Still waiting to go.....

I'm not feeling very patient! Tad and I are both at the point where we just want to know when, it's getting harder and harder to wait. Work is staying very busy for both of us and since we don't know when we leave, we haven't wanted to start turning it away. I have a feeling that we will be scrambling once we get the OK.

We've heard that we can stay in Vlora if we want, but we'd have to stay in a hotel and we should expect that no one (including the orphanage workers) will speak English. Our other option is to stay in Tirana and go to Vlora (3-3 1/2 hours drive one way) a couple of times a week for visits. We're thinking that this doesn't make much sense since a large part of the reason you have to stay so long is to bond with your child - how are you bonding if you only see him a couple of times a week? They did say that we could play with the other children at the orphanage in Tirana, however I believe it is going to be VERY hard to leave the other kids there (and no they won't let you take them all home -or one or two more) as it is, so spending 90% of our time playing with kids we can't take with us sounds like a recipe for disaster.

They did say another couple got a referral from Vlora too recently so maybe they would be there at the same time to at least talk to in our own language. We don't know when they are going over either....sounds like they are waiting just like we are.

We've decided we are going to name him William Juri (after Tad's dad) - that way if he gets older and wants to use his birth name he can and giving him a family name will hopefully make him feel even more part of the family. We'll call him Will for short. When we've been having hard times lately Tad says "Where there's a Will there's a way" which keeps us focused.

We've been told the video from the most recent visit in mid-September is in the US now, they are working on getting it to us. It will be good to see him a little more "in person." Can't wait to actually meet him!