One of my favorite podcasts has featured interviews highlighting changes different people have experienced over the last decade of their lives. It got me to thinking about my own circumstantial changes these past ten years and personal growth.
I noted that in the past decade I become the mother of a second child, changed careers and moved our family across the ocean! I also lost two grandparents and a father.
Those are some pretty significant changes in ten years but I wonder how much more I might note if I really gave it some thought...?
I then realized if I wanted to remember this next decade, I'd need to get back to blogging more faithfully. Without further ado, here's my January 2020 in Review...
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After a quiet new years even on the farm with Mom and Hannah, we took a day trip up to the western suburbs of Chicago to see my cousin Dallas, his wife Amanda, and their four children. The busy-ness of life has meant that most of our visits have been limited to larger family gatherings. You can imagine how special it felt to have lunch and a lovely afternoon together at their home in the midst of an exceptionally busy season in their lives!
I've shared on Facebook, but perhaps not on here directly, about a project called The Chosen that Dallas has been deeply involved with as writer, director, and executive producer for the past couple of years. You can watch some great interviews of Dallas on You Tube about the journey that led to the project's creation, as well as many behind-the-scenes stories of the filming and cast interviews, too.
But if you want to watch the show itself, it's incredibly simple and free. Just download The Chosen app wherever you get your apps, then you can cast it to your television via Firestick, Roku or apple TV.
The Chosen is the first-ever multi-season series based on the true stories of the gospels of Jesus Christ. Our family has been profoundly touched by the depictions of events surrounding some of our favorite people in the Bible and the beautiful way in which these stories have been put on film. It has been released internationally and downloaded in nearly 200 different countries. We are hoping to see it translated soon into Albanian! Amanda has written a 40-Day devotional book with before-and-after stories and lessons from the lives of people touched first-hand by Jesus. Our family reads from it several nights a week before bed!
The next day we flew down to Texas for a quick weekend visit with dear friends. Our first stop was in Kingsland where we worshiped at Pack Saddle Fellowship. Nathan was privileged to bring the morning message at both services.
Afterwards we enjoyed lunch with our friends who came and served with us last June in Vlashaj. It was a real treat to see them all again!
Our fabulous hosts were the Schranks. This was our second visit to their home and it felt like it hadn't been any time at all!
Monday we drove down to San Antonio and saw our friends, the Callaways. Below, Reni enjoyed the warm weather to play outside sans coats and see what he could do with his new legs!
We met their pastor and his family over a fantastic special supper. Sadly, I did not get a photo!
We had about 10 days after our Texas trip to start packing up and saying goodbyes before returning to Albania. It was so nice to be able to stay at our family farm house and have a place to host guests for lunch or supper, like our friend, Diana, below.
Reni with his cousin, Elisha. I think Elisha spent 3 nights at our house our last week in America! :-)
The Olsens came down for a visit one Sunday from Chicago!
Our last big project to 'check off' the list was to empty our storage container on the farm. It had been invaded by mice and over the past year started to leak water. Reni 'supervised.' :-)
We were so thankful for the help of our friend Jim and my mom. About half of the furniture had to be pitched.
Perks of living deep into the country: burning those items too big to haul away.
Nathan also helped Mom with some projects around the house like setting up a security system and installing some electrical outlets! He's a really handy guy to have around! :-)
I found this treasure of a photo: my grandparents in front of the farmhouse ... about 70 years ago!
Reni's favorite place to shop is Bass Pro shop...
Our last Sunday we worshiped at Crosswalk. We love our church family there! There's rather a lot of us Waggoners there, especially when we are in town. :-)
We had lunch at Purdue's in Tremont... can't beat half price pizza with all these mouths to feed.
My last goodbye was the toughest... saying goodbye to my Grandpa Van. He had a really tough fall with health issues. By the time we returned to Albania he was in process to move to a new assisted living facility in Manito and by all accounts, he seems to be much happier there! We are so glad!
Airport drop off is a bit of a logistical feat with all of our luggage. We brought 7 checked pieces, an athletic wheel chair, a stroller, 4 rolling carry-ons, and four back packs. We had a great send-off crew and enjoyed a traditional brunch at Denny's on our way to the airport!
Ellie and I are great travel buddies! It's such a relief once we are seated and the stressful part of checking in and navigating security is behind us!
One last glimpse of Central Illinois!
We were terrible sleepers on the last leg of our flight. Thank goodness for these padded benches at the airport in Vienna. This airport is starting to feel quite familiar!!
This sweet sign greeted us when we walked in the door of home!
Reni had insisted on buying these slippers last fall while traveling. I insisted he would never wear them. He had to prove me wrong. :-)
So good to be back! First Bible study in the village was by candle light...
It was immediately evident that Reni's new legs were going to radically change his ability to interact with neighbor friends! He loved his new found independence and we rejoiced that he can do more things typical of his age, like playing outside with friends, further away than just our courtyard.
When we returned, the soup kitchen was wrapping up service to the village. It was so gratifying to see these ladies from our village church volunteer in this way. I know it sounds hard to believe, but most accused them of helping for money (we didn't pay them at all) or questioned their motives. Volunteerism is gaining traction in the cities, but out here in the village, it's not understood. I saw it as evidence of heart change that comes from knowing Jesus and loving one's neighbor!
We were also blessed by the soup kitchen as the first few days back we really struggled to get our clocks regulated, our suitcases unpacked, and adjust to living once again in a cold house. It was nice to have a hot lunch and fresh food instead of ripping open a packet of soup mix and adding water (it took us a few days to get out to the grocery store)!
Cold days with blackouts are great for reading juvenile mysteries! Thanks, Uncle Seth, for this Christmas gift! It's been chock full of great new vocabulary and intrigue!
For those of you curious about earthquake recovery, things have somewhat come to a standstill. The government has assessed all of the affected areas and made a list of condemned homes. They have told homeowners they jeopardize receiving any form of rebuilding assistance if they begin work without permission. In the mean time, Albania awaits word from the EU, which is meeting next week to determine how much money they can give Albania for the purposes of rebuilding.
Meanwhile, one of our neighbors found a creative means of creating shelter for he and his wife, in order to move out of their relatives' home and enjoy some personal space. They renovated the outdoor kitchen on the grounds of an uninhabited family-owned house.
With some plaster, two by fours, wiring and metal sheeting, they have created a cozy, temporary place to live!
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