One year ago today...

I (Nathan) have decided to give Cydil a break on the Blog, so you are stuck with my thoughts this time.

Today has been eventful in several ways. The full pomp and circumstance hit Asbury College this morning as Asbury's new president, Dr. Sandra Gray, was inaugurated. Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader in the US Senate, was one of several speakers who challenged and encouraged Dr. Gray. It was great to see Jesus so lifted up through the ceremony. Asbury is excited about Dr. Gray's presidency and we are too. Incidentally, Dr. Gray is also on the board of World Gospel Mission and has been a great supporter of missions in general and our ministry here specifically.

The other event of the day didn't even make a blip on the radar of most people’s thoughts, but for Cydil and I, it was life changing. It was one year ago today that we received the news that our daughter Elisona was waiting for us across the ocean to pick her up and bring her home. I am sure that all of you have had events in your life that are so monumental that you remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news. Let me briefly relay my account of the day since this is a rare time for me to sit down and blog.

Cydil and I knew that the adoption committee in Albania met near the end of each month and so at the end of each month our dossier sat in the country we would silently hope that this would be the month that we would hear. That hope would turn to resignation at the start of each month with the renewed hope that “maybe next month” would be the month (sort of like you Cubs fans may be feeling right now! J). So when I went to teach on the morning of October 5, it felt like any other day. Now you know the rest of the story, but when I got a call from Cydil at a little after 9:00 at the department secretary’s desk, I was surprised! She could have waited 3 minutes and called me in my office for a more private conversation, so what was the urgency? On top of that, all she would say was “Nathan, could you come home right now?” I asked if everything was OK and she replied, “I need you at home NOW. Hurry!”

As I got into our van and drove the short distance to our house, I kept running though scenarios in my head. “Is someone hurt? A family death?...” As I walked into the door, Cydil was standing in the middle of the room with the lights off. She had clearly been crying. As I walked forward to comfort her, she said, “We have a daughter!”

Now it was my turn to cry as we held each other in the living room and I began to ask for more details. Cydil recounted the phone call from Bethany and ended by saying that they were e-mailing us some pictures. I am sure that it was only minutes that we waited, but we hit the send/receive button probably every two seconds until the computer rewarded us with “Downloading 1 of 1 message…” Here is one of the several pictures we received.


The rest of the morning was spent calling and e-mailing family and starting this blog! What a wonderful year it has been watching God move mountains! Praise Him with us for His blessings.

Midweek Update

It's hard to believe we are already into the 5th week of the semester -- yet, it feels good to be in a routine (as much as we can have one here). I think the first wave of exams is starting to hit, and with the longer hours for studies comes news of illness starting to creep into worn out bodies. Thankfully we still have our health.

I can't say as much for our laptop. Last weekend it refused to turn on. Well, that's not exactly true. We get a black screen with a four word error message. Nathan's research leads him to believe we've got a corrupt sector on the laptop's harddrive. Is there a cure? Yes, to completely re-format (erase) the hard drive and reload our software. Thankfully I recently backed up Ellie's photos through the end of August. I'm not so sure I backed up the rest of our photos, and I know I haven't backed-up our financial files or 'My Documents' folder since March. Due to a crazy weekend followed by Nathan going to Marion for WGM meetings, today was the first he really had a chance to work on trying to dump the contents of the 'good' portion of the hard drive, but twice bought the wrong components. The correct component is now on order and won't be here for a few more days. Until it arrives, I'm not going to stress about what I may or may not have lost.

Meanwhile, life goes on and our little bit of fun news is that Ellie seems like she's just on the verge of saying some words. I also believe her comprehension is expanding (she started fussing when she heard me say the word 'nap' yesterday). One has to listen carefully, but what she prefers to imitate are the beginnings of phrases in songs ('Row Row' for Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and "Ho, Ho, Ho" for Ho, Ho, Ho, Hosanna", and Aye-Oh, for O-H-I-O). It's cool to see that she's beginning to connect the effect she has on us when she employs her mouth and tongue to make specific noises. Otherwise, she's hardly quiet, experimenting with one sound or another whether it's walking around the house or playing in the bathtub, or trying to stay awake in her crib.

Another big difference in her is evident anytime you take her to Wal Mart, for example. Her world has expanded exponentially in the last few months and all of a sudden she's noticing everything, including the contents of shopping carts several yards away (especially if they have large, bright green balls inside). At which point she acts like a typical 2-year-old and can pitch great fits when she doesn't get her way. You can pray for us as we try to figure out how to navigate these parental waters. ;-)

We were excited to get the news on Monday that our request for additional therapy credits was granted. Already, Ellie was receiving the maximum number of units allowable by the State, but we have a great pediatrician and team of therapists who went to bat for her and appealed for an exception. We're now getting one hour of therapy a week in speech, and 30 minutes per week in each of the other disciplines.

Sorry no photos today! Perhaps soon.

The Eernisses

Friday was a special day we've been looking forward to for several weeks! We got to meet the Eernisses! Sharon works for Bethany in Grand Rapids and was very helpful to us at various stages in Ellie's adoption (she works with families adopting from Lithuania and Albania). Her husband, Roger, has visited Albania where he evidently learned the art of making a great first impression with Albanian kids because he hit it off very well with Ellie, as you can see in some of these photos! We appreciate the detour they made from their visit to Berea, KY to have lunch with us in Wilmore so we could meet them in person!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: this is a 'double blog-er' day, so keep scrolling down for another post...

Ellie & Samuel

Swinging is always a favorite park pastime

Ellie's not so sure she's cut out to be a fire woman

She thinks she's at the beach and can bury Sam in mulch

Late last week we got to briefly see some friends who are preparing to move to Sweden in a few days. They have a 3 year old son, Samuel, whom they adopted from Nepal. Between Andreas, Laurie and Samuel, you don't want to know how many passports they carry. :-) Since they've been living in Mississippi, this is the first time the kids have really gotten to interact much, but it was enough time to capture some photos to show them when they're young adults at Asbury someday. Thankfully, they engage in the art of blogging (you can thank them that we started this one) so we know we'll be able to follow their lives across the pond.

Baking Cookies

Let's look at the recipe
Dad, we need sugar

stirring the dry ingredients

Unfortunately I missed the best picture (or perhaps, video) to end this series...when she made a beeline for the plate of cookies at last night's student cabinet meeting. She ate two and had chocolate all around her mouth.

Some news from Coldwater Orphanage

Mom just returned from her latest trip to Albania last week. Before she left, she made a day-long visit to Vlora to visit Ellie's former orphanage. Mom e-mailed us some precious photos on Monday, including this one of two of Ellie's former caregivers that I thought I would share here. They're looking at some current photos of Ellie that Mom brought with her. While I know how much Ellie has changed since coming home with us in December, I shouldn't have been surprised to see that her old roommies have also changed significantly. Wow! All were still in the orphanage except one who went back to his family.

On a related note, last week we also got the exciting news that a little boy who lived in the room next door to Ellie was referred to a Bethany family in the States! We've exchanged a number of e-mails and are grateful that some of what we learned through our experiences during all those weeks in Vlora may be helpful to someone else. In seeing this little boy's picture, we were able to locate him in some photos from Ellie's farewell party.

Ever since we met those kids, we have prayed for them to find the love of a permanent family. And selfishly, I've prayed that one of them might end up with one of the families I have gotten to know who are in the process of adopting from Albania. In spite of these prayers, I can't begin to describe how surprised I was to get this exciting news (Ellie was the first child from Vlora that Bethany had ever in all their years of working in Albania placed with a family)! Even though he's not going to one of the prospective adoptive families I had gotten to know this year, we're getting to know this family quickly and I am just as excited! Their little boy is just 5 weeks older than Ellie. How nice it will be to have this connection with another child so close in age (even though he will be living a few states away)! God is good!

Back yard stroll (last week)

Ellie turns 27 months...

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e) my favorite

(f)

(g)

My, how time flies! When did Ellie turn from baby into little girl? One thing that hasn't changed is her ever-expressive face. I thought you might enjoy a few of these different 'faces' I got this afternoon. Which is your favorite?