Day 7 - Goodbye Little Brother, Hello Snowy Sofia

We woke up early on Friday morning so we could get everything packed.  After breakfast we walked over to the social worker's office to sign some paperwork.  We said goodbye to everyone at the office and then headed back to the hotel.  We checked out and said goodbye to the staff and then headed over to Little Brother's foster home for one last visit.

He was watching out the window for us when we arrived.  We went in and were able to spend about two hours playing with him.  We gave his foster mother the photo book that we had prepared for him. As she looked through it with him, he could easily identify us in person from the photographs.  We traded contact information so we could get set up to Skype with each other until we are able to come back for him.

We said our goodbyes to Little Brother and his foster family before heading back to Sofia.  The wait in between trips is so hard, but knowing that he is being taken care of by a family that loves him makes it a little easier.  We'll have contact with the family, so that helps, too.  It's amazing how easy it is to get attached to one little boy in just five short days.

It was very windy on our drive back to Sofia.  Our attendant dropped us off at our friend Noreen's apartment.  She is in Sofia picking up her three children.  We met through our agency, Children's House International, and she offered to let us stay at her apartment for the night.  We visited for a bit and then set off in the rain to pick up some souvenirs and to have some dinner.  We walked to the nearest Metro station and took the train to the Serdika station.  We knew that area had several souvenir shops and would be the best place to shop.  By the time we arrived at the station the rain had turned to very wet snow that was coming down rather quickly.  It was a mess out out there!  We purchased our souvenirs and then caught the train back to Vitosha Avenue.

We stopped at Pizza Palace for dinner.  It was a very nice Italian restaurant that had great food.  We had pasta and risotto followed by the best tiramisu for dessert.  We met a nice couple from the south of Turkey and chatted with them for a bit.  They were excited to see the snow because it doesn't snow in that part of Turkey.  I'm sure we'll be visiting Pizza Palace multiple times this summer when we return to bring Little Brother home.  On the way back to the apartment we stopped at a small grocery store to pick up some chocolate, since European chocolate is so much better than American chocolate!

We headed back to the apartment (without getting lost!) and enjoyed some wine and laughs with Noreen before crashing for the night.  Our cab was due to arrive at 5:00am, so it was definitely going to be a short night for us.