Two sleeps until two grannies!

Elisona measures time by how many sleeps there are until a particular event. On Friday, my parents will be arriving in Albania to spend some time with us and to meet David Reni. Since Cydil's mom is already in Albania this will mean that both of Ellie's grandmas will be in the same place at the same time. That is a rare occurrence, but seems even more extraordinary since it is occurring here in Albania. Today Ellie announced proudly, "Two sleeps until two grannies!"

This seemingly 'normal' day here in Elbasan became a little bit of a celebration in the afternoon as one of Reni's friends Elaina was granted permission to leave the orphanage for her 'forever home' in Vlora, Albania. There was a flurry of excitement as everyone hastily said their goodbyes. Many of the kids wanted to get in on the final group picture. Elaina is in middle back. Reni is being held by his favorite Sister on the front row.

My patented duck noise got most of the kids looking as Cydil snapped this picture.

Here is Elaina with her new parents! I love how happy all of them look! I hope their long drive to Vlora is much better than our first drive from Vlora with Ellie. She screamed the whole way!!

After seeing Elaina off, we stayed outside where is was quiet and played with Ellie and David Reni.

Reni is so alert and curious. This afternoon Cydil finally heard the 'MaMa' that I heard yesterday. Now to work on 'Ellie'!

My goatee is a point of interest for Reni (as well as a lot of the other kids), but he doesn't pull it. Instead he strokes it and 'looks' for my mouth. We played a game for a while today where I held a straw in my lips and pretended to be unable to speak until he pulled it out. It got quite a few laughs which always melts my heart.

Tomorrow will be the last day this week we will be in Elbasan. With my parents arriving at noon on Friday, we will be meeting them in Tirana. With the change in locations, tomorrow's blog may be later and shorter. I am slowly collecting pictures for things not to do while in Albania. That should be a fun blog! :-)

On a separate note. We want to officially congratulate our friends the Kinnells from Wilmore who found out today that they have passed court in Ethiopia and are now the parents of two boys! We celebrate with you and can't wait to meet them! (to read their story and see pictures of their boys visit http://kinnells.blogspot.com)