Please Pray!

Today with Elisona was the best day we have had so far. She was pleasant all morning with lots of un-solicited smiles (and some from daddy’s tickles). She put weight on her legs for the first time as well this morning, and while she needed help with balance, she definitely was standing. Then the thing that got this daddy’s heart the most was that right before lunch, she fell asleep in my arms! She has a cute little snore! This afternoon was also good with more “talking” than ever before. I am sure I heard a DaDa in there somewhere, but even if I did, it was at excitement with a toy and not directed to me. Right before supper and bedtime, Ellie started playing with my goatee. Those minutes were the best “face to face” times I have had since I have been here.

So we must be going to bed with happy hearts right? Unfortunately, there are some unexpected bumps in the road that we have been navigating today. First, we found out at 11:30 this morning that a psychologist needed to observe us with Elisona before the court date tomorrow. The observation went well, and we feel that he is going to recommend us. The only problem is that he will not have his report done by tomorrow and so we will have to have another court date. The 15 day waiting period will not start until the second date and by law, I (Nathan) have to be there. I have to leave on Saturday to finish out the teaching semester at Asbury, and close up shop for the semester at WGM, so by the letter of the law, the second court date would not be until at least Dec. 18th leaving Ellisona in the orphanage for another month and setting our return back to the states another two weeks at least! We also found out today that the orphanage doesn’t have electricity which is the only way to heat it. Thankfully this has been an unusually warm week, but we shudder to think about what things will be like for Ellie and the other children when the temperatures return to their normal cold! Not to mention that it gets dark here at 4:15 PM.

Please! Please pray! Pray that the judge would do what is best for Ellisona. Pray that God’s hand would be shown in this situation. Pray that God would give us the strength to accept the outcome of the court case tomorrow. Pray that we would be good witnesses for him by our actions and reactions.

Wednesday in Vlore

The week is more than halfway over! I wondered what we would do with so much time at the orphanage each day, but it seems to fly! Today we decided to take Ellie on walks up and down the corridor outside of her room. Even this seemed scary for her and ended when it seemed she could hold the whimpers in no more. How long before we venture for the stairwell, and then 2^nd floor? She’s on the third floor – at this rate it will be February before we get out the front door!

We forgot to mention yesterday the visit by the local doctor. He seemed like a kindly man. It was sort of humorous to us that his rounds seemed to consist of walking from crib to crib, touching each child on the cheek, tousling their hair, and moving on. One child must have figured out the way to get attention because he started coughing as soon as he recognized the man who walked into the room! (It was to no avail though). I think we really underestimate the children’s intelligence.

Today Ellie definitely recognized us when we came in, but it seems like she’s just tolerating us. We try to remind ourselves that she’s learned to live by herself and to be smothered with attention by two adults at the same time must certainly be annoying! Nathan had the good idea of sitting her in her stroller in her room since she seemed to enjoy sitting in the walker so much. I was surprised that she didn’t seem to mind it at all! I think she was just happy not to be in our laps or arms. Eventually we took the stroller out in the corridor and pushed it up and down the hall close to a dozen times until we couldn’t take the look of sheer terror on her face any longer.

I guess she doesn’t seem to be progressing as quickly as we would like. Nathan is really anxious to see progress as he only has tomorrow and perhaps an hour on Friday morning remaining with her before our appearance in court at noon. Saturday, Nathan flies back to KY to finish teaching this semester at Asbury and wrapping up WGM Student center ministeries until January.

One “new” feat we witnessed (though supposedly she’s been doing this for months) was Ellie crawling across the carpet, albeit slowly. Before today she would lay down and roll, or drag and pull herself with one leg while seated. It’s possible that mom and dad are too quick to get things for her. We also saw her first hesitation to eat lunch today. After sampling lunch today, she pushed the cup away and refused to eat more. One of the caregivers (“the loud one”)* witnessed the exchange, stirred in a couple teaspoons of sugar, and returned it to an eager eater.

Thank you for your comments and e-mails. We so appreciate your prayers on our behalf.

*we’ve knick named each of the caregivers. There’s the “old one”, the “short one”, the “nice one”, and the “loud one,” to name a few. We think the “loud one” believes we’ll understand her better if she raises her voice when speaking to us in Albanian. Isn’t that hilarious?

Independance Day?

Maybe it was fitting on Albania’s Independence Day that we would use today as an opportunity to take Ellie out of the orphanage for a little walk. This exercise was extremely traumatic for our poor little girl. Linus has his security blanket, Ellie has the ceiling of her nursery. As she got outside and tilted her head back to find comfort in the ceiling fan, all she saw was a bright sunny sky, not to mention she kept looking away from us which meant looking towards the sun. We barely left the gates when the first whines started which we seemed to be able to console when getting in the shade and stopping for a while.

A sweet Albanian “gjusha” (grandmother) quickly identified us a foreigners with a baby from the Shtepia Fermijes (the children’s home). Thankfully at this point Ellie was mollified while the gjusha pinched her cheeks and pointed at us asking Ellie, “Ku Mommi & Bobbi?” By now Ellie was getting heavy so the stroller seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t. After picking her back up and crossing the street to get to more shade at a little snack shop on the “beach” for soft drinks, the real crying began. Ellie could only be consoled when standing in a corner where she could find solace in staring at a blank wall. As soon as she turned her head and saw the sea, the crying began even harder than before. Needless to say, the hour and a half we intended to enjoy in fresh air and sunshine turned into much less. Unfortunately, carrying a heavy, crying baby up a hillside with a stream of public bus riders, was exhausting. Emotionally and physically. As if we didn’t stick out already!

Shortly after returning to the friendly confines of her nursery, Ellie calmed down again. That’s when we snatched her roommates out of their cribs to get this photo. Only Gergi is missing. He disappears for hours at a time and we don’t know where he goes, but we have a feeling it’s a better place. He seems to be the caregivers’ favorite.

As for future trips to the great outdoors…as the older caregiver sweetly said when we returned with a crying Ellisona, “Avash, Avash” (Slowly, Slowly).
This was taken on our walk back to the hotel from the orphanage (about 4:30pm). The water was much rougher. Rain tomorrow?

Her middle name is "Joy"!

We arrived early enough this morning that we got to witness bathtime. Ellie got the strip down, plopped in a plastic tub on the floor, the older caregiver dropped a quarter cup of orange liquid soap on her head while lady number two lathered it into her hair, then behind her ears, around her neck and the rest of her body while lady number 3 dumped cupfuls of water continuously over her head. She howled and gasped for air. From there she was tossed on the changing table, wrapped in a fluffy towel and rubbed down, then dusted with powder and diapered. You would have been amazed at their efficiency. I wonder how many of those they do in a year? After the diapering she got some thick tights, a onesie, a purple sweatshirt, a fleece hoodie, and rose-colored corduroy bibs and purple knit slippers.

We played on the floor in her room for the morning. We brought one of those books with the cardboard “windows.” After opening the first window for her, she immediately started scratching at opening the second. The next item she liked was mom’s sunglasses. She was fascinated with looking at her reflection. Nathan recalled a flower rattle that was a favorite of Rebecca’s for the mirror on its reverse side. He’s going to try to find her something similar when he goes back to KY. Midway through the morning we put her in the walker which she really enjoyed. I think she may have been feeling a little smothered. Why would she feel that way?

Feeding time continues to amaze us. This girl is insane about her food. Today she went bananas when it was all gone and couldn’t be consoled for a while. I really don’t know where she puts it. I could hardly eat that much myself! Mom and Dad are still obviously newbies. She gets frustrated at us if we’re not tipping the cup just right to keep the food flowing at the right rate. Meanwhile, a new caregiver I hadn’t seen before this afternoon is holding 2 cups and feeding two at once, encouraging them with “spate, spate!” (faster, faster)!

We were able to shoot a little video today. The title of this post will make more sense after viewing it.

Sunday night in Vloré

Well, today has been quite a day!  We attended church this morning at Grace Church in Tirana.  It's the church that meets in the former dictator's home!  The worship and scripture reading were very meaningful. Here's some of the verses that were read from Psalm 103 which made us think of Ellie:  "…who redeemed your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things   so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed."  (We didn't write much about it, but our visit on Friday was really hard on all of us, seeing the reality of orphanage life, in particular being forced to consider what Ellie's life has been like up until now and what kind of challenges we may face retraining her in appropriate ways to receive attention).

 

From church we ate a quick lunch and then were picked up by Bethany staff and driven to Vlora.  The drive was nice as the weather was gorgeous and we were able to roll the windows down a few inches to enjoy the fresh country air.  It's a dramatic drive into Vlora.  Coming from the north, one drives through some steep hills covered with olive trees, then driving around a corner, the hills split and you're looking down on a city on a harbor.  One could say Vlora sits in the bottom of a bowl, surrounded by mountains on three sides hugged by the edge of the sea on the fourth. Our driver told us that the harbor in Vlora is the deepest in the Adriatic.  It's not difficult to believe by the size of the ships sitting just a few hundred yards off shore. 

 

Alma offered to take us over to the orphanage to see Ellie this afternoon -- something we weren't expecting to do.  After quickly checking into the hotel and dropping off our luggage, we drove over to the orphanage and had over an hour with Ellie this afternoon while Alma and the driver had a meal.  It was such a good visit.  I think Friday's visit was a bit overwhelming for Ellie with all of the new people and new attention.  This afternoon she seemed to recognize Nathan and I and didn't exhibit some of the nervous traits that she displayed so much last week (throwing her head back and looking at the ceiling). This was very rewarding for us.  We still didn't have much eye contact, but we definitely felt like we connected a lot more than in our first visit.  The ladies at the orphanage laid out a soft blanket on the floor and we sat and enjoyed getting to watch her play.  The stuffed animals didn't hold her interest in the least, even though one of them rattled.  However, Nathan had the brilliant idea to introduce her to a beaded bracelet I was wearing.  She probably played with it for 45 minutes, passing it back and forth between her hands.  If she dropped it on the floor she would hook it with her index finger to pick it up (instead of grabbing it with her whole hand).  Occasionally we would set it just out of reach to see how she would get herself over to pick up the object of her desire.  It was fun to hear her little grunts while she scooted on her bottom and then her look of concentration on such a simple item. Her hands seem so small, especially watching how she manipulates each little finger so precisely.  Eventually she started initiating more physical contact, like opening and closing my fingers and patting the palm of my hand.  If we initiated the contact, she would withdraw a bit, but if it was on her terms, she was fine.  After a while it was time for supper -- another mug of something warm.  Boy, was she excited!  She gulped it down even faster than Friday's chicken/rice meal and started fussing when I would pull it away to wipe her mouth and face.  We were excited to hear another new sound coming out of her, even if she was mildly upset!  Are we strange?  By then it was time to go, and we were pleased to see her follow us out of the room with her eyes after we set her back in her crib. 

 

The time went really fast.  We look forward to seeing what each new visit this week will bring, especially to the day when we walk in and she demonstrates that she's excited to see us!  It's really funny, nice, and strange to hear the caregivers talk about us as Elisona's Mommy & Bobbi (Albanian for "daddy").  Yeah, even though we're not fluent in Albanian, we do know when they're talking about us, even through a plexi-glass window!  I'm sure it will feel more natural as time passes, but for now, it's kind of like how it felt to be referred to as Nathan's "wife" the first few weeks after getting married.  Surreal, but nice.

 

Our hearts break for the kids in her room.  Four of them sit in their cribs and look longingly at us playing with Ellie.  Occasionally they will throw one of their toys on the floor so we'll pick it up and give it back to them.  The fifth one just sleeps – he slept Friday morning, and he slept this afternoon – we've intentionally avoided naptime to respect the schedule the kids are on.  We have no idea how many of them are eligible for adoption, but we can tell they long for affectionate interaction.  On Friday my mom picked one up and he just laid his head on her shoulder and soaked up a long hug.  This afternoon if one of them cried, Ellie would stop what she was doing and turn to see who was the cause of the noise.  She seems to have a very gentle spirit.

 

This week is gearing up for Friday's court date.  If you would feel led to pray for us, you can pray that we might find favor in the eyes of the judge.  Nathan is flying back to Kentucky on Saturday so he can finish out the semester and give final exams in the media classes he is teaching.  We really need the judge to approve everything in this one appointment Friday, and not to call for a second hearing. If he calls for a second hearing then it wouldn't be able to be scheduled until Nathan returns to Albania the week of December 18.  Such a delay would set us back a minimum of 2 weeks before we can take custody of Elisona.  If the judge can complete everything to his satisfaction on Friday, then the 15-day count down begins and we can bring Ellie back to Tirana the day Nathan returns from the States!  After this afternoon's play session, we can't take her home soon enough!!!

 

Before I sign off, the count is now up to about 119 Albanians (not really that many, but a lot) who have pointed out that Ellie looks like her daddy!  Today, one of the caregivers specifically drew her finger over Ellie's eyebrows and pointed to Nathan's smiling and laughing. J  On Saturday Mandi said, "You will have no problem at the airport with the passport – they will just look at you and look at her and say, 'You are her father!'"

 

Thanks for your prayers on our behalf.  We are sensing them by the peace in our hearts.

 

 

 

Saturday in Tirana

Today was more like the typical day we have experienced here in Albania during our past visits.  We left this morning for Vlashi for a Planters Bible Club (www.planters.org).  We were hosted by the Albanian directors in the village and had a chance to see youth studying English who have been parts of the Bible clubs for many years.  It was great also to catch up with some old friends from the Bright Star team (Planters Albanian staff).  We also had the chance to eat Mexican food for lunch and Chinese food for dinner.  What a great place!

As nice as today was though, we are more excited about heading back to Vlore tomorrow (Sunday).  We will not have a chance to visit Ellisona until Monday morning, but we will have all day with her on Monday as well as every day next week until the court date on Friday at noon.  Keep praying for us for that day.

In Vlore, we will have to walk to an internet café each evening, and we are not sure how that is going to work, but we will do our best to keep you all informed!  Thank you for your encouraging posts and e-mails!

Nathan

Visiting Ellie for the first time!!

(above) The view from Ellie's room

Well, the day we were waiting for finally came today. We, along with a photography team of Cydil's parents and sister, drove the 3+ hours to Vlore to visit Ellisona. Because of the slow internet connection here in Albania, we are posting additional pictures in the form of a slide show (click here).

Ellie resisted much snuggling which is what we desperately wanted to do, but you can see through the slide show that she did begin to warm up to us by the end. She appears to have a gentle nature and the only sounds we heard from her were laughs at the end due to tickling and the slurping she made when devouring her lunch. Incidentally, the laughs came after the eating (which makes us believe she'll fit in well with the Waggoner family).

Our flights went without a hitch! And our luggage all arrived! We visited Bethany's office straight from the airport and made arrangements for our trip to Vlora tomorrow!
Now we're going to get some showers and settle in!

we're here!

It was a beautiful landing this morning! I always forget how mountainous it is here!Loading up the van...
Albania's only airport bears the name of her most famous daughter...

This photo is for our friends, Steve & Anita... Yes, they really did pave the alley and install street lights and a sidewalk!!!

Thanksgiving Dinner!

After 23 and one half hours of traveling, we landed at Rinas Airport 30 minutes early! Of course, it’s always so nice to wheel the luggage cart out of the airport and look over the heads of the taxi drivers to find your family’s smiling faces there to greet you! You can feel the stress of travel just lift off your shoulders. Thanks to our very experienced driver, Mandi, we took some side-roads to avoid some of the congestion driving into Tirana, but it was still pretty heavy, even at 1:30 in the afternoon.

I always remember this trip from the airport to Tirana each time I visit Albania because it’s always fascinating to see what new changes have taken place since my last visit. There’s always a weird co-existence on display here of progress and “old Albania.” Like the old lady with her white head scarf grazing her cow on the little patch of grass around the side of the auto strata overpass – which in itself is something to marvel considering that just 10 years ago it was a windy, unmarked road barely wide enough for two-way traffic through a countryside dotted with groves of olive trees and concrete bunkers. Today it’s a four-lane road lined with gas stations, appliance stores, several un-finished “bar-restaurants”, numerous bill boards, and a Mercedes dealership. And just off the busy road, what used to be quiet little villages are now growing into little suburbs of Tirana, popular with those who would prefer residential living in a house with a garden to a high-rise. (In a country with frequent power outages, I could never understand anyone who would buy an apartment in 12-story building. I mean, who wants to carry their groceries up that many flights of stairs?)

We got a call on Mom’s cell from Cathy Watanabe (one of the house parents at Bethany’s home for 0-3 year-olds) that her husband Bob made the trip to greet us at the airport – but we missed him! (Probably because he wasn’t expecting us to arrive early!) We went straight to Bethany to see Alma, the assistant who will help us through many of the hoops that we have to jump, to set up plans for our Friday trip to Vlora to see Ellie. Alma wasn’t expecting us that early either and had gone to the bank so we waited at the Watanabe’s apartment (which is in the Hannah House on the Bethany compound). Bob arrived soon after and we enjoyed getting acquainted with them as well as meeting some of their 4 children and their newly adopted cat, Pickles! The Watanabes just moved to Albania in September. Bob was very excited to pull out a video camera and show us some of the footage he got of Ellie on Monday when he traveled to perform her assessment. It was so exciting and reassuring to hear her laughter and giggles for the first time and it made us yearn to get there and hear them in person! She was shown bundled up in several layers of clothing, playing on a rug on her tummy with a plastic toy. True to what we had read in the assessment, she did look tired as she was fighting to keep her eyes open at some points (recall an earlier post when we shared that the caregivers wake the children at 5AM every morning)! Because of her schedule, we are going to leave Tirana by 7:30 Friday morning to arrive in Vlore by 10 or 10:30 and get some time with her before she crashes for lunch and a nap. Before we head back to Tirana we’ll look for a hotel in Vlora which will be Nathan’s and my home for all of next week.

As we left Bethany, it started raining pretty heavily. Fortunately Mandi had dropped us off for our meeting with Alma and already brought Mom, Dad, Hannah, and our luggage back to the apartment. Mom and Dad’s place was toasty warm and Mom was working away at Thanksgiving dinner when we arrived! Dad stepped out in the pouring rain to pick up a fresh rotisserie chicken around the corner at Mr. Chicken (we were grateful that this great little shop re-opened after fears of the bird-flu subsided and people in Tirana began eating chicken again). We didn’t even miss turkey as Mom put together a spread of mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, cranberry sauce, corn bread casserole, and stuffing! Sadly we didn’t have room for the apple and pumpkin pies she and Hannah also made for dessert (there’s nothing like airplane travel and food to take away one’s appetite). Maybe Friday night? While we were in the kitchen getting the food on the table Mom reminded me that it was the day after Thanksgiving 2005 when I told dad and her that we were going to start the process of adopting a little one from Albania. Little did we know we would be here just one year later! We ate around 5 PM but it was already so dark that our weary, jet-lagged bodies thought it was much later. Even after posting some photos, showering, and unpacking some of our bags, we crashed in bed at 7:30.

Our next post should have photos of us with Ellie! YAAAAYYY!

On our way!

How many elephants can you fit in a VW bug? I still don’t know the answer, but I do have a better idea of how much can (and can’t) fit in a GrandAm. This morning our friend Mark drove us to the airport in Cincinnati on his way home to Ohio for Thanksgiving. We were able to get two of our huge duffle bags in his trunk, two in the back seat between poor Cydil and Sophia (another Asbury student on her way home for break) who were crammed in there too; both with bags under their legs and on their laps. Then there was me, in the front seat with a bag under my legs, one on my lap, and our shiny new Jeep stroller carefully placed under my chin and against the windshield. This was one time when I wished there wasn’t a passenger-side airbag as I had visions of a permanent indention of the Jeep logo on my forehead. Thankfully we made it to the airport safely and I now have an appreciation of all of the space I will have in coach during the long flights.

Last night we received another update/evaluation on Elisona. There wasn’t a lot of new information, but it was nice to have and has made us even more eager to get to Albania and spend time with her. Below is the last couple of sentences of summary in the evaluation:
“She appears to be behind in development of speech and gross motor skills, but in my opinion, this has more to do with “institutionalization” than with any physical or mental deficits. I think that a loving family setting, with consistent one-to-one attention, would bring out the full potential of this beautiful little girl.”

That sounds like some encouragement we recently received from my Aunt Ruth when she said lots of love can cure almost anything.

We plan to travel down to Vlore on Friday to meet her. Continue to pray! You can use the clock on the right side of this blog to see what time it is there in Albania and have a better idea of what we might be up to. We hope to be able to report often from Albania, but are unsure of the internet situation in Vlore.

Thanks for your prayers and support! We’re almost there!
Nathan

we leave tomorrow!

Our bags are packed and in the car. We still have some housekeeping/student center details to wrap up yet this evening, but we are mostly ready to go!

We learned today that we'll get to see Elisona on Friday! We'll make the trip to Vlore just a day trip to see her, find a hotel, and scout out the town. Then we'll come back to Tirana for Friday and Saturday nights (we'll be sure to send photos & blog report then). Sunday we will drive back to Vlore and remain there for the rest of the week. That's the plan so far, of course a lot can change between now and then.

Tomorrow will be a long day of traveling... we leave Cincinnati early Wednesday afternoon and will land in Albania around 1PM Thursday. From the airport we will probably head straight to Bethany's offices before it closes for the day to meet the folks who will be accompanying us on Friday's visit to Elisona.

Thank you for your prayers thus far! It's hard to believe that next time I'm back here we'll have a little girl in tow!

another "mini" update

We received a phone call from my mother this afternoon. She had just gotten off the phone with one of the Bethany volunteers who made a trip to Vlore today to perform an evaluation on Ellie. He told mom that one of the reasons why she looks a little tired or crabby in her photos is that the orphanage wakes all the children up at 5AM every day! So by the time the Tirana folks arrive to do evaluations, the kids are ready for naptime! Mom also learned that Ellie isn't putting any weight on her legs yet. We're guessing she's easier to watch if she's not moving so she's probably not encouraged in that direction. We'll be surprised if she's not cruising around within a month or two after coming home! Then we'll be missing the days when she was easier to keep an eye on! That's all we know for now as we lost our phone connection. We're hoping to get another batch of photos before we leave so check back tomorrow!

We have a court date...

Okay! We finally learned of our court date! It's set for December 1 -- which was the very last day that we could work it in with Nathan's return trip to the States (his return ticket is reserved for December 2). It turns out that November 28 & 29 are Albania's Independence Day celebrations (like our July 4) so we were asking for an appointment during the week of a major national holiday. We will get to see Ellie before the court date though, possibly as soon as the day after we arrive!

The bags are (mostly) packed, but the "to-do list" is still rather long. Our tickets arrived via UPS this morning and we'll be traveling on one of the busiest travel days of the year: the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We'll probably be some of the few people waiting in line at security with smiles on our faces.

Well, that's all the news for now! Thanks for praying!

...think she'll be a Buckeye fan?

I hope Ellie likes the color red. I have a feeling she may have a lot of it in her closet as she grows up...
Here we have Nathan and Reagan earlier today sporting the proper attire for this afternoon's "Game of the Century."

A surprise shower for the orphanage kids in Ellie's honor...

Last night we went out to Panera with our discipleship groups. Little did we know it was a ploy to get us out of the house while others decorated and set up a surprise party for us!
[NEW: scroll to the bottom of this post to view a short video from the evening!]

The chief architects of the surprise... (see the butterflies? It's a little element I've incorporated into Ellie's room and something Faith added to the cake. Wasn't that thoughtful?)

Luke told me this wasn't his first time attending a baby shower. Hmmm.

Steph & Frederica did a great job decorating! The balloons were a little too much fun for some... :-)
Mark would like to convert at least one Albanian into cheering for the University of Kentucky. Supposedly Ellie's got one coming her way too.
Collected for the kids in Ellie's orphanage:
47 pairs of socks

24 onesies

7 blankets

6 t-shirts

6 bibs

6 sippy cups

6 pacifiers

6 stuffed animals

5 bottles

5 sleepers

5 complete outfits

4 cozy sweatshirts

3 pairs of shorts

3 shirts

2 pairs of sweatpants

2 teething rings

2 children's spoons

1 hat & gloves set

1 Mr. Potato Head

1 University of Kentucky jogging suit
& Lots of love from our Asbury friends...

THANK YOU EVERYONE! WE ARE SO BLESSED! YOU ARE LOVED AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO BRING ELLIE HOME TO MEET YOU ALL!

new photos!!!

It looks like we have a serious thumb-sucker! :-)

We hit send & receive this morning and unexpectedly got these photos of Elisona taken last Friday... These are the first we've seen of her since her referral photos which were taken on September 29 (see our first blog entry, "Introducing Ellie"). She's changing so much! We're expecting to get some more photos of her on Tuesday when another formal assessment of her is taken. Apparently the volunteers were in to assess another child in the same orphanage and snapped these photos for us during lunch time.

Elisona turns 17 months today!...

...Lord willing, we will be with her when she turns 18 months!

tickets on hold...

After some strategizing over the calendar, we have decided to make a leap of faith and line up tickets to leave next week. Wednesday, to be exact. Because the in-country adoption process takes 5 weeks under optimal circumstances, if our court date doesn't take place this month, our in-country time could be extended by close to 50% due to government offices being closed for the Christmas/New Year's holidays.

Since our last update, we have learned that our court appointment will be set on Monday (11/20). With our itinerary in hand, our advocate should be able to request a hearing of the judge for us sometime during the window of time that both of us will be in Albania, 11/24-12/1. (On 12/2, Nathan will need to return to Kentucky to finish out the semester.)

If it ends up that we learn on Monday that the judge couldn't accomodate our request and decided to put us on his schedule for a date after December 1, we should have enough time to change our tickets and plan our new trip around the definitive court date. HOWEVER, a court date after December 1 means that we won't be able to take custody of Elisona until December 19 at the earliest (because of the madatory 15-day waiting period). It's estimated that it will take about 3 weeks after gaining custody to line up her medical exams, apply for and obtain her passport, and then get her American and any necessary transit visas. You can imagine how "quickly" that would go here in America between offices being closed for official holidays and specific, important personnel out of the office for vacation! We expect it will be even more complicated for us over there.

So, the tickets are on hold and we are going to wait to buy them until Bethany-Albania has an opportunity to respond to this new plan. We should hear something by 10AM tomorrow.

In the mean time, you can pray over the selection process on Friday (Friday the judges draw lots to see which one will hear our case). Then, you can pray for Monday's meeting between our advocate (not to be confused with "lawyer" -- the Albanian word for lawyer actually sounds similar to the English word "advocate", but of course is spelled differently) and the judge, that he won't feel hemmed in by our date request and somewhat tight schedule. Ideally, a court date on Monday, 11/27 would be the best! Then the countdown for the 15-day waiting period for custody can begin!

Nathan said that if this blog had such a thing as a "happy meter," it would have been on both ends of the scale in just the last 24-48 hours!

Monday, November 13

This morning we learned that our paperwork was submitted on Friday to the courts. The Bethany rep had been hopeful that she would get a date assigned for us the same day but apparently the judges will draw lots to see which one will handle our case, then set our date according to his/her schedule. So, we wait again for the next bit of information which should come "sometime this week."

Over the weekend we packed 2 of our 4 bags. We also made a little video of our house, including some video of our dog, Reagan, to introduce Ellie to what we'll be bringing her home to. We've spent a lot of time wondering how Ellie and Reagan will respond to each other when they first meet. We've thought it might be good to be home a day or so with Ellie before bringing Reagan back from the place where he'll be staying so Ellie can get comfortable here before we introduce the sometimes very exciteable dog!

Thanks for continuing to pray for us in this process! We hope our next post has more definitive news!

Saturday morning...

We woke up this morning to a phone call from my Dad. He's still in Green Valley, but leaving for Albania on Tuesday. He called to let us know that he finally reached Mom this morning and that she and Hannah arrived safely in Tirana on Friday. He tried numerous times to reach them by phone yesterday but apparently the phone lines into and out of Albania were down Friday, which explained why Bethany (USA) couldn't reach the rep in Vlore yesterday about whether or not she got a court date assigned to us.

So... we will wait until Monday when hopefully Bethany (USA) will either be able to reach the rep by phone or e-mail (assuming she traveled back to Tirana over the weekend and will be back in the office on Monday).

Meanwhile Mom told Dad that she learned through Pepper that Ellie's orphanage is quite small -- there are only 20 children in it! That could mean she's gotten a lot more attention than we imagined which is good. That's all we know for now. We'll try to be patient and wait until Monday, but we feel like we are soooo close to going over!

November 9 update

Hello friends!

We just learned this morning that the Bethany rep is traveling to Vlore tomorrow and hopes to get our court date the same day! It's so good to know something. It's amazing how the excitement from learning one piece of news is replaced so quickly by the desire to know the next bit, especially when one doesn't know when to expect it.

Since knowing that our acceptance documents were approved last Friday, that excitement quickly evaporated as we began to get anxious to know our court date. The information received today helps us get a better idea when we might hear "this next bit" which will allow us to make travel plans. Nathan remains optimistic that we may be eating Thanksgiving turkey in Tirana!

While in reality it hasn't been "that long," the days since October 5 feel like they have crawled.
It's good to know that we might know our travel dates by Monday!

Please pray that we might be granted a court date tomorrow. May you also pray for God's perfect timing in it all? We have a lot of details to wrap up before we leave, though some are continually being checked off the list, it seems like each item is replaced by 2-3 others!

Thank you so much! We love and appreciate you! -- cnw

November 3 update

We crossed another hurdle today! The AAC met this morning and approved our match with Ellie and have released our paperwork to be delivered by our BCS rep to the judge in Vlora! She will deliver the paperwork sometime next week. Though we have no clear idea when we'll hear of our court date, it's possible it could take place within 2-4 weeks!

We were concerned that since the AAC meeting didn't occur last week that perhaps they wouldn't meet again until the end of the November. So even though we still do not know our travel dates, we are grateful that our paperwork is moving again.

Thank you to those who have been praying with us that the committee would meet this week! Now may we ask you to pray that our paperwork will get to Vlore without delay and that we might be assigned an early court date? Of course we are anxious to see Ellie, but we are also concerned that a later court date will push our timeline later into December/early January when government offices may be closed. Our desire has been to get back to Kentucky with some time to adjust before the spring semester resumes on January 15.
We are grateful for your continued interest and concern. --cnw