I skyped with my parents yesterday.
The first thing my mom said was, "You've been quiet!"
Yeah. I didn't open my laptop for about a week after Christmas. (Maybe you can relate.)
Now that it's back in use, I have a lot of catching up to do -- that is if I can even figure out where to begin.
December was a kind of unusual for us this year.
I think it started with our van being in the shop for nearly a month. Yes. It was promised to be done in 10 days (we dropped it off December 1). Then at the end of ten days they said, "Not til next week." Of course, each of the subsequent days it was to be ready, we were told it would be 'just a few more.' The clincher was when they said it would finally be ready on Christmas day. Nathan skeptically questioned if they would be open. The tech vigorously assured us that they would be open (and just to show you how 'foreign' we know Christmas to be to the average person here, we actually believed they might be open). Of course on Christmas Day when Mandi called, the owner admitted they decided to take the day off.
So you would think without a vehicle we would have had more time on our hands, not less.
Somehow it didn't feel that way. Between camping in Tirana for a week (to be closer to our Albanian class), walking to Reni's school twice a day after we returned to the village, hitching rides where we could and borrowing a car from Pam or Mandi in between... figuring out transportation meant a lot of stress and some upheaval -- but we were also incredibly humbled by the generosity (and flexibility) of everyone around us.
The other (more positive) difference about December this year was the opportunity to make some new friends! Contrary to what you might think, we don't get to spend much time with adoptive families that come to Albania (if we even know they are here -- usually we don't know about them until they are nearly done with the process)! But if we do happen to connect online with an adoptive family, most American adoptions take place another part of the country and said child is usually young and limits their ability to do much outside of hunkering down and bonding. If we're lucky, we might get to meet in person for a quick coffee. But this time, our new friends actually reached out to us months before arriving. And given that their new daughter was living in an orphanage in Tirana, we offered to let them use our old apartment in the city as it was a short walk away. (I was selfishly happy that this worked out because I knew we'd get to see more of them that way!)
We were able to do a lot of fun things with the G's, including sharing Thanksgiving dinner, taking them to a few special places a short drive outside of Tirana, and what I was most excited to include: a visit up to Darshen to distribute food boxes and gifts to the school kids a few days before Christmas. It wasn't just the act of giving gifts, but I was glad for the opportunity to share with the G's a glimpse of a different side of their daughter's country -- far different than the hustle and bustle of the capital city.
Our traditional photo at the mountain pass. We couldn't have asked for better weather!
Xhina shared the Christmas story and then we handed out shoe boxes. The kids were very quiet and obediently refrained from opening them until later (who knows if they followed Mandi's admonishment to wait until they got home)!
It was interesting to hear Ellie and Reni remark about the poverty this year. Not that conditions have declined, but our children are starting to become more aware themselves of the various levels of poverty and affluence that exist.
Mandi told us later he slipped an Albanian New Testament into each box.
Then it was down to the billardo to hand out food boxes to each family. We are grateful for special friends who give to make this possible, and Mandi's family for assembling the food boxes this year! Once again, Nathan explained the reason why we give, the reason for our celebration of Christmas.
Each box contained a variety of staples from flour, sugar, oil, rice, and pasta to soap and detergent.
Before we knew it, it was time to head back over the mountain.
Continue to pray for the folks of this community. The ground is hard and rocky in more ways than one...
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