An assortment of pics from Elbasan

I haven't been able to get these photos in the right order. The photo above goes below with the "park" pics. This is Ellie eating an icecream bar last night. Everything must taste better in Albania because she is eating everything we ask her too and more! Our picky eater has really impressed us. I know an ice cream bar doesn't seem too amazing, but this child doesn't like ice cream -- it's too cold! Or so she told us! This one was pretty amazing though. It might have been the three layers of chocolate (dark, white, and milk) that it was coated in.

A pic from this morning... we have a posse of friends everywhere we go.
This morning we met Lilly, a college student from Los Angelos. Herself an adoptee from China, she is spending the month at David Reni's orphanage to help the kids.

This spring I started receiving devotional e-mails from a sweet, godly woman I've had the privilege of hearing speak at a few women's conferences. You may not be familiar with her, but her devotionals have brought me wonderful truths. I thought I would share part of one that spoke to me today. This is from Aletha Hinthorn:

The more desperate our situation, the more it "calls for songs of loudest praise." Praising prepares the way for God to show Himself in our situation. If we truly praise, God will fulfill His promise to do what He says in Psalm 50:23: "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God." Think of praising as preparing a path for God's salvation.

We praise God for what He has done, but it is a greater blessing to praise Him for what He is going to do. We know that "the Judge of all the earth [will] do right" (Genesis 18:25). Our worship then has nothing to do with our circumstances, but everything to do with who God is.

If we could hear from those who have gone before us and who have Heaven's perspective, we would hear such excited exclamations as, "If you could only see as I do--how good good God's plans are! how faithful He is!--you would give praise!" Let's borrow Heaven's perspective, for as the hymnist wrote "Praise is His gracious choice."

Last night we visited "the park" for a second night in a row. Ellie enjoys it so much (well, we all do) that it may become part of our evening routine, weather permitting. The promise of "the park" gave her something to look forward to all afternoon. Below, you will see why:

Here we go, off to procure the photo needed for the embassy. We walked to the Italian pharmacy which the shop was supposed to be near, but we couldn't find it. They neglected to tell us it was about 1/2 a mile from the pharmacy. I guess 1/2 a mile is 'near'! Sister Mary Faustina came and took us the remainder of the way.

Above and below you see Sister Mary Faustina. My East African friends reading this blog will love to know she is from Mombasa!!! Her sweet accent is so comforting and familiar here. Completely not what we were expecting to encounter. We love that David Reni is partial to her too! There is one other Sister here from Kenya -- from near Uganda.
And yes, in the photo above she put a bib on David's head -- the sun was pretty intense. I know, it looks like a bonnet.

It was getting close to his lunch & nap time. Sister Mary Faustina told us that he eats quickly so he can go to sleep -- he likes his sleep!

A Butcher shop on the main street into Elbasan
Ellie asked if she could pet them.

We got a kick out of this shirt chosen for his embassy photo session today. It says, "Handsome, gorgeous boy, granny magnet."
We agree.

This is Duzi. She is David Reni's godmother and gave him the name, "David" at his baptism. She seems to be a sweet, sweet lady.