Dancing and Mourning | February Highlights

The photo above was actually taken near the END of February, but I'm following the adage to "put my best foot forward." Why not lead with a nice family photo on a day where we accidentally coordinated? :-)  Photo credit to Bobby Bennett, who was visiting Albania.

Fun memory of a movie night with Luli and Hannah.  Going to the cinema is a guilty pleasure of mine.  Unfortunately, the selection of English films that come to our cinema can be "hit or miss," so we only go once or twice a year -- which makes it worth documenting. :-)

I love a good ol' object lesson. If done well, they drive home the point of Pastor Genti's message in a memorable way.

This one (above) sure was a doozy to get it to work, ha ha. The point was to show how the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives empowers us to overcome our natural desires for selfishness and make good decisions.  The light refracting through the water is supposed to make the arrows on the paper (in Nathan's hands) reverse direction.  So in the lesson, the glass jar in our life, water (which Nathan poured into the empty jar in the midst of the lesson) represents the Holy Spirit, and the signs read good choices (left) and bad choices (right).  If you look through the glass of water, the arrows will point in the opposite direction than how they appear  otherwise. After many attempts at home, we finally found the right thickness and length of arrows to make it work. 

I give YouTube videos a B- for not informing us of this, ha ha.

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The photo below is just for your amusement.  This was spotted at a specialty import store.  Yum!  Hot dog gummies! (ick!)

Night To Shine 2023

Night to Shine is probably one of the most joyous events on our annual calendar. 
 

I recently listened to a podcast about how to plan our lives to intersect more often with the path of fun.  According to the researcher, fun occurs at the intersection of play (an activity or event done for the process, not an outcome), connection (being connected to a person, community, animal, or place), and flow (when we are so "present" in a moment, we don't notice the passage of time). 

When I think of NTS, I see individuals who are enjoying themselves without self-consciousness, who are interacting with peers in meaningful connection, and living in a moment without the distraction of cell phones or other interruptions.

This is may be our 5th year of volunteering at NTS and I always tear up seeing the honored guests enjoying themselves so thoroughly.

Saying Goodbye to Mom Waggoner

About 48 hours after wrapping up Night to Shine we were awoken by a phone call from Nathan's father with the news that Nathan's mother, Lois, unexpectedly passed away. Initially, it was suspected that she aspirated/choked, but we think she most likely had another stroke. It was just 9 days before her 75th birthday. Thanks to the generosity of some special friends (they know who they are -- some we know well, others are much newer friends!), we were able to book tickets to fly back to Illinois the next day.

It was more than a bit crazy to plan an international trip with less than 24 hours' notice, especially as responsibilities in Tirana meant that we only had an evening at home to pack before leaving for the airport at 3AM. 

The woman above was sitting across from us at our gate for Frankfurt and struck up a conversation. It's amazing the connections one makes when you meet a fellow sister in Christ.  Before coming to Albania for some months, she had served in Romania.  To make a long story short, we discovered that she knew many of my friends on the Romanian translation team for The Chosen (which I was working on at that very moment)!

In full disclosure, I should report that Reni was not too excited about embarking on international travel for "such a short trip." I think some of it really may have been the unexpected change in our plans and a struggle to shift how he envisioned the next ten days ... but seriously, 24-25 hours of travel is not peaches and cream -- and to do it twice in ten days...  The Lord was kind though and we actually had a very lightly populated "big flight" over the Atlantic, so we were able to spread out and rest more than normal.

We arrived on Valentines' Day evening and enjoyed these donuts from Hannah the next morning.

Below, a blue-raspberry slushie from Sonic perked Reni up pretty quick -- even at 9:30 in the morning!

We enjoyed many days at Steve and Rachel's home and the kids willingly soaked up all the cousin time they could enjoy.

My grandfather generously lent us the use of his car for the days we were in Illinois. We went to lunch with him and visited some of his friends at "The Lodge."  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of us with him!  I have just the one photo below where, Ellie performs some pieces in the lobby of the assisted living facility.  Before the end of our trip, my grandfather would end up contracting Covid, so we didn't get to see him again before leaving.

We shared lots of memories while we planned Mom's service and curated her slide show. 

A treasure was reading her Bible and finding notes like the one below where she listed the name of the head of the Albanian Adoption Committee.  This woman held our dossier and was part of the group that matched Ellie's file to ours. Lois had prayed for her by name in the months leading up to Ellie's referral.

Another sweet surprise was seeing our friends, the Bensons, who were traveling through Illinois from Nebraska to Vermont.  We hadn't seen them in years, so this was a big surprise and blessing!  They have traveled to Albania many, many times and are generous supporters of the work in Vlashaj.

Ellie and Gigi (my mom) share a love of music.  Here, Gigi demonstrated the sound of a particular arrangement for Ellie before she tried it.

Lois' service was held on Saturday, February 19. 

Dad (Carl), Nathan, Rebecca, and Stephen all shared at her service.

She was laid to rest at Prairie Rest Cemetery.

One of the reasons I was so grateful we could travel back was I remembered how healing it was to be surrounded by friends and family when Dad passed in 2018 -- and I wanted the same for Nathan. 

We were touched by friends who drove from Indiana (above) and Kentucky (below).

With the McMillans who came from Ohio

And other friends from Central Illinois who didn't know Mom as much, but came to support us.

Nathan with his uncle Paul from New Jersey (Aunt Melanie was also present, but not pictured)

In the Lord's kindness, my sister and her two daughters had already planned a visit from Vermont over the niece's winter break. We hadn't seen them since 2019!

We enjoyed three nights with them and catching up.

Before we knew it, it was Thursday and we were back at the airport and on our way back to Albania. We landed on a Friday afternoon and were in church Friday night!

What a bittersweet month! Grateful for the coming promise of new life, resurrection and spring!

 

Bulldogs, Babies, and Buddies | January 2023

I honestly thought I had accidentally deleted a folder of photos for January from my computer.  I went to create a review of February and realized that not only had I not backed up and archived my February photos, but I hadn't performed my monthly journaling ritual for January either! After you see my post for February, perhaps you might understand why I've fallen a bit behind.

I had to begin the post with these cute photos.  I mean, I'm not the world's biggest animal lover but even I thought this oversized puppy was more than just a bit cute.  No, he is not OUR puppy, but belongs to our colleagues, the Artonis.  His name?  Lio, in honor of their nation's most famous soccer player...
He loved being literally held like a baby!  Ellie couldn't get enough!

Nathan continues to teach interactive science lessons every Tuesday at VT Albania. 

Marshmallows and spaghetti noodles provided a great lesson on the strength of different shapes.

ALPHA 

In January we launched the Alpha Course.  Below, Nathan poses with our friend Ani, and his baby boy who was making his very first visit to the Jeta Center!

VT Albania students made these craft paper snowflakes as part of our winter themed decorations.  Didn't they turn out well?

We averaged between 30 and 40 guests each week.  Behind the scenes we never stopped our kitchen work preparing and plating the meal and dessert which guests enjoyed before the video and subsequent discussion.

We hosted the teenagers in a separate class room and any other children who were brought by their parents were occupied up in our gym.  Luis and Laura continually devised creative games.  Below is their version of "The floor is lava."

Albania's National Amputee Football Team

The team hosted a retreat and weekend of extended practices this month.  We were thrilled that they came one evening to practice at Jeta!

Our colleague Tiffany purchased a treadmill for the gym thanks to one of her generous ministry partners.  We really liked one that was about 15% more than her budget, so our partners made up the difference.  This treadmill is a wonderful piece of equipment for so many reasons.  Not only is it helpful in the therapy of our VT students, but for women who like to jog, we do not have a safe place to jog in our zone (really, there's not many safe places for men either -- the roads are very dangerous). Exercise equipment has incredibly high tariffs, so this was a truly long-awaited and generous addition to the center.   

Nathan taught another lesson on acids and base...? I barely remember my high school science education... maybe I should attend his classes too!

The Hope Center

We visited the Hope Center twice this month, but I'll only share pics from the night we had a Lego competition.  Most of these kids have never played with lego before, so this simple toy entertained them for nearly two full hours and we only completed two competitions.

In one competition, each team was challenged to build the strongest bridge.  We brought along hand weights to test the strength. With each kilo added, tension grew... especially as the lego could be heard creaking and cracking under the growing strain!

In another competition, the teams had to build sticks that could reach across a rug and snag a plastic hoop.

In the final competition, the teams were judged on their "sculpting" ability.  Below is the winner of the best portrait of trainer Luis.

New Neighbor

We rejoiced when our dear friends welcomed a new generation into their family with the birth of baby Aniel.  He is the son of Ani and Kimberly.  Below, he is being introduced to my mom over Facetime,

 

Reni enjoyed a visit from his old buddy, Albi, who immigrated to Italy a few years ago.  It was need to see that he's still as sweet as ever, even if he's grown up so much!

Nathan poses in his re-organized AV room at church.  It had gotten QUITE messy over the holiday season!

Sorry I'm not in the photo below but I was rejoicing in my first proper desk in 9 years of living here! 

A furniture store was having a "going-out-of-business" sale and the desk and chair were marked down 50%.  We did some creative rearranging in our bedroom to make space for this and I use it EVERY DAY! I never thought a desk could make me so happy -- or productive!  No more working on our rock-hard couch with my feet on the coffee table!

The photo below was taken for our friends at Pack Saddle Fellowship in Texas who bought these trees (and others, not pictured).  This variety of tree is supposed to be drought resistant and repel mosquitos!

One Sunday afternoon we had an impromptu doggy date with our team pets. The enclosed basketball court is the perfect place for them to run to their hearts' content!

Thanks fo sticking in there with this seemingly random assortment of photos. Get ready for February, hopefully coming soon!