Overview/Photos - Trip #1

We've been home from Bulgaria for about a week and we are already looking forward to our next trip. We enjoyed our trip so much and loved everything about the country. Our visits with our son, who we will be naming Nikolas, went very well. He's a great little boy and we can't wait until he is officially part of our family.

The staff at the orphanage is very friendly and it's obvious that they really care about the children. The facility is clean and organized. The orphanage houses 90 children, most of them being under the age of 5. There is a larger orphanage for older children across the street.

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We stayed at the Park Hotel Izida in Dobrich. It was very comfortable and was located in a very nice area with a park and tennis courts. We enjoyed all of our meals at the hotel restaurant. The food was wonderful and the staff was very patient with our limited language skills. Dobrich is a small city with a population of about 100,000. During our free time we felt safe exploring the area. Here are a few photos of Dobrich:

We left Dobrich a little after noon on Friday and headed back to Sofia. We spent two nights at the Radisson Blu right on Naradno Sabranie Square with a wonderful view of the Bulgarian Parliament, a monument of the Russian Tsar Alexander II, and the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral. We took care of some adoption paperwork on Saturday and enjoyed some sight-seeing. Sofia is full of beautiful cathedrals and magnificent monuments. Here are a few photos of Sofia:

We had a very successful and enjoyable trip. We love the country and are lucky to have been able to see so much of it. The staff members who assisted with our adoption were very helpful and we never felt uncomfortable at any time. We are now spending our time preparing our home for a toddler and having fun shopping for him and getting his room ready. We're enjoying our last few months of being a family of two and are getting very excited about becoming a family of three.

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Here's a link to more photos:

http://http://www.facebook.com//album.php?aid=282702&id=588579889&l=c372449752