18 months old today!

Ellie in Aunt Hannah's arms

This morning started off on a great note—Ellie was full of smiles and in good humor. She hammed it up for the camera and just as we thought she had adjusted to the new visitors in town, she suddenly turned crabby. Smiling one minute, she dissolved into tears the next. This cycle went on for several minutes so figuring that perhaps we had tired her out prematurely and she was just ready for a morning nap, we were about to lay her down when Shano, the senior caregiver, began rubbing her neck under her ears and determined that Ellie was sick. She left the room and returned with a spoon brimming with foul-smelling pink stuff (pain & fever reducer, according to the box). Ellie did not like this one bit and the entire scenario only gave credence to Nathan’s theory of why she refuses to allow spoons into her mouth (or objects of any kind, for that matter). The drama enticed all the caregivers on the floor to hang out in the room, each one trying to compete to quiet the ever-louder crying Elisona with nursery rhymes and cheek-pinches. Someone finally suggested we just feed her lunch early and put her to bed. Yes! we said. As soon as all the cluckers left, she quieted down immediately. One returned with a cup of lunch and Ellie ate until she was satisfied and went limp. We laid her down in her crib and were on the way to the door when we met a surprise visitor: a representative from the US Embassy who had come to town to verify that indeed Elisona existed! (Apparently it’s a new procedure, according to him). Since the orphanage director wasn’t present for him to discuss documentation, he offered to give us a ride back to our hotel. Mom commented that we finally got to enjoy some of the benefits of our tax dollars!

After returning this afternoon, Ellie did appear to have a low-grade fever. She had a damp forehead most of the afternoon so we kept it quiet and she was happy to play with the F-P Activity Center for most of the time. While we were playing on the nursery-room floor, Grandma Van was having an adventure of her own. I’ll let her share it with you:

There’s nothing like going on a ride with strangers, in a strange town, and not knowing exactly where or why I am taking this ride. With my broken Shqip (Albanian) and their broken English, I assumed we (the orphanage director, her assistant and the driver) were on our way to pick up Ellie’s birth certificate. Since it was already 3:30 pm I didn’t have much hope that this ride would be successful. After driving down one alley after the other, we finally ended up at a typical “official” building. And as I predicted, no one was around. Therefore we did the Albanian way of business and will come back tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow’s trip will be successful and today’s adventure will be another experience to add to Ellie’s journal.

Hannah also wanted to contribute:
My afternoon job was to play with Ellie and hold one of the babies in her room. Cydil took my picture of the afternoon for the blog. I had a good afternoon with ellie. We come back to the hotel and watched a movie and write this update on the blog. I had fun seeing ellie this week and had fun with mom and Cydil in vlora. aunt Hannah