Some news from Coldwater Orphanage

Mom just returned from her latest trip to Albania last week. Before she left, she made a day-long visit to Vlora to visit Ellie's former orphanage. Mom e-mailed us some precious photos on Monday, including this one of two of Ellie's former caregivers that I thought I would share here. They're looking at some current photos of Ellie that Mom brought with her. While I know how much Ellie has changed since coming home with us in December, I shouldn't have been surprised to see that her old roommies have also changed significantly. Wow! All were still in the orphanage except one who went back to his family.

On a related note, last week we also got the exciting news that a little boy who lived in the room next door to Ellie was referred to a Bethany family in the States! We've exchanged a number of e-mails and are grateful that some of what we learned through our experiences during all those weeks in Vlora may be helpful to someone else. In seeing this little boy's picture, we were able to locate him in some photos from Ellie's farewell party.

Ever since we met those kids, we have prayed for them to find the love of a permanent family. And selfishly, I've prayed that one of them might end up with one of the families I have gotten to know who are in the process of adopting from Albania. In spite of these prayers, I can't begin to describe how surprised I was to get this exciting news (Ellie was the first child from Vlora that Bethany had ever in all their years of working in Albania placed with a family)! Even though he's not going to one of the prospective adoptive families I had gotten to know this year, we're getting to know this family quickly and I am just as excited! Their little boy is just 5 weeks older than Ellie. How nice it will be to have this connection with another child so close in age (even though he will be living a few states away)! God is good!