2013 Bulgaria Adoptive Families Reunion

Last weekend we attended the Bulgaria Adoptive Families Reunion in Cincinnati, Ohio.  This was our second year to attend the reunion and we have a wonderful time.  We started off our trip with a visit to Jungle Jim's.  We just happened to be there while they were cutting a massive piece of cheese.  The cheese weighed 784 pounds.  We picked up some yummy fruit for the fruit salad we were making for the reunion potluck along with lots of other goodies.  We love Jungle Jim's and stop by every time we're in the area.

We checked into our cabin at Winton Woods at 3:00pm.  Neither of us are campers, so their deluxe cabins are a perfect fit for us.  Our group had reserved 17 of the 18 deluxe and camping cabins at the park, and a lot of other folks had hotel rooms nearby.  Old and new friends started arriving right away and the fun began.  We enjoy getting together with this group because everyone understands the adoption process and the challenges of raising post-institutionalized children.  The kids have a great time playing with each other, too. 

On Friday night we had a nacho bar for dinner followed by an ice cream bar.  It was great catching up with friends that we hadn't seen since last summer and meeting others in person for the first time.

After breakfast on Saturday morning all of the kids participated in activities with others in their same age group.  We helped with the Toddler and Preschool games.  We had story time, played with the parachute and blew lots of bubbles.  The kids had a great time!  After a lunch break we went over to the splash park to cool off from the heat.  Nikolas did better than last year, but he was still a little scared of the spraying water.

After some time at the splash park, Nikolas took a three-hour nap.  The long nap gave us time to get our dish prepared for the potluck and gave him enough energy to stay up until about 11:00pm that night.  On Saturday night there was a potluck, face painting for the kids, cultural time, dancing to Bulgarian music, a campfire, glow sticks and lots of fun.

We said our goodbyes after breakfast on Sunday before heading back home.  We love the reunion and look forward to attending for many more years.  It's great for Nikolas to have friends with a similar background, and we have so much fun spending time with the other parents.  Can't wait to bring our newest addition to next year's event.  A big thanks to Viviane and Yvonne for all of your hard work!!

Travel Dates!!

Earlier this week we received our official referral and travel dates to go meet our little guy.  We'll be landing in Sofia on my birthday and driving to his town.  It's about a 4.5 hour drive from the airport and is fairly close to the town where Nikolas was born.  We'll spend the week there visiting him.  What a great gift!! 

We've been working on paperwork and travel reservations over the weekend and are getting excited about our trip.  We'll be staying in a small hotel (12 rooms!) that another couple from our agency stayed in just a few weeks ago.  They enjoyed their stay and let us know that the hotel has air conditioning, free wifi and a good restaurant.  Plus it's close to the shopping area and within walking distance of the orphanage. 

Since we'll only be able to visit our little guy for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon, we'll have a lot of free time.  There is a very cool monument (see video) and a fortress (http://bulgariatravel.org/en/object/75/Shumenska_krepost) that we're looking forward to visiting while we are there.

And The Winner Is...

I'm happy to announce that our puzzle is complete and it looks great!  I enjoyed working on it and watching it come together.  My dad and grandpa will be framing it for us when they visit later this month.  We had a total of 41 families help out with this fundraiser, and we are very grateful to each one of you for your support.  Thank you so much for helping with a piece of our journey.

As donations were made, we kept track of the piece numbers for each family in a notebook.  For example, the first family purchased 10 pieces, so they had piece numbers 1-10.  Once we were finished with the puzzle, we used www.random.org to choose a number at random.  Our winner who purchased piece number 174 is Missy Bryant.  Congratulations Missy!!  I will contact you shortly about your Amazon gift card.  We are still fundraising with CoupAide.  If you are interested, click on the CoupAide link on the right side of our blog.  We'll be posting an exciting adoption update soon, so stay tuned!!