Official Albanian Residents!

Hi Friends,

I have a really exciting update to share. We are all 5 officially legal residents of Albania! Woohoo!

We got a tip last Friday from our local immigration officer in Berat that they MIGHT have coupons at the Vlore Post Office on Monday. James sent her a message at 8:00 Monday morning, and the reply was YES! But they had a limited amount and might run out. We got everyone in the car as quickly as possible and drove the hour and a half to Vlore. Amazingly, although the post office was packed, we were able to buy the coupons for Lydia and Gideon. Then, the second miracle was that the immigration office that was typically only open for 4 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays was open on Monday and we were able to go directly there and get their cards made! When we walked into the packed office with people from all over the world, they looked up at us and said, "Are you the family from Berat?" Haha. I think we've taken a lesson from the persistent widow story and been REALLY tenacious over the months. Then, I think they retook Gid's photo 9 times because they didn't like his hair on his forehead and thought he looked like he was scowling. Poor kid. At the same time we picked up Clara's card that had been made in November but has been sitting in their vault since then. I was really curious to see when it expired (more on that in a moment). Afterwards, we celebrated our Albanian residency by going out to eat some American fast food that we can't buy in Berat (Clara actually requested Albanian food, but was voted down). Then we walked back by a playground and the lovely warm weather encouraged our kids to swing, and slide, and climb, and everything was beautiful.

The VERY next day we had an appointment to meet with someone to talk us through RENEWING our residency because James' and my residency permits expire on March 17! Clara's (and possibly the kids') expire on April 26! It's a little bit of a bummer to have so little of a reprieve from the process. We are going to have to pick up the kids' cards and immediately turn around and submit paperwork for new residency permits for the family. Hopefully, this one will be for two or three years. Please pray with us that there are no hiccups, and we can get things done in time. I'm not sure what the consequences are for being late, but I really like to stay on the good side of the law.

In the midst of all of this, our family has been dealing with a nasty cold/flu that has been knocking us out one by one for several weeks and has a lot of uncomfortable symptoms like fevers and irritated eyes and ear pain and incredibly sore throats. I know it did us ALL good to sit in the sunshine in Vlore as we've mostly been inside with the chilly weather. James has been able to preach a few times and helped set up a kids' movie outreach at the church building while I was sick in bed. We also celebrated Clara turning 15 and had a little family Valentine exchange.

I hope you will join us in praising God for taking care of things in His own timing.