The Warming - Day 3

Today we drove to the orphage with a lot of anxiety about the day. 

Because we've decided to be very transparent in this process, I'll be honest and say that we didn't sleep very well. We went to the orphanage on Tuesday with a plan that we would ask to monitor her in her own environment. As it turned out, we didn't need to for the reasons we thought! She cried a tiny bit when her caretaker came in and put her down and then she didn't cry again for the entire three hours. She played, she made quite a few sounds, she really warmed up to Rob. 

She loves music. I'm not just saying that. I know that's what you're thinking. She loves this little light up piano and she really loves holding a drumstick and beating on this little toy drum and xylophone. She also really loves plants like her Aunt Beth. It also seems like she's a lefty. She prefers things to be in her left hand. 

It didn't take her long to figure out Rob is fun...especially when they were jamming to Santana. She danced and danced and danced. After awhile she even let him pick her up to look out the window. She rubbed his beard a little and had a pretty surprised look on her face. 

She has the funniest expressions she makes. She has a surprised face that is pricless. Whever we've given her a stuffed animal or a doll, she gets eye level with it as if she's going to have a conversation. 

Tuesday after our morning visit we walked to the pedestrian area downtown and ate. The food here is very good and very fresh. Then we did a little shopping. We met the most entertaining shop owner in one of the pottery shops. He was so proud of his pottery and he knew very little English, but he used every bit of vocabulary he had to tell us so. He kept taking a scissors and rubbing it supper hard on the pottery to show us how strong it is. "Bulgaria pottery, no scratch. No break." We really liked him.

In the afternoon we played a little more and in the evening we walked down by the seaside. There is huge park that expands the length of the beach and there are probably 30 restaurants in the area. They all have people in them, but they are not busy at all. It's hard to believe that this many eating establishments are able to make it, but summer is coming and Burgas definitely has a lot of summer tourism. 

 

 

Meetcha Day - Day 2

It's so hard to believe the day that we have been wishing for is finally here.

Our translator/driver/case worker picked us up from our apartment in Sofia and we drove four hours across Bulgaria to Burgas. It was a nice drive. It's very beautiful here. It's green and very mountainous in some areas and very flat with farmland in others. We noticed that livestock are never on their own, they always have a shepard or two with them. They also have a lot of livestock that pull carts. 

We noticed they have the most beautiful weeds (we're guessing) in the roadside. The ditches are filled with red, yellow and purple flowers. A very pretty sight. 

On the way out of town the translator stopped at a gas station and helped me order coffee. It's very good...much stronger than in the U.S. and the cup is much smaller...maybe 8 oz. In Bulgaria, if you order coffee, you get espresso. If you want coffee more like what we have in the U.S. you order a latte or a capachino. It's still stronger, but it has milk added to it. It's very good. 

When we got to Bulgaria we drove right to the orphanage. We were so nervous. The whole experience is full of awkwardness. Being in a new country, meeting the director and communicating through a translator, asking a ton of questions and then meeting your daughter for the first time...all awkward. We got there after Anche had already gone to bed but they woke her up to bring her to see us. 

They took us to a little room next to the front door that was filled with toys and there we asked the director our questions.

I thought my heart was going to stop when there was a knock on the door and a nurse brough in our sweet Anche. She somehow looked a little older than the photos we had of her from just the month before. The nurse put her down and she started crying. I got down on my knee and touched her hand, but she wouldn't have anything to do with me. The nurse wisked her away pretty quickly, telling us we should come back after naptime at 4pm. 

Our translator took us to one of her favorite resturants and we walked downtown in a pedestrian area that was as wide as a street, but only for walking and each side was lined with shops. She told us which places she recommends for eating, dessert and for shopping. 

When 4pm came around we traveled back to the orphanage where we were met in the hallway by the nurse and Anche. She saw us and immediately started crying. The nurse told our translator in Bulgarian that I should just take her...so I did. We took her outside to the park and she was very upset. She spent a good majority of the time crying, but we would get her to quiet down for about 5 minutes at a time before she would start crying again. It was awful. She was basically inconsolable. 

The poor thing had a tough day, understandably. She was thrown into the deep end of a situation that she didn't have control over. We look different, smell different and talk different. We are different in every way that she is familiar with. 

At one point, we opened the gerber puffs and gave her a puff. Everyone told us that children in orphanages always like two things...snacks and toys that make noise. I put a puff in her mouth thinking that she would taste it, stop crying and like us. That is the exact thought that was going through my head. I was so wrong. What really happened was she freaked out that she had something in her mouth, it stuck to the roof of her mouth, she freaked out some more, she gagged on the puff, kept crying, gagged some more and then threw up on me. 

Seriously, it was a rough day, but this is the reality of this awkward situation. We left pretty defeated, but convinced that day 2 would go better. 

That night we walked down along the waters of the Black Sea. There is a gorgeous park that has dozens of resturantes and double that in the number of gelato carts. For dinner, Rob asked the waitress what she recommended for fish (after all, a person should have fish when they're so close to the ocean) and she pointed at one and said she liked it because it was fresh. What he got were a bunch of tiny fish, whole, piled on his plate. The look on his face was priceless. After he was done he used motions and gestures to find out how he was suppoed to eat it. Good thing he was right... you don't eat the head. Until tomorrow... 

Day 1

Our flight over was uneventful. We did end up running a little in the Chicago airport. When we checked in for our flight in Chicago the airline worker told us he could only find one bag in the system. We were cutting it close getting through security so he told us to go through and that he would find our bag for us and make sure it was loaded. We were so happy (and a little suprised) to see both our bags make it to Sofia. 

We used quite the methods of transportation to get to get to Bulgaria. It started on Saturday morning and went something like this: van-plane-tram-tram-train-bus-train-bus-train-train-bus-train-tram-plane-plane...and we're here!! A long day. 

After we got here on Sunday the agency owner picked us up, took us to exchange money and gave us a little tour of the area around our apartment so we would know how to get back. Very important stuff. 

After he showed us the apartment (above is the view out our window) and left, we ventured out to find dinner. He recommended this place near here so we just went there. We had shopska salad (Bulgaria is known for this) which is tomatos, cucumber, cheese w/ olive oil and spices. I've made it at home and am so excited to be eating it here in Bulgaria. We'll be doing that more this week. We also had amazing handmade pizza that had a sort of cream cheese on it with figs, I had a coke zero and Rob had a beer. Our total bill was 22 leva, which is less than $15 U.S. This was a pretty upscale place too...similar to going to eat downtown at the Peacock Alley. Food is good and very inexpesive here - it really is Rob's dream country. 

After we ate, we checked out some of the local shops and then went to catch the free Sofia tour that starts every day at 6pm. There we met another family from the U.S. who is here to meet their 13 year old daughter from another city. So nice to catch up with another adoptive family. We'll hopefully get to see them on Friday when we're all back from our trips out-of-town. 

We made it to 9pm and then crashed. Today we meet sweet Emily! The translator that is with us the rest of the week will pick us up at 8am and we'll drive four hours to Burgas where we'll stay until Thursday night. Since we won't be arriving until naptime, it is unlikely we'll meet her before 4 today (that's 8am central time). So excited to be here! 

Bulgaria or Bust

Tomorrow's our day. We'll be leaving for Bulgaria on Saturday morning at 6am and flying in on Sunday at 1pm (5am central time). 

Thoughts we're having as we prepare to leave tomorrow:

 

- We are 96% excited and 4% terrified. 

- I can't believe we will meet our daughter in four days. The magnitude of that is not lost on me. 

- Don't forget the passports.
- I hope Pitch Perfect is playing on the plane. 
- I hope the boys are good for the grandparents.

- We're going to try not to offend the locals. 

- Does Bulgaria have ice cream?

- I hope we have the timing right and the wifi capabilities to Facetime with the boys a lot. 

We absolutely value your prayers. You've carried us this far... don't quit on us now! : ) 

Can't wait to be reporting from Bulgaria. 

Nicole

 

A Little Sister

They seem so normal. 

The boys have a little sister. 

We wanted to wait until we were 100% sure she was ours before we broke the news. 

One morning before school, I held photos of her face down and close to my chest. I asked them, "Who do we pray for every night before bed?" Realizing that our list is quite long and I wasn't getting my message across, I switched tactics. 

"You know that God answers prayers, right?" 

::a lots of head nodding::

I flipped around the photos excitedly and shoved them in their faces. "Who do you think this is?" 

"Our sister?!" Ben asked tentatively. 

They both got huge smiles on their faces and spent about two minutes shuffling through the photos we have. And that was it. They promptly went back to the Pokemon they were watching on TV before I asked them to pause it. Anticlimactic. 

Ben stayed silent even at school until after the weekend was over. On Monday, Ben came home from school and said that he told his teacher and she asked if he could bring pictures the next day. 

The next day after school he reported with enthusiasm that the teacher had him tell the class about his sister, show the photos and talk about where she was from, what her name is and when she was going to come home. After he was done, she got out a map and showed the class where Bulgaria is.

God bless teachers.

We are so grateful to Mrs. Reim for allowing Ben to talk about it and for using it as a learning tool for the class.

It was different after that day. I really think it became more real for him when he got to share in his own words what is happening. Now he talks about his sister and asks questions about what life will be like after she's here. 

Evan still has no clue. All he knows is that this summer he doesn't have to take naps anymore and he get's to move in with Ben. They are so excited to share a room...I give that excitement about three weeks.