Christmas Blessings

Christmas Blessings

We are SO HAPPY to be having a FAMILY Christmas of our very own for the first time! We are praising God for His richest blessings this season! Thank you all once again for your love and prayers as we continue on this journey. It hasn't been easy getting this far, but every day there are new blessings, and the prayers of our dear family and friends have been felt when we needed them the most:)

....May you all have the blessings of the SALVATION OF GOD upon you this most special season!

Joyous love!
Bob, Lori, and Hannah Grace :)

Mommy's happiest birthday ever!

Birthday Wishes for Mommy

Me and my Dad

The other night Bob and Hannah were sittting on the edge of the bathtub (Hannah, with one hand on Dad's knee and the other brushing her teeth, and Dad with one arm around Hannah), when Hannah said, "Me and my dad!" :) Isn't that precious?! I wish I had been there to hear that first hand, but it was delightful enough to hear Bob tell it :) And this is the longest sentence Hannah has spoken yet! ;)

....Hannah loves a particular story that Bob reads to her every night; it's called Me And My Dad :) The story is about a papa bear who lifts his little one high upon his shoulders, and of course, there is nothing in this world that "papa bear" cannot do:)

It happened...

....After waiting so long, it happened .... I KNOW that I love my daughter! :) The "happening" was last Wednesday evening as I was trying to help Hannah to fall asleep. She was having a particularly difficult time, so I leaned over her while she lay bundled up in her bed and began stroking her hair (she relaxes so much with that). I was whispering a few words to her, and then we just were staring into each others eyes, hers so big and brown. All of a sudden, I could hear my heart saying to her..."I love you, I love you". My breath caught. Oh my! I realized at that moment that I did love Hannah....and for the first time, I really felt like a MOM. My eyes welled up, and then, in the dim light of just a night-light, I could see that her eyes were saying the same thing to me! And...oh my goodness...she smiled at me!...and then she reached up and stroked my hair ;) Tears...of joy.

...It's such a relief when you really, really know that you truely love someone! I am so grateful to God that he has answered the desire of my heart....to be a TRUE Mom. Surely He has heard and answered all of our prayers! Praise His name!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our family!

Love,

Lori and Bob and Hannah Grace

Hannah ADORES Freddie

Hannah says, "Happy" as she walks by

Sweet Rest

Sweet rest! Ahh, isn't it wonderful?! :) Peace, quiet, gentle breathing....so lovely. It's been a time of rest for us all, and I think we are 'regrouping' and gaining strength as a family now :)

...Hannah loves her car seat...well, strike that. She loves RIDING in the car, but gets tired of being confined in that 'ole seat of hers. I'm sure she'd much prefer the "road rules" of Albania and the 'free and easy' riding there:)

Pun'kin Patch

Hannah says..."pun'kin, pun'kin!" whenever she sees one. She LOVES learning knew words :)

Parties for Hannah

Hannah's first Zoo experience

It takes time....

Bob and I are so content to finally have Hannah as our daughter, but...it takes time to "fall in love" with your child. Did you know that? I didn't. I thought that the feelings of being "in love" would be automatic after so much that we have been through together, but we since have learned (through reading about bonding and attachment in adoption) that it is normal for love to grow gradually and not be there in full measure for quite some time.

Would you pray that we will be patient and kind in all our actions with Hannah? We want to be the best parents possible for her and love her, and love her...and LOVE her...to the greatest measure! :) We cherish YOUR prayers.

She loves the kitties

Hannah is doing so well with petting the kitties carefully. She has learned that she needs to "pet nice" and not pinch the kitties :) It's so cute when she calls...um, rather, HOLLERS....for Freddie to come in :) He seems to be her favorite.

"illy", as Hannah would say...just being silly :)

HANNAH!

Grandma Stitt and Hannah have a chat :)

Hannah meets 2nd cousin, Ryan :)

Loving each other!

I am hurrying to get this posted before our little darling awakens from her hour and half long nap :) She is so sweet! We simply can not BELIEVE that she is our daughter. Surely it will sink in soon?? We are bonding well with her and are amazed at the changes we see everyday in our relationship to each other. She actually wants us to stay with her now when we put her in her bed at night. That makes me happy:) Maybe soon I'll be able to read her a story up in her room...it's so nice to get those cuddles in!

... We took her to church for the first time yesterday, and she did so well! It was so good to see all our friends there. My goodness it feels like we've been away FOREVER. Everyone was so kind to be careful not to get too close to her. Hannah was just amazed to watch all the people in the congregation, and I could tell she really liked the singing! Yeehah! That's my girl! :)

We still appreciate your prayers as we adjust. THIS is a tiring job! Ha,ha...you're all saying.."We told you so!"

Love you all!
Bob and Lori and Hannah Grace

Meeting family

Hannah meets cousins Schroeder and Livy
Meeting Uncle Curtis (both watermelon "nuts")
Catching Aunt Carolee and Uncle Russ on the golf course :)

Jennifer and "Fat Cat"

We sure do miss you Jen. You are such a lovely person! We are keeping you in our prayers and are hoping for the most wonderful news from you soon :) God bless you! Love,
Bob and Lori and Hannah Grace Roksana

Agim...a truly kind and gentle man

Agim, thank you again for all your diligence in getting all things done properly for our adoption. You are such a kind and truly gentle man. May God richly bless you for all your hard work and caring spirit. Hannah Grace Roksana is doing so well! You would hardly believe it! :) Oh, and she likes to rest her sunglasses on her head and say, "Alma!", because she remembers seeing Alma wear hers that way! Ha, ha...so funny! Thank you again dear Agim. You will always be remembered and in our prayers. Love, Bob and Lori and Hannah Grace Roksana

Wonderful friends

These two dear people, Tihere and Alma, became wonderful friends. Seem pa teek Tihere :) Thank you so much for all your hard work for us in Albania! God bless you both!!

OK, so where do you want me to go?

She loves pointing and telling us where to "go". I'm so glad that most of the time she wants us right beside her :)

Hannah and Mama...rocking on the porch

Being crazy with Dad :)

Her favorite word..."Huh?!"

Bath..bath...bath...happy...happy...happy :)

And when she wakes up...she smiles :)

HOME at long last!

We are finally HOME at last!....though weary as can be and with every drop of emotional strength 'spent'. It was an utterly exhausting series of flights, but all in all it went much better than we expected for Hannah. The little sweetheart was so good on the first two flights :) ...We just couldn't believe it! Sometimes she just seemed so 'tickled pink' :) She would run back and for at the airport, laughing and giggling while we ran after her, and then she would just smile at us :) It all caught up with her though on the third and final flight....the longest one from Frankfurt to Chicago ;( Tears came in droves as she woke from a 1 hour long nap and refused to be comforted. She just laid there on the seat between us and stared up at us with loud cries...so sad. She had such a look of grief upon her face that it just broke our hearts. Nothing would comfort her and she did not want us to touch her.

...Finally she quieted down and would let us hold her again....what relief!

Upon our arrival at Chicago (at around 4:00pm I think) we had to 'wade' through the immigration line and the baggage check point and customs, which took another 3 hours! We had not anticipated this taking so long. We were so drained, but Hannah did well (little trouper) , and we were then greeted in the lobby area by Bob's parents :) Little Hannah just stared at them and never cried. I believe she recognized them from the photos we've shown her. The ride in the car home was no problem at all! Hannah LOVED the car seat, and she's never even been in one before :)

...Well, we arrived home, home home at around 11:15pm Tuesday night, and we've been adjusting (fighting off jetlag) to this new life. It will be very sweet in the future, I'm sure....but right now everything is upside down for us. Whew, what an adjustment we have ahead of us...but we are really happy about it...just working through emotions right now.

We praise God for YOU all who have loved us and prayed for us and supported us in so many ways. We need your continued prayers, to be sure!

We'll keep you posted and soon will put new updates of Hannah Grace on this site...but for now...God BLESS YOU ALL!

Love,
Bob and Lori and Hannah Grace :)
P.S. She's sleeping right now and I can see her from where I am :)...she looks so peaceful!

Final preparations

Today was a very trying day. We had to take Hannah Grace to have her blood drawn (not pleasant at all!) Truth be told, I wanted to yell at those who were doing their best...I guess, but of course, I didn't. Good thing Bob was seated while holding Hannah, because his face turned white and his lips were pale and I thought he was going to faint! Hannah SCREAMED while they attemped, in BOTH arms, to draw blood. It was aweful! Anyway, we are through that and Bob didn't faint and Hannah survived and I didn't cry. Whew!

We are so weary of running here and there for appointments and paperwork. BUT, we are so close now. Monday we go to the U.S. Embassy for the FINAL paperwork. If everything is in order.....we...will...be...FREE to leave the country with OUR DAUGHTER! YEA!!!!!!!!! :)

We are so grateful for all your prayers and ask that you would continue to pray that our scheduled flight home for August 5th will be able to take place; presantly there is a strike of our airline!

We love you all! Hey, will you also pray that Hannah Grace handles the flight home well? Thank you so much :)

Much love!
Bob and Lori and Hannah
P.S. ...we miss home

Olive trees and Castles

For a little history about Sauk-Tirana :)....Olive trees have been growing on the lower mountain tops for many, many years, and up until 1990, all the land in Sauk (and where the orphanage is) was made up of vineyards owned by the communists. Albania was ruled by the communist party from 1945 to 1993 when it finally 'fell'. And now, almost the entire area of Sauk is made up of homes where once there were vineyards. The olive trees are still everywhere. The castle in the photo is of a revered Albanian hero's (Skanderbeg) sister. It resides off in the distance and in view from the orphanage. Wish we had time to go see it...but we are much too busy here.

OH Bobby

Watermelon girl!

b

OH, The JOY ;)