Month: July 2011

Thank You.

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Before I get to crazy and overwhelmed with all the last minute preparations I wanted to take a minute and publicly thank the people who have walked down this path with us and supported us in their own personal ways… (This is mostly my thank-you’s since it is my blog. Jon will need to make his own thank-you’s himself.)

First and foremost, I owe every possible thank-you I have to my mom. She is a real life Super Hero. Honestly. She had the strength to restart her life with 4 young kids. She went back to school and started a new career while being a single mom. She made the decision to bring Maggy in to our home, and introduced us fully in to the amazing world of the differently abled. She understands me, listens to me, gives me great advice, has faith in me, wants the best and has sacrificed so much for me. I could go on and on. Marmee, Thank-you from the bottom of my heart. You are the most amazing mother anyone could ever hope for. Thank-you for always supporting me and guiding me. Thank-you for going above and beyond for us and with us on this adoption journey.

Maggy- Thank-you for being you. You have been a quiet listening ear and always been available for a hug. Thank-you for being my sister and loving me unconditionally. Thank-you for lighting the spark in me to bring your niece home and for introducing me to the wonderful world of Down Syndrome!

Grandpa and Grandma – Thank-you for praying for me and supporting me through out the years in all the numerous ways that you have. I am so thankful to be lucky enough to have such a close relationship with you and hope that my kids get to experience that with their Grandmothers. You have given me such a good example and I have been incredibly inspired by the acceptance, love and generosity that you have given to me. Grandma, I can only hope to be as Godly a woman as you are one day. Thank you for your prayers and dreams. Grandpa, you have been the strong, quite leader that I needed in my life. As your health continues to deteriorate I am so humbled that you continue to think of us and ask about Sofie every time I see you, with out fail.

Vanessa and Liz – Thank you for your happiness and being so willing to help out whenever you can. Thank you for your humor and keeping me laughing through out this long and stressful wait.

Alana, Danielle, Mary, Michelle, and all my other girlfriends – Thank you for being a listening ear. Thanks for always asking about the adoption and talking about it with me. Thanks for celebrating the milestones with me and letting me vent my frustrations with the wait and bumps in the road. Thank you also for the play dates that kept me focused on being present and not stressing too much about this whole process!

Mom B – Thank you for raising such a wonderful son. I could not be as happy as I am with out him. Thank you also for all your support through this adoption. I know this is a bit of a new world we are bringing you in to. Your willingness to learn, acceptance and openness to this new world is beautiful. Thank you for your excitement too.

Lisa and Tony – Thank you for all your facebook comments! I think one of you have commented on every single one of my adoption related statuses. Thank you for being such wonderful supports from so far away! Thank you for being such an amazing aunt and uncle. Even though Livi doesn’t see you much she talks about you all the time. I know it is going to be the same with Sofie!

Keno Family – I owe so much thanks to you… I don’t think I can adequately put in to words my gratitude. You play such a special role for us in adopting Sofie. You introduced Jon in to your community and to people with different abilities. You prepared him for my world. You led the way and adopted a son, with DS, from Bulgaria before us! You answered my hundreds of questions about this process. It was also you who sent us that email about a little girl the same age as Livi who needed a family. It was that email that got us thinking it was time to adopt. That email changed our entire lives for the better. Like I said, I can’t adequately thank you for that.

Thank you to those who have adopted before me, given me advice and encouragement, and set a good example for me. Grandpa and Grandma, Emily, Mary Ellen, Daena…

Thank you also to all of you who have financially supported us. This is a very expensive endeavor and you have helped to alleviate a huge burden.

Thank you also to everyone who has been following this journey on the blog or Facebook. I love receiving all your comments and “likes”! It means so much to me!

Finally, I want to thank Livi for making parenting so enjoyable! And thank you to my husband. I love you. Thank you for being my partner. For being so patient, kind, giving, level headed, strong, understanding, etc… I could go on and on. I love how perfectly matched we are in some ways and how different we are in most! You challenge me and make me a better person. Thank you for wanting the same things for our family as I do and for being such an amazing Dad. We have been through so much over the last 10 years and I can’t wait to see what the next 10 bring for us!!!

Almost Off!

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You may have already heard that we got our dates! Anido is going to send the application for Sofie’s passport in on July 18th and should receive it in about a week. They will then send off the application for Citizenship on the 24th-ish… which is when they suggest we come!!! They expect Citizenship and the Facilitation Visa to be approved within a week or two, so they suggested we stay for about 2 weeks.

Our Agency contact suggested we not leave to be there on the 24th but wait a week because she was worried that waiting for the Citizenship to be approved in Bulgaria would be cutting it too close for comfort. We’ve been desperately trying to decide between going for 10-14 days with out Livi or 3 weeks with her. Anido thinks it would be a little too stressful trying to stay in country with two little ones for too long. I’ve already contacted a travel agent and I think we have made the final decision!!!!

We are going to leave for Bulgaria on July 29th and return on August 9th with out Livi! The more we thought about it we really wanted to be as stress free as possible and have some precious alone time getting to know Sofie. Some of you also knew that we were thinking of stopping in Istanbul, Turkey before going to get Sofie as well, but we have decided not to do that either. Although it is Jon’s dream to see the Hagia Sofia and it would only cost us about $1000 to add that on to our trip, he doesn’t think it is the right time. We will be jet lagged and anxious to see Sofie. Hopefully we can make it over there one day with enough time to relax and enjoy it.

It is all but paid for. I have to go in to do that. Our flights are reserved! Jon and I will be heading in to the airport around 5:40pm ready for our flight to depart at 8:40pm on July 29! We have a 9 hour flight to London, a 9 hour lay over, then a 3 hour flight to Sofia, Bulgaria! We will be arriving at 3:45 am Sunday morning in Sofia. I’m assuming that is local Bulgarian time. They are 10 hours ahead of us.

I assume we will be taken directly to Plovdiv, an hour and a half out of Sofia, to where we will be staying for two days. We have been asked to spend time with Sofie in her environment for two days, which I am really happy about. I wasn’t sure if we’d even be able to go see where she slept let alone where she spent her time. It will be hard meeting her then having to leave her in the orphanage for a night and seeing all the other kids, but I really think this will be good for us and help us catch up on our sleep before taking her to the hotel room! I’m hoping we get to meet her on the Sunday and then take her back to Sofia with us on the Monday, although they might prolong this until the Tuesday… I hope not.  We will spend the rest of our time with her in Sofia, bonding, sight seeing and finishing up some paperwork. We get on the 3.5 hour plane ride to London on Tuesday August 9th at 2:15pm, only have 1.5 hour layover before the 9.5 hour flight to Vancouver. We’ll be arriving 6:40pm Tuesday, August 9th!

So, that is the latest! Those are our plans so far. I still have a list of 27 things to do yet before we go… I think I’m going to have to prioritize. Thank you for all your prayers and support. One last request is that you pray for the passport and visa to be issued promptly and smoothly. We are booking our travel before it is all actually done which is a little disconcerting. We decided that a little extra anxiety and prayer over paperwork was worth it to get Sofie out of the orphanage sooner. And of course pray for safe and smooth travels 🙂

2011 Vacation Pt. 2

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We enjoyed one of the best vacations in recent memory and not just because we started it off with the most amazing news 🙂 This week was the first time we really got to enjoy the property in Summerland for a substantial amount of time since Dad died. The first year the wound was still too raw and the second year we went up with friends and the weather was terrible. This year we went up alone, we were at peace and had pretty decent weather!

Within five minutes of getting to the lake, Livi was naked and in the water. 

She loved it so much there. She thought it was so funny that we encouraged her to pee in the lake! When she finally tried, she couldn’t go for a few minutes… stage fright? When I asked her at the end of our trip what her favorite part of camping was, she answered “Peeing in the lake!”  That’s my girl!

I bought sugary cereal from a box for her to carry on the tradition my mom started!

We camped at the property from Monday to Friday. Most of the time was pretty decent weather in the mid twenties with partial sun and clouds. I think next year we are going to try to go closer to August so we get the really hot weather. We stayed in the tent trailer so we had slightly better accommodations than tenting… although bed times still sucked for Livi! She finally fell asleep at 10pm the first night and 9:30pm all the other nights. Jon and I tried to sleep in the tiny bed together the first night but between the shortness of the mattress and the joints poking at me it was not a good fit. I took Livi’s bed and Jon shared the other bed with Livi. We were all much more comfortable. It was good that Livi was sharing a bed with some one the last night because with the clear sky it was freezing cold!

The first full day we were there we ventured in to Penticton so Jon could peruse his favorite book store and we could all enjoy our favorite cafe, The Gypsy Dream Cafe. It is seriously delicious. We also spent some time at the camp site, on the dock, eating smores and watching Livi play catch with the dogs who live at the cabin! She really needs a dog one of these years 🙂

Livi LOVED the Baba Ganouj at The Dream Cafe… so did Mommy and Daddy!
Chillaxin’ on the dock 🙂
The wind was making waves which was making the floating dock wobbly!
Never to young for chores!

Smores! Yummy! Livi actually didn’t love the smores together. 
She’d rather eat the chocolate, marshmallow, cookie separate. 
Wednesday morning we went to visit Jon’s Grandparents from his Dad’s side. This visit was a colossal disappointment. I know I should be understanding and have grace because they are old and from a different era but honestly should that be an excuse for such inappropriate attitudes, responses, and beliefs? With out going in to too much detail, upon hearing that we legally have a second child and made them great-grandparents again they (mainly Jon’s Grandma) did not give any congratulations but seemed to try and talk us out of it, said it was not worth it and too big a commitment, doted on Livi and said they only wanted more birth children from us. We only see them once a year but I am having a really hard time even entertaining the idea of seeing them again, let alone introducing them to Sofie. 
In order to salvage part of Wednesday, Livi and I went on a date to Summerland Sweets 
for ice cream and I got to do a fruit wine tasting. Fun!

Putting our feet up after a long day!

We always seem to get a family picture on the dock, and this year was no exception! 
This is the first family picture where there is legally four of us! 
Now if only we could just get the fourth one in the picture 🙂
My little angel… 
who may have gotten away with way too much while on vacation and wasn’t quite an angel 🙂

Cuddling up with Daddy after getting cold in the water.

Ewww… Livi thought the dog “getting her wet” was so funny. 
She played with this girl every night for hours! 
Topless sunbathing!

Thursday was the warmest and sunniest day out of the week… so what do you do when you are at a private beach on a sunny day? Topless sunbathing of course! Livi and I also went exploring up the hill to the vineyard before nap time. After naps we all went in to Penticton again so Jon could make one last stop at the book store and I could do a little more window shopping. Then we went to the playground that is on the boardwalk. Livi had such a blast the entire week. I loved seeing how happy she was!

Monkeying around!

Friday morning we packed everything up and went for our annual brunch at Santorini’s. We used to always go there as a family with Dad whenever we were there together. We have unconsciously continued the tradition. This trip was so wonderful for so many reasons. Jon had a much needed 4 hour nap one day, Livi had so much to explore and learn and play with, and I just loved seeing how happy everyone was. Next year we will have two little girls with us! Can’t wait!


Breakfast at Santorini’s