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 ;)