Rainy Evening Report from Tirana

It's a quiet evening in Tirana.  Falling rain has chased all the animals and people under cover.  Their are no dogs barking, no horns beeping, and no music blaring.  The heater quietly blows warm air beside me and there is little sound to remind me that I'm in a large city.

Today was filled with more visits.  A visit with our friends from Bethany Christian Services, a visit with our friend, Altin, at his office, and an evening spent in Vlashaj for evening Church!  We have a few more visits remaining, and if we can see everyone on our list, it will feel like a successful trip.  So far, so good!

Tomorrow is the big day to travel to Elbasan and we are quite excited for this little reunion.  I hope that we can capture much of it on videotape (it they permit).  If you recall, my departure from Elbasan was hasty because of Nathan's sudden illness.  I didn't feel I had closure, never saying 'goodbye' nor having a chance to convey my gratitude to Reni's caregivers, so I really hope that a few key individuals are present.  

Also, I've learned that we might have had a bit of miscommunication with our friends there and I hope we can get things straightened out.  While we were in Elbasan in 2010, we met a little boy (JM) who had been isolated from the other children for a virus he contracted during birth.  He was a sweet little fella, but given his medical concerns, the Sisters knew he would be harder to place with an adoptive family.  They asked if we would be able to advocate on his behalf, and we agreed to do what we could when and if he became eligible for American adoption.  In April 2011, Sister Rosita e-mailed me to let me know that they were submitting his papers to the Albanian Adoption Committee.  Understanding how the process works here, I knew that JM's future lay in the hands of the AAC and to which agency they referred him.  Unless his file was referred to Bethany, there would be little we could do for him because Bethany is the only agency licensed to facilitate Albanian adoptions to American families.  I tried my best to find out where his paperwork landed, but didn't get anywhere.  Apparently, just 2 weeks ago he was given to Bethany as a referral. Then yesterday, when visiting with our friends at Bethany, I learned that the Sisters were under the impression that we had found a family wanting to adopt JM! GULP!  Can you pray with us first of all, that a family can be found for JM, but secondly, for the Sisters as they receive the news that we do not yet know who that family is?  I'm sure they will be sorely disappointed. 

While we would advocate for any orphan whom we knew needed a family, this little boy is particularly special because Reni's caregiver, Duzi, had chosen JM as her next 'project child' after Reni. And we can testify that her love was awfully special and significant in helping Reni attach to us.  So if JM is under Duzi's love, we're confident he's going to have a heart ready to receive and give love too.  

If you read all that, thank you!  Without further ado, here are the photos!

Reni loves peering out the windows at the passing scenery.  He really drinks it all in!   I'm sure he recognizes that it's all quite different from Kentucky!

Last night we visited a dear brother in Christ, Arjan (Ari-yon), his wife, Luli (which translated, means 'Flower'), and they're baby girl, Anya.  What a sweet, sweet family!

Funny story, as we went to leave from the Beqiri's home, we got trapped in the parking lot by a moving truck who chose a poor place to load.  It wasn't long before a queue of vehicles formed on both sides of the truck, all beeping their horns to convey their impatience.  Eventually, some drivers got out of their cars and voices were raised towards the people loading up.  We thought it might come to something even more 'exciting', but thankfully they were able to get things tied down sufficiently and were on their way after 15 minutes or of waiting.  As we followed them out to the main road, we noticed the 2 guys protecting the goods.  I would NOT want to be riding where they are when that truck has to make a turn!

Here we are with Bob Watanabe (left), Bethany intern from Boston, Taylor (center), and Alma who helped us with both Ellie and Reni's adoptions.  Joann, Alma is going to convey your greetings to Agim!

Ellie quickly got reacquainted with our friend, Ani.

You may not be able to tell from these images, but he's in his 3rd year of pre-med school!

Nathan shared a brief word of encouragement tonight at church from Hebrews 10 and shared about our family's plans to move to their community!  (We got cheers which was very encouraging!)

some awesome friends who put on a puppet show for the kids.  it was all in Shqip, so I don't really know what the plot was, but it was cute, nevertheless.