The Last Few Weeks

What a busy last few weeks it has been. First Sara was down with a girlfriend for Spring Break! What fun we had, we went shopping had our nails done, and hung out. We LOVE it when Sara's here and having her friend was wonderful. Can't wait until summer when we will get to see her more often.

Once Sara had to go back up north Ben's Spring Break started! He wanted to hang with his friends for most of it but we did take a road trip down/over to Pittsburgh PA to take a campus tour of Carnegie Mellon University, Ben's second choice (so far) for colleges. It's CRAZY that Ben is this old time goes by so quickly, it seems like yesterday that I was meeting Ben and he was turning eight, now I'm taking him to look at Universities. But I must say he is a wonderful young man and we are so proud of him. I'm sorry to say that I forgot my camera on this trip so I don't have any pictures of CMU's beautiful campus. Bob and I are still hoping for a school a little more south :) we've got a little bit of time to work on him.

In other news the weather has been great and we have been enjoying walks on the beach, oh how we love summer. Today we did some spring cleaning, I put Lucky's bed outside to air out and he thought that was a fine idea, little goof!

That's it for now, hope this finds you all happy and healthy!

And we wait...

OK so it has been forever since I posted, sorry. But since there really hasn't been any change in the adoption I thought I'd wait. Nothing has changed on the adoption front and to be honest it doesn't look like things will change for a while. All are paperwork is ready to go and I don't think anything should be expiring so we are back in the waiting mode. We continue to pray that the social workers in Albania will understand that there are people that want to adopt older children and that they will get the papers in place so that we can bring them home.

Things here for the last few weeks have been busy, we had our company Christmas party, I know it's late but we took the crew to see the Eagles and since we couldn't really dictate when they would play in Michigan we had to have our Christmas party in March. We all had such a great time and the Eagles are just as great now as they where 20 years ago! Great memories for the best marine construction crew.

I have been very busy getting the house we bought last fall ready for sale this spring. I know flipping a house in this economy! Well see how that goes.

Lucky is doing great he had another treatment today and his numbers are heading up, all good signs. The Dr. even said that his spirits where really good today. Apparently while he was in his crate getting chemo intravenously they where handing out cookies to a puppy that had just had some stitches removed, Lucky stood up and barked until he was given his! That's our Lucky dog for you, he will not be ignored!

I've posted a few of our sunset shots today. During winter in Michigan we really don't get to many sunny days, therefore we don't get to see it set to often. The past few weeks the sunsets began coming back. When we bought this house I told Bob that I would never forget how blessed we where to find our dream home, with sunsets like this it's sure to never happen.


Lucky after a treatment, he has to wear a bandage for a day.

A calm day. If it would just warm up this would be a rare water skiing day, only a few more months!

A not so calm day! I didn't think we would get a sunset this day but the line on the horizon opened up just in time.

Update on our Lucky dog

Today Lucky went in for his 2nd chemo treatment. When I went to pick him up the Doctor was so excited that she came right out into the waiting room to tell me that all his levels are already back in the normal range! He did well today and is playing outside in our unseasonably warm sunny weather right now.

This picture was taken the summer after we adopted Lucky, it took a while for him to realize that jumping off the boat was a bad idea, so we had to hold on to him all the time. Those darn Seagulls!

Catching up..

We are starting to catch up now and I thought I would share a couple of photo's from the birthday party at the orphanage in Vlore. When we returned home I e-mailed our shots to the lovely lady we meant and she sent us a couple that she had taken.

I also told you I would keep you updated on the two children that Bob and I had asked about. The girl who is about 10, has a father that visits on occasion so she can not be adopted and the little boy has a mother, uncle and grandparent that have Schizophrenia , apparently the orphanage feels that he to may have it and will not process his paperwork. So we will wait for the AAC to find us a child.

We leave in the morning to travel across the state to watch Ben represent his school at the state meet! That's right while we where in Albania Ben qualified for state with his relay team. We are really excited for him and his team. GO LAKERS!

On the Lucky front, he is doing great it's amazing we can't even feel the lumps in his neck and he's just as happy as always. We will find out more on Monday when I take him in for his 2nd treatment.

Our sweet wonderful Lucky Doodle Dog

The day before we left for Albania I had taken Lucky to the vet suspecting that something was wrong. He was acting fine but had lumps in his neck. While we where gone my wonderful mother took him in for another test and sure enough he has been diagnosed with lymphoma stage III cancer. It has taken this long to speak about it, denial is an amazing thing. The good news is that today was his first day of treatment ( 15 more weeks to go) and it went well. Some dogs don't do well with the chemo but Lucky is responding positively. If it continues we could very well be able to extend his life by a couple of years. This is still well short of a normal life span, but we will take what we can get. We love him and he is a part of this family.

We adopted Lucky from the Tractor Supply Company. I can honestly say it is the only thing that I have ever gotten there but really how could you top him!

Albania Wrap-Up

Well we are home from our trip. We couldn't post on Tuesday because the Internet connection at our hotel that night was awful.

We meant with the women from the AAC on Tuesday morning and the meeting went well. She told us she was very sorry and upset about the situation that happened with Mishel and that she would continue to look for a child for us. We also know that the entire AAC board has approved us so things overall look good. Although I must say that it looks like it will be at least a year before we receive a referral due to the serious lack of paperwork on the children. We don't like the idea of waiting but are trying to be realistic.


On Tuesday we went to an older children's orphanage. We meant two children that are up for adoption. One should be coming home this summer, a beautiful girl that is 15. The other is a 12 year old boy. He is looking for a home, Bob and I still feel the need for a younger child but if you or someone you know would be interested in him please let me know or call Bethany Christian Services. This orphanage was for older children only 7-16 it was nothing like the other homes we where in and I was not permitted to take any photo's. I can only say it's a place neither of us will ever forget. Please pray for these kids. We meant two children that we are currently trying to get info on. I'll keep you posted on that.


Our overall experience of Albania was a really good one, we love the country it's beautiful and the people are very nice. We enjoyed our time there and are excited about having a link that would bring us back on a regular basis for visits.


The island in the distance is the Greek island of Korfu.

Just thought I would put a few more of the children at Hannah's House. Such little cuties!

What a weekend...

On Friday we rented a VW GOL I don't think we have them in the states but I'd say it's the VW Golf's much less powerful cousin with a hopping 1 liter engine! But we used it all weekend and traveled about 250 miles on less than a quarter of a tank of gas. We left Tirana about 2:00 in the afternoon and drove west to the coastal town of Durres hung out for a bit just checking it out and then drove south to Vlore. We got in about 6-7PM and found a hotel right on the beach. Had dinner then went down town for a walk and Gelato. (Chocolate of course) In the morning we went up to the orphanage. We found a back door and just knocked and went inside. A very sweet lady saw that we had brought some things for the children gave me a hug and quickly realized that although I had an Albanian/English book in my hands I could not actually speak it :) She took my hand and brought us upstairs to a women that could speak Albanian and English! We told her that we knew some people that had adopted a little girl from Vlore, she remembered them well and was so happy that we stopped by. It turns out that today was her day off but she was there to give three of the children a birthday party. It was so great, they had a room decorated with balloons and cakes, hats and noise makers. The local kindergarten children even came with their school teacher to celebrate. We watched them celebrate with each child. We sang it in English but it's the point that counts right?! After the party Albana asked if we would have lunch with her at her husbands new restaurant. Of course we did, did I mention that we are both loving the food over here, such amazing produce! So we had lunch in Vlore and climbed back in the GOL and headed south up a mountain. We really didn't know where we where going to stop but let me tell you the drive was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever taken. Each turn one of us would say WOW! or Amazing, and it truly is. At times the switch backs on the way down where a tad bit frightening and the fact that people pass you doesn't help but looking out over the Adriatic made you feel better! We ended up in a village called Dhermi. Since it is not summer yet we had our choice of two hotels and one restaurant. I rather enjoyed not having to think to much about it. Although, it's still cold here at night and our room didn't have heat so they gave us extra blankets, I think he knew that we where wimpy Americans. I didn't care I used all five of them and even wore Bob's socks! We took our time coming back and explored beach's and villages. We got to our hotel about 8-9PM last night to an open parking spot right in front of our door. Had diner at a great place around the corner owned by a man that has been to Chicago. :) If your ever in Tirana please stop in and eat at Saranda, really great food.

Today we had breakfast here at the Stephans Center, returned the car and bargained for our souvenirs with a street vendor. He thought Bob was so funny with his Albanian that he gave us not one but three "free" key chains. I told Bob that meant that we totally got ripped off :)

Tomorrow we are meeting with our guy from Bethany and a women from the AAC so please pray that it goes well.

The switch-backs we came down.

Gun turret's from WWII they are everywhere.

I wish my camera could get the whole mountain, the vertical drop is amazing. Not to many places on the planet look like this.

She was turning one!

Turning three!

The city of Vlore.

From our hotel in Vlore.

Half way up from Dhermi.

The amazing little VW.

These guys where in front of us on our way up the mountain, Bob couldn't take it so he channeled his inner Albanian and passed them right after this hairpin turn! Driving here could be bad for your marriage ;)