Yesterday our friends the Kinnells came for a playdate. I debated calling this post "Dance off: Albanians vs. Africans", but we all know that'd be no contest ... or maybe? ;-) Check out Reni at about the 20 second mark...
Thanks, Amy, for sharing this video!
12.20.2011
12.19.2011
Stuck together for 5 years and counting, Ellie!
Today marks 5 years since Ellie woke up in the Coldwater Orphanage for the very last time. I will never, ever forget December 19, 2006! It wasn't supposed to be one of those "typical" days in the adoption journey -- it was supposed to be predictable, joyful, exciting! Instead it was like so many others we had experience, our emotions running the gamut in way too short a period of time ...
We had been anticipating taking Ellie out of the orphanage for so long, emotions building up with each of the twice daily visits to see her since November 24. We had the obligatory going away party in the morning (which felt so cruel to be doing for the kids being left behind) followed by a celebratory lunch out... which was interrupted by a phone call that no, the paperwork wasn't ready after the 15-day waiting period and we just had to wait. Except we didn't want to wait (I know in retrospect another day or two or even week or two doesn't seem like that long a time in the grand scheme of things). We didn't want Ellie to spend another night alone in a cold, dark orphanage! That day was supposed to be the day she was ours! We prayed and made some phone calls and through some miracles (yes, connections only God could have woven years and years earlier and I can't share here), we were on the road a few hours later, a screaming toddler in tow! We don't think she quit crying from the time we left Vlora until we stopped outside the pallati in Tirana (after all, she had never sat in a car seat before!). Once we were indoors, she settled down quite nicely on the bed like absolutely nothing was wrong!
Just now, as I type this, the light bulb clicks 'on' that had it been 'predictable', we would not have seen God's favor on our little girl yet again - those "God fingerprints" that we would need to look back on -- no, that we STILL need to look back on during those times when our eyes drift off Him.
Five years later and Ellie is embracing everything about being "Waggoner". She loves to see her name in print and "E" and "W" are her favorite letters of the alphabet. She frequently asks for "family hugs" and will then declare that we are "stuck together forever!" To which we all agree and seal with squeezes and kisses.
She is also beginning to understand that she had a life prior to coming home with us. I've wondered when this would happen, as this realization is coming a lot later than what I read is typical for children who were adopted. A few weeks ago as she was coming down from a meltdown she asked me through tears, "Why did you leave me in Albania? Why didn't you come for me sooner?" I tried to assure her we came just as fast as they would let us! A few days after that in children's church when someone innocently asked the kids as part of an illustration, "Remember when you were a baby and your parents took care of when you cried and needed things?", she (and another adoptive child) broke down in tears and had to leave.
While we can't erase the pain of her past, we can rejoice and celebrate who she is now. God has done such great things for her. Yesterday in church, the children's pastor gave the parents a review of what the kids have been studying in this unit on the book of Ruth. The big word they learned was "redeemed" and I think it's one of my favorite words in the English language. The definition he gave was this: something that was valuable, which lost its perceived worth and was made valuable again." While Ellie never, ever, lost her worth to her heavenly Father, we are so grateful that He redeemed a little, anonymous girl in an orphanage, through bringing her to our family, and we are praying and trusting that one day she will be redeemed again into an eternal family.
Ellie, you are our very precious daughter! I am so proud of who you are and how you are growing up! When you are around others you have a way of making people laugh and feel special. You are also very tenderhearted and compassionate. I see this most in your relationship with your brother. I appreciate how patient you are with Reni and nothing pleases me more than watching you two play happily together. I love how you help him up to places he couldn't go -- like the bed or the couch -- or how you try to be a good example for him. I love to see your curiosity and desire to learn, how you still ask me what things say when you can't read them yet yourself or how to say words in Albanian! You are also growing more confident and less fearful of new things. This is huge! Right now your interests line up a lot with your brother. The two of you like to identify "cute" and "cool" cars on the road and your favorite game is "dog catcher." At the end of the day, you two beg to fall asleep in the same room. As your stature increases, it's harder and harder to pick you up! These years are flying by! We are grateful for every day you are our girl and love you SO, so much.
Love, Mom.
We had been anticipating taking Ellie out of the orphanage for so long, emotions building up with each of the twice daily visits to see her since November 24. We had the obligatory going away party in the morning (which felt so cruel to be doing for the kids being left behind) followed by a celebratory lunch out... which was interrupted by a phone call that no, the paperwork wasn't ready after the 15-day waiting period and we just had to wait. Except we didn't want to wait (I know in retrospect another day or two or even week or two doesn't seem like that long a time in the grand scheme of things). We didn't want Ellie to spend another night alone in a cold, dark orphanage! That day was supposed to be the day she was ours! We prayed and made some phone calls and through some miracles (yes, connections only God could have woven years and years earlier and I can't share here), we were on the road a few hours later, a screaming toddler in tow! We don't think she quit crying from the time we left Vlora until we stopped outside the pallati in Tirana (after all, she had never sat in a car seat before!). Once we were indoors, she settled down quite nicely on the bed like absolutely nothing was wrong!
Just now, as I type this, the light bulb clicks 'on' that had it been 'predictable', we would not have seen God's favor on our little girl yet again - those "God fingerprints" that we would need to look back on -- no, that we STILL need to look back on during those times when our eyes drift off Him.
 |
| Changing Ellie's clothes to bring her home! |
She is also beginning to understand that she had a life prior to coming home with us. I've wondered when this would happen, as this realization is coming a lot later than what I read is typical for children who were adopted. A few weeks ago as she was coming down from a meltdown she asked me through tears, "Why did you leave me in Albania? Why didn't you come for me sooner?" I tried to assure her we came just as fast as they would let us! A few days after that in children's church when someone innocently asked the kids as part of an illustration, "Remember when you were a baby and your parents took care of when you cried and needed things?", she (and another adoptive child) broke down in tears and had to leave.
While we can't erase the pain of her past, we can rejoice and celebrate who she is now. God has done such great things for her. Yesterday in church, the children's pastor gave the parents a review of what the kids have been studying in this unit on the book of Ruth. The big word they learned was "redeemed" and I think it's one of my favorite words in the English language. The definition he gave was this: something that was valuable, which lost its perceived worth and was made valuable again." While Ellie never, ever, lost her worth to her heavenly Father, we are so grateful that He redeemed a little, anonymous girl in an orphanage, through bringing her to our family, and we are praying and trusting that one day she will be redeemed again into an eternal family.
Ellie, you are our very precious daughter! I am so proud of who you are and how you are growing up! When you are around others you have a way of making people laugh and feel special. You are also very tenderhearted and compassionate. I see this most in your relationship with your brother. I appreciate how patient you are with Reni and nothing pleases me more than watching you two play happily together. I love how you help him up to places he couldn't go -- like the bed or the couch -- or how you try to be a good example for him. I love to see your curiosity and desire to learn, how you still ask me what things say when you can't read them yet yourself or how to say words in Albanian! You are also growing more confident and less fearful of new things. This is huge! Right now your interests line up a lot with your brother. The two of you like to identify "cute" and "cool" cars on the road and your favorite game is "dog catcher." At the end of the day, you two beg to fall asleep in the same room. As your stature increases, it's harder and harder to pick you up! These years are flying by! We are grateful for every day you are our girl and love you SO, so much.
Love, Mom.
12.17.2011
Skating!
The Bluegrass isn't exactly known for its winter sports, however, when disease afflicted the trees at Lexington's downtown Triangle Park, the city was presented an opportunity to try something new in that space. Imagine our surprise to hear that they were installing an ice rink! We had to try it out, so on Sunday evening, in lieu of Global Cafe` (finals began the next day), we took a small group of students skating.
Ellie had a BLAST. At first I think she thought we were describing skiis, not skates. It didn't matter to her, she was all about trying it out. I was so proud of her! She quickly caught on that you didn't want to fall down and thought it was SO funny when I stumbled a few times (disclaimer: the condition of the ice was terrible with deep divets hidden like a minefield -- they weren't running the zamboni until they identified the source of a pipe leak underneath). By the end of our 90 minutes, she was skating independently. I can only imagine how she'd do on a properly maintained rink that was bigger and not so crowded!
Reni was anxious to participate too, but had to settle for watching from the backpack on Dad's back. I think the 'real' rink has adaptive equipment which we might just have to go check out later this winter!
 |
| Meredith, our cabinet president and overall sweetheart. She's graduating in a few months and we'll miss her! |
12.16.2011
Mail's Here!
Who doesn't love going to the mailbox at this time of year? Special thanks to those of you who've sent us Christmas greetings! I LOVE seeing your family photos and reading about your year's experiences! I am getting special prolonged enjoyment thanks to this nifty cardholder I got at a fundraiser for our friends, Charley and Jackie, who are headed soon to Taiw*n with their son, John, to work at the orphanage where John spent his first months of life. (We'll miss you guys, but SO believe in what you're going to do!!!)
Ellie and Reni got a special package this week, "just because." Since the gifter wasn't present to see their faces and enjoyment, I'm posting a few pics here... Thank you!
Merry Christmas to you, our friends and family -- and check YOUR mailboxes soon (electronic or real-life) for something from our family to you! ;-)
12.11.2011
Reunion in Mansfield
The day after Thanksgiving we had a very special reunion with our friends the Carters and McCreadys. We were together in small group Bible study through our church back in 2001. As is the nature of living in an academic community, both couples completed their courses of study and eventually moved on to the work for which they had prepared, the Carters moving to Ohio, then overseas and the McCreadys to western PA. We were so happy when we were able to find a day over Thanksgiving weekend to get together for only the 2nd time in way too long!
I was happy to have a chance to photograph their families. Isn't Gracie a sweetie?
Thanks, Carters and McCreadys, for your friendship! We love you guys!
12.10.2011
No photos, please
In between jobs in this very busy season, I've been trying to gradually move photos from our numerous individual computers and external hard drives, and better organize them chronologically on our new giant RAID system (God bless whoever invented that!). In doing so, I've come across the random folder of images that didn't get shared here on the blog. The pics below were taken last month after Nathan and I returned home from the rare evening away. Our friends Fiona and Jasmine babysat for us and since I have like zero photos of them, I wanted to get a picture of our cool international friends (Fiona was born in Yorkshire and Jasmine was born in Tanzania; they are mother-daughter). As you will witness, Reni just wanted to see Mom and Dad -- not pose for a photo!
At this point, I just gave up. ;-)
Ellie, never one to hide her thoughts, said later that she liked hearing Fiona talk in her "funny England voice" and then proceeded to start calling her jammies "puh-JOM-uhs," like Fiona, of course.
He is near the brokenhearted...
I've had SO many thoughts for blog posts marinating in my head and no time to really flesh them out in the way that they deserve.
I don't know how long I'll keep doing this, but ever since 2006, at this time of year, I think a lot about the month we spent visiting Ellie in her orphanage. Especially now that we are in this midst of this comprehensive evaluation at CCH and going through the Empowered to Connect materials, I'm forced to remember and consider what her life was like "before us" as we plow through understanding the way she interacts with her world and how the trauma of that experience has impacted even the chemistry of her brain.
Today I read a blog post that echoed many of my feelings but also reminded me that God is not unaware. I hope you'll take the time to go over and read it. It's not long:
http://ourhimpossiblejourney.blogspot.com/2011/12/orphanage-one-year-later.html
I don't know how long I'll keep doing this, but ever since 2006, at this time of year, I think a lot about the month we spent visiting Ellie in her orphanage. Especially now that we are in this midst of this comprehensive evaluation at CCH and going through the Empowered to Connect materials, I'm forced to remember and consider what her life was like "before us" as we plow through understanding the way she interacts with her world and how the trauma of that experience has impacted even the chemistry of her brain.
Today I read a blog post that echoed many of my feelings but also reminded me that God is not unaware. I hope you'll take the time to go over and read it. It's not long:
http://ourhimpossiblejourney.blogspot.com/2011/12/orphanage-one-year-later.html
12.09.2011
Being Two
This is a short little video of the 'performer' side of Reni's personality when college girls are around. I apologize for the poor quality of this video -- that's Nathan's expertise, not mine (particularly on this camera)!
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