Day 5 - Signing Papers

Since we weren't going to be seeing Little Brother until the afternoon, we had some extra free time on Wednesday morning.  We decided that we were ready to go to the notary's office to sign the paperwork saying that we wanted to adopt Little Brother.  Since Kocherinovo is such a small town, we had to travel to Blagoevgrad to find a notary.  Blagoevgrad is a college town located about 12 kilometers south of Kocherinovo.  After signing the paperwork we took a walk around the city center to find a photo shop, since we would be returning to get Little Brother's visa picture taken the following morning.

After we took care of business in Blagoevgrad we headed back to the village to relax until Little Brother woke up from his nap.  His foster mother called our translator around 1:00pm and let us know we could pick him up.  We drove to the house and brought him back to the hotel.  We played with his toys and visited with the ladies in the restaurant downstairs.  He even got to Skype with Nikolas while he was there.  He's a very busy little boy and we enjoyed spending so much time with him.

We took him home at 6:00pm and then came back to the hotel to enjoy dinner in hotel restaurant.  Things have been going great!

Day 4 - Rila Monestary

The Rila Monastery is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria.  I had been wanting to go to the monastery for a long time, so I was excited to find out that we would be staying in a village that was less than 30 kilometers away.  I was even more excited when our attendant suggested a trip to this beautiful place.

On Tuesday the weather was great, so we decided it would be a good day to visit.  Our group consisted of us, our attendant, the social worker, little brother, foster mother and foster father.  As we drove up the mountain we saw more and more snow on the ground.  

The main church was amazing.  Everything was so detailed.  We could have spent so much more time there.  While we were there Little Brother's foster mother explained that he had been named after the saint who founded the monastery.  Before leaving the church, she asked us to all light a candle together for him. 

We walked around the grounds for a bit longer and took everything in.  We also stopped by the gift shop to purchase a few postcards of the inside of the church before heading back down the mountain for lunch. 

We stopped at a cute little restaurant near the river and enjoyed a traditional Bulgarian meal.  While we waited for our lunch Little Brother enjoyed checking out the stuffed animals that were mounted on the wall and checking himself out in the mirror.  His foster mother ordered him a meatball and some French fries, but he preferred Jason's chicken dish over his own meal.

After lunch we said our goodbyes and headed back to the village.  On the way we talked about our plan for the rest of the week.

We arrived back in time for our daily Skype session with Nikolas.  After that we took a walk around the city center and also down to the small church down the road.  We always felt comfortable when we were out, and the people we met were very friendly.  We definitely enjoyed the slower pace of village life.

As normal, we had our nightly dinner in the hotel restaurant with our attendant followed by relaxing upstairs before bed.

Day 3 - Meeting Little Brother

We met our attendant downstairs at 8:30am and shared a plate of freshly made banitsa before heading over to the social worker's office.  The office is located in the one office building that is located in the city center.  It is a small room located on the top floor of the building.  We took care of some paperwork, picked up the social worker and drove over to Little Brother's foster home. 

We were greeted at the door by his foster mother.  She invited us in for some juice and snacks, and we sat and talked about Little Brother until he got comfortable with us being there.  We then joined him in the bedroom and spent a couple of hours playing with him.  We could tell right away that he's a clever little boy.  He's very energetic and has a sweet giggle.  His favorite toys are cars, balls, my iPhone, and the television remote.  Towards the end of the visit he let his foster mother know that he was hungry.  After a quick lunch he grabbed his blanket and fell right asleep.  We dropped the social worker off at her office and returned to the hotel.

In the afternoon we took a walk to the small grocery store in town to pick up some soda and juice to take back to the hotel.  We also picked up some souvenirs at another small store in the town center.  There are a couple of souvenir shops in town, but neither seemed to be open during our visit.  Perhaps will check back this summer when we return to bring Little Brother home. 

That evening we enjoyed a quiet dinner downstairs in the restaurant and then went back upstairs to get some sleep.

Days 1 and 2 - Getting There

We left Indianapolis on Saturday afternoon and flew to Sofia via Washington DC and Vienna.  Katie from Adoption Airfare booked us some great flights on United and Austrian Air.  All of the flights were on time with short, easy connections. 

We arrived in Sofia at 12:50pm on Sunday and were met by our attendant.  He drove us to Kocherinovo, which is a small village located in the southwestern part of Bulgaria.  It's known as "The Town of Storks".  We were able to spot many nests on top of buildings and are excited to watch for storks when we return this summer.  This part of the country is absolutely beautiful.

We checked into the Hotel Mishel, which is a small guest house that has six rooms.  It's owned by a very nice couple that we got to know throughout the week.  Our room was comfortable and we enjoyed having a small terrace.

After getting unpacked we were able to Skpye with Nikolas at home.  We were very thankful to have a reliable internet connection all week.

We enjoyed a nice meal in the small dining room at the hotel before an early bedtime.  

Here's a website that includes a lot of neat information about Kocherinovo: http://www.sputnik-bg.net/en/index.htm.

Referral!!

We received a referral in mid-January and just returned home last night from meeting our little guy.  He's am amazing little boy and we had such a positive experience going to visit him.  He's going to be a great son and little brother.  I didn't take the laptop with me when we travelled, so I wasn't able to post blog updates during our trip.  I'll be working on them over the next couple of weeks, so be sure to watch for them!