Patience is a virtue, but 115-degree heat would make anyone antsy.

The last time we checked on Bryan Nurnberger and Jennifer DeBisschop, the Naugatuck natives were biding their time in Seguin, Texas, at the end of July. They were stuck while waiting for their paperwork to wind its way through Mexico’s customs department so they could cross the border with their big yellow busload of about $20,000 in supplies and gifts for an orphanage in Oaxaca.

They’re still waiting.

Since they left Connecticut on July 7 and arrived in Texas six days later, they could be forgiven for losing their cool over having to wait more than a month for Mexican officials to grant the OK. That they haven’t lost their cool — even while enduring triple-digit temperatures — shows just how much those orphans mean to them.

“The poor kids are freaking out. They’ve been waiting for this since February,” Nurnberger said Friday during a phone interview. Staying with friends, they have been keeping in phone contact with Carol and Francisco Marin, who run the orphanage called Casa Hogar and who have been tracking the paperwork up the chain of command.

Word from south of the border is, it’s now sitting on the top man’s desk. They might hear something by Wednesday. Or not.

That doesn’t make it any easier for the kids. Casa Hogar’s 80 children, including 30 with severe physical problems, “don’t have a good concept of time,” Nurnberger said, “and these are orphans, so everyone in their lives has not come through for them — and now this.

“I’m trying not to fall into that category. That’s kind of tough to deal with.”

So is the Mexican government. Everyone on both sides of the border involved in this mid-summer, school bus version of the Santa Claus tale believed all of the paperwork had been completed and approved well before the trip began.

Mexican government officials, though, can melt expectations faster than an ice cube on a Sequin sidewalk in summer.

“We did everything we needed to do before we left on this trip, according to Mexican customs officials and the Mexican consulate,” Nurnberger said. “But they just added this on. At least in the states you can get a checklist of what you have to do. In Mexico, it’s just up to the whims of Mexican officials.”

It boils down to this: unless they get updated paperwork, they can cross the border with only about half of their cargo. “We’re approved for some of the stuff, but the stuff that’s not approved kind of makes up the backbone of what we’re bringing,” he said.

That would be the new clothing, the toys, and the medicine. “The things they have not approved are the things they think we could sell,” Nurnberger said.

Fortunately, that list does not include the 80 quilts personalized for the children. Each quilt has a photo of an orphan on it, and were made by parishioners at Naugatuck Congregational Church with help from the Naugatuck Visiting Nurses Association.

“The quilts are approved,” Nurnberger said happily. “As crazy as it sounds, they have almost become a deciding factor on whether we do this in two parts.”

The trip from Seguin to Oaxaca, in the (cooler) mountains of Central Mexico, is about 900 miles. If they have to, they’ll make two round trips, he said. They would store the unapproved items in Texas and head out, then return for the rest when the approval finally arrives.

But even that idea has problems.

“They do the permit as a whole,” he said. “We’re approved for some of the stuff, but we don’t have that permit in hand. All we have is a copy.” They need the original to cross the border, but it’s stuck on someone’s desk in Mexico City.

Even if they decide half a busload is better than none, obstacles remain. “The man standing at the border with the gun is pretty far removed from the man in Mexico City,” Nurnberger said, referring to the border guards. “And it’s not like driving in the United States. You have run-ins with undesirables who steal your stuff.

“A bus full of supplies can be pretty tempting.”

As ominous as that sounds, Nurnberger and DeBisschop haven’t given up hope. They have their faith, and they have time on their side, because neither has another job waiting.

Nurnberger’s job is running the organization, called Simply Smiles, he set up to help Casa Hogar, while DeBisschop just recently graduated from Yale Divinity School.

“We’re delayed, but no matter what it takes, I’ going to take this bus down there,” Nurnberger said. “It’s not over until we’ve parked at the orphanage.”

Never let it be said that Bryan and Jen couldn’t take the heat.