Help (that being Tad) is on the way!

Tad comes today – I’m sooooo happy. He should be on his way from Tirana to Vlora right now, and probably get here in about 2 more hours or so. I think we are going to move from the Hotel Pavaresia (PAHV are see ah) to another hotel that is closer to the orphanage and has internet in the rooms. I don’t know what the name of this hotel is yet, maybe Saint Tropez? The rooms are smaller there, and it smells kind of funny, so I’m not liking that so much, but it will be nice to have internet all the time. Or supposedly all the time. It is also right at the bottom of the hill by the orphanage so I won’t be walking a half hour each direction anymore (so much for losing weight). Although most of the restaurants are back where I am now, so maybe we’ll be walking for that.

I’ve included some pictures of most of the kids in Will’s age group. They all seem to be very sweet kids, and you can tell they just want attention. I can’t believe that the caregivers will just lock them in the room and let them do whatever. There is one wall that is basically shelves all the way up from the bottom to the top and today when I was there, one of the little girls decided to climb the wall. She’s about 3 maybe, and was about 4 feet off the (concrete) floor and still climbing when I came in. They’ve all got bumps and bruises on them pretty constantly, I get the feeling they fall, run into things or whatnot fairly often. Will had a bloody nose when I came yesterday, and when I went to look at it and see if he was OK, he head butted me and gave me a bloody lip. None of the other kids even batted an eye, so I think it must be a routine sight.

It’s warm again today, I’d say high 60’s or low 70’s. It gets pretty chilly at night though. I forgot a coat so when I’ve been at the internet café in the evenings, I’m actually kind of cold. It has been sunny every day this week and no rain. I hear that it snowed at home and when I looked at the temperature it said it was 27 degrees. Can’t say I miss that.

Cydil, the people at the internet café remember you and your husband. They asked how Elisona is doing and I showed them your blog – they were glad to see her and say she looks very happy! From what they were telling me, it sounds like the wife works for maybe the Italian equivalent of Bethany – how weird is that? I guess Vlora is a pretty small in some ways. Did you talk to them much?

Vlora is a regular city, however you will randomly see goats, chickens, turkeys and cows walking around by the orphanage. You’ll also see cats (and from the looks of them they are wild) and dogs (same, pretty mangy looking) walking around with the chickens and turkeys – I’d think they’d be trying to catch them. Maybe they peck them? The animals are all scrounging for food. Some of the dogs look like they are maybe blind –the eyes are all cloudy. Some of the cats look like they have been in a lot of fights and are missing an eye or an ear. This is a tough place for animals. I have a hard time feeling sorry for the dogs right now as they are still barking EVERY night and keeping me up for hours on end. Maybe that will be different at the other hotel.

I took Will out in the little playground at the orphanage today. He wore the pink boots again. The kids can’t really walk well in shoes –I suppose they pretty much never have them on. Well, and I think they are the wrong size. He didn’t like the playground stuff, but kind of seemed to like walking through the weeds. They don’t have a lawn mower so it’s pretty high. I didn’t let him do that much though because yesterday I saw a rat in the grass (not at the orphanage, but near it) and I don’t want to see another. I think maybe there are rats because there is kind of a lot of garbage all over. Remind me to thank our garbage men when I get home.

Will is generally calmer when he is not around people. And I think maybe he is at his worst around other kids, which you would think would be the opposite. When I’ve brought him in the one room that has some toys, he doesn’t really have any interest in the toys. He is much more interesting in opening and closing the door, moving furniture or sitting and rocking. The toys, he’ll hold for less than a minute maybe, and then throw them. Yesterday he actually picked one up and kind of looked at it a bit before throwing it though. I’m having a hard time knowing if something is wrong or if he is a stubborn little imp that wants his own way?

I know that some of the medical records information that I’ve been given is wrong. For example there are conflicting dates on his birthdate, date of when he came to the orphanage, and one of the forms that has a signature stamp of a doctor, apparently isn’t in that doctor’s handwriting. There is also conflicting information about his health history like previous illnesses, etc. At what weight are babies considered premature in the U.S? Any idea how long a 4.4 pound baby would typically be in the hospital? Is that very small? How about 5.95 pounds? Alma told me the other day that most babies in Albania are in the hospital for at least a month after birth – but then I heard last night that it’s only a couple days –just like at home, longer if something is wrong. How do you know who to believe?

I’m at the internet café right now but the internet is not working and I can’t actually post this until after it comes back up. As it is 1:50 and the power goes out at 2 for a couple hours, I most likely won’t get this posted until later tonight, assuming it comes back up then.

I’m off to the hotel to wait for Tad!!!