Busy Day

Today Mariada had a show at the theater that was put on by the The Door. The Door is a Norwegian organization that helps underprivileged kids in Albania. Mariada plays soccer for The Door soccer team. They also had disabled people playing instruments and kids doing dance routines, Mariada and her friend Jesica sang a song, it was a really nice show.
After that Mariada wanted to go to the pre-school orphanage where she first lived when she arrived to say hi/goodbye to her former friends and caregivers. Everyone there loved her and where so sweet to the both of us.

We are now home for a short while, then we will be walking down to her English class were she will be taking a test, she asked if I would stay and help! HA No way sweetie, you have to learn it all on your own!

In very bad news, Bob’s plane left an hour and a half late yesterday causing him to miss his connection in Munich. As of last night when we spoke, he was one of the lucky people to get a hotel and there were no flights until Wednesday! He is going to try and fly standby today, and since I have not heard anything from him I am praying that he got on one of those flights.

Mariada, with the social worker at the pre-school orphanage. Very sweet lady.

Mariada singing she wasn't to happy about it, but she has a very pretty voice.

Three of the girls on the team where given awards, the girl to the left of Mariada is her best friend.

Juggling she didn't miss the whole time!

Beautiful Albania

You know one of my favorite sayings is “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans” well that has been our motto for this whole adoption from day one I think! Such was the case for our trip to the mountains. What started our being three nights went to two, then one and yesterday ended up being zero nights but still one very long day!

We left at about 6:30 AM with Fredi, arrived in a town called Komani which has two ferry boats that take you up a river to a town called Fierza. One of the boats is a car ferry the other is a passenger ferry only. Fredi of course knows the passenger only crew and asked if they would take us back later that day. We had planned on staying the night in Tropoja with Fredi’s brother but the weather was looking a bit bad and we didn’t want Bob to miss his plane on Sunday, this time of year the ferry boats only run once a day so without this we would not have been able to go at all. There is only one road and it takes over five hours with a very good four wheel drive which we don’t have! Long story short the boat guys said yes and off we went up one of the most beautiful boat rides of our lives! It’s about two hours but we stopped along the way to pick-up and drop-off people at what Fredi called stations, but really they looked like the base of a mountain! Honestly you could not see where these people where going or coming from, Fredi said some hike two hours to the village and I mean right up a mountain, it was crazy!

It was pretty rough weather to start and continued to get worse as we went so that by the time we pulled into Fierza it was snowing hard! This is why we don’t have too many pictures. Fredi’s brother picked us up and we went to his house for a wonderful lunch, we had planned on staying until early evening but because it was snowing so hard we got back on the ferry and headed home. The ferry had zero lights; I mean none inside or out! No running lights, not that there are any other boats anyway, but no spot light either so about an hour in we were in pitch black with only the glow of the little gas heater they had put on board for the Americans! Thankfully they seemed to know the route by heart and we made it back safely. Bob and I were laughing later that it felt like we were in a movie on board a Russian ship or something because the crew seemed so type cast! But they were all very friendly and we ate bread and cheese with them for diner. They of course had their homemade raki (local moonshine) as well!

Once back home Prenda had once again made diner for us and we enjoyed meeting her Father, sister and nephew. After that we came home and feel asleep, what a day.

Bob left this morning and I already miss him so much but I know he has to get home. Thank goodness for Skype. Mariada and I went to church this morning, then she had rehearsal for a show she is in tomorrow at the Theater, which sad to say still has zero heat. After that we went to lunch in a restaurant I know has heat and then to the market, we are now warming up in our apartment getting ready for a busy week.

Enjoy the pictures


Mariada, rehearsing for tomorrow's show. She's juggling a soccer ball.

Our trip home! The snow on the sides of the mountains helped us see were we where going :)

Mariada enjoying the heater they put in for the trip home, on the way up there was no heat and she kept saying to me Mom, I can't feel my feets! Oh honey, get ready for Michigan :)

Yummy! The guy in the red is Pastor Dave, he's been in Albania since 1992. Started with HFTW but now has his own Church. he was visiting Fredi's brother this weekend. Great guy.

One of the "stations".

The water is the most beautiful shade of jade. Wish the sun had been out!

One of the many, many waterfalls, I thought they where snow melt, but they are spring feed from the top of the mountains.

Another waterfall.

Another station.

Fredi, Mariada and myself, it was windy but it was amazing, it looked like you where headed right for a mountian, then we would turn and there was the river! So cool.

OK, I'm cold, I'm going inside!

Our vessel and staring off point.

Brrrr! It's Cold

Today was a reprieve from the constant rain! It snowed. It is very, very rare that Shkoder gets snow, the mountains yes but down here it rains. We had planned to be in the mountains but the situation with Dad and the physiatrist changed those plans. Instead of being gone for three days we are going to take the trip in one. There is a ferry boat that takes you up a river to the town of Frieze, we will spend the night at Fredi’s brothers and then take the boat back down the river on Sunday morning. Then Bob will drive to the airport and fly home.

This morning we went to Fredi and Prenda’s daughter Adonna’s violin recital. She’s five but there were kids of all ages it was nice. It was however very, very cold in the theater. There is no heat at all and I felt so bad for the kids, can you imagine playing the violin with freezing cold fingers! Most of the kids didn’t even take their coats off. My feet where so cold standing on the tile floor that I couldn't even feel them. After the recital we went to lunch and are now home warming up! Mariada is studying for an English test on Monday, but she is now finished with school here in Albania. We have a very busy week next week filled with good-bye parties and visit’s to the other orphanage’s she has lived in. Hopefully the rain will lighten up since we will no longer have a car!

The latest word on Dad is that he remains stable and even awake at times. We are so thankful for this; we continue to pray that Mariada will be able to meet her Grandfather when we get home next month.

I will not have access to the Internet until Sunday, but hope to have some great pictures of the mountains to share! Have a wonderful weekend!


Twinkle, Twinkle little star.

Another Step

First thank you to all those that have been praying, as of late last night Dad was stable. We have not changed Bob’s flight from this Sunday because the flights were awful and expensive, if Dad takes a bad turn we will get him home.

Yesterday afternoon we meant with the psychiatrist, Fredi acted as our interrupter which was wonderful of him and his lawyer friend was there as well. We meant at a café called Chicago and drank coffee and hot chocolate, she asked us about our family’s currant and childhood, then she came over to check out our apartment and that was it. Fredi said it went really well, she was one of his high school teachers! It pays to know Fredi in this town.  Today she is having a meeting with Mariada at the orphanage without us and then she will write her report. Next week in court the Judge makes her decision and we move on to the next step! Hallelujah.


I put this picture in for you, I haven't been taking to many lately I'll get some this weekend!

Asking for Your Prayers

We are one step closer. Today we went in front of the Judge again this time we had an attorney, something I wish we had since day one. He finalized the agreement that Bob can leave without attending the last hearing. The other person in the court room was the physiatrist, after the Bob leaving early bit was over the Judge asked everyone to leave with exception of Mariada and the psychiatrist. The rest of us waited in the hallway for about 30 minutes. Then Mariada came out, she was all smiles, then she was chatting with the social worker from the orphanage when she started to tear-up. I think the stress of it being over lifted and she became a little overwhelmed. We then learned that Bob and I will have to have two meeting with the psychiatrist, one in about thirty minutes and one tomorrow. She wants to see our apartment. (?) Then we are finished with all that and just have to have our last hearing on the 23rd.

On a very sad note, late last night Bob called the office to do some work and Tammy let us know that we needed to call one of the siblings because Dad was in the hospital. He went in with what they thought was a breathing thing, but it turns out he has pneumonia, he also had a heart attack and now his liver is failing. We are asking for prayers that he stays stable until Bob can get home; the flights to get him out are booked so we don’t think he can leave until Sunday. Please pray for the family as well; although Dad is 87 and we know that we will lose him it’s never easy to say good-bye.

Good News!

Yesterday we went out to the beach, it’s pretty empty this time of year but we wanted to see it and it gave us something to do for the afternoon. It’s a really big beach, most of it is flat but to the south there is a little bit of mountain meets Sea. It was great to get out to the water I miss it so much, one thing has become certain I am much more of a water girl than a mountain girl! And most defiantly a smaller town girl than a city girl!


Today we went in into Tirana to go to the U.S Embassy and file our power of attorney. We also signed a few other papers for when Bob is gone. On that note it sounds like the Judge is going to let Bob fly home on the 20th and let me finish up the last court date alone on the 23rd. This is all working out because of our wonderful friend Fredi making a few phone calls and saving the day for us! It still looks like Mariada and I will be home the 3rd week in January.


We are hoping to take the trip up into the mountains and into Kosovo for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We hear that the trip is beautiful and we are really looking forward to it.


The very south end of the beach.

I think this is a restaurant in the summer.

At sunset we could just make out Italy, very cool!

Road Trip

Yesterday we went with Fredi down to a town near Tirana. HFTW has bought a property that they intend to use as a place for the orphan teens to go to when they are too old to stay in the government run institutions. Currently when you turn sixteen you go to what are called the dorms, these places are awful and most of the kids drop out of school within a year and end up on the streets. HFTW is going to offer a place that will keep the kids in school and help them go to university or learn a trade, make sure they are feed and continue to help them make good choices for their lives. They have bought the building but it needs work, they hope to have it ready by the end of summer so that the kids moving in can start school in September. On our way back we stopped in a little mountain town called Kruja where Skanderbeg’s castle is, they have a museum to him there that was really very nice, thank goodness Fredi was with us so he could translate for us and basically be our tour guide. We were so high up that we could see the ocean which was a beautiful site!

We also went to a traditional Albanian restaurant the other day that was really good, they cook the food in a big fireplace which also kept the place nice a warm. We had goat cheese that tasted great but sort of smelled of our bathroom! Along with a sheep cheese that was served warm ( mmm good) the wonderful olives, veal, wild boar and tons more. Mariada, didn’t eat the wild boar and she will not eat veal, she really doesn’t like meat but she tried everything with a touch of pressure, at least she tried it.

Today she had English lessons and a two and half hour soccer practice, so now she’s a bit worn out. I think we are in for the evening.

Hope everyone in Michigan weathered the storm and is staying nice a warm!

Mountain town Kruja where Skanderbeg lived.

Skanderbeg museum.

In the distance the Adriatic Sea.

Skanderbeg castle.

HFTW new building.

Future sports area and Chapel.

Boys dorm rooms needs a little TLC.

Yummy! The food here is awesome!