Trip 1

Chris outside the Russian Church
Court house where our case will be heard to adopt Calvin
Our apartment in Sofia had a washing machine, microwave, coffee maker, tea kettle, fridge, hairdryer, iron and ironing board and drying rack for clothes. It was a 10 min walk from downtown Sofia, where all the monuments and important building are.

Photos from Trip 1 Bulgaria

Our apartment bedroom in Sofia
Donations of hats, sweaters made by my mom and me
Jazzy salad, cheese, lettuce, tomato and balsamic vinagrette
Pizza at Pizza Roma
Yummy dessert at Pizza Roma our last night in Sofia

I800 off to agency

So after banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to fill out some of the questions on the I800, and emailing friends who have already adopted, I completed the form this afternoon. Our agency emailed us some forms we needed related to our son and informed me I had to fill out another form for USCIS, the I 864W. At least this one is 1 page long. I would like to know who actually writes these forms, they couldn't be any more confusing. Once our agency gets this tomorrow, they will add some more documents to the pile and mail to NBC. I am hearing it will take 5 weeks to get approval from them and then we send everything apostilled to Bulgaria (medicals and FBI background check). Once Bulgaria gets these apostilled forms they set a court date which can take 5-6 weeks and then we travel probably a month after that. Please pray with us that we get an adoption friendly Judge, who doesn't requested more information and delays us bringing our son home. I have tried to think what more they could ask for and am including our agency's updated license and our social workers license (we have a new social worker). Picked those up yesterday. Our doctors office said we should get our bloodwork results next week. The waiting game again!

Paperwork before trip 2

For those of you who are still waiting for a referral or to go on trip 1 here is some information I wish I had know before hand.

1. For court (after trip one) you will need to have your medicals updated if they are older than 6 months. We had our physical done a few months ago for our homestudy so we will just get our blood work done (tb, HIV and Hep).

2. You will need new back ground checks (fingerprints for the FBI) if they are older than 6 months. And since January 25 2011 you can now request it to be notarized with a seal and signature. Once you get that done you then have to have it appostilled. Everything needs to be apostilled before you mail it to Bulgaria. We did our fingerprints and mailed to the FBI before traveling, after we received our referral. I heard it was taking some people 12 weeks to get them back. But ours only took 2 weeks to get back.

3. I800 needs to be done, down load and wait on your agency to give you the needed paperwork for your child (medical, birthdate, orphanage address etc). Not sure how long this is taking, will let you know when we get it back.

Courts in Bulgaria close during the month of July and August so I am praying we travel before then. Does anyone know how long after everything is sent to Bulgaria, does it take to get a court date? Thanks

Friday in Sophia

This morning I did a load of laundry, which is hanging in our kitchen. I don't think they have dryers, everyone hangs their laundry on their balcony's. We then went out exploring around our apartment. Rosi then called us to tell us to eat lunch and then she would pick us up to go to the notary to sign our intention to adopt Calvin. So we went sightseeing and ate lunch on the go. I finally called her at 1:30 because we never heard from her. She said she would pick us up in 2 min from our apartment. I told her we were by the Russian Church which is more like 20 min from our apartment, thinking she would pick us up from there. Well she said that was too far so she would meet us at our apartment by 2:30pm. We power walked back to our apartment and then she met us at our apartment at 2:15. The notary is just across the road from our apartment. We signed the paperwork for the ministry of justice, and now she is off to do paperwork there. We are so tired from walking, I am not sure if we are going to go out again to buy souvenirs. Maybe trip 2 we can do that now that we know where it is. They are celebrating March 1 Baba m day. So there are alot of the red and white thread bracelets. We bought one for each of our girls, we can't go back empty handed they would be disappointed. Wondering what we will do for dinner tonight? Chris wants to get pizza every night, I am starting to get sick of pizza. Last night I had chicken and grilled vegetables, he had pizza.

Wednesday in Dobrich

The days seem to run together when you spend time in the same room doing the same thing with your child in the orphanage. On Wednesday we did visit downtown Dobrich. We ate lunch by ourselves and just walked around. We tried to visit 2 museums but they were closed. We walked through the park, which is large and nicely manicured. The funny thing is there are exercising machines in the park and people actually use them. They exercise in their normal clothes, it really is funny to see. We did get a lot of kisses in today too with Calvin. We enjoyed dinner with our translator in the hotel restaurant, my dinner was delicious (chicken with vegtables). They eat alot of veal, chicken and fish, not much red meat. The salads here are delicious and I did order baklava and a coffee after dinner. It was yummy. Kim, we did see the man in the black top hat and red roses. Very funny. We love the Park Hotel. Also our luggage did make it at 7 pm. I have more clothes than days left to wear them!

Our last day with Calvin

This morning we went to the orphanage earlier than normal because our translator had to visit another orphanage in Varna. We visited from 9-11. What was great is that we got to take him outside by our selves in the backyard. He was so sweet. He held my hand the whole time, then Chris took him and pushed him on a swing. He sat on Chris' lap and just loved it. He was so good, and calm. I was sure he would be running from us but he didn't. We also got to see some of the other children in the orphanage, as they came out to play too. They were all bundled up so we didn't really see all of their faces. We were able to give the workers their gifts and then met with the director before we left. She was very nice to us and said that she appreciated us playing with Calvin's friends, and that she was happy he was getting a nice family. I started to get teary eyed and told her we appreciate all they do for the children and can tell they are loved and well cared for. She hugged us and said she hopes to see us soon. We also gave a gift to the security guard and he gave us a drawing he had done. It was awesome. We will put that in Calvin's momento box with some other souvenirs from Bulgaria. We then caught a taxi to Varna. We got to see some of the countryside and it started to snow. Once in Varna we went to the Archeology Museum for 1.5 hours and then went out to lunch. After lunch our translator went to visit Varna's orphanage so we went to a coffee shop and used the internet. She told us that Varna orphanage had a fire last night and had a lot of damage. Their food and clothes were burned but the children were alright. So sad! Vesta is going to give them donations. Rosi said the place was full of investigators, police and tv crews. After she picked us up from the cafe we went to the airport and flew out to Sophia at 5:55pm and got into Sophia 40 min later. We then dropped her off at her apartment and went to dinner at a place close by. One of the things we have to get used to is them bringing one meal out at a time. At the restaurant in Dobrich it wasn't so bad, but in Varna at lunch Rosi and Chris got their lunch first and my sandwich came out like 15 min later. At dinner Chris ordered pizza and finished it before my food came out 30 minutes later. Crazy. We have been skyping our kids each night, and love that we can see each other. I miss hugging them, I can't wait to get home now that we are done visiting Calvin. Vesta has really made us feel comfortable and they do such a good job with picking us up, getting us places to stay and translating for us at the orphanage. The workers there couldn't speak any English. Rosi left us for 15 min one day to take pictures of a girl on the otherside of the orphanage, and it was so hard trying to communicate with the workers. They shake their head from left to right to say yes, so confusing. I am saying da for yes and shaking my head no. Too funny. Thanks to all of you who have left comments on facebook or on here, it is so encouraging.

Tuesday..

Last night we were planning to eat in the hotel restuarant, but it was totally booked for Valentine's Day dinner. So we caught a taxi and went to the main downtown area of Dobrich. We tried 2 other restaurants and they were also full. Finally found an Irish Pub place, it looked like a tavern with wood panelling walls, benches etc. It was very nice. Funny thing is the smoking section was full, but they had room in the nonsmoking section. I had curry chicken, it wasn't like curry at all but it was tasty. Chris had a pork chop, mashed potatoes and diet coke. This morning we ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant, it comes free with the hotel room. It was buffett and very tasty. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bread, cheese, salami cold meat, youghurt, honey, granola, and fresh fruit. The coffee here is pretty strong, but good.

We then left for the orphanage, by taxi, and took diapers with us and some treats for the children. We bought these at a grocery store after our dinner last night. Calvin was waiting for us in his room. He has his own room and crib with a little stool and lego table. He loves his little chair. The kids here don't play on the floor, they sit on a stool and play. The first thing he did was go to my backpack and look for a snack. He loves the 'puffs' the Gerbers make. He just walks around with the container the whole time, won't put it down. He also enjoys pretzels. Our translator says this is one of the best orphanages. They have structured play time, they teach them how to throw rings, he even has a little computer he plays with with a mouse. He knows how to build with legos, he pretend plays on a phone talking to me on it. His attention span isn't very long but he is not 3 yet. He goes from one thing to another. He did sit in my lap and I bounced him on my knees. He was laughing playing hide and seek behind the door, it was very cute. We are going to try tomorrow to take him for his visa picture I think. I am also hoping our suitcase gets here tonight with the rest of our clothes, donations for the orphanage, and gifts for the caregivers. The staff here just loves the book we made Calvin of our family, they keep coming into the room asking to see it. I think they are impressed it is in Bulgarian. We are hoping to walk around tomorrow and buy some soveniers. All in all it has been a good day, he is more comfortable with us each day.

We met our son today....

I will always remember that we met our son on Valentine's Day. We flew into Varna (on the Black Sea) and took a taxi to the city of Dobrich. The ride was about 30 min, not much to see except for farmland. We went straight to the orphanage and left our bags in the socialworkers office. We first met with the Director. We asked her some questions about our son's health condition, his past surgery and his personality. She informed us that he is very stubborn and that because of his heart condition he has gotten spoilt. When he throws tantrums he would get his way. It seems because of his special need he has gotten one on one attention from the workers, and lives a very sheltered life from the other kids. He and 2 other children pretty much live together, eat together and play together. I know he will have a very difficult time when we take him home with us on trip 2. This is all he has known, this is his family.

After talking with the director, they took us to him. He came out of the playroom and looked at us. I have no idea what he was thinking, who are these people? He looked scared and confused. We then got down on his level and offered him some pretzels, that broke the ice. He would take one, walk away, come back again and give one to his friends. He is very sweet to watch with his friends. We then sat on the floor with him . He didn't really want to play, just eat. It was lunch time at this point, so they brought his lunch by us and he sat in a little chair and table by himself and ate. He had rice and chicken broth, and juice. We then left as he was going down for his nap. We will be back this afternoon. We also got to see where he sleeps. He is so cute, and clever.

Once we left we went to our hotel. Kim, it is the same hotel you stayed at. We really like it. We also ate lunch in the hotel restaurant and will be brave tomorrow and go wondering around town. We are looking forward to getting some sleep tonight the time change is killing us. Thanks to all of you who have left comments, it is so very encouraging to hear from you when we are in a strange land.

We are in Sofia

Everything went so well leaving from Detroit. The plan wasn't very full, we had an empty seat between us on AirFrance, we got lots of food and it was on time. Once we got to Paris, everything fell apart. We had to take a bus to get to our next terminal, there was no gate assigned to Sophia yet, all we knew was section 2B. We waited for the bus probably for 10-15 min, once on the bus it took us another 20 minutes to get to our gate. We didn't have passes, they said we had to get them at our gate. Know one was at the ticket counter at the gate to help us. There were a number of us 'late' (25 min before plane had to leave) so they let us on. The plane wasn't full, so once again we had an empty seat between us. Our guardian angel was an elderly Bulgarian man who took us under his wing, demanded we get a seat and helped us find baggage claim. Once we landed in Sofia, our bag didn't make it out of Paris!!! Chris asked me why we were taking on a carryon, my response was incase our luggage gets lost we have some clothes to wear. Wish I wasn't right sometimes lol.

So we had to fill out some paperwork, they will be sending it to our next destination on Tuesday. Thankfully we had someone meet us with a sign saying HAVEN. She could speak English and it was such a relief. She took us to exchange some money, get some toiletries and breakfast food for the morning, and dropped us off at our apartment. The apartment is wonderful. Washer, coffee machine, beds, bath with hot water and wifi, what more could a girl ask for. We will be leaving tomorrow morning at 8am to fly to Dobrich, can't wait to meet my son. Hopefully he won't be too scared seeing me without makeup! I really don't care about that I just can't believe we are finally here.

Miracle of Miracle...

So when we knew our referral was coming, we redid our fingerprints and mailed off to the FBI.We need this back ground check for court, and I had been reading it was taking 12 weeks to get these from the FBI. Well guess what came in the mail today? Our FBI background checks, they only took 3 weeks to do. So we are ready for court :) Just need to meet our son, sign paperwork to get the ball rolling in Bulgaria and fill out and mail our I800. Then we should be done until we bring him home!!! Can it be this easy? Well we could always have delays with our I800 I guess. Will keep you posted. Leaving soon on a jet plane....

No snow in the forecast

I have been watching the weather in Bulgaria and am so happy to know that there is no snow in the forecast when we get there. It will actually be about 10 degrees F warmer there than here. Still cold but sunny. I can live with that! We are ready to leave, just waiting for the day to come around. Looking forward to seeing our son and loving on him. I took a picture of all the little hats, sweaters, and gloves my mom and I knitted for the little ones. I will post maybe tonight or tomorrow. We still don't know where we are staying, I guess we will find out when we get there. Our in-country team takes care of all that, we had to take care of our airfare getting there. Really hoping we have a place with wifi. If not we will be hanging out in coffee shops in the evenings :) For friends who are following, we can't post any pictures of our son until we legal get him, after court. This will most probably be in May. Wish we could share him with you, he has big brown eyes and looks like he belongs in our family.

Booked our flight

We finally got our travel dates and booked our flights today. Can't believe we are actually going to Bulgaria to see our little boy. My mom is coming up to take care of the girls while we are gone, so I don't have to worry about them while I am gone. I am happy though that we have skype so we can see and chat with them while we are gone. Praying this snow storm moves out soon.