An afternoon in the nursery...

It's a quiet morning!  At this hour the house is usually humming with kids pulling out cereal bowls and dragging chairs to the table for breakfast but instead it's just Squanto (the bird) and me. 

 

We've had a very busy, full last week.  When guests are in Albania for only a short time, unsure if they will ever have the opportunity to return, I tend to pack the days as tight as possible, but last night we declared this morning would be a bit slower. 

 

As I was putting together the schedule for the Santors' time with us, it occurred to me that the girls might have fun volunteering at the maternity hospital in Tirana to hold abandoned babies. 

 

Of course, I had the ulterior motive of bringing Ellie to see the place where she was born and spent her first several weeks of life.

 

 

 

In the course of our Albanian studies last year I learned about a gathering of internationals not far from our apartment.  Curious, I attended one of their weekly coffees and discovered the group's charity of choice was OSAAB (the Organization for the Support of Albania's Abandoned Babies), which works to support the nursery where Ellie lived. 

 

There, I met the social worker who worked with Ellie's birthmother and through that encounter was able to later receive some valuable bits of information related to Ellie's story that never made it into our hands during the adoption process.

Ellie in the social worker's office

Of course since learning about OSAAB, we love any opportunity we have to support the work they do through raising funds and donations of supplies to cover needs like diapers, formula, cream, etc.

 

This is Ms. Claudia, an American who started OSAAB in 1996 -- since then more than 700 babies have come through the abandoned baby ward!  She explained the protocols and rules for holding the babies in the nursery.

 

Above, Mira (the social worker) shows before and after photos of the abandoned baby nursery.  Then she and Claudia went on to share the areas in which they continue to work to improve and enhance services, like their recent efforts to educate families who are surprised to give birth to babies with Down Syndrome.  Last month there were two such families and OSAAB was able to introduce them to the Jonathan Center, a local group of DS specialists who was able to share with them what a DS diagnosis means and both families chose to take their babies home with them.

Then it was time to see the babies!

 

Ellie got lots of love meeting two nursery workers who worked there at the time she was born.

 

Before we left we were able to thank Claudia and Mira for all the work they do to help the babies they receive get the care and love they deserve before moving them on for the possibility of adoption.