Wrapping up June

Today is the last day of June.  I think we have filled the month very well.

Since last Monday we have:

• attended eleven medical appointments between the four of us (dental, wellness, vision, and orthopaedic)  
• met up for ten lunch or dinner meetings (that I can think of off the top of my head -- I might have missed one or two).
• taken the kids to three play dates.
• completed Ellie's long-awaited assessment
• spoken in two church services. 
• shared at one gathering of friends.
• attended a class reunion over three days.
• participated in multiple Skype and conference calls...

It shouldn't have been a surprise when Reni couldn't keep his eyes open yesterday afternoon and slept off a low-grade fever.  Out of a sense of plain fatigue (and concern for Reni) we cancelled our plans for this afternoon to rest up for the appointments remaining before we leave our dear Kentucky home at the end of the weekend.

Below are some photo highlights from the past week...

(Above)  We met with our friends, the Nichols' family one night for supper.  Thanks for meeting up with us in the midst of unpacking into your new home!

(Below)  One evening was particularly nice for a walk so we took the kids on a walk through campus.  Ellie requested the photo below with the original Asbury College building so she could be photographed 'with history.'

(below) Last week Ellie was able to have an assessment that provided us with some more pieces to her puzzle.  We are so grateful for our Kentucky family (it was a join effort between our home church and pediatrician) who helped connect us to this doctor who provided Ellie's testing last Thursday morning over several hours.  We have passed the results along to her educational specialist (and American based in Europe) who will combine those results with the achievement tests she took in February to help guide us in making choices for Ellie's future studies.

Later that day we had dinner with our new friends, the Siebenthalers, but didn't remember to take a selfie then!  We bumped into them later at Reunion and snagged a photo op then.

I will hopefully post another separate post on Reunion weekend later, so insert that chronologically here. :-)

Sunday after church (a good time reconnecting with our friends at DayBreak Community -- sorry now photos!) we met up with Asbury friends, the Littles (whom Ellie calls 'the Tinys' -- she just thought their real name was too humorous for words).

Monday we had dinner with the Mazza clan!  We've known Damon and Enid from our early days at First Alliance Church when we were both newlyweds!

Tuesday we spent more than four hours seeing all of Reni's specialists at Shriners (he's a special guy!) in their new facilities at the University of Kentucky.  We love our friends there.

Our little nut gets goofy waiting for his turn to be seen. I'm pretty sure this is not how this equpment was designed to be used.

Below Reni gets cast for new boots!  His last pair are four years old and waaay too small.  He's excited to have these wrapped in Star Wars graphics.  Not sure why he looks so serious below!

I can't get enough of driving back country roads in Kentucky.  It's just so beautiful, y'all.  #wideloads #skinny roads.

Dinner Tuesday with the Mungillos!  Love these guys! No family pic as Morgan succumbed early to jetlag (they just returned from an overseas trip a few days before).

Ellie makes friends so easily everywhere we go...

No pics from our friends gathering at WGM Wednesday, but this one taken long after most had left.  Super special to have these guys come (three all the way from Louisville)!

Thanks for hanging in through this little photo re-cap!  It's far from all-inclusive, to be sure.  So while we are tired, we are blessed -- blessed to be able to see so many dear ones, blessed to have such a supportive community, blessed to be here at all.

Now what will July have in store?

Gone Fishin'

Wednesday was our first day free of afternoon appointments since we hit the road 3 weeks ago.  Well, free of appointments for me.

Nathan's been on Skype for a few hours.  He was asked to serve for project manager over our sending agency's transition to a new website.  Thankfully, his role is chiefly to serve as interpreter of the agency to the company designing the website and vice versa -- requesting the information needed from the right folks at the mission to supply the content and make the choices needed for the designers to proceed.  It's right up his alley, and when something falls into that sweet spot, it doesn't really feel like 'work.'

Anyway, I'm in my sweet spot this afternoon, with a little work station set up which includes two laptops, a couple of hard drives, my spiral planner, and a thermos of iced tea. I'm responding to e-mails, updating records, and backing up photos. This afternoon I found a series of photos from our first week in America that were worthy of posting in the family online journal.

Introducing Ellie and Reni's first fishing experience!

My parents' neighbor, Norm, offered to teach the kids fishing technique and show them how to fish in his back yard.  It started with a lot of casting practice that both picked up quickly.

Yes, the kids are fishing with Disney-themed poles.  Have you seen how much real fishing gear costs??  Thankfully, these worked fine.

Both kids had a natural knack for casting...

A few times Reni had bites and either reeled too quickly or two slowly to hook his fish.  Then all of a sudden, Ellie had some action!

She really had no interest in getting to know her catch

And in spite of all her comments of "I want to eat him!", it was catch and release.

Thanks, Norm, for this special experience!

Snapshots from the Road

On Saturday morning, June 3, we loaded up our trusty minvan and set off for two months of living 'on the road.'  It's probably the most I will ever have in common with a rock band.

We said goodbye to my parents and sister, Hannah, who I'm sure were happy to get their house back and enjoy some quiet again after 9 days with us. :-)

Our first stop was Ligonier, Indiana.

Below, Nathan provides an illustration for the high school aged Sunday school class with colored beans about what "1%" looks like in a total population.  Less than 1% of Albania's population identifies as evangelical Christians.

Our replica antique Albanian weapons are always sure to draw kids to our display table (and our kids like to show them off).

Below, our wonderful hosts and friends, the Lowe family.

They took us to a fun little soda shop that boasts several hundred varieties of international soft drinks in glass bottles.

Ellie had the misfortune of selecting one that happened to taste a lot like Dimetapp children's cough syrup (out of all those varieties, ha ha).

If it's red, Reni likes it.

One weekend in the middle of our two weeks of missions meetings, a generous family from a local church invited our missionary family to relax on their property for an afternoon of picnic-ing and swimming.  Ellie lacked no confidence in taking a friend out for a spin in a kayak, no doubt remembering our days in Kentucky of enjoying family kayak rides on the Kentucky and Dix rivers.

We were able to have dinner one night with our dear friend, Mark. (Eszti and the boys were unable to join us while their oldest recovered from a recent surgery -- we missed them!)

Another evening we connected with our friend, Maria, and her family.  Maria and I were in a mentoring relationship one year while she was at Asbury.

The next Sunday found us with our dear friends in Eaton.  We misjudged the travel time and arrived nearly 45 minutes early.  We took a family selfie in the car while we waited for the church to open.

I will try to make a separate post about our two weeks of spiritual retreat and and strategic planning discussions.  So fast-forward a bit and below, here we are on our way down to Kentucky last Saturday.  We were graciously accommodated by our friends John and Erica and their three children just outside of Indianapolis.  John was on our student cabinet when we first started working at the WGM Student Center as newlyweds in 1999!  We were thrilled when we was hired earlier this year to work at WGM now as the VP of Mobilization and Communication!

Life on the road doesn't mean we don't still have needs for things like haircuts!  Here Reni's cutting it up with some of the fun girls at Great Clips.  It took two of them to shave his neck, he was so ticklish!

A big part of our time in Kentucky is taking care of important things like wellness checks.  Thankfully we have great health care providers here in Lexington who know our family and provide special care!  Below, the kids were having just a little too much fun while they waited to see the doctor. :-)

One of our special 'communities of friends' in Kentucky are friends through the adoption community.

While our group doesn't meet formally anymore, a few of us have stayed in touch and joined us at the park Monday night for an impromptu picnic!

So that's what we're doing... seeing lots of dear friends, eating lots of good food, visiting doctors, dentists, and eye doctors, speaking at churches and with small groups, and all the while marveling at how much changes over here in two years... and wondering how in the world Kroger can have a whole shelf of iced tea and not sell as single bottle of UN-sweet tea.  You'll never be able to convince me that Kentucky is not part of the SOUTH!

Check back later for more updates!

What America Are We In?

"What America are we in, Mom?" Reni asked.

It took me a minute to understand his question before I answered, "North."

"Oh.  Bummer. Timmy lives in South America.  It's too far to drive to his house, isn't it?"

The first two weeks of this month found us at a series of meetings with the leadership and senior or emerging leading missionaries of our sending agency.

While Nathan and I enjoyed times of discussion, the kids have enjoyed special time with their fellow mission 'cousins'.  They soaked it up and fell asleep hard each night!

One of the "yay duck/yuck duck" (pair o' ducks = parodox) realities for our kids is that some of their best friends live on different continents. This is beautiful and painful at the same time.  They can boast of friends in South America, but who knows when/if they will have get to see these same friends' Lego collection or explore their back yard.

Likewise seeing one special set of friends in North America means leaving another set of special friends behind in Europe.  And knowing that time is limited, it's nothing short of astounding at how quickly they jump into connection with each other... But such is life for children like ours who hop between cultures back and forth like some folks cross state lines.

The trick is learning the 'rules'...

Rules that most kids learn through months and years of playground time which our kids have to cram into a few meaningful get-togethers each year with peers of their heart language group. 

So we're spending a lot of time this summer explaining rules of social etiquette I took for granted -- ways of expressing ourselves that are acceptable in some contexts but not another, or which we've never had the opportunity to practice.

So while the 'goodbyes' are hard, there is the hope of reunion some day, and the growth and richness that comes from an expanding group of friends of different backgrounds and walks of life.  For Ellie and Reni, the world is definitely shrinking.

A Place For the Future

It's no secret that I'm proud of my farm heritage -- both of my grandfathers, and then later my parents, managed family farms in Mason County that date back to the US Civil war and earlier.  As technology advances and margins shrink, family farms rapidly disappearing in the U.S.  One only has to look around the community to see how few of our neighbors are still engaged in this enterprise.

As my parents look retirement square in the face, with no available heir to whom they can transfer the management reins, they are endeavoring to preserve the homestead as a connecting point for future generations.  As our return date to the States approached, they put in a fun little addition for the grand kids to enjoy during our visits to central Illinois. 

This is the grin of a little boy who sees a wish coming to fruition...

A real tree house to defend from all mortal enemies!

Ellie gives it her seal of approval.  We have a few additions to make, but for now, it looks like a bonafide kid place to pass some fun summer days!