Month: August 2011

The End – Aug 12 & 13

1 Comment

Yesterday was a getting-things-done-because-we-are-leaving-in-two-sleeps-day! We had to find gifts for all the wonderful people who have watched our child for these last two weeks. There is LOTS of clothes stores here but I wasn’t about to buy clothes for every one, plus the clothes fit really small apparently. There are a few jewelry stores around but they are all kind of cheap jewelry, like the kind you’d find at Claire’s or Ardene’s in the mall in BC.

After breakfast Jon and I headed out to Anido one last time. We owed Alex a little more money that we didn’t have on us the day before. We said our goodbyes then continued on our shopping ventures. Sofie was a little fussy and tends to make shopping more difficult in the best of times so I went to the mall alone and Jon went back to the hotel with Sofie. This was a much less stressful approach. I was able to look and decide with out the pressures of a whining baby and husband! I found some little treasures I think 🙂

Sofie got a little ridiculous in the afternoon because she had only slept for about 15 minutes. We had planned to go look for an icon at the Cathedral together, but Sofie had other plans. We made it too the lobby where we sat down and offered her food, again, which she didn’t really want. She didn’t really want anything… or she wanted everything, not sure which. Jon went on to the Cathedral alone and I stayed in the lobby waiting  and entertaining our babe. I did get to enjoy a chocolate mouse and rum and coke while we waited though!

Jon had his own adventure. As he was passing through the market in front of the Cathedral, he stopped to look at a possible gift for someone. The owner of the little stand grabbed him and started yelling at him in Bulgarian. Apparently, he didn’t want Jon to touch the treasure. Not sure if he thought Jon was going to steal it or break it, but he should be allowed to touch if he is interested in buying it, right? Anyway, since he was shaken up from the encounter he ended up going the wrong direction back and took a lot longer to get back to us… giving me time to justify my treat 🙂

We didn’t go out as far as we were planning for dinner. Although Sofie had calmed down a little bit, she was no where near her happy self yet. We stayed close to home and went to one of our regular restaurants for dinner. After Skyping with Livi we attempted to put Sofie to bed… That took an epic hour and a half. She finally fell asleep on the floor and we moved her to the bed. Jon and I watched Tosh.O on You Tube until much to late then settled in for a long peaceful sleep 🙂

Sofie slept in until 9am on the 13th! Yay! After brunch we went for a little walk in the park behind our hotel. We tried to get Sofie to play on the play ground but there were a lot of kids and she really didn’t know what to do. So we went to sit by the fountain and took a little walk. When we came back to our room we all had a two hour nap! Go Sofie! Thank you!

Hanging out by the fountain. 
The beautiful fountain behind our hotel in front of the National Theater.
Mommy and her baby!
“What are you looking at?”

“Our” beautiful park!

Random statues every where. This one didn’t make sense to me. 
Gettin’ her groove on and waking up with some pop music videos. 
I hate rap, random girls singing and gyrating, and Justin Beiber. 

We took it easy in the afternoon. I think Jon and I are just really done being here and very excited to get home tomorrow! We went for dinner, came back to the hotel for Skyping and baths, then bed time. Sofie was not going to bed tonight. Maybe she could pick up on our excitement? Anyway… finally and 9:45pm Jon slung her and went for laps around the park. Finally success! I finished packing while he was out and now just have to check in for our flights tomorrow!

Happy Birthday To Me – Aug 11

2 Comments
Today was my birthday. I am 29 years old. One more year left and I’m 30! Saying it out loud sounds old but I still feel like I’m in my early 20’s and don’t know what I’m doing half the time.
The day started out by Jon letting me sleep in a little bit… until it was his turn. When I got up I fed Sofie and gave her a bath because she still had food in her hair from the day before. I finally got Jon up to go shopping for gifts for everyone back home. It’s been a little difficult to shop here. There are so many stores but nothing that seems very quality and they are all kind of the same. Maybe I’m just being to picky. We went to the flea market in front of the Alexander Nevski Cathedral. There is some hand made arts and crafts there but mostly WWII memorabilia. Do you want a compass with a swastika on it? That’s where to get it! Lots of communist stuff too. We found a few little gems in the market. Sofie napped in the sling most of this time, which was fine with us! Two days in a row! Hooray! 
Daddy’s turn with his sling!

We made our way to the Anido office to take them out to lunch as a thank you for everything. Lunch was a lot of fun. Neli, the President of the Anido, Alex, our contact for Anido, and Nasko, our translator came with us. We learned a lot! Apparently, when Alex had gone to the orphanage to get video of Sofie for us, he had to wear a mask because of apparent germs from the outside. Poor Sofie must have been scared of this weird masked man with a video camera! Also, on our first visit to the orphanage, we were not supposed to be allowed to take pictures of Sofie. Nasko kept this from us though and just handled it. He told the staff that since Sofie is our legal child we most certainly we allowed! Thank-you Nasko! Those first pictures of meeting Sofie are so special to us and to our family and friends! Apparently there was some problems with the previous director of the orphanage too, but Alex didn’t go in to detail about it, so I don’t know what that all meant.
We loved getting to know the three of them and really felt their genuine joy for what they do. It isn’t just their job. They really believe in the well-being of these orphans. Alex, especially, is so caring towards kids and Sofie. He is always wanting to play with her and hold her. His wife and him had some fertility problems and even did IVF a few times. IVF finally worked and they got there little girl they were hoping for! Although he hasn’t adopted I think he has a real appreciation for these kids and understands what a lot of the adoptive parents have been through. Neli is also a lawyer and is on the board of people who are revamping the Bulgarian child protection laws. She seems to really have a passion for plight of the under privileged children in Bulgaria. She was quite interested in learning what kind of supports and services we will be utilizing once we were back in Canada. Nasko is just a really kind and humble man. He has one son, about the same age as my girls, so he related and played well with Sofie. 

Our goodbye lunch! 
Left to Right – Neli, Me, Sofie, Jon, Alex, Nasko

 Sofie did so well with our big morning out so we decided to take it easy in the hotel room for the afternoon. We played, cuddled and Skyped with Livi! We found a bottle of wine on our bar too with a birthday card from the hotel! Fancy Schmancy! After we took notice of how much money we had left Jon said I could get a massage for my birthday in the spa downstairs! Since the massages are so cheap here ($35 Canadian for a full body massage in a 5 star hotel!), he threw in a facial! Right after Skyping with Livi, I got to enjoy an hour and a half of pampering! It felt so nice. I love how open Europeans are with their bodies too. They don’t think it is a big deal. The girl did leave while I was undressing but then just took off the towel that was draped on me and left half my butt showing for most of it. Then when I was dressing to change rooms for the facial the new girl walked in, she did apologize, but then just stood there waiting with the door open 🙂 That would never happen in Canada! I could do with out some of the sexual art in the coffee stops over here, but a little nudity never hurt anyone! Lets face it, we all like to be naked!

 My birthday present from the hotel!

I returned from my massage to find my baby sleeping! Jon had a really easy time putting her to bed with out me! I was so thankful for that. I love this co-parenting thing 🙂 We opened the wine and lay down to watch a few episodes of Hell’s Kitchen we’ve been missing while we’ve been here. We got to bed a little late but all in all, a really fabulous birthday!

Still Here – Aug 9 & 10

1 Comment

Tuesday was started on the heals of a really bad night for Sofie. She woke up a few times crying and woke up early. So Jon and I took turns napping in the morning. We all just hung out in the air conditioned room too. It was apparently 38 degrees outside. Sofie, of course didn’t nap today either so we headed out for some lunch around 12:30pm. I was very hungry by that point!

Sofie was, as usual, smiles and giggles, although she hadn’t been wanting to be held as much. She is probably just really over stimulated and not sure how to process everything. I literally can not wait to get home with her.  She did really impress us with her verbal abilities today! We’ve really only heard “aaaahhhh’s” from her but today she whipped out a few “bababa’s” and even a few “mamama’s”! I’m not sure I can get too excited to think that she is associating me to those “mama’s”. She showed some preferential treatment to me today too! She wanted me to carry her instead of Jon a few times and when I was napping she kept coming over to see if I was awake yet. It melts my heart a little… She’s only been with us 5 full days!

After lunch we ventured over to the National Archaeological Museum. Incredible place. There were so many Roman artifacts, as well as Thracian artifacts, and the oldest piece of bone with expressions drawn on it in Europe. It dated back over 1.1 million years ago! The also had pots and tools dating back to 3-6 million years before Christ! Crazy! I wasn’t supposed to snap pictures but I snuck in a few…

4th-6th Century family portraits!

An old Roman tomb.

The old mosaic floor from the St. Sofia Apse.


An old tomb and stones hanging outside the Museum.

In the evening we Skyped with Livi again we headed out for dinner. We knew this was pushing Sofie’s schedule a bit but we thought with her sleeping in we could get away with it. We barely did… We went to a cute little Moroccan place with some really good food. A stray cat made an appearance and Sofie surprised us with being really scared of it, even from far away. Uh oh… we have a cat. I’m not sure if she’s ever seen one or if she’s had a bad experience with one. I hope she gets over it quickly. She fell asleep during the walk home and it was a really easy transition to bed! Yay!
 Pretty restaurant.

Kisses!
Ewww! No tongue Sofie!

Quite pleased with herself.
We thought Wednesday was going to start off really early. Sofie woke up at 6:30am. I put her on the floor because she was tossing and turning and kicking us, she is the CRAZIEST sleeper I have ever seen. She promptly lay down on the floor and fell asleep for another 3 hours! Hooray! Mommy and Daddy were definitely thankful. We paid the price a little bit because she woke up hungry. When she gets over hungry she cries… okay, she usually cries when it comes to food, but she cries more when she is over hungry then doesn’t want anything. We coaxed a few bites in to her, enough to satisfy her we thought, then went downstairs for our own brunch. I offered her some more food there but she only wanted Daddy’s bread and kept stuffing the whole thing in her mouth. When we got back up to the room I tried offering her some more food and she ate a lot more! Maybe the restaurant was too stimulating. 
We decided to venture out to a big toy store in search of Livi’s requested ‘Tiger’, some pants for Sofie that don’t fall down, and some more baby food. We had hoped to go to the Zoo today but it was pouring! When we got back We thought Sofie was ready for a nap, but of course we were wrong 🙂 So, Jon and I lay down while she quietly walked around the bed. Eventually, she fell asleep on the floor again! Yay for nap time! It is quite a late nap so I don’t know what this will mean for bed time later but I guess every day is an adventure with Sofie! I should really wake her up though… it is 5 pm here!
Oh, I forgot to mention that I emailed the Embassy today and heard back that Sofie’s Visa is approved and getting couriered to us today! That means it should get here by tomorrow or Friday! Thanks for all the prayers! I’m SO excited for all of us to get home together! 

Just a few pictures from dinner tonight too….
 Trouble…

Double Trouble!

* Side note: A few people have been asking about Sofie’s size. Right now she is the top of a 12 month old and the waist of a 9 month old… I think she is too tall for 9 month pants though. Not sure yet. We are getting by with 12 month size bottoms that have the elastic in the waist that I can tighten though. She can get by with some 18 month stuff but only if it fits small. So, basically, if you are planning to give her anything she could immediately use some 12 month end of summer/early fall clothes but we are hoping to fatten her up to an 18 month size for winter! *