Extreme Makeover: Tirana Pallati Edition

I will pause from reporting on our days in Ohio to bring you some photos from the ongoing construction work on "our" future apartment in Tirana.  Really, it's Planters' guest apartment, but we'll enjoy calling it home for the first year of our time in Albania before we move to Vlashaj.  I mentioned in a previous post that my mom was hosting a team from Vermont which, along with a professional contractor, was working hard to make some modifications to this space to better suit our needs, as well as the needs of future guests.  The biggest change is the installation of an interior staircase to connect the guest apartment with the office and guestrooms on the floor below.  The photos are pretty self-explanatory.

The stairs are actually being covered in the next few days with paint and mermere.  I can't wait to see it in person!  This will make life so much more convenient for our family!

Dayton Part 2

We have a day free of appointments today (unless you count the Ohio State/Wisconsin game an appointment) : )  so I want to try to catch up on some photos I've been wanting to share!  Last Sunday we had the joy of reconnecting with a college friend we hadn't seen in more than 15 years.  Thanks to social media, we've watched each others families grow, but it's not the same as a face-to-face meeting.  Shannon and I lived on the same hall in the dorm and it was through her that I first heard of Nathan.  I guess you could say she knew us before Nathan and I knew each other!

Shannon's husband, Steve, is on the pastoral staff at Way of the Cross church in the Dayton area.  They were gracious to have us share in their Sunday evening service.  We were very blessed and encouraged by everyone we met there!  They had great questions and were very interested in learning more about Albania.

Afterwards, we went out to eat at Godfathers.  Steve and Shannon's three girls were amazing with Ellie and Reni.  You can tell a lot about people by their children.  Those girls are a great credit to their parents!

 Just over a year ago, Steve and Shannon and the girls were blessed to add a baby boy to their family through domestic adoption.  Praying baby boy #2 into their family in the Lord's timing! Shannon's parents as well as her sister and her children were also part of supper and made for a wonderful dinner party.  I love the body of Christ which makes friends feel like family.

Baby J conked out before we called it a night so he missed the family photo below.  Thanks, T family, for a wonderful evening!

#1,000

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
    incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
 I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will utter dark sayings from of old,
 things that we have heard and known,
    that our fathers have told us.
 We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

 He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
 that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
     so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments...

Psalm 78: 1-7 ESV

Little did we know the journey the Lord had for us when we started this blog 6 years and 1 month ago!  But here we are and on this one thousandth post, we want to thank Him for His faithfulness to our family.  We hope this blog serves to remind us, as well as Ellie and Reni, of His goodness both in this generation and the one(s) to come.  What started as a means of keeping our family and friends updated on the process of bringing Ellie into our lives turned into a recurring online journal of our family's experiences and lessons learned in our walk with the Lord.  We know the children of Israel were prone to forget all that Almighty God had done on their behalf so this this has been our attempt to remember!  It strengthens our faith!

There have been many times the Lord has made His involvement in our lives evident.  Sometimes those moments have been quite evident, others more subtle.  Every moment though, is a gift from Him and I thought I would take the opportunity of this, our one thousandth post, to share some of the biggest moments in our lives since we started this journal in the fall of 2006. 

Here are my "top ten" posts:

1.)  Introducing Ellie -- the inaugural post, you can sense our giddiness at the news of our first child as I recount the moment we got 'the call.'  Perhaps one of the most emotional days of my entire life.  I love that it's become a part of Ellie's story that she requests we share with her.  Her favorite part is that 'Mommy cried.'

2.) Meeting Ellie -- This features photos and a slideshow from our first moments with our girl.  The post is actually quite brief on text which wasn't a good disguise for the shock I was experiencing reconciling my expectations with reality.  I also misspelled her name!  Ouch!  

3.) We're Home! -- my thoughts and feelings on coming home with Ellie after 5 and a half weeks in Albania.  After all the waiting and waiting, the last 8 hours were a RUSH, and of course full of emotion!  We were really parents!

4.) Big Steps 'n Little Uns -- named after an episode of All Creatures Great and Small, this photo essay showed Ellie taking her first independent steps at 25 months old.  After tremendous delays from institutionalization, walking served as evidence to us that Ellie was indeed making progress. While it has been easy to get discouraged when progress felt slow, this blog has been a great means of referencing just how far Ellie had come. If we forget where we came from, we can't praise Him for the miracle of growth!

5.) Ellie Has Some News to Share -- this post is one that isn't complete (for me) without reading the comments.  What a joy to share of our pursuit to bring Reni home and read the congratulations of our friends!  It was Nathan's idea to share the news in 'Ellie's voice'.  I thought it was a sweet way to share of the big change coming our way!  Of course, we had no idea what an amazingly awesome little boy was about to join our family! ; )

6.) Meeting our Son -- unlike my post about meeting Ellie, this one was full of much more description about those first moments together.  In re-reading it just now, I smiled to see how much of my first impressions of Reni were spot-on.  I'm also reminded that no two adoption experiences are the same, even from the same country. There is no hiding the fact that Reni's adoption trip (though holding its share of stressful moments) was much, much more enjoyable for us... there were so many factors which impacted our differing emotional responses in each adoption: one was in the winter, one was in the summer; one was as a brand new, very insecure parent-to-be, the other to one who had had a few years of parenting under her belt; in one we were very much alone, stuck in a hotel during long, dark nights;  in another we had visitors and met new friends with longer days for exploring a new-to-us city;  Ellie was in an incredibly depressing state orphanage (which probably contributed to the overall feeling of heaviness) and Reni was in a group home full of love and warmth from lovely Sisters intent on loving as Jesus loved... I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

7.)  Revisiting Vlora -- while re-reading journal entries is a good way to revisit moments, there is nothing like a bodily visit back to a sacred place to remember where we've come from.   "Revisiting Vlora" recounts our summer 2010 visit to the city and orphanage where Ellie lived her first 18 months of life.  Sometimes we think the passage of time might exaggerate past experiences, 'Was it really like that?"  In this post we share about taking Nathan's parents and Ellie back to see her first home.

8.) Reni's First Independent Steps in His Legs -- We can't overly express our pride!  This has to be SO hard!  Yet, he overcomes his fear and goes for it!  Of course, after this post he gets much more confident and walks greater and greater distances, but this was on GRASS, people!  Lumpy, uneven, grass!  And always with a grin.  Just a sign of things to come...

9.)  Big News from the Waggoners -- after 13 years in campus ministry, we announce a MAJOR CHANGE!  The exit ramp we didn't see coming! Pack up your bags, kids!  We're moving to Albania!

10)  To Elbasan and Back -- a special day that was a true love gift from the Lord to experience.  I imagine many adoptive families would love to return to their child's first home and show their child's caregivers that he is thriving and growing.  Many would love to say 'thank you for caring for my child before me', or give their child the opportunity to see the place from which they had come.  For us, it was a little of all of the above.  With frequent staff turnover, we knew our window to re-visit Elbasan was closing before many there would remember Reni anymore.   Eighteen months after taking Reni out, we returned for a very emotional visit.

In looking back over this list, I see that the majority of these memorable moments took place in Albania.  Is my heart already over there, ready to live?  Probably.  
We want to thank you, our family and friends, for loving and praying for our family!  You are very much part of this story.  Thank you for your interest and love.  We hope that in some small way we can encourage your faith as we live life together.

Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

On the Road Again: Dayton, pt 1

We are back on the road again, this time in the Buckeye state!  On Saturday we arrived in Dayton and had lunch with our friends, the Colemans.  The Colemans ran the OMS Student Center down the street from us in Wilmore from 2005-2011.   It was our first time to visit since we've both left campus ministry and we enjoyed catching up with them and gleaning from their years of experience in missions, and more specifically, language acquisition (Rachel has taught Spanish for years).  We enjoyed our first taste of LaRosa's pizza!  (If you've been to a Reds game, you know LaRosa's!

We decided to take some time while we were in town to stretch our legs before our next appointments and learn a little bit more about what this part of the country is famous for: aviation!  We all really, really enjoyed the National Museum USAF. So. Many. Planes.  The kids were consistently pointing, "Look, look, look!"

We then headed over to the Allens for a great visit and incredible supper of barbecued ribs and chicken.  David A and my mother are first cousins.  He and his wife, Janet, are parents of four (my 2nd cousins?).  Their son, Ben, and daughter-in-law, Sarah, joined us for supper.  As you can see, Sarah was a BIG hit with the kids.

The next day we Ellie was thrilled to check out Uncle David's bee hives... We were glad that Sarah Jane was able to spend some time with us too!

A little walk down to the back field where we could check out a (safe) dead hive.  Ellie "suited up" nevertheless. : )

 After all that hard work, we enjoyed some homemade oatmeal cookies on the front porch!  Thank you, Allens, for your wonderful hospitality and helping us make some great memories!

Next up!  A visit with the Todd/Saunders families and Way of the Cross church!

Getting Real! Construction Photos

Mom and the VT team are working this week and next at what will be our Tirana residence.  They sent the pics below in the last few days! 

 

The hole in the floor will hold a spiral staircase that will save us locking and unlocking the 2nd floor apartment door, walking down a flight of public stairs  and through a muddy alley and around the building, locking and unlocking a gate, then unlocking and locking another door, all to access the apartment immediately below.   Add to that putting on a coat and shoes, then taking said items off again (one NEVER wears their shoes indoors -- practical Turkish custom) for yourself and two kids, one of whom is a four-year-old on your hip or in stubbies.

 

The apartment below holds ministry office space, future homeschool space, guest volunteer accomodations, and access to the firewood pile and the clothes line.  This will definitely make life MUCH more convenient!

 

While you have a jack hammer out, why not add a doorway?  This doorway will grant direct access from the kitchen to the living room, which houses the wood stove.  As the unit was originally designed, all rooms are closed off for individual heating and cooling and are accessed through a central hall.  This will eliminate opening and closing an extra set of doors between the two most lived-in rooms and hopefully save using the heater as much in the kitchen during winter months.

 

We are grateful for the help of so many to prepare the way for us! It's starting to feel even more 'real!'

Finally -- before I forget AGAIN -- if you are in the area, we will be meeting with friends in Hebron, OH (straight east of Columbus) for dessert.  All are welcome!  See details in the photo below and/or click the photo to RSVP on our FB event page!

Link to Waggoner Reception FB event

Happy Birthday to...

My parents!!!  I love my mom and dad.  I loved that when I was growing up my friends enjoyed being with my parents (and they still do).  My parents are way cooler than I ever was (or ever will be).   If you've never met them, I'm sorry!  They're wonderful people.  Since they just celebrated their birthdays, 8 days apart (Dad's on the 27th and Mom today), I wanted to give a public acknowledgement (because I may or may not have not gotten cards this year, gulp), including photos. The first is from Dad's birthday dinner over a week ago:

We celebrated at a (dimly lit) restaurant in Peoria.

Then enjoyed dessert at Hannah's apartment with Grandpa Van and Marilyn.

While they were disappointed it wasn't THEIR birthday, they were still good sports for Gjyshe!

No, I wasn't late pressing the shutter.  We couldn't find any matches at Hannah's place...

Many thanks to our friend, Lynne, for taking and sending me the next two photos from earlier today in Vlashaj.  I'm glad to know that Mom had some friends with her to show her some love with a birthday cake and.... Dutch Blitz.  My mom loves games but rarely gets to play them!

 

Mom and Shpresa

Mom is solo hosting a team from Vermont right now so you can pray for extra stamina for her (Dad wasn't able to finish field work in time to be there too).  Among other things, the team is there to work on making some modifications to the apartment we're going to live in, to make it easier for  navigating two floors with Reni (I'll share more later).  Right off the bat they ran into some issues so plans are changing on the fly.  Regardless of how it turns out, we are grateful for the help of others (that we've never met) who give of their time and resources!

But I'm also grateful for my parents.  It's not lost on me that today is Orphan Sunday, that I was blessed with two parents who have been blessed with life to see their daughters into adulthood and point us to a Savior who loves us even more than they.  Happy birthdays, Mom and Dad!  We love you!

Playing With Our Food

Gigi (my mom) is in Albania right now, and the understanding is that blogging is to step up in frequency so as to help her feel closer to home. I'm not sure I'll succeed on that count, but we'll do our best. : )  She posted on the Planters blog some news of the excitement that hit Tirana yesterday here... I don't think our little after-school activity is quite on  the same par as trans-Atlantic foreign relations, but here's a few pics from our neck of the woods... Scroll all the way down to the bottom for more news.

Any ideas what we were making?

Yep!  Peanut butter play dough!  And it smelled amazing!

It feels oh so good to little fingers...

Ellie decided to make hot dogs.  Reni was trying for a snow man.  Aunt Hannah was making a volcano...

Footprints on the moon...

Hmmmm.... it tastes pretty good too!

We published our monthly ministry update yesterday!  If you didn't get a copy in your e-mail box, you can sign up for future issues here.  In the meantime, you can link to the most recent issue here.  We are so blessed to see that we are on track for a summer departure for Albania with nearly 24% of our monthly support committed!  What amazing provision!  Thank you, thank you, to all of you who are praying for our family and have given! We are humbled.

In one week we will be back on the road in Ohio.  These days back in Illinois have been good for catching up on school and office work, but we're looking forward to reconnecting with more friends and sharing about our call!