Read this terrific article in the NY Times about protecting your private information on Facebook.

5 Easy Steps to Staying Safe and Private on Facebook

I found this and had to share.  May we continue to redefine our beauty with God’s standards in mind, not the world’s.

Here in Albania I cook a lot more than I did in the States.  Not only are there less “pre-made” items, which certainly translates as less “convenience” items, there are many items we were used to in the States we can’t get here at all.   There are also fewer  places we eat out as a family – not a lot of fast food (American style anyway) and not many restaurants that we all like.

So… I spend more time in the kitchen.  I really believed I knew how to cook from scratch.  I had not even scratched the surface.  Here’s a rundown of what I made today:

Banana bread: 2 loaves- one for now, one for the freezer.  I needed to use up all my over ripe bananas.

Chicken stock (later we turned it into chicken soup): We like to eat rotisserie chickens as a quick meal when I need a break from cooking.  I save and freeze the bones and skins to make chicken stock/ broth which I can’t buy!)

Maple Syrup: It’s just sugar and water, people!  Easy and cheap.

Granola bars: This was a new one.  I subscribe to a healthy snacks list from Allrecipes.com. There was another recipe that came in the e-mail this week that called for sweetened condensed milk which I can, in fact, get here, but I found this one for which I had everything in the cupboard.  Robert and I think they turned out great but the kids were not so impressed.  I’ll keep trying!

Egg noodles: These were for the chicken soup that we eventually made out of the chicken stock.  This made three batches.  One for today and two for the freezer.  I still can’t get the noodles as small as my grandma’s.  I guess when I am 96, I’ll have it down.

Whew… that was quite a day!

We went to a wedding this weekend.  Once everything started there was a place for the kids to watch from the aisle that was near the back.  Jadyn got a little too excited and I had to remind her she need to be quiet.

She responded with, “I will be cute, Mommy,  I will be cute.”

Cute, don’t you think?

Last night after we had gone to bed we had an earthquake.  I had just closed my eyes when I felt the rumbling.  Robert was reading and asked if I could feel it.  It left me feeling a little dizzy especially since when I opened my eyes the light fixture was moving, giving the illusion of the room spinning.  It only lasted a few seconds.  This morning Robert called to tell me that it register 5.2 on the Richter scale.  Amazing….

Added note: Krystal found this article about.  We just don’t make big news here in Albania!

Quake in Albania

You know your daughter loves you when…..

You are crying and she tries to comfort you.

I am blubbering about something after Robert’s surgery.  She climbs on my lap, wipes the tears from my face and says

“Come on Mommy, let’s sing …. I’m a little teapot!”

End of tears, all smiles. Really, give it a try!

Well it is no secret that this has been a hard summer.  If you are just now tuning in you can read the recap here.  But this post is even more important than the recap, because it will tell you how I survived the last month and a half without going crazy.  It’s all about a girl named Ava.

When Ava first started coming to our youth group in Norman, Robert remembers her coming up to him and saying “Hi” after every program.  Then she would stand there and grin, not knowing what else to say. Which seems a little odd looking back because she is not one with a lack of things to say.  She was very active in our youth group and had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and gave her life to him.  It has been a wild ride ever since.  She is fun and funny, thoughful and introspective, kind and loving, a lover of Jesus and a learner in life.  She volunteered to babysit our kids not too long after we met her, and she has been one of Austin and Tyler’s favorite people ever since.  She babysat for us in the summers and has shown so much love to the boys.

When Ava first started talking to us about coming to Albania I had a lot of reservations.  I wasn’t sure how it would be to have another person here in our “space.”  I was not sure how that would effect our routines, our family time, our couple time, my personal space.  But we prayed a lot about it and talked about all the possibilities and decided she would be a blessing to us and our kids for the month of July. She has been in love with Jadyn and was anxious to get to spend the same time with her that she did with the boys when they were that age.  We made the decision to have her come this summer in March or April.

I can not overstate how I have seen God’s amazing providence in this one decision.  When we knew that Robert would need to leave for surgery, one of the things that helped me know it was the rgiht decision to stay here with our kids was knowing that Ava would be coming to help lighten the load.  But she did SO MUCH MORE…..

She helped with the housework.

She wiped noses, and bottoms, and boo boos.

She tickled and laughed and loved.

She prayed.

She relieved my loneliness.

She talked with me about all kinds of things.

She helped me get out of the house and do things I might have avoided by myself.

She (unknowingly) helped me keep to a routine for me and the kids.

She helped with meals. Teaching her to cook made me think of more creative things to eat for dinner.

She played games and read books and watched movies.

And she never complained… NOT ONCE!  Not when we got a flat tire on the way home from the pool, not when it flooded in the front yard and we ran through the hail, not when she was bitten so many times by mosquitos I know she was miserable, not when she was tired or had a headache or was sweating just by standing there in the living room.  Not when she walked home in the 100 degree heat with three grumpy kids.  Not even about her lumpy hideaway bed.

Ava,

There are not enough words to tell you what a difference you have made for our family. I won’t even try.  You are an amazing woman of God!

You are loved by the Wheelis family!

I know I am “that foreigner.”  You know, the one that people talk about as I walk or drive past.  I know I look different in the way I walk, hold myself, make eye contact or don’t make eye contact with people.  And I especially know it when I go somewhere with Jadyn.

We are starred at everywhere we go.  And I do mean everywhere.  Heads turn as we pass by.  People say “Look at the Chinese baby with the white mommy.”  Not in an unkind way, but an intensely curious way.

Tonight, when I went to church, my friend De stopped me briefly and told me that a neighbor in her area asked about me.  This is a little funny because I live pretty far from where she does but I drive down her road 2 days a week to take Jadyn to preschool.  The neighbor asked De if she knew “that foreign woman” who smiles all the time.  Have I told you that Albanians do NOT smile until you smile at them or greet them?  You would think they were the most unfriendly people!  This is not at all true but NO ONE smiles until you smile at them or greet them.

But the best part was that she said to De, “She has a beautiful daughter but her eyes are slanted and she doesn’t look like her mother.”

De smiled and replied, “Well they have adopted her from China.”

Her neighbor replied, “Well, that is so nice that China would give her to them.”

It is not quite that simple, I know, but I agree.

April 19, 1995

Perhaps you have days in your life when time seemed to stand still.  This was one for me.  I was a senior in college, majoring in music education.  And on this very ordinary sunshiny day, I left my apartment early for my student teaching assignment at Fisher Elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma.   Classes started around 8:30 and my supervising teacher, Marilyn Copeland, left me to teach classes on my own.  I was nearing the end of my 8 weeks of elementary teaching and the students no longer scared me. 

The morning passed quickly and nothing out of the ordinary happening until a few minutes after 10 am when Marilyn’s husband came in looking for her.  This seemed a little out of place.  He worked downtown, what was he doing here?  I did not know where she was, I told him, and went on with the lessons.  It was not until lunch time that I learned about the bombing in Oklahoma City that day.  I was riveted to the TV during my short 30 minute break trying to wrap my mind around what had happened.

We can never believe it when tragedy strikes.  We could never have imagined what would happen that day or the pain that it brought on so many people.  But in the midst of tragedies, we find our greatest strength.  Strength that God put deep within us so that we could bear the sufferings we will find in this world.

Today, I am remembering the people who showed amazing courage and strength in the face of suffering, loss and pain.  I am remembering the lives that were lost at 9:02 am on April 19, 1995. And I am remembering that God still redeems the worst of tragedies and brings goodness and hope with each new day.

¹⁹ I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.

²⁰ I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

²¹ Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

~Lamentations 3:19-23