First Day in Shumen

We travelled to the orphanage this morning to meet our little guy for the first time.  We also met the director, the social worker, one of his caregivers and his baba.  We chatted with the director for a few minutes while H's caregiver went to get him.  We knew from the referral information that he doesn't do well meeting new people, so we didn't expect him to be too interested in us.  He fussed a bit when we went into the meeting room, so they suggested that we go outside since the weather is so nice right now.  He immediately went to a swing and wanted to swing.  We were told that he would swing for hours if they would let him.  He warmed up to us a bit thanks to the Gerber puffs that we brought along.  His baba and another little guy (who is being adopted by another couple at our agency) came over and joined us for a bit.  At one point H got off the swing and took off after his baba.  He's very delayed, but he proved to us that he is in fact able to walk on his own.  I wish I could share pictures, as he is a very darling little boy with great big brown eyes.

We spent about an hour with him and then had the taxi driver drop us off near the city center.  We were able to exchange money at the bank, check out the area, and pick up some drinks from the grocery store.  The grocery store is up a steep hill.  (I'm from Indiana, so most hills are steep to me.)  We came back to our hotel for a couple of hours before heading back to the orphanage.

We spent one hour with H this afternoon.  We started off outside on the swing, but we had to come inside a few minutes later due to the rain.  We spent the rest of the time in the social worker's office where he enjoyed dancing to the music, eating some Gerber snacks and playing with his toy keys.  He lets us hold him and play with him.  He likes laying on his back and sticking his feet up in the air and then taking off his shoes.  He babbles a lot and makes sounds with his mouth, but he doesn't really say any words.  We'll be spending two hours with him each morning and one hour each afternoon.

This evening we had dinner in the garden with our translator.  The hotel restaurant is very inexpensive and the food is okay.  Gergana found a traditional Bulgarian restaurant that we're going try for dinner one night this week, so that should be fun.

Tomorrow afternoon there is a 70% chance of rain, so we probably won't be doing too much exploring.  On Wednesday or Thursday we will visit the Shumen Fortress and the 1300 Years Monument.  We're trying to see as much as we can while we're here since we can only spend a few hours a day with our little guy.

Getting There is Part of the Fun!!

We finally made it to Bulgaria after a difficult journey.  Our first flight (Indianapolis to Newark) was a little bumpy, but we arrived on time without any issues.  As they started to board our flight to Munich, they realized that the air conditioning was not working on the airplane.  They attempted to fix it, but they later decided that they would need to get a different aircraft.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:30pm.  We were able to board around 8:30pm, and we finally left the ground at 9:30pm.

Prior to leaving Newark we went to the customer service desk, as we knew we were going to miss our connection to Sofia.  The gentleman there confirmed us for the 1:10pm flight to Sofia and told us we would have no issues making that flight, and there wasn't any reason that our luggage wouldn't arrive with us.  I paid the $7.95 for internet access at the airport so I could e-mail Nina at CHI and Violeta in Bulgaria to let them know that we would not be arriving in Sofia on schedule.  Luckily I had Violeta's contact information since we've been corresponding with her since we brought Nikolas home.

We arrived in Munich at 11:00am on Sunday morning (the same time we were originally scheduled to arrive in Sofia).  I was so relieved to have texts from both Violeta (our coordinator in Bulgaria) and Gergana (our awesome translator) letting me know that they were aware that we would not be arriving on time and to contact them when we had more information.  Since the gentleman in Newark had printed out a slip of paper showing that we were confirmed on the 1:10pm flight to Sofia, we let them know were would be arriving in Sofia at 4:00pm.  A nice lady at the gate checked our passports and confirmed that we were on the flight, but we would need to go to the customer service desk to get our boarding passes printed.

The line at the customer service desk was ridiculous.  There was a gentleman checking passports and trying to help folks before they got to the counter, but I'm not sure how much help he really was.  He told us we were not on the 1:10pm flight, but we were on standby for the 7:00pm flight with 6 people ahead of us.  By this time it was getting dangerously close to boarding time for the 1:10pm flight, so we went back to the gate hoping someone could help us.  The lady working at the gate was incredibly nice.  Even though we had the paper showing we were confirmed, she was having trouble getting our tickets.  After a couple of phone calls, we had boarding passes and were good to go.  Turns out there were quite a few empty seats on that flight from Munich to Sofia.

We arrived in Sofia on time and our luggage did, too!!  We were met by Gergana and were out of the airport in less than 30 minutes.  After a really long drive on curvy roads through the mountains, we finally made it to our hotel in Shumen.  My stomach was a little queasy, but I made it just fine.  Maybe it's a good thing I hadn't eaten in a while.  The Bulgarian countryside is beautiful.  It's very green and mountainous with beautiful fields of sunflowers that are as plentiful as corn fields in Indiana.  Every now and then we'd pass through a small village with old brick houses.  I just love it here!!

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!!