My first full day in Tirana is nearly behind me…

(Written Wednesday night)

Ellie and I didn’t get to sleep until early this morning.  She got quite worked up about seeing a weird shadow and hearing new noises outside her bedroom window so we ended up turning all the lights on and playing for a while to get her mind on something else.  The next thing I knew she was telling me it was morning and to wake up.  It was 9:33 and we were to meet Kerri about 3 blocks away in 27 minutes.  

Kerri was SUCH a help today.  You can now nearly walk through our entryway unobstructed!  The house was FILTHY!!!  There was dust and grit on everything and all had to be washed down before we could unpack.  But cleaning meant shopping for cleaning supplies and while we were at it, groceries, so off we went for the essentials.  Nathan and I brought phones with us to Albania, so I just had to go to the mobile shop and register for new numbers and purchase SIM cards. 

We also scheduled to have internet installed at the apartment (the clerk seemed quite surprised that I wasn’t getting cable TV too) and told me they should come sometime on Thursday – it can’t be soon enough, if you ask me!  Before returning home we stopped at a coffee shop to use wireless and I got my blog post up and sent my new phone number to a handful of folks just in time before my laptop battery died.   (I’m happy to send my number to anyone if you drop me an e-mail!)

I was able to talk to Mom and Dad and Nathan in between unpacking and reorganizing a few cabinets.  To all my friends from the Family Church in Gainesville who came to Albania in March – thank you for all of the food goodies you left us.  We look forward to eating those… but NOT what I thought was a bag of cinnamon and sugar.  I FOUND YOUR MISSING BAG OF SAND … after I had poor Kerri taste it to see what it was!  (It was in a ziplock labeled “cacciatore mix, add chicken broth”). J

Ellie’s highlights of the day were twofold:  1.) she found a gecko lizard in our apartment (“See Mom! I told you there were lizards in Albania!”) and 2.) her first tooth fell out (technically her two lower teeth were removed by the pediatric dentist).

We called our work ‘a day’ around 9PM tonight and now Ellie snores on the bed next to me.  Poor thing entertained herself quite well for a while today, frequently pulling out items I had just ‘put away’, but eventually she got bored.  Our collection of kids DVDs is in Nathan’s bag.  I’m a bit concerned about what our time is going to look like after Kerri leaves and before Nathan and Reni arrive!  She seems to think she’s entitled to something new and exciting every day she is here in the magical land of Albania (where she remembers from previous visits going to a different person’s home frequently in between eating a restaurants and visiting the kiddie amusement park rides at the park).  Real life will be not be quite the same as your memories, dear.

I’m about to crash so I will sign off.  Thanks for your prayers.  God is providing for our needs, including finally figuring out how to light our stove.

For updates on Mom, I hear that Nathan is posting updates to his Facebook page...Please keep praying.  There are some good signs, I hear, but I think progress is not as quick as the doctors would prefer.  She has not been able to come off sedation yet.

Expecting a visit from the tooth fairy!  We've been told the Albanian tradition is to throw it on the roof so the fairy can deliver it to a child in need of a tooth.