speak English.  That's because they are desperately seeking companionship with peers that they can understand and peers who understand them. It's not unusual to meet adults who speak English, but Albanian kids?  That's another story.

5.) When you offer the kids water to drink they may answer, "Without gas, please." That's because all drinking water here is sold with gas or without, and you are expected to specify when you order.  None of this sophisticated "sparkling" or "still" stuff.

6.)  If my children express surprise that you don't live behind a wall or a gate, it's because they've not seen such a thing in two years.

Our village, circa 2003

7.) If Ellie asks if she can go feed your chickens or catch some lizards she is just anxious to go outdoors to play.

8.)  If we're spending the night, we might ask where you keep your candles and headlamps.  Or if we needed to plug in the hot water tank for your guest bath.  It'd be a shame to take a cold shower just because we were too polite to ask.  And if the power goes out and knocks out the nightlight, we'd hate to wake up the whole house while we were stumbling around to find the bathroom.  After all, it went out three times last night as we were attempting to load our carry-ons.

9.)  Don't be startled if at breakfast Ellie and Reni express surprise that your milk is not in a box and think that it's perfectly normal to keep such boxes stored in a cupboard or on a shelf.

10.) If they ask why you stuff your dirty dishes in a cabinet instead of the sink they may have forgotten what a dishwasher looks like.  That's because because space and/or electrical tension constraints have meant two years of washing dishes in the sink, with a rinse basin because our hot water tank holds a limited supply of hot water for rinsing.

Raising our son a little counter-culturally.  Here this is most definitely a woman's job!

11.)  If you catch us rubbing your towels on our face and inviting each other over to feel how soft they are, it's the result of two years of nothing but line-dried laundry. We love the clothes line right outside our window, but line-dried towels sometimes feel like a cross between cardboard and sandpaper!

12.) If the kids might offer to take your trash as we leave to run errands,  that's because our village has no dumpsters (and unlike some of our neighbors, we don't burn our trash) so we take it to a dumpster, usually at the supermarket shopping center on the way to Tirana.  Believe me, it feels real classy to open your hatch back and pull out trash just before grocery shopping.

13.) If Ellie asks for 'small lek' for the shopping cart, it is because all shopping carts are locked together until a 100 lek coin (about $1) is inserted.  Don't worry, we get our coin back if we return the cart.  I don't know why Wal Mart doesn't adopt this system.  It seems to me like it would eliminate all those stray carts rolling around the parking lot from customers too lazy to push them back to the cart return.

the new, fun cart at the supermarket warranted a photo!

14.)   If our kids beg and plead for us to leave them at the Play Place while we go shopping elsewhere, don't think we're bad parents! That's because someone came up with this genius system where you can leave your kids and phone number at a Play Place with paid caretakers while you go and complete your shopping in peace.  My kids have never enjoyed shopping more!

And if Ellie can't remember your name, and makes up a new one instead?... Well, that's just Ellie.

Thanks folks, for your understanding as we navigate this transition from our new home to our old home!  See you in America!

A Night To Be Treasured

Just like the village boys got a special event during the Santor's visit, so did the village girls! If you've been hanging around this blog for any length of time, you may have noticed that our children's and youth programs are lopsided pretty heavily in favor of the boys. We believe this is primarily due to the fact that the girls of our community are expected to carry a good portion of the responsibilities for helping around the house, but also they are not given the latitude to come and go as freely as their brothers. We knew that a special event, though, might be an opportunity to draw out those girls we don't get to see as often so we moved up the age limit to include any unmarried girl in our community. ;-)  And just as we hoped, it was a special night -- we had to shoo the last one's out the door!

To begin with, the Santor girls prepared a message based around the parable of the Lost Coin, and how the girls of our village are just like the precious coin that was lost -- that God is desperately seeking to find them!  To reinforce the message, the girls were given treasure boxes to decorate.  Each box contained a slip of paper with the verses printed inside.

We are all made in the image of God, and the first part of His character that we see in Scripture is of Him as creator.  Bearing His imprint, I believe we all have the desire and ability to create!

I love that when we do projects like these, they are never rushed, but done deliberately and creatively.

To help the girls feel extra special, we hired two young moms in our village who are beauty school graduates!  As girls finished up their creations, the beauticians pulled out the flat irons and hair spray and went to town!  Every single girl enjoyed the special treatment!

Of course, you can't get pretty and not have your photo taken!  (Just another excuse to dust off the camera toys! ha, ha)

These girls need no coaching whatsoever in front of the camera!

Sisters...

And another set of sisters...

I took headshots of everyone, then printed their favorite as a memento.  Here they are:

Thank you, Santors, for reminding our girls just how loved and special they are!  I think if when you come back, they will want an encore of this evening!  Their smiles say it all!

Another Countdown... | Team Xh update

On Tuesday, Mandi picked Xh up from her village home on the mountain.  We wish we could have been there, but we were chasing down the last steps of renewing Reni's Albanian passport in Elbasan that day. (Lord willing, it should be ready in June!)

We heard there were lots of tears and hugs, and I am not surprised.  This is quite an unusual experience for a girl her age who is typically already engaged by now, and whose impending 'trip' is a move to a new family, not to a hospital bed on the other side of the world.

She has been kept busy this week with a trip to the dentist and hairdresser.  She's gotten new clothes for her journey and she wanted to pick them out herself -- a luxury which she's probably not been blessed to enjoy much, if ever, before. She's had her first taste of pizza and dipped her toes in the sea, also for the first time.

Yesterday she joined us for a final "Team Xh" meeting at our home in Vlashaj where we were pleased to meet Herta (Xh's guardian for these months of treatment) for the first time and discuss some final details regarding the ladies' upcoming weeks in the States.

Would you take the opportunity of reading this post to pray right now for Herta and Xh? In 48 hours they will be on a plane across the Atlantic.  We know that Xh is encountering so many new things -- even now before she leaves Albania!  Her biggest encounters are yet to come!

We also know that Herta shoulders a tremendous responsibility as she stands in as the role of guardian.  The course of Xh's treatment is not going to be an easy path.  I'm sure she would covet your prayers for wisdom, love, understanding, patience, and peace...

Why I Love Short-term Missions

On Friday night we said 'goodbye' to the Santor family!  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a visit goes by after months and months of planning...

This visit has been in the works for more than two years, since we stayed at their home in the mountains of north Georgia one ice-y weekend in January 2013.  Having connected online in 2009 through the common threads of our faith and Albanian adoption, you'd never have known that before last week we had only visited in person on two prior occasions!  While they ended up adopting from Bulgaria, not Albania, they maintained a heart for what they had learned about the little Balkan country and desired to take a mission trip as a family to see the place that had captured their hearts.

This family was a prime example of getting out of an experience according to what they had put in.  From fundraising and ministry planning, to praying for village families each day before coming by name, and spending time in advance study of Albanian customs and language, I could see every member of the family taking in something from each moment they were here.

And we crammed a lot into every day they were here!

They were able to visit a few homes in the community which gave them glimpses of 'real life' here and opportunities to share their testimonies and pray for our neighbors.

Interesting tidbit about the family below ... until the end of this visit, they thought Aaron was actually Nathan's brother Stephen.  We think maybe the fact that they both have five children???  Regardless, 'large' families (as in more than three children) are quite unusual in today's Albania.  Especially families that already have four bio kids and choose to adopt?  Whoa!
  Grandma, though, was particularly pleased to meet another mama of five kids as she had had ten children herself, with five surviving.

They generously brought over a lot of gifts for the center like four-square balls, volleyballs and a soccer ball.  Every afternoon they were right there out with the kids playing!

One of my favorite things about hosting visitors, particularly those that include youth, is how excited our village kids are at hanging out with their new American friends.  There's no such thing as a simple walk -- it's like the Pied Piper himself has come to Vlashaj and people join up all along the way, regardless of the destination! (below)

We had a morning 'here' and an afternoon 'there' in the schedule which we used to tackle some much needed projects around the center like painting the two front gates (which desperately needed painting).

As well as assembling some previously used shelves for our crawlspace storage area.

Everyone pitched in.  No excuses.  

(Well, except me, who conveniently found laundry and kitchen work to keep my hands from getting too dirty.)

I loved that hosting a family with older children provided great examples for our kids to see of pitching in on chores and work.

Not to mention Ellie and Reni enjoyed having friends in house of the same gender.  I wish I had some photos of the daily wrestling matches and nerf gun wars.  

We are still finding nerf bullets in the oddest of places.  Oddly, though, I'm not finding any bruises on Reni.  He wrestled until he sweat and he wrestled hard!

This photo below pretty much summarizes how Ellie felt about her new friends.

The Santors all tried new foods!  Below Rachel is showing off her first Albanian souflaqe!  Think value-meal-in-a-pita. It contains shredded pork or chicken, french fries, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and xaxiki sauce (yogurt, garlic, and cucumbers) and it's yours for a whopping 150 Albanian lek (or, $1.10 at today's exchange rate).

There's so much more that they did which are not included here in photos:  

• There's Jen's testimony during women's Bible study that left the women hungering for more,
• There was the girls night (which I have yet to post about) that brought out village girls that we hardly get to see anymore, where they heard that they were God's treasure for whom he was seeking 
• There was our visit to Reni's orphanage where they made a craft with the older children and played games that brought out smiles from an obviously traumatized four year old who had just recently been removed from a bad home situation.  
• There was the boys carpentry event that enabled a couple of dozen boys to whack out their energy with hammer and nails on kits that we'd never be able to find for purchase here.
• There was Aaron's sermon during church that challenged our little fledgling body to live out the Kingdom of God right here in our little community...

All of these are blessings that we Waggoners cannot bring to this village on our own.  God has given them a different story than us, different gifts than us, different skills than us, different love languages than us. 

Our village got to see a bigger picture of the Body of Christ.  The Santors left a piece of their heart in a little Albanian village but went home with a whole slew of new Facebook friends.  --Not to mention, some new phrases in Albanian (such as, "Have you read your Bible today, __________ ?") to practice while staying in touch with said Albanian Facebook friends.

That's why I love short-term missions when it works hand in hand with long-term missions.  

God takes 1+1 and makes it come out so much more than two.

Beautiful Albania | Valbona National Park

The countdown to "America" has commenced. We made our paper chain today of pink and orange construction paper.

The kids are excited but I'm starting to feel that tightness in my chest that comes with long lists and short, hard deadlines.

While we have our return tickets to Albania for September 1 (and that will be here before we know it!), there are some things we had hoped to do this first term, but for a variety of reasons they just haven't happened.

One of those "wishlist" items was to see northern Albania to round out our cultural immersion.  (You may recall last year about this time we took a tour of the south).  

In all of my previous visits to this country there were more accessible and safer places to explore. The ruggedness of the terrain maintained a certain sense of isolation, perpetuating mystique and intrigue.  Legends have prevailed of blood feuds, road-side bandits, and strictly-held customs that hearken back to centuries gone by. 

But as the years pass and roads improve, fewer areas remain 'as they were' and there is a desire to see it before the busloads of tourists and tacky billboards arrive.  

The problem with making such a trip (aside from simply finding the time to go) is that tracking down a place to sleep or eat is not as simple as performing an internet search or punching in restaurant options on the GPS.

Last August we were supposed to go up North with Mandi and a village friend from the region, but for a variety of reasons it got postponed and life got busy.  

Then, a little over a month or so ago, Mandi revisited the idea, this time suggesting we take the Planters youth ministry staff.  Mersin is native to the northernmost regions of Albania and could be our tour guide.  Not to mention it would just be good and fun to spend time together outside of "work."

The dates kept changing, but finally, after comparing everyone's schedules it was suggested we leave after Kids' Club on Saturday, May 2, returning Sunday, the next afternoon or evening.

Yes.  That would be Saturday, the day after the Santors (family of 7) left at 8PM the night before, after a nine-day visit.  

I woke up completely exhausted Saturday, unsure if I could even make the trip. It was nothing I don't normally feel after hosting for an extended time -- I just usually give myself a day to move a little slower with no appointments.

Nathan let me skip kids club to lay back down.  I wasn't feeling well -- like someone had doped me with a double dose of Benadryl and I had no power (I blame the orange blossoms in Elbasan for stoking up my seasonal allergies).

After a morning nap and lot of mental back and forth, I eventually agreed to go for it.  I think only my fear that another year or two (or more) might pass before I'd get this chance compelled me to stuff a few pieces of clothes into an overnight bag and leave a load of towels drying on the line.

I was so glad I did!

We all fit in a 9-passenger van and made our way to the Kosovo border.  Our destination for the evening was Tropoje (yes, you might recognize the name from the Taken movies) and someone else told someone in our group that it was actually easier to reach the Valbona region from Kosovo rather  than to drive the curvy mountain road from Kukes (Koo-kess, red flag below). 

Neither Nathan nor I have ever been to Kosovo and were extremely curious about our Albanian "cousins" across the border.  We skirted Prizren and made our way west to Gjukove where we stopped for coffee and an early supper as we were told there was no place to eat by our hotel in the village of Tropoje e Vjeter (Old Tropoje).

While we were only in Kosove a few hours, my initial impressions were that the country felt more "European" with box-ier houses, fewer security walls, more green space, and less litter.  At the same time it was very reassuring to see the Albanian flag proudly waving everywhere.  

After supper we set off for Old Tropoje re-entering Albania at a sleepy border crossing on a mountainside,  arriving in the tiny village after dark.  We were staying on the 2nd floor of a recently renovated old home.  The owners were  hoping to enter the hospitality industry and had just turned the upper floor of their home into a guesthouse.  We were connected to them through their travel-agent relative in Tirana who also goes to church with our colleague Arjan.  Yep, that's how just about everything works here. ;-)

It was absolutely perfect -- 3 bedrooms, beds for 9 (with flannel sheets!), and a lounge area for chatting (and eating breakfast).  I think we were the first people to stay in our bedroom.  The bathroom sink still had a price tag affixed to the pedestal and fresh grout stains marked the edges of new tiles.  

Our hosts served us homemade berry juice.  The wife wore her hair and earrings in a style more typical of the north while the father and son had short hair and well-kept beards that looked to me more Amish than Albanian.  They were friendly but quiet, lingering with us it seemed more out of respect than from an extroverted nature. I think they were studying us as much as we were studying them and our new surroundings. Eventually they asked us what time we would like breakfast and excused themselves for the evening.

Having arrived after dark with nary a street light, I woke up to this view:

Then, if you will, imagine the sound of a rushing mountain stream, livestock braying and the sounds of dozens of antique bells tinkling around necks.

Before our hosts arrived with breakfast, Arjan was ever the host himself, brewing up coffee for us all the Albanian way, in a xhezva (jez-vuh).

After a breakfast of fried eggs, rolls, butter, homemade jam, slices of thick cheese, and mountain tea (an herbal tea which has hints of sage and oregano), we loaded up the van to finish the trip to our ultimate destination: Valbona National Park.

Our journey happened to take us through the city of Bajram Curi (buy-rom tsur-ee), a planned city containing an out-of-place-in-our-rustic-surroundings collection of communist-era buildings named after an Albanian hero who fought the Serbs in what is now Kosovo.  Below Mersin shows us the apartment where he grew up... Across the street the ground falls away to fields and a view of the mountains forming the border with Kosovo.  He told us that during the war in Kosovo they could see the sky light up behind the mountains while the bombs fell.

We continued driving out of town, past his old school, the new school, and the sports "palace".  Eventually we left the outskirts of town and entered a pass between two mountains, a road alongside a river into a canyon of sorts.  We were entering Valbona National Park.

The original buildings of this region feature wood shingle rooftops, quite different from the typical ceramic red tiles further south.

Even the "model" on the anti-littering signs sported traditional costume! 

There was something to photograph around practically every bend in the road.

Within the national park there were a few guesthouses and campsites, perfect for exploring the trails to village only accessible on foot.

It was a Sunday, the "busy" day of the week for parks like this, yet it was relatively quiet.

I think we visited at the best time of year!  Warm enough to go without coats, yet early enough to see the beautiful mountain snow before it could melt!

I include a photo of this sign because this region was/is famous for having "accursed mountains."  Now, I guess they are 'blessed.' :-)

Clear, COLD mountain water gushed through the canyon.  

Below:  mulliri i vjeter (the old mill)

on the footbridge to the old mill

Of course, we stopped for coffee!  I mean, why not with views like this??

O Valbona!  We will be back!