Tungjaje'ta!

Hello from Albania, Bob and I made it in about 12:30 yesterday afternoon. Our checked luggage unfortunately did not. We did get it this afternoon around 3:oo so we really couldn't do to much today since we had to wait for it. Our hotel is lovely and really close to the center of town so we just walked around enjoying the sunshine, took a walk though the museum and had lunch at one of the million cafes. Defiantly a cafe society here in Tirana. After the luggage came we went to Bethany's clinic to drop of some medical supplies we had brought over and then over to Bethany's orphanage. Saw many sweet babies, newborn to about 4. They really have a nice facility here. We meant the house parents Bob and Kathy and 3 of their 4 children. Very nice family.

Sadly the man from Hope for the World Albania had a death in his family and will not be able to make it to Albania until Tuesday. So Bob and I are going to take a side trip over to the coast for one or two nights. We love Tirana but you all know how we love to be near the water and if it's any where near as beautiful as it looked out the airplane window well we should just love it. plus we are looking forward to seeing some villages.


We are hearing from Bethany that the AAC will meet sometime tomorrow and that they will be discussing our case. Please pray that everything goes smoothly, wouldn't it be great to hear good news while we are here.



They baby orphanage at Bethany's.

Play area and Hannah's House where the older children live.

The grey building is our hotel Stephan's Center. This was a break in the almost constant stream of traffic. I can't believe how well the dogs navigate here.

The town square.

The museum also located in the town square.

Greetings From Marquette

Sara has CUSSA qualifiers this week so Bob and I are "up north". Way up north, in the U.P. that's the Upper Peninsula for all of you not from Michigan! We came up on Tuesday and races started yesterday, but the weather was so bad that I couldn't get any pictures! I mean blizzard bad, they even closed down the road that are rental bungalow is on. But it made up for it today as you can see in the pictures it was a beautiful race day.

Sara did well yesterday and held her own today. If she rocks tomorrow she will be on her way to Vail CO for the Junior Olympics! The forecast for tomorrow is good and it's her favorite event so keep your fingers crossed.

On the adoption front not much has changed, we had to update some paperwork that was about to expire and that's about it. We are looking forward to leaving next week and are asking for prayers that our trip is successful!

Albania on the Mind

Bob and I had an answered prayer this past week. We have been "waiting to see" on whether or not we should take a trip to Albania. We wondered if it would be a good idea or not. So many variables. So I just decided to keep busy with other things and wait. One of the things I wanted to get wrapped up was the sponsorship of Mishel. Bethany doesn't do sponsorship of children outside of their orphanage and the orphanage that Mishel lives at isn't affiliated with anyone doing sponsorships. So this task was proving to be difficult. I called a bloggy friend of mine (thanks Lisa) she and her husband sponsor Yuri although he is in a different orphanage I thought maybe that organization might have an idea for me. She gave me a name and number for Hope for the World - Albania. I called and told a very nice man our story. He was so sweet, and said that he would do everything he could to help. It was wonderful to hear such support! The other thing was that he would be traveling to Albania in Feb. and asked us if we would like to join him. He's been going to Albania since the early 90's and would love to show us the ropes in this country that he just loves. Well, that sure seemed like a sign to me! So we will be meeting Roger in Tirana the last week of Feb. We can't wait.

Keep the prayers coming you guys, we sure are feeling them!

Winterfest 2009

Yup it was our towns "very cool" winterfest this past weekend. And if you don't want to take my word for it check out what Disney says!

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/299862200546601.bsp

If you look closely at the picture in the newspaper article you will see our very creative friend Devon pushing his kids in last years cardboard sled. Well this year Devon and Amy's creation was a huge egg carton. It held six kids and for the adult race it held five of us. You read that correctly Amy and Devon where great enough to let Bob and I take it down the hill with them in the adult race. Unfortunately, Bob had to go into the office so Ben was oh to willing to take his spot. What fun we all had, even though we didn't win, well we barley even finished our egg sled went right off the course plowed down the fence and I'm afraid took down a few spectators!(no injuries) But the guys got us off the fence and over the finish line so we did complete this years cardboard sled race!

THANK YOU so much Devon and Amy for allowing Ben and I on your team we had a blast!



Up the hill it goes.

Just a tiny bit of how creative Grand Haven folks can get, I couldn't believe some of the sleds, people must work for months.

Testing it out.

The Kids cross the finish line!

The adults hit the fence, I was laughing all weekend about that race! We are already thinking of what to build next year.

Swim Meets, Birthday and Ski Races

What a busy weekend we had. On Friday Bob went up north to pick up Sara. We had the Spring Lake Invitational on Saturday. Spring Lake swam like champions and ended up coming in Second place! It was a lot of fun to watch and Ben did a great job, it's looking very good for him to swim at state this year.




Eight schools swam at the Invite this year.

Ben getting ready to swim his leg of the relay. (Lane 2)

Ben and his team cheer on Marcus in a very tight race.

Bob and Sara came to the meet after her first day of races and then we went home to celebrate her 14th birthday. After presents and cake we went out to diner at a Hibachi restaurant. I can't believe Sara is 14 already, it goes by in the blink of an eye, doesn't it?

Sara blowing out 14 "party candles"

On Sunday Bob and I went to watch Sara race three races. She did such a great job. Taking third place in all three races. We can really see her coming in to her own this year with her racing. And she still loves it.

Sara on the podium with her medal!

Rounding the gate and heading for the finish line.

After the races we climbed in the truck and took Sara back up north to her mom's house. But we stopped in at Bay Harbor to see the winter festival and snapped a few shot's of some really cool ice sculptures!

It was only about 5 degrees out, so you have no idea how accurate this felt!

The Sun Does Shine

Just a quick note to show off just how beautiful West Michigan can get. Today Lucky and I took a hike down the beach, and for a brief moment the Heavens opened up and God decided to show off! I was so happy that I had my camera with me so I could share with all of you.

Lucky staying true to himself, blazed his own trail and more than once I lost him in a snow drift. He's such a silly dog, but we love him.

Once in the house I took one last shot. I hope you all got a chance to see God's beautiful creations today.

Updating

Today we meant our new social worker. Our old one retired at the end of last year. Ann came over to update our home study and to introduce herself. I had never given them pictures of the new house. She was sorry to report that there isn't any information for us regarding a referral. We where upset to hear that as well. Because we are over the two year mark we have other things to update as well. We can hardly believe that we have been waiting for over two years! So sad to say that we will have to fill out even more paperwork. But hopefully this will be it.

In other news, it's cold in Michigan, cold and snowy. We haven't seen the sun in ages, but the icebergs look beautiful from our nice warm living room. I'll post some pictures, and I'll post one from the other morning when we woke up to hear two coyote's playing on the beach. I didn't want to go out side and the only camera I had didn't have much of a zoom so look closely.

We are planning a busy weekend. Sara will be down for ski races at Cannonsburg and her 14th birthday! And Ben has a swim invitational, since it's a high of 10 on Saturday, I volunteered to go to the swim meet and let Bob go to the ski race! But we will both be at the race on Sunday, hope it warms up!