Celebrating 1 Year Home!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  James 1:17

One year ago today Nathan and Reni, along with my Dad, made their way to bring Reni home to the States.  It was a loooong day of travel that culminated with a great airport arrival, a portion of which Uncle Jack recorded here:

A little more than four months after learning about this sweet little boy, after a flurry of activity to prepare our home for a second child and a nail-biting wait to renew our home study, fingerprints, and immigration paperwork to qualify for special needs and meet our  insanely optimistic travel dates, a month-plus of hot Albanian summer memories & experiences in a city called Elbasan, and a mere few hours before the start of another academic year at Asbury, Reni was home and we were a real family of four.  It was a wild ride!

Today we meet with our social worker to put together our 12-month post placement report for Albania.  It  feels like we have reached the end of that "newlywed"  phase.  Not that the honeymoon is over -- if anything, it's so much better and gets better every day!  But now that we enter Year Two, the grafting wound has healed, the bond stronger and more secure. Reni has changed for having a family and we have changed for having a son and brother. The introductions of our new son to our family and friends from far and wide is mostly complete. And we have many new people in our life as a result.

Today we remember the past year and give thanks. God is good!

New Jersey Part 2: Reni's 2nd Birthday Party

Sunday night, about 24 hours into our stay in Brigantine, Mom & Dad Waggoner, along with Rebecca, joined us.  After they settled in and we all ate supper, we had a little celebration in honor of Reni's birthday (which was actually the day before).  He has caught onto the fact that birthdays are a big deal and every time he says "birthday" it's with gusto and two raised fists in the air!  Earlier in the day we had picked up a cake and candle at a busy Italian bakery a few blocks away.  He smiled while we sang to him and did exactly what he was supposed to do, blow out his candle.  Then we all dug into the cannoli cake -- yum!!!

 I love the image below of him licking some swiped icing off his fingah (talking like I'm Italian)

Ellie was quite happy that she got a gift or two herself.  The Croc kickboard was very appropriate for her!  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

 Yay!  Noisemakers!!!

All in all, it was a great little party.  As Nathan said, "at least this year I didn't have malaria!"
Click here to see Reni's 1st birthday party (July 2010, in Elbasan)

New Jersey Part 1: Reni sees the ocean for the first time...

On July 30, we arrived in Brigantine, New Jersey.  We stayed in room about like a hotel with a bed, futon and small kitchen.  The kids were great helpers in unpacking our cooler.  We really brought more than just Diet Coke...

Brigantine was a really nice, quiet community.  Reni was THRILLED that our room had a view of the fire department.  When he wasn't playing with toys in the room, he was standing on this bar stool, waiting for them to move the trucks.

Somehow we convinced them to swim in the rooftop pool our first evening, but come Sunday morning, they wanted to go straight to the beach...

I think these photos say it all (and this was what Reni did every time we went to the beach).  Run out into the water, wait for a decent wave to approach, then try to outrun it back to shore.

Next up... Reni's birthday

Crawling back out from obscurity...

I think this might very well be the longest I've gone without posting on this blog!  There are oh so many reasons, and should I start to go into them, my Dad would just interrupt me, wag his finger, and call me "Queen of Excuses."  Nevertheless, I feel a bit of an explanation is due...

Since Reni's birthday, we've slept in 5 states: Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Kentucky, and Illinois.  We've put a lot of miles on the van and made a lot of great memories (including some good moments in the car, much to my surprise).Over the course of the next few days I'll be posting on our time in New Jersey, Reni's birthday, introducing Reni to his Great-Grandparents, a visit to the National Zoo, family photos, a family reunion, and painting Ellie's new classroom...

So for those of you who've been faithfully checking the blog to make sure we're still alive or that something catastrophic didn't happen to us -- I don't really have any good excuse.  Our vacation was a time of great rest, which we really needed.  But during that rest I also got out of the habit of taking photos and posting and once one does that, well, then it's really hard to get back into that routine (much like exercise, I think!).  Not to mention, as you very well know, whenever one is away from home and work, it takes twice as many days to catch back up again!  As of next week, we should reach that mark!

Ellie has commented in the last 24 hours that our parking lot is seeing a LOT more activity (as in going from 2 cars in our lot every day to half a dozen a few days ago, to overflowing today).  Students are returning to campus and with that comes schedule and routine.  That should whip us back into shape and out of summer mode quite soon, just as we're catching up from taking time off!  The Waggoners are back, busy and posting!  Thanks for following our journey!

Happy Birthday, Reni!

Dearest Reni,
It's hard to believe it's been a year since we were celebrating your first birthday with you in Elbasan.  Oh, what a day that was!  Not quite like we imagined it, but the fact that we were with you overshadowed any thing else, even Daddy's relapse of malaria. Jesus answered our prayers that we could be with you on that day! I'll never forget how dapper you looked in that special outfit from Duzi.  She even had your hair slicked over!

Today was a bit quieter, but special nonetheless.  We are on our long-awaited family vacation -- our first as a family of four!  We woke up in a Best Western in Cumberland, Maryland and after a quick breakfast (made quicker by your glimpse of the pool through the window) we spent some time in the pool (to hopefully tire you and Ellie out before another several hours in the car)!  Today you learned how to jump off the edge into our arms!  You would count, "3, 4, 9 JUMP!" and fall with complete faith that we were there to catch you.  I think by the end of the week, you will be able to count all the way to ten correctly and with ease.

Reni, I don't even know where to begin with all that God has taught me through you.  I must confess that having a son was both exciting and scary for me!  I never had any brothers, and for at least three generations above me, none of my mothers or grandmothers had brothers either!  You could say femininity was something I was quite comfortable with.  Boy, has it been fun to have a son.  Trucks, tractors, cars, dinosaurs, lions, fearlessness, rambunctiousness -- it's everything I imagined a little boy to be.  But you have also been more loving, more tender, more sweet than I knew a son could be.

You won my heart long before I won yours.  Ours was a relationship a bit slow in coming.  I could tell before we even met that the ladies in Elbasan were your favorite people and it would be a while before another woman could take their place.  Add to the fact the 10+ days of alone time between you and Daddy before coming home and our bonding was even more delayed.  But slowly, slowly, like the snow melting in early spring, your heart warmed to your mommy and after Daddy's 10 days of spring break in Haiti, you and I were best friends.

This past year has been one of the best I can remember because of you.  You have opened so many doors, brought us joy immeasurable, and taught me that God's best for us is nothing to be afraid of.  I can't imagine what went through your mind when everything you knew was stripped away and you came to live in a new place, with people whose language you didn't know, and never again saw the ones you first loved.  (Someday, before too long, we hope to take you back to see them again).  In spite of all of that, you never failed to exude a joy and love for others that I hope you never lose. One of my favorite things has become watching the reaction of others who meet you.  A friendly grin and "hello" from you and their faces light up.  I think your daddy's cousin Dan described it best when he said yesterday that you live with your heart cracked open for the whole world to see.  [editor's note: if you are a blog reader who has never met our son -- he is as happy, content, and sweet as his pictures imply].

Reni, I never cease to be amazed at the way God wove all the threads of our lives to intersect.  Know that you are dearly loved and we can't wait to see what the next years bring!
All my love,
Mommy

This and That

The kids got haircuts last week... can you tell?

On Sunday we had the special treat of having lunch with Mom and Dad Waggoner.  They were in Kentucky at a State Park for a school reunion.  Their travels back to Ohio brought them through Lexington so we met them at Chipotle after church.   I don't think Ellie was expecting the visit to be so brief, but her sadness was assuaged when we told her it would only be 6 more sleeps until we saw them again!  We are leaving this weekend for a big road trip to New Jersey to see Nathan's grandparents and Mom, Dad and Rebecca are joining us.  It's been three years since we saw Grams and Pop Pop last, which of course means they haven't yet met Reni.  We are all excited about the time with them, but Nathan and I have had a bit of trepidation about the length of the trip with the kiddos.  We'll keep you posted!

After lunch with Mom and Dad, we came home and were blessed by a visit by Ricky, Aiden, and Aolani.  Ricky and Aiden made two trips with us to Hungary and we are so pleased that they paid us a visit on their way through Kentucky on their summer travels so we could meet their daughter (who is now 18 months old)!  Congrats, friends, on the announcement of your baby boy!  I'm sorry I didn't get any photos!

Keys, Purse, Phone... Ready to Go!

The only thing that would make him happier would be if he was holding my REAL phone!

Hide N' Seek

Reni loves to do this almost daily.  Occasionally we'll notice it's extra quiet and wonder, 'Where did Reni go?'.  Then we'll walk by a closet and hear a sweet little sing song voice say, 'Yoo hoo!'

Forgive the mis-matched jammies, but I'm sure you won't even notice over all the cuteness.  I'm LOVING this age!  New words this week are "blanket", "my turn" and "share".