The Power of Your Story

Last week, I wrote about my fears and concerns about starting MOPS Albania. If you didn't get the chance to read it, check it out here. This week I want to tell you about what happened. Thrilled to see MOPS Started I met Nikki Doci on one of our kids' first days at their new school. She threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug. She welcomed me. Then, almost in the same breath proclaimed, "I've been praying for MOPS to start in Albania for many years."  I listened as she continued. "I thought I or someone on our staff might do it. But you are the one." She told me about her confidence in me being from Albania and having experience with MOPS in the US. Nikki, from Fargo, North Dakota, came to Albania in the early 1990s and met her husband, Ylli. Together, they served students for many years. Before we returned to Albania, we wrote to anyone we could think of about MOPS. Actually, Josh had written them. I call him my prince charming! He calls himself ...

Last week, I told you about a simple shopping trip that took an unexpected turn for the worse. This week, I take a deeper dive into the fears and insecurities I experienced as I returned to Albania and planned to start a new ministry. * * * * * * Can we do it? "I can't believe how much I changed while I was gone!" I told myself. I had been touched by the love of Heather when she came and brought me flowers in my time of need. I had been encouraged by Della as she and I served alongside each other and both gave and received strength  And I had been inspired by Jennifer trusting me to lead. I was no longer the same Bona. But so much of Albania was the same!  And so many people were the same as when I had left: the same problems the same complaints the same mentality.  Over and over again, I would get the same response: “It can’t be done.”  As a shopper, just take a look at what I become used to:  customer service talking to managers getting receipts AND returning ...

My Passions Passion.  Energy. Hope. When my family and I moved back to Albania in 2013, I was filled with passion.  I could imagine the ministry of MOPS impacting my cousins, my friends, and other women.  I could imagine that the type of relationships that had brought me so much joy and freedom to me over the last three years would be experienced by women in my home country.  "I was full of energy for women to experience being seen, heard and loved." Moms who didn’t have the chance to go to America as I did. Moms who had to work much harder just to make it from one paycheck to the next.  Moms who were still sharing a 2-bedroom apartment with their in-laws. Moms who hadn’t been out on a date with their husbands in years! I was ready to go -- full of passion and energy for women to experience being seen, heard, and loved in a MOPS community. My Fears And I also had a lot of fear.  Even though I grew up in Albania, I had lived outside Albania for years. My hus...

Soup for an Exhausted Mom The day we pulled up to that tan brick building, I was exhausted. By the way, I'm not talking about the one in the picture! After a seven-hour drive. It was August. Hot. Humid. We got out of the car, and I walked down half a flight of stairs. No, actually I didn’t walk. Those days, I waddled. Did I mention I was eight months pregnant?  Josh opened the door and I walked into what seemed like a hole in the ground. Our two girls would soon be bouncing off the walls, and the new home would be filled with a red couch, an Ikea chair and a bunch of other furniture people had given us.   I was exhausted, and it wasn't just about the drive. "Would I be able to build new friendships?" I was exhausted after five difficult, lonely years in Kosovo. We had just moved from my hometown in Albania and were now in Bannockburn, Illinois. I was exhausted and I was afraid: Would I be able to build new friendships in a new place where I didn’t know anyone? Would ...