It's been a long time since I've updated this. We are home of course, and it has been a long winter. The first few months were just plain awful. We were both sick, tired and kind of in shock. I mean, how do you come home to a house with a room & clothes for a child that isn't there? To this day the bedroom door is closed and looks just as it did the day we left for Albania. It's just not something that I can face yet.
We spent a long time going back in forth with Bethany and a lawyer trying to decide what to do. Not only was this devasting emotionally & financially, we just couldn't imagine the thought of anyone else having to go through it. Most importantly, we were worried about Juri and what would happen to him. At first they refused to give us any information whatsoever on how he was doing, how his appointment went, what the plan was for him, etc. But they did keep telling us how they felt badly and wanted to do what they could to help....really? Anyway, long story short they agreed to give us all of our money back including travel expenses, they've supposedly put new procedures in place to help ensure that this doesn't happen to anyone else, and most importantly they agreed to keep us informed about Juri. They never did have the appointment that was supposed to be scheduled for the day we left. We kind of knew that though since no one at the orphanage knew anything about it, we figured they would if he was leaving for a few days.
They had a specialist evaluate him, and his summary was somewhat hard to read and understand, but it does sound like he has some major issues. Does this mean we did the right thing? Will I ever know that? Juri was also able to live in a family setting with one of the caregivers from the orphanage and her family for awhile -it's good to think of him out of there for a bit. They said he seems better in that circumstance but they didn't sound very positive about how permanent these changes would be. They don't seem to know what the long term plan is for him, if they are going to try to place him with another family, if he's no longer going to go to a Bethany family, if he is no longer available. It's frustrating.
We have, however, been able to keep in contact through some of the people that we met while we were there. Keti & Elidon (she works for the Italian adoption agency and he owns the computer place where I was twice a day) have sent us some emails and pictures of him since then. She said he may be adopted by an Italian family. We've sent a care package to them which included clothes, toys, candy, etc. for Juri as well. We've also sent a care package to Entela (one of the caregivers) and her family as they took us around Vlora on the one day we left the city. We included more clothes, toys, cakes, bubbles, etc. for Juri in that package as well.
We've been able to sponsor him through Hope for the World, which is a church out of Georgia who sponsors the Vlora orphanage. Albana works for them as does Perparim whom we met while in Albania. Through them we have had some updates and pictures as well. I have a big package that I am sending over to Juri for his birthday on May 5. He'll be three! We got him a Big Wheel (which Tad says he loved when he was that age) and I hope someone will put it together for him. We also filled the box with Girl Scout cookies, color & sticker books, crayons and a Twins T-shirt. It's wrapped in Cars wrapping paper under all the packaging materials. I hope he gets to open it. I wish I could have a picture of him opening it. I've asked to see if there is a way we can have them have a birthday party for him -we'll see. I hope he has a wonderful birthday ~ I'm sad because he should be here for it.
I've included more pictures from our last days in Vlora and then a couple pictures that we've been sent from Keti or Hope for the World.
