Fun in the snow & haircut day

The boys enjoying the snow in front of the Bulgarian National Museum of History

Today is a free day for us. No requirements for meetings or paperwork. When we woke up it was snowing like crazy! What a treat for folks from Alabama. Our sweet friend Erin Pervis who is an MTW missionary in Bulgaria drove us around today. We dropped Tony and the boys at the National Museum of History. Notice the long walk to the building behind the boys in the picture above? Tony said they had a snowball fight the whole way up. The people in the museum must have thought they were crazy because they all were giving them strange looks when they entered. Guess they see so much snow here that it is a nuisance rather than fun.

Erin Pervis with us during the snow today

So glad to know Erin. She and her husband David along with their two children Clara and Josiah have been serving as missionaries in Bulgaria with MTW for some time. We met David 3 years ago at the missions conference at Trinity Presbyterian. We had already decided to adopt from Bulgaria when we had David stay with us. Having him stay with us during the conference was like an orientation on Bulgaria. We were able to stay with the Pervis' on our first visit to Bulgaria in September. They are awesome hosts!

Erin is amazing! She can translate, give tourism information and drive in the snow all at the same time! She has helped us understand what Anna is saying. We are learning a lot of key words and phrases from her like "bathroom" (#1 and #2), "I am hungry", etc.


Before we left Anna's orphanage in September the staff asked us if we wanted Anna's hair to grow out long or to keep the length and bangs cut. We asked them to allow her hair to grow out. How nice of them to even consider something like this. When we saw her we could tell that her hair had grown quite a bit since our first trip. Today we took her to get her trimmed a bit. We were able to get an appointment thanks to Erin who made the arrangements with a friend that is one of her English students.

After our appointment we went back to the museum to get Tony and the boys. They were still having fun in the snow! We grabbed some KFC for lunch. Anna is not a fan of fried chicken. As a soon-to-be citizen of Alabama she is going to have to work on that!

Only two more days and we are coming home. Tomorrow we go to the US Embassy to apply for Anna's Visa and do our exit interview. We return there on Friday afternoon to pick up her Visa. We fly out early Saturday morning and get back to Montgomery around 5:45 on Saturday afternoon. It will be a long day. Please pray for Anna on this trip - and for the passengers around us to be tolerant of a 5 year old taking her first flights.

Bedtime and naps are going much better! She is settling down much quicker. Thankfully they had a pack & play in the apartment. She likes this best for sleeping. She is not scared like the first night.

She loves the boys. She is already playing them - pitting one against the other for her affection. Some days she wants Gray to hold her the next day it's all Cleve.  She and Tony have renewed the bond they made in September. She likes for Tony to carry her everywhere we go - and he is glad to oblige. These men are like putty in her hand!

Look out Gray here comes a snowball!

Gotcha Day

When you adopt this day is known as "Gotcha Day" - the day that your adopted child joins your family and leaves their orphanage forever. This day - February 27th will be celebrated each year in our family to remember the day when Anna came to us.

     

It is difficult to describe a day like Monday. This day for us was full of excitement, nervousness and joy. We set out early this morning to make the 8 hour round trip from Sofia to Yambol. Petco who is the Director for Vesta (adoption agency in Bulgaria that works with All God's Children) drove us. The roads were clear and except for a little rain and some snow that was falling when we returned to Sofia. It was great traveling weather.

This little girl latched onto Gray!

When we got to the orphanage we met with the Director. After all the years of paperwork, government forms, physicals, fingerprinting, etc it was funny that it only took two quick steps to make it official - copy of our passports and our signatures in the orphanage ledger. We only had a few minutes to visit with the director because we were working towards getting back to Sofia before the police station closed so we could get Anna's passport. We did have time to tell the director how thankful we were to her for keeping Anna in the small children's facility and not letting her be transferred to the older orphanage. She said she believed in her heart that there would be a family for Anna and that is why she kept Anna past her 4th birthday. God certainly orders our lives!

Cleve entertains!

After our meeting we went to Anna's group. They had told her this morning that her family was coming - so she was ready! When she saw me she just ran straight to her and wrapped her little arms around my neck. Then she took me by the arm into the room with the rest of the group as if to say to everyone - "This is my Momma and I am going home with her today!" She remembered Tony and she knew the boys were the ones she has seen in her picture book we left on our first trip. She would hardly let go of me. It was like she was not sure if she thought we might leave again.

Getting ready for the ride home!

I got to dress her for the ride home. What fun! She was so excited to put on a new dress that she raced through getting her arms inside. She fussed at us when she felt like we were moving too slowly with the buttoning. When she looked down and saw new shoes she squealed in delight!

One of our biggest concerns was the car ride back to Sofia. Since orphans don't ride in cars they get car sick. Petco says about 90% of the time this will happen. Anna took turns sitting between the boys and in their laps the entire ride. She didn't get sick and enjoyed the ride with us. Here is a link to a quick video of her first car ride with her sweet big brothers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIFoWFy3_Yk&context=C31eb8a5ADOEgsToPDskLYndSGMSKaWMt1gj2dOBBf

Anna chows down.

After we got back into Sofia we finally got a chance to eat. We were all hungry but no one enjoyed dinner as much as Anna. She had some and most of everything we ordered! We were careful not to let her get sick. We had the friendliest and kindest waiters. Both of them had studied or worked in the US. They were great to help translate what Anna was telling us. Evidently she's never had Sprite. Before I could stop her she grabbed my glass and took a drink. She told the waiter "This is not water and I don't like it!"So nice to meet some great Bulgarians and have our first meal together.

You think she enjoyed her bath?

We were also concerned that Anna might not like to take a bath. Since all they know is showers at the orphanage we were worried that a bath may be too much for her. It was clear that she enjoyed the warm bath and all the bubbles! She wanted to stay in and fussed a little when I told her it was time to get out. Can't wait to get her home and give her a big bathtub bath!

The only trying time for us was bedtime. She was very scared to fall asleep in a strange place with her new family. It is a lot to ask of a little girl who for 5 years has never known any place else at bedtime. Eventually she settled down. I think she is learning to trust us a little more.

Thank you Lord for this day and putting Anna in our family. All the waiting and working to get to this moment has been worth it. We are so thankful for our Anna. We pray that adding her to our family will change all of our lives.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."
                                            -- James 1:17

Crazy Weather, Cleve and the Bomb Scare, Luggage Mess and Finally Sofia!

The trip to Bulgaria has been eventful to say the least! We are thankful to be here. Leaving Montgomery on Friday had its challenges. Our flight to Atlanta was delayed due to weather. It got to the point where we were certain to miss our connection in Atlanta. Delta was going to rent a van and driver to get us to Atlanta on time. Then the driver never showed. The desk agents felt so bad they "found" us 4 spots on an earlier flight that had been delayed to roughly our original departure time. We think they creatively bumped a few folks to make this happen.

The boys eating some pizza

When we got to security Gray got pulled out of line since he was wearing his knee brace. Cleve told the TSA folks to "Strip search him!" Then he makes a bomb joke that got overheard. At that point it got pretty tense. Thanks to that remark we all almost got searched and interrogated. Fortunately the TSA agent took his parents word that he was just an 11 year old boy making 11 year old boy kinda, not very timely jokes. We got off with a quick lecture. Whew!

Two handsome guys hanging out at the Spanish Steps

Made it to Rome! We learned after we didn't see our luggage on the carousel that our bags were about to get on a plane to Sofia! Thankfully the folks at Alitalia were able to reroute our luggage. Had a great afternoon and evening with the boys in Rome. Took in some sights, had a nice meal and a stop for some gelato!  We got some much needed rest overnight. Had a late breakfast and did some walking tourist stuff. Hard to believe this is our last morning as a family of four. 

Getting to Sofia today was crazy. Our cab driver took the scenic route and then dropped us at the wrong terminal. We missed the cut off to board our flight by ten minutes. We had to reroute with Lufthansa through Frankfurt. They were great to help us. Got in around 11 pm local time.

Our view today. God made all this!

Tonight it has been hard for any of us to fall asleep. Tomorrow is THE DAY - all of us together at last! We have all been fidgeting - the boys are having trouble settling down and we've been packing/repacking, checking/double checking everything in our minds. Everyone's thinking about Anna. Thank you Lord for getting us here!

Bulgaria here we come!

Today is the day! We are finally on our way to bring Anna home! This will be a special journey for our family. We are taking the boys on this trip. We felt like it was important for them to be a part of Anna's "Gotcha Day", learn about where she comes from and to have this first week to be with her. Please stay tuned for more updates.