Living Above The Albanian Body Snatchers (Albanian Intermission Day 34)

Our apartment in Elbasan, Albania has been used by several adoptive families. A local man and his elderly mother, while they don't appear to know Christ, have a heart open to adoption and have welcomed several American families into the spare space above their fish business. 

Ahem..."fish business".

In the central mountains of Albania...nowhere near a body of water. 

When we moved into our apartment, the owners were quick to stress that the 10 foot gate, and additional 6 feet of barbed wire above it, surrounding the apartment needed to be LOCKED at all times. And to not speak to anyone who came to the gate asking for handouts...Um. Got it?

I tend to have a creative brain that I actually work to keep occupied as I also often get myself in trouble when I'm bored.  Fun trouble, but generally not "age appropriate", whatever that means. The problem in Albania was we didn't have WiFi, TV, radio, books or quick access to any other entertainment in the apartment, which made decompressing through the stress of adoption a bit difficult.  

As Annie and I were leaving the apartment one morning, being careful to lock the gate behind us I asked "have you noticed we NEVER see any fish coming in or out of the fish business?"

Then, the entertainment started!

Everyday our suspicions grew and 'evidence' was added to our CSI: Albania mini-series. 

• Every night a windowless van arrived through the gate, but no fish. For 60 days. No fish for the fish business. 
• We found some ice packs outside the garage. Packing the bodies?  Bathtubs filled with ice after extracting kidneys for the communist underground? Why was our bathtub so incredibly deep? The deepest one I've ever seen!
• The van was left open one morning---8-10 bodies could be carried in the back. Easily.
• The neighbors in the communist block apartment building next to us would regularly sit in their windows and watch us hang laundry, do dishes and even cook our meals. One man specifically in the fourth floor would sit in his window shirtless, chain smoking, just watching us...always watching.  
• All the previous adoptive families have left photos and letters on the apartment wall with how many days they were in Albania and how they could be contacted...WHY? 

There was no question about it...we were definitely living above a Black Market Albanian Body Snatcher Ring.  Renting the apartment to American Adoptive Families was the perfect cover, to their 'fish business'. NO ONE would ever question it.  Even I would tell the press "they seemed so nice. Quiet. Kept to themselves, but nice".  

We were on to them!  And once we saw the secret passageway from the 'fish business' garage into the owners home property we KNEW exactly what was happening.

Conveniently, the actions of our adoption judge made it impossible for us to fulfill our rental agreement...we were SAVED!

Can anyone hear my mother groaning right now? "You girls! Will you stop it? We do NOT live above Albanian body snatchers. What are you teaching your son?!"   Um...clearly, how not to get body snatched! #parenting101


(To be very clear--we ADORED our apartment hosts and were unbelievably blessed by their ministry to us. I have zero fear that any bodies have every been snatched and/or organs have been harvested to be sold on the communist underground market...I'm just saying, no fish *wink*)

  

The Last 48 Hours

A bit of backstory...

The unexpected delay of our adoption is due to our judge's need to correct a 'clerical mistake' he feels was made more than 12 years ago in my girly's file. In fact, there was no legal mistake made. And our team had oodles of proof to show that our case could indeed more forward without addressing this non-existent 'mistake'. There was no convincing him. He decreed two pieces of legal paper needed to be drawn up and addressed for 21 days, then our case could move forward...in 2 months.  Uggg. 

Now fast forward to 48 hours ago:

I get a message that one of those pieces of paper never got drawn up by the court. It was now just 23 days until our court date and our team was in a mad scramble to contact our Albanian lawyer and come up with a plan. No paper for 21 days = no court date = our case is delayed AGAIN. *pulling hair OUT*

After 36 hours I still didn't have any news.  Then the heartburn started in.  Oh sweet Lord...this is a mountain we can't go around or climb over; it has to MOVE.  The worship music got turned UP and my knees went DOWN. 

At 0530 this morning I got the news...our lawyer was able to contact our judge and he will move forward without the second piece of paper (which honestly, was the more important of the two in light of the non-existent mistake *eyeroll*)  Insert big sign of relief.  God moved that mountain. Whether the mountain was in the judge's heart or positioned in a broken legal process, I don't care. We are back on track. Hallelujah. 

This has been a roller coaster of an adoption!  And it is has stretched the borders of my trust---but isn't that exactly what we ask for on Sunday mornings? Make me holy!  Refine me! Make my trust without borders! Ask me out onto the water!  Use me! Send me!  I could feel the Lord smirking this morning as I hesitated to sing some of the words of worship in the car "You've been singing it for years, sweetheart today isn't going to change a thing. Lets go do this thing" 

Bi-Lingual Isaac (Albanian Intermission Day 28)

I put significant effort into learning Albanian phrases before we arrived. I knew it wouldn't be close to enough but I desperately wanted to try: hello, good-bye, please, thank you, excuse me, how are you, etc and most importantly "are you Mrs. Loasi?" (I didn't get to use that phrase once!)  I put my phrases to use pretty quick and picked up dozens more during our 60 day immersion. What I didn't realize is Isaac was picking up the language too!

Excuse me = Me falni  (may fahll-knee).  

Isaac's rendition: fahll-knee!  fahll-knee!  

This was especially useful when pushing his stroller through the grocery store or produce market as his face was generally hip high on anyone who stepped in front of us.  Hey! Fahll-knee!

Good-bye = mirupafshim (miro-pauff-sheem)

Isaac's rendition: bye-sheem!

This one always gave me a good giggle, especially when English-Albanian speakers were near by and were able to hear the comedic effort being put forth by my child. I think it's going to be a keeper in our house so don't be surprised if we part from you with a pretty solid Bye-Sheem!

Albanian Isaac on morning water (uje) duty.

Who Am I? (Albanian Intermission Day 23)

My sophomore year of college I was apart of Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF)--it was basically college youth group and I loved it. It was EXACTLY what I needed during an otherwise very overwhelming year.  One weekend a special guest speaker presented on the Nature of God based on Moses's experience with Yahweh in Exodus 34:6. WHO is God?  Simple enough question right??  No joke, it was a life changing weekend for me!  I had been a Christian for 3/4 of my young life at that point. I felt confident in what God had done for me, why He had done it, and how I could choose to respond. But WHO is God apparently hadn't crossed my mind.  Learning God's name, WHO He is, drastically altered my relationship with Him and I would dare say  who I know myself to be in Him. I am confident that seed planted in college directly impacted my time in Albania 22 years later. (Thank you CCF for your ministry!)

  

Through every road block on this crazy adoption road, every apparent setback, attack and ridiculous inconvenience I found myself on my knees asking for wisdom, clarity and explanation. Through it all, all I ever heard was: "WHO AM I?  Desiree, look at Me. WHO AM I?"  Over and over again I'd repeat: You are good. You are merciful. You are gracious. You are slow to anger. You are abounding in steadfast love. You are faithful. You are unchanging. You are God. 

• The Catholic church in Albania sought to block the adoption:  Look at Me. WHO AM I?
• The courts added a three week unexplained delay to our case: Don't look anywhere except to Me. WHO AM I?
• The judge demanded a ridiculous detail that required police involvement: Look at ME. WHO AM I?
• A lawyer had to be secured to protect my soon-to-be child from a potentially corrupt judge: Say it again--WHO AM I? 
• I had to return my adolescent child to an institution for developmentally & intellectually delayed adults with no return date: ME. Look. At. Me. WHO AM I?

Over and over and over again. Not as a feel-good mantra but as a declaration in response to His call:  "I've called you out upon the water, you can't pay attention to the wind and the waves. You have to know WHO I AM if you are going to stay upright. Look right to Me. Who do you know Me to be? Who am I?"

You are good. You are merciful. You are gracious. You are slow to anger. You are abounding in steadfast love. You are faithful. You are unchanging. You are God. 

Who does that make you, Desiree?

I am a child of God. (Gal 3:26)

I am safe in your calling (Is 43:1)

My family is protected in the shadow of your wing. (Ps 17:8)

Your character and Your plan does not change because of the circumstances around me have. (Jer 29:11)

This is the TRUTH we are holding on to as we wait...it doesn't matter what is going on around us: 

I KNOW who He is. 

Rad-Dish

Isaac has always enjoyed spending time with me in the kitchen and I've worked to capitalize on that.  It's important to me that he can a) feed himself!; b) navigate the full food prep process safely; c) explore & enjoy flavors of food from around the world, and d) selfishly, I've want to do everything I could to avoid having a picky eater (yes, I know that is not always possible). So kitchen time has always been important to us and something that Isaac has enjoyed. 

When I heard about Raddish Kids, an "at home culinary experience", my interest was peaked, but my plan was to subscribe when BOTH my children were home and could enjoy it; something we could do as a family together. Food assurance is vitally important to many children who come from institutional settings. Raddish Kids would be perfect to give my kids kitchen skills and power over their own diet. Given our recent adoption delay I decided to give it a try why we are waiting for Girly to get home.

Over the weekend our first box arrived...an apron, a recipe book, visual instruction cards, new measuring spoons and all sorts of fun kitchen skills ideas.  Today was Isaac's big day---HE was making dinner. Not only that, he was going to be in charge of the ENTIRE shopping, prep and dinner experience!  You can do it buddy!

He shopped from a list (despite ending up with some random marmalade and evaporated milk he did pretty good!), put everything on the check out, paid, packed and loaded the car. 

 It's time to cook!

  Spices were fun until he snuck a mouthful of dry masala!  He couldn't sign WATER fast enough!

  Time to set the table while dinner is simmering:

Let's eat!! Chicken Tikka Masala, basmati rice, peaches & raspberry lemonade brought to you this evening by Chef Isaac.

You all, this was SO GOOD! He and I both took seconds and third helpings!  He had a blast; I didn't have to make dinner (!) and the food was AWESOME.  He even earned an Indian Cuisine badge for his apron:

I'm already looking forward to next month's box and cannot recommend Raddish Kids highly enough!  This is going to be a great experience for BOTH my kids <3  

Happy Family Day, Isaac! SIX Years Together As A Family

This boy. 

The one who puts bunny fingers on my head while at an ancient Biblical site. 

Roman Road taken by Apostle Paul in 60s AD

The one who experiences everything with his entire body.

First trip to a hibachi restaurant

The one who is learning knock-knock jokes. Who wants to be apart of every conversation. Who traveled across the globe this summer LIKE A BOSS.

Atop the Akroceraunian Mountains of Southern Albania

The one who has memorized the opening song from Hamilton: The Musical...in words AND sign language! (Except for the bad words, because I am a good mom. He thinks those are breath breaks).

The one who worships & prays from deep inside his precious heart--and can bring people to tears because of it.

The boy who, even on the days I'm convinced I'm going to absolutely eat him for dinner (!), fills my life with SO MUCH UTTER JOY.

This boy made me a momma six years ago and gave me the faith & courage to welcome his big sister into our little family.

I am so very proud of him...and us together.  I thank the Lord every day for giving me the incredible gift of Isaac.

Today we did my boy's two FAVORITE things...eating chicken with 'cheech-up' and swimming!

Isaac has entered this beautiful stage of boyhood in that he doesn't 'need' me to sit next to him, hold his hand, guide him through public areas, etc.  This is such a HUGE event for both of us! Sitting across from me at the restaurant today and working on the kids page on his own was a first!

No pool selfies but boy did we have fun in the wave pool!  This child KNOWS when his cup is being filled and thrives on that level of one-on-one time.  Repeatedly today, he grabbed my cheeks and kissed them hard. "I wuv u momma!"  I love you too, son. I love you too. <3

Tale of Two Ferries (Albanian Intermission Day 13)

While my girly was at her day camp, we took the opportunity to snoop around the southern part of Albania for a few days. It was cool and relaxing and refreshing for our fatigued souls.   I had taken a quick glance at the map knowing the general direction of where we were headed and major landmarks. I naively was leaving the rest up to Google Maps....what I didn't notice was the break in the highway on the map:

Imagine this scenario:  We are driving along happily enjoying the historic scenery when we are abruptly stopped by a man in uniform-type outfit yelling in Albania for me to pull to the right.  Okie dokie. Pulling to the right.  Enter a second man, dressed in street clothes rushing the drivers window speaking in English "Where you going? Where you going?"  Um...south. I'm going south. "Go left. You go left. Now!"  Oh. Ok. South is left. Pulling left.  Then the Albanian yelling started---Uniform man standing in front of the car vs. Street Clothes man standing at my window with us blocking traffic between the two. Now what??  In what I can only assume was a torrid insult to each other's mothers, Street Clothes man won and we pulled left...straight unto a floating pallet in the middle of a body of water with only inches between us and the water.  WHAT THE?!?!  HOW?! WHAT?! Where is the Uniform Man?!? I don't want to go south anymore!! Then...the floating pallet starting moving! Annie pulled out her GoPro. My Mom was praying in tongues. Isaac was laughing hysterically. And I starting calling out my last will & testament.  At that point a third man, chain smoking, showed up at my window as we were floating across the water and asked for money. Seriously?? There is no saying no now.  THEN we saw what was happening---we were on a moat ferry being pulled across by a chain pulley! Like old school England-to-France-chain-pulley.  It was SO cool and SO crazy at the same time. 

The inches between us and the water...and the stellar barrier should any catastrophe occur. 

Can you see the chain pulley??

These are the travel experiences that you can only ever stumble upon.  And one we ALL will remember till the end of our days.  Bonkers!

Fast forward through the weekend as we were exploring the area, we noticed there was a REAL car ferry to an island near by which was technically Greece which would totally cross off a MAJOR bucket list item in my life.  Let's go touch Greece!  I'm from Seattle. We are car ferry experts...except Grecian car ferries are nothing like Seattle car ferries.   This ferry was HUMONGOUS, loading on full buses and large semi trucks into the belly and a separate 40+degree ramp UP into the upper deck of the ferry.  We were driving a newer vehicle with an automatic transmission which shouldn't give you any real issues going up an incline, right?  Nope...even with a good running start, we got half way up the ramp and the tires started squealing and the car started rolling BACKWARDS.   Oh sweet Jesus, we are going to DIE...at the very least roll into the 12 cars behind us and flip backwards onto our hood.  We are under enough spiritual attack. THIS is how Satan is going to take us down??   I literally closed my eyes and gunned the gas as hard as I could which propelled us fish-tailing into the ferry with such velocity I had to SLAM on the breaks to keep from creating our own monster truck rally inside the bowels of the international ferry.  The whole event clearly got everyone's attention as we were the LAST vehicle to enter and they carefully positioned our car NO WHERE NEAR any other vehicle. *eyeroll* Thanks Greece. In the words of my buddy Rain Man...I am (indeed) a very good driver. 

Bucket List: Greece ✔

Coming Out of the Fog (Albanian Intermission Day 10)

I slept past 3am the last two nights (thank you Nyquil!) so I feel pretty safe declaring we have beat jet lag's booty...you know, 10 days later *eyeroll* (there is just no good way to conquer jet lag is there?)

Dealing with any kind of emotions when your brain is in a totally different space time continuum is nearly impossible. But I did unpack my girly's clothes this week and straightened up her closet. I also put fresh flowers in her room--that felt good. It felt...expectant. Someone is coming. We need to be so emotionally prepared that we can't let the fresh cut flowers die. Is it weird? Maybe, but it is working right now. My girly with a name that means 'sweet flower of hope' will have fresh flowers in her room. 

As I am coming out of the fog, I am sorting through the 2,357 photos and videos (that is NOT an exaggeration) and finding myself giggling at some of the memories. Isaac was looking at one photo of the apartment kitchen to which he said "hey, that's where we made toast!" (Toast is a very important part of his day). It sure is!  Lets keep that memory alive--so then we watched the video of our last day with my girly that involved a full-on Down syndrome dance party with my two children and three of her roommates and two Sisters of Charity who totally got their jiggy on!  Imagine rosary beads knocking and crucifixes bouncing off their hips! (I seriously can't make this stuff up!) When I tell that story, 100% of people respond is shock: "the NUNS did that?!"  *hehe* Yup!  They did EXACTLY what Jesus would have done--they danced with joy with a bunch of kids with Down syndrome. I am so very proud that these women are the ones caring for my daughter. 

So, maybe in the coming weeks I'll share a few more of the more random and goofy stories from our trip. Most involve food. Some are made up stories of murder and espionage that Annie and I invented to keep ourselves entertained without wifi, TV or radio. Some made me laugh so hard I nearly wet myself (or did. That is not an important detail). Some felt like near death experiences. All helped form our 60 days in Albania into the experience that it was. 

Stay tuned...