Pick up trip: day 6

Today was our last full day in Bulgaria!  I have loved being here this week, but I am so glad to be heading home tomorrow.  

Maia threw us for a loop today when she woke up sick to her stomach.  After some deliberation we decided to take her to a local clinic.  We now have some specialized formula, the Bulgarian equivalent of Tylenol, and some medicine for vomiting.  She has not been sick again, praise God, but we are prepared just in case.  

Today was full of milestones - some of which were caught on camera.  

After downing half of the prescribed dose of probiotic formula, Maia decided she wanted more.  So she crawled off the couch, crawled over to the empty bottle on the floor, picked it up and brought it to me!  She continued to push it into my lap until I got up to get her more.  :). Who needs words?!  She's got this communication thing figured out!

Speaking of words, she was clearly trying to say "peek a boo" today!!!  Craig got it on video, but I can't figure out how to get if off his iPad and onto my blog, so you will have to wait a bit for that.  Or find it on Facebook if you are friends with us.  

She continues to amaze us daily as we watch her already overcoming obstacles.  She is such an amazing example of grace and redemption.  We are SO blessed to be given the opportunity to parent this sweet child of God.  It not takes her about 30 minutes to fall asleep now compared to the 4 hours it took the first night.  

After an afternoon of resting and recouping we met with our bulgarian agency one last time to gather the official paperwork.  Everything is now done and ready to go!!  We are SO excited to be heading home tomorrow.  I miss Nathan and Alex so much it hurts.  I miss American speech and American food as well. :)  

Hang on, family.  We're coming soon!!!

Pick Up Trip: Day 5

Let me start off by saying today was our best day with Maia yet!  We are starting to get accustomed to each other and are slowly figuring things out.  We knew this trip wasn't going to be easy (and it's actually been easier than we thought) but its still been a hard week for all of us.

Not having any knowledge of how to specifically care for Maia has been hard. She can't tell me what she needs (she probably doesn't even know what she needs after so much neglect) and I don't know what she needs specifically.  We are guessing on how much to feed her.  Guessing on what to feed her.  Guessing as to when she needs quiet time in the crib and when she needs to practice interacting with us.  Guessing on what to work on and what to let go.  And if you know me at all, you now I don't like to guess.  But there's nothing concrete or exact when you start figuring out what makes your adopted special needs child tick, so guessing it is.  It's exhausting.  

Then you factor in being in a country with a different language, different customs, and different food and you have a whole new set of adjustments.  :). We've been keeping KFC and Subway in business since they speak a little bit of English and we know what their food is.  We also found a little mini-Walmart type store that we bought sandwich stuff at for lunches.  Nutella and jelly it is!  (Couldn't find the peanut butter, lol) 

Anyway.  After sucking it up and coming to terms with all of this last night, today as been fabulous.  I have no expectations other than surviving the week and making it home Saturday.  What a difference that makes!

(Gentle hands, Maia)

We had another lazy morning today before our appointment at the embassy this afternoon.  That was a bit intimidating until we got to the counter and realized everything was over with no pain or stress. :)  Maia did SO WELL at the embassy.  They are short staffed right now, so we ended up waiting almost an hour for our appointment.  She sat quietly and let me rock her most of the time.  :love:

Maia is still eating well, but isn't drinking much.  She is, however, still hydrated so we are not too concerned by this just yet.  I was able to give her a little sponge bath today.  She was uneasy, but was ok until it was time for soap.  Then she got a bit freaked out so we cut things short.  

She is also figuring out how to let us know if she wants more food.  If we have a bowl and spoon near us she will grab our hand and move it toward the spoon.  Then she will move the spoon (that's in our hand), to the bowl.  She will reach for her bottle when she wants milk as well.  She's making fast progress.  

One of her favorite games is to play with her stroller.  She pushes it around the apartment and rocks it back and forth.  Her other favorite game is to laugh at herself in the elevator.  SO CUTE!  Enjoy.  :)

Tomorrow we have one last meeting with our facilitator in which we will get all of the official paperwork.  And we leave Saturday morning to bring her HOME!!!

Pick Up Trip: Day 4

Four days in Bulgaria!  Three days (two full ones) with Maia and we are already seeing so many improvements!  God is good.  Better than good.  He restores.

Good morning new Mommy!  She recognized me this morning and reached for me when I walked up to her crib.  

We went down for breakfast a little earlier this morning since we were all up.  Maia ate two bowls of yogurt while we were there!  (This is in addition to her breakfast which she ate shortly after getting up.)  we have a great eater.  Craig was able to teach her this morning that she needs to keep her hands down if she wants to eat.  (its super hard to feed her with her hands in front of her facd all the time.). We also have a hard time keeping her hair out of her face if you can't tell. :)

After breakfast we chilled out around the apartment for a bit before taking a walk.  Maia loves to be outside and she especially loves her stroller.  

There was nothing on the agenda for today so we took it easy and spent some more time getting to know each other.  Maia has a lot of institutional behaviors that are becoming more apparent as we spend 24/7 with her.  A lot of them she's already showing improvement with as well!  It will require a lot of hard work and a lot of patience on our end, but I think she will overcome most of the obstacles of her early years.  

And if she doesn't, we will still love her!  How can you not love that beautiful person?  Created in God's image and fearfully and wonderfully made.  Miraculous.  

Also - we are now on the back end of our pickup trip!  In three days we will be headed home!!!

Pick up trip: Day 3

Today marked three days in Bulgaria - two days with Maia.  

While today was pretty lazy, it seems to have been harder on Maia than yesterday.  

We gave her a little mini bath this morning and she did NOT like it.  Pretty common for institutionalized kids, but she really needed one so we made it as quick as possible.  As soon as the water was gone she was her happy self again. 

We hung around the apartment this morning and just relaxed.  Maia stommed a lot more than yesterday, but nothing that would hurt her.  So we let her stim and just talked to her and played with her when she would let us.  She makes great eye contact when we call her name so we are able to distract her momentarily with that.  Her stimming right now consists of rocking and moaning.  With the occasional grinding of teeth.  Eek!  

Everything goes in her mouth. :) 

We went to her medical appointment at 1:30 (the one immigration needs) and totally wiped her out with that.  They just checked her length (3ft 2in) and weight (30lbs), and listened to her heart and lungs.  The poor girl was terrified and fought the whole time.  She reached for me and Craig multiple times which shows she is starting to see us as safe people.  I was so glad to be able to calm her down after it all was over. 

We came back to the hotel and took a nice nap.  Even Maia napped in her crib beside us!  

After nap Craig fed Maia dinner (baby food and cereal mixed with pediasure), and we got her ready to go out.  We went to a little pizza place a block away from the hotel.  They have English menus and speak a bit of English.  SO NICE!!  It's strange in Bulgaria though - they won't bring you a check unless you ask for it.  It's seen as rude on their part to just bring the check.  Whereas on our end we kept thinking the were ignoring us by not bringing it, lol.  

After dinner we fed Maia another snack and gave her her medicines.  (She gets vitamins once a day and an iron supplement twice a day.). Then we started our new bedtime routine, that will hopefully in time make bedtime more relaxing and easier on her.  I attempted to brush her teeth (she wanted nothing to do with it), and gave her a short massage with lotion.  Then we got dressed and said leka nosht to Daddy and went to the crib.

She's currently laying in her crib playing, rocking, and making silly noises.  We are in the sitting room where she can see us, but still has her own space.  She looks up at us every few minutes and grins and then goes back to her playing/stimming.  She makes the CUTEST noises.  I'll try to get it on video tomorrow to share with you. :)

All in all day 3 went well.  It's hard starting new with her and not knowing what to do to care for her.  Almost like having a newborn all over again trying to figure them out.  Thankfully we know what she will eat so that's a great start.  ;)

There's nothing on the agenda tomorrow, so we are hoping to take her for a walk and get some laundry done.  I'll update again soon!  

Pick up trip: Gotcha Day (day 2)

We woke up this morning with a bounce in our step despite the fickle sleep we got last night.  After a quick run to the ATM, showers, and breakfast, we were ready to go get our girl!!

The drive to Pleven is about 2.5 hours from our hotel.  It's a good thing it's a beautiful drive!  Everywhere we looked there were fields of sunflowers.  Acres and acres at a time.  I've never seen anything like it.  When you look at the side of a mountain and its covered in sunflowers: yeah, beautiful.

We arrived at Maia's orphanage around 10:45.  I will never forget this place.  They gave my daughter life until we could bring her home.  While it wasn't the best care ever, it was care nonetheless and for that I'm eternally grateful.  

We waited in the lobby for about 10 minutes while they got Maia ready and then her baba brought her out to us.  

She loves her Baba Zdravska and her Baba loves her.  It did my heart good to see this sweet lady get choked up while saying goodbye.  I'm so thankful for the care she gave our girl.  

We said goodbye and loaded up in the car for the long drive back to Sofia.  I was a little concerned about the trek.  Maia didn't seem to remember us, so here we are, two complete strangers, carrying her off into the wild blue yonder.  I would have freaked out if I was her.

Y'all.  We got a trooper!  She sat in her little booster seat and took turns looking out the window and playing with us the entire trip.  Not one cry!  Not even a look of uncertainty.  She's super brave. 

When we got back to Sofia our driver took us to the passport office.  This was the first time Maia cried all trip.  She didn't like the crowded, close space.  I don't blame her.  We got her picture and got her out of there.  Then we had to go to another little place to get another picture taken.  Poor girl.  I had to hold Maia while also keep her hands put of her face.  The guy taking the picture kept telling me to do something and I had NO CLUE what he was saying.  How do you say "I don't speak Bulgarian" in Bulgarian?

We grabbed a quick gyro lunch and hopped in a taxi to head back to the hotel.  Once at the hotel we sat on the balcony a bit and ate our lunch.  Maia ate for us as well!!!   

She sat with us on the balcony and played for a while before I took her in and laid her in her crib for a rest.  

After rest we had some play time and then we fed her dinner before we headed out to find something to eat for ourselves.  She LOVED going outside in the stroller.  We took off to the mall and grabbed some KFC "take away" before heading down to the grocery store to get us all some food for the week.  

Upon arriving back to the hotel we face timed with the kids real quick and gave Maia a yogurt snack and put her to bed.  She's quietly rocking in her crib right now.

Y'all.  This child is an angel.  She has done SO WELL.  She just had her busiest day ever and took it like a champ.  She's so happy and active and smily.  She makes wonderful eye contact and is eating and even drinking a little.  We've had very little stimming despite the busyness of today.  I'm so relieved and blessed to have today go so well.  

To God be the glory.  Bring on tomorrow!  (After a good nights sleep. Please.)

Redeemed

This beautiful girl is FREE!!!!  Redeemed.  Given a second chance.

And I tell you,

And I tell you, there is no more beautiful picture of salvation than adoption.  For real y'all.  There are no words.

Pick up trip: Day 1

We boarded a plane in Charleston on Saturday afternoon to make the long trek to Sofia, Bulgaria.  It was a pretty uneventful trip if you ignore my migraine on the long flight and the comment from our captain in Munich that the engine of the plane was broken but was looked at and was "all legal to fly to Sofia."  Yeah, that's reassuring.  

A driver met us at the airport in Sofia to take us to our hotel.  We picked a good one!  LOVE this little place.  

We have a dining area

A sitting area with a fridge, sink, and counter (perfect for preparing Maia's meals),

And a little bedroom complete with Maia's very first non-orphanage bed.

After a much needed nap (Craig didn't sleep at all on the flights), we mustered up the energy to get out of the comfy (but a bit warm) room for a bit.  There is a new mall here that's about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  It's NICE!  Clothing stores, kids stores, shoes, etc.  We felt very much at home.  :)

We even managed to find a little gem called the Food Court.  Complete with a KFC, Subway, and Dunkin Donuts.  WIN!!!!

After a nice American meal we found a little store in the basement of the mall.  Turns out it's a Bulgarian style Walmart of sorts.  So we picked up some juice, my favorite Bulgarian chocolates, lots of water, and diapers for Maia.  We will head back tomorrow for baby food, formula (if needed) and other supplies for her once we know what she needs. 

Until then I'm off to pack her diaper bag, prepare her very first non-orphanage outfit, and hopefully get some sleep.

We leave the hotel at 8am tomorrow to head for Pleven.  It's about an hour and a half drive one way, so we will be gone most of the day.  Once we get back to Sofia we will have to go get Maia's passport made and then it'll probably be time for dinner.  I'll update you all as soon as we are back within range of the wireless. ;)

Have a fabulous day and enjoy your AC for us (it doesn't get cooler than 80 in our room here).