Day Five in Sofia

We all woke up around 8:00am and got ready to head out for a bit. We were hoping to find some souvenirs, but we didn't have any luck. We walked to the outdoor market area and then past some shops. No one could tell us where to buy souvenirs. We stopped at the big park next to the Grand Hotel Sofia. Nikolas played for a bit and then we watched the fountains and listed to a group of people who were playing instruments. It started thundering, so we headed back to the hotel. We were gone for about 2 hours and Nikolas rode in the stroller the entire time. He loves being outside.

We stopped by the hotel to check the website for the Sofia Mall. It listed a souvenir shop as one of the stores, so we decided to take the metro over there to see what we could find. We had a quick lunch at McDonald's in the metro station. Nikolas had three chicken nuggets and some fries. He loved it! We took the metro to the mall for the second time this week. It started raining pretty hard, but we managed to get over there. What they listed as a souvenir shop was a shop with lots of expensive things that were not souvenirs. Nikolas was getting a little cranky, so we left the mall and came back to the hotel. There's a souvenir shop at the airport, so hopefully it's open when we get there at 5:00am tomorrow morning.

After getting caught in some more rain we made it to the hotel. We put some dry clothes on Nikolas and turned down the lights for quiet time. He stood in his crib and sang for a couple of hours. He sings a lot. At least he was relaxing. At 4:00pm he had a snack and we played for a little while. He had dinner at 6:30pm followed by a bath and an early bedtime. We have to leave the hotel at 4:15am, so we wanted to get him down as early as possible. He was snoring about ten minutes later.

Now we're about to order our nightly room service and have a quiet dinner. We've had burgers, fish and pizza so far, so I'm not sure what we'll order tonight. Then it's time to pack and get everything ready to go. I can't believe our week here has come to an end. Nikolas is a different kid than he was on Monday. He's changed so much in just a few days, and we're so excited to watch him grow and learn when we get home. We'll be travelling for about 20 hours, so please pray that we have a safe trip and that Nikolas doesn't scream the entire time. Next post will be from Indiana. :)

Day Four in Sofia

Each day keeps getting better with Nikolas. He slept for 13.5 hours last night and woke up happy again. He had some oatmeal, fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and then we got ready for our day. We were scheduled to meet with Violeta around 11:00am to go to the medical clinic, but Nikolas' passport wasn't ready on time, so she had to go work some magic and get it taken care of. She picked up the passport and arrived at the hotel around 12:30pm. At the medical clinic we were in and out in record speed. Nikolas saw three different doctors. The first two basically looked at him and the third did a quick exam. He didn't care for it much, but he did a great job. He weighs 9 kilograms and is 87 centimeters tall. Such a little guy!! Our embassy appointment was a 1:30pm. We arrived right on time and had to wait until 3:00pm. Nikolas was a little restless, but he behaved very well. Luckily we had brought a jar of food with us and were able to feed him a little bit while we waited. The interview was very short, and he'll receive his visa tomorrow afternoon.

We arrived back at the hotel around 4:00pm. Since we had missed his nap time and lunch time, he was getting a little cranky. I fed him some yogurt and bread and he played nicely for a while, but then we could tell that he was starting to get tired. He gets mean when he needs to sleep. He had his dinner at 6:30pm and then we gave him a quick bath. He still hated it, but he only cried when we washed his hair. Much better tonight! He was in bed by 7:30pm and asleep in less than 10 minutes. He wimpered a little bit at first, but there was no screaming tonight. We're making progress.

I ran to the grocery store at the metro station next door to pick up another bottle of Coke and then Jason ordered us some pizza for room service. It was so good! We love being able to have dinner brought to our room and being able to enjoy nice food on real plates with cloth napkins and silverware. Our lunches have consisted mostly of McDonald's because it's so close to the hotel.

Tomorrow is a free day until Violeta drops off our final paperwork. That won't be until after 4:00pm. We're hoping to find a souvenir shop tomorrow morning to pick up some nice things from the country, and we may try to have lunch at a real restaurant that doesn't serve Big Macs. One more full day and then we're coming home!

Day Three Update

Nikolas woke up at 8:30am today. I got him dressed and gave him some fruit and yogurt for breakfast. We had purchased some new clothes for him yesterday since everything we brought was way too big. The new clothes were 6-9 months, and we still had to use a safety pin to keep his shorts from falling down. He's so tiny. We can't wait to get him home and feed him some protein.

We met with Violeta from our agency around 9:00am to go to a small cafe for some amazing European coffee. I had a cafe mocha and Jason had a chocolate cappucino. Both were very tasty and very beautiful. Nikolas had some juice and cheesecake which he enjoyed very much. After visiting for a while we walked back to the hotel. I ran to the grocery store to pick up some more food for Nikolas and a few other items. I also made the daily trip to McDonald's for some quick lunch. I've eaten at McDonald's more this week than I have in the past six months at home. Nikolas loves the french fries and had a little bit of fish today, too.

Since he hasn't had a nap for the past two days and was getting very grumpy, we put him in his crib and turned out the lights. He screamed loudly for about 35 minutes before finally giving up and going to sleep. He napped for about 90 minutes and woke up happy. After his snack we decided to go to the park. He did ride in the stroller a little today, so we're getting somewhere. He loved the park, but he has a hard time going by stores. He gets mad when we won't let him go in.

We came back from the park and played for a bit before dinner. I fed Nikolas and by then, he was starting to get fairly grumpy. He was whining a lot and throwing his toys. We gave him a quick bath. He still screamed, but it didn't seem quite as bad tonight. After getting into his pajamas, we turned off the lights and put him in the crib. He only screamed for about five minutes this time.
Once we knew he was asleep, Jason called and ordered room service so we could have something nice to eat. We both had fish, and it was so nice to be able to enjoy a quiet meal. It's now a little after 9:30pm. Nikolas has been sleeping for at least an hour, we've had a good dinner, and we're taking some time to relax.

Tomorrow we will take Nikolas to the doctor for his exam and then we have an appointment at the US Embassy. His visa will be issued on Friday. We're making progress with him one day at a time, and we're both ready to be home and get into a normal routine.

Day Two in Sofia

Nikolas woke up around 7:00am this morning. We got him changed into the only pair of jeans that would fit him. They're 18 months, but they have an adjustable waist. We do have to roll them up a bit. He had oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast and then played in the hotel room while Jason and I took turns getting ready. We took the subway to the mall to buy him some smaller shorts. He did great on the subway and loved the mall. His favorite store was the Reebok store because they were playing loud music. We spent about an hour walking around and then headed back to the hotel for lunch. Unfortunately he screams whenever we put him in the stoller, but hopefully we'll make some progress this week. It seemed like he wanted to eat constantly today. He had oatmeal, yogurt, fruit puree, lots of Gerber puffs, pretzels, meat and veggie toddler food and a couple of french fries from McDonald's. He really doesn't like to drink much, but we have been able to get him to take some water and juice.
We went to the park this afternoon and he had fun chasing the birds and watching the people. We came back at naptime, but he refused to take a nap. We played and had a snack before meeting with Violeta.

We gave him a bath this evening after dinner and he screamed the entire time. We got him clean in less than five minutes. We hope that he'll learn that baths are fun when we get home. He was very grumpy all evening due to the lack of a nap and all of the stress that he must be going through. Finally around 10:00pm we turned off the lights and got in bed with him between us. He screamed very loudly for about 10-15 minutes and didn't want anything to do with either of us. It's hard to watch him experience so much grief. He finally stopped screaming and fell asleep after thrashing around for a few minutes. The worst part is that we're in a hotel and I'm sure our neighbors are not enjoying our company. I can't wait to get home and get ourselves into a real routine and be able to help him work through this grief.

Tomorrow morning we are meeting Violeta for some good European coffee. Hopefully Nikolas will learn to trust us more and we'll have a better day tomorrow. Here are a few pictures from today:

We Have Nikolas!!

We made it to Sofia safely and Nikolas has been with us from the beginning. Our flight arrived around 4:00pm local time on Monday. Mariana from our agency had brought Nikolas to Sofia from Dobrich, and they were already here when we arrived. They took care of everything at the passport office for us, and the passport should be issued on Wednesday afternoon. We came right to the hotel and dropped off our bags before going downstairs to take Nikolas from Mariana and Violeta. He did well on the trip, but he did get carsick. Hopefully the plane ride won't be as bad. We changed his clothes when we got to the room since he didn't have any shorts on. He's very good at letting us take care of him and even tries to help. We brought all 18 month clothing, and it's way too big. We had one pair of adjustable waist jeans, so we pulled those as tight as we could and rolled up the cuffs. They worked just fine, but we're going to have to pick up a couple of 12 months pairs of shorts at the mall tomorrow. The others just fall right off of him.

He's been a very happy boy for most of the evening. We played a lot and he's done great. He's talking some now, but we don't know what he says. He laughs a lot and seems to be a very happy little boy. He had some fruit puree and gerber puffs to eat and seemed to like both. We are very happy that he chews food and seems to be a good eater. I ran to McDonald's in the rain to get some dinner for us since we hadn't eaten much all day, and Nikolas enjoyed a couple of fries. During our visit to the orphanage in February he was only eating soft foods, so the ease of feeding today was a welcome surprise.

A little before his bed time we put on his pajamas and he played some more. They told us that he goes to bed around 8:00pm, but he didn't want to sleep tonight. He let me rock him to sleep, but then he woke up when we tried to put him down. He snuggled quite a bit. Jason went to bed and Nikolas was next to him babbling for a while. I don't hear any more noise, so I think he's finally asleep. Now I only hope there's room for me in the bed!!

It's been storming here all day today, so we weren't able to get out this evening. If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we plan to take the subway to the mall in the morning to pick up some shorts for Nikolas and then stop for a few groceries. He naps from 1:00-3:30pm, and then we have a meeting with Violeta from our agency at 4:00pm to go over some paperwork.

Things have been going great so far. He's been very relaxed and we haven't observed any disturbing orphanage behaviors. Will update tomorrow when I get a chance.

Almost Ready

We are getting closer to our trip and are very excited to finally be bringing our son home. We've been waiting for this day for almost four years, and it's hard to believe that we'll have him in our arms forever in just a few days. Nikolas is packed and ready to go. I've spent the day cleaning the house and running errands and have finished doing almost everything on my list. Tomorrow will be spent finishing the laundry and packing. At least if I forget anything, there's a drugstore and grocery store very close to our hotel and the mall is only two subway stops away.

The weather is Sofia looks good. Highs are in the low 80's and our only chance of rain is on Monday and Tuesday. We're hoping that Nikolas likes going outside so we can get out and explore a little.

We'll be posting updates throughout the week!!

Travel Arrangements Made

We leave for Bulgaria in two weeks!! We booked our flights with the help of Sheldon from Golden Rule Travel. He was able to get us great flights for a great price. I highly recommend Golden Rule Travel to other adoptive families. We will arrive in Sofia around 4:00pm on Monday, July 25th, and Nikolas should be arriving from Dobrich that same afternoon. He is being brought to Sofia by a representative from our agency, so we'll have our little guy as soon as we arrive. We're scheduled to fly home on Saturday, July 30th if everything goes as planned.

We'll be staying at the Radisson Blu Grand Hotel in Sofia. We stayed at this same hotel for a couple of nights during our first trip, so we decided it would be a good choice for this trip. The rooms are nice and we already know the area. They have a nice restaurant, and there are a lot of restaurants, monuments, cathedrals and shopping areas nearby.

Now that all of our travel plans have been made, it's time to start packing and getting things together around the house!!