Monday AMThis is our post that didn’t make it last night because the power knocked out the internet. The second court appointment is in a few hours, so we will report on it later.
Sunday
Today we experienced another first! Nathan and I rode a microbus to Vlora! I don’t want to worry any of you by writing this, but some of our Albanian friends thought we were on a suicide mission as the drivers can be a bit, um, shall we say, fast in their driving? (Their pay is correlated to their passenger volume/number of trips). We did make it here quickly (about 2 ½ hours, including a brief stop for gas) but we never felt any danger, seriously. At the whopping price of $5/person, we felt like it was a good deal that would let our “regular” drivers have Sunday off.
We did take some precautions and not jump willy nilly in any old van. We met Mandi at an intersection near where the microbuses gather and he found his policeman friend who works that corner to recommend a safe driver to us. He also arranged for the driver to take us all the way to the hotel so we wouldn’t have to grab a cab after arriving in Vlora.
We got some lunch and dropped our things off in our hotel room and hiked up to Ellie’s orphanage. The door was locked and no one was on the first floor to hear our knocking so Nathan walked around the building and found an open back door and let me in. We were thrilled when we walked into Ellie’s room and her face broke into a smile and “ooh, ooh” noises. She seemed content to be held a good bit of our time this afternoon and even did well with an extended walk up and down the hallway. She only got cranky when she saw through the glass to the room next door where the caregivers ladled out the food into cups. When it came time to leave, she whined a bit when put in her crib. I don’t know if it was because we were leaving or she was just a little tired. I quickly located her favorite plastic purple watering can toy and she was content again. Another positive sign this evening was that the electricity was on this afternoon. All in all, it was a peaceful, relatively quiet afternoon in the children’s home.
Tomorrow we will spend the morning with her before our 2nd court hearing. The hearing is scheduled to take place at 2PM. We have gone back and forth between feeling anxious and peaceful about how it will unfold. Right now God has given us peace for tomorrow. We still covet your prayers. There is no guarantee that things will go well for us. This afternoon a sympathetic caregiver tried to ask us how it went on Friday. She seemed disappointed with us that we have to return tomorrow.
This verse was included in a friend’s blog yesterday and was an encouragement to us: john 16:33 "i have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. in the world you will have trouble, but take heart, for i have overcome the world.
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