Bringing Christy Home, AKA Overcoming Obstacles One by One!

Our wake up call actually came when we were both awake already, which was surprising since our wake up call was at 3:45.  We needed to meet the cab at 4:15 and we were hoping to arrive at the airport before 5 am.

I needed to take some things down to the front desk and we needed the suitcase trolley.   When I got out of the elevator I found the lobby full of men in the boxer shorts...Yeah, not what I was expecting AT ALL.  Approximately 20 British drunk rugby players. Talk about awkward.  But I could not wait - we had a deadline!  So I forged ahead and placed the items behind the desk and tried to get the one hotel staff person's attention.  It wasn't happening.  Here I am trying to not look at all the (basically) naked men in the room, and yet I had to take care of our needs.  So I made my way up to the bar (it's open in the lobby), much to cozily between two of these Rugby players and asked if we could get the luggage cart.  But he just could not get past the language barrier/noise level to understand what I wanted.  I did the best I could and then felt it was time to abandon the attempt and get out of there before anything really embarrassing happened.  So I turned to go towards the elevator, but to my great dismay, there were already several nearly naked rugby players in the elevator.  Needless to say, I was NOT going in there!

So I headed to the stairs and went up two flights.  At that point I checked out the elevator and watched to see what floor the elevator went to - of course it was the 6th floor.  So I gave up completely and went up all 7 flights of stairs.  Then we got everything ready to go onto the luggage cart, and still no luggage cart, so we gathered what we could and Daryl headed down to see what we could do.   Everything is kind of a blur now, but eventually we got the bill paid, the luggage in the cab and avoided any further encounters with the naked rugby players, except for hearing from the hotel clerk that they had broken into fights in the hallways and upset other guests and we could still hear them outside through the upper floor windows.

So we are finally in the cab with the grumpy cabby who can only speak on word in English, "No."  All settled in, Christy in her car seat and all our luggage in the back.  Then the cabby tries to start the cab and the battery is dead.  He tries again, same result.  After a couple more tries, the cabby gets out and heads to the hotel...Daryl and I are fervently praying now as we are already leaving much later than we had hoped!  Soon the poor hotel clerk is coming out, following the cabby - they are going to do a push start (the street ahead of us is slightly downhill) as, thankfully, the mini van type cab is a stick shift (unheard of in the US, but common over there!).  Just as we get to the end of the block and the down hill section the cab finally started...we both breath a sigh of relief!

The next hurdle was that we were unable to determine which terminal we needed to be dropped off at.  So he took us to Terminal 1.  We got there and got unloaded and fixed up out luggage so the two of us could take it all with us, which was a lot - 3 large check in, 2 carry on, a car seat in a bag with a shoulder strap, three "personal bags" and Christy.  Thankfully two of the check in bags and my rolling backpack had piggy back straps and that made it possible, but it was difficult to manage so we wouldn't want to have to go very far.

Once we got into the terminal, it took a while to figure out where we needed to be, but eventually we got help and determined that we actually needed to be at terminal 2!  And because of our early flight, there were no shuttle buses available and we would have to hire a cab.  This was a problem as I had spent the last of our Bulgarian cash...but there was an ATM and I got out 50 leva and we went back outside and hailed a cab...everything back in and off we went.  Once at Terminal 2 we unloaded and paid the cab (only 5 leva...how was I going to use up the rest???).   I was able to get preferential treatment due to traveling with a child - no waiting in any lines - skip to the front at check in, security and at the gate.  This was really what enabled us to even make out flight as by now we were running quite late and the airport was surprisingly busy (it was a Saturday morning).  We did find that the first flight would not allow us to use her car seat, but they did allow us to check it at the airplane so it would be available for the rest of the flights.

Our first flight went really well.  Christy did so much better that I had dared to hope - she sat in her own seat with just the seat belt like she had been doing it all her life!  She was so good and seemed to enjoy the flying experience even!

Our first layover was at Heathrow, London.  It was a long layover, and good thing.  We accidentally went through customs and ended up having to get our gate tickets reprinted and go through customs/security again.  We just took it slow and got through everything eventually.  We still had about 30 minutes to wait until the gate was announced and then 30 minutes to wait at the gate, so really it went very well.  I was able to exchange the Leva to Pounds and had enough to purchase a nice lunch while we waited for the gate to be announced!

The next flight was the longest one - 7 + hours.  To us this was a late afternoon evening flight so Christy took a long nap during the earlier part of the flight.  When she woke up she was quite upset.  I applied peace and calming oils and some peppermint (her nose was very stuffy) and then went to find a bathroom to change her diaper.  It took a while to find one that had the changing table and she was fussy the whole time - I was beginning to think the rest of the trip was going to be a long one!  One in the bathroom, the minute she was in a dry diaper she was back to her happy self and even making herself laugh right there in the bathroom!  The rest of the flight was spent trying to entertain her in the dark - we tried a glow in the dark bracelet, but she bit a tiny hole in it...so I cleaned out her tippy cup and put it in there and that worked.  I also had a spinning light up toy that helped a lot too.  Soon we were preparing to land in Philly and beginning to stress about collecting all our luggage and going through customs AND immigration and then back through security and we only had just over 2 1/2 hours.  Everything went as planned, with a couple of exceptions....

When we went to go through immigration, we were told that everyone would be served in the order that we came in.  That was not what we were told - we had been told that as US citizens (and Christy was a US Citizen as soon as we got on US soil) that we would be moved to the front of the line and processed immediately.  I explained this to the gum chewing agent (he seemed to have a superiority complex like someone from a movie or something) but he said no exceptions.  So we sat not so patiently waiting for our turn (there were about 10 files ahead of ours).  Eventually a new agent showed up and we could hear the first agent asking if what we said was correct, and yes, we were right.  So only after about 20 minutes of suspense we were processed quickly and moved on to collecting our check in luggage so we could go through customs.  Due to our delay, all the luggage was already off the conveyor belt.  But one of ours was missing.  We eventually found out that we would have to file a claim in Seattle and moved on.  Customs was a breeze, really nothing at all.  Security was a long line and we were not allowed to move to the front.  Eventually we made it to our terminal and we actually made it in time.  They had begun to make announcements, but no boarding yet.  We thought about trying to grab dinner, but just didn't have time and hadn't seen any restaurants that seemed like a good choice for food, and neither of us were particularly hungry.

There was no priority boarding again for families with children/babies, and since we ended up loading later we were also not allowed to bring our carry-ons with us either.  We had to do some re-arranging as all the baby toys were in one of the carry-ons.  I do not recommend flying into Philly on an adoption trip, that is for sure.

Our last flight was 6 hours and had to be one of the biggest rip-offs of all our flights.  No in flight movies, no blanket, no pillow, no nothing!  We were given 3 opportunities to have the standard drinks (pop, coffee or tea) but there was no even one snack, and you had to pay extra for the meals.  By this time we were tired and a bit grumpy.  The plane was a smallish one, and the noise level was bad.  We were sitting right in front of the bathroom and all the sound from around us seemed to intensify off the wall behind us.  For us we had now been traveling for nearly 24 hours, but those around us were not so tired and there was a lot of conversations.  Daryl was able to sleep, and so was Christy, but sleep evaded me.  I had only gotten about an hour's sleep on the last flight, so I was getting pretty miserable. Eventually we made it to Seattle and we even beat the sun - the longest Saturday ever - 29 hours and counting by the time we landed!

But we weren't done yet....we collected our baggage, and then went to file the claim for the missing luggage.  Due to not being able to find the original first flight gate pass, it took over an hour to process the claim.  Finally we were able to tell Jessica to come and pick us up.

Christy had been a gem, and had only cried that one time on the second flight.  She played contentedly with Daryl while I was doing the missing baggage claim.  What a blessing.  I was so wasted by now, that it would have been very, very trying if she had been fussy at this point.

The only thing left was the drive home.  2 1/2 hours later, we were entering our home for the first time just 8 hours less than 2 weeks.  Only problem was it was 1:30 am at home, but our bodies were still on the other time zone, which was 11:30 am - so very tired from traveling, but Christy was no even remotely ready to sleep!  So Daryl went to bed and after a few hours we swapped places.

In the morning we had the wonderful privilege of introducing Christy to the family, and getting lots of loves from our little girls who missed us so very, very much.  Everything, every moment was something to cherish.  That day was like no other and God's blessing and grace were nearly palpable.  God had brought safely back home.

"Is she my sister"  "Yes she is all yours!"

Five Days with Christy - Appointments and Waiting!

Monday morning was our appointment for Christy's medical exam.  This was done in a Bulgarian medical clinic, and we were taken there by our driver/translator team.  They also had her passport for us!  We went into the clinic and the lab was downstairs.  We were pleasantly surprised to see the other family there (the ones adopting the 7 yo boy).  After a fairly long wait (and listening to that poor boy having his blood drawn) we were ushered in to the room.  

The room looked like a small office/cubical than a lab, although there was an exam table there.  After our entrepreneur presented our documents it was time for them to draw her blood.  I'll be nice and just say that it took three pokes, two different people trying, and quite a mess before they got what they needed and poor Christy was very traumatized by it all. 

Then we headed up a few flights of stairs to the pediatrician's office.  There they listened to her breathing and lungs and looked over her paperwork.  I was surprised when the Dr turned to me and said, in English, that I was taking good care of her - this was said as they were trying to get all her layers unsnapped so the r could listen.  I think she approved or my "bundling" Christy (this ranks as the #1 indicator of a good mom in Bulgaria), but I like to think she was referring to my care in comforting Christy during the blood draw (the Dr did the final, successful blood draw).  We also found out that she weighed just over 26 pounds and was 35 inches - very similar to our 2 yo, Carese.  Long and lean.

When this was completed, we were taken to a mall so I could purchase some shoes for Christy, as all the shoes we brought were way too big.  I did find a pair that would stay on her feet, even though they were too big, and they were cute and well made.

Then we were taken back to the hotel, arriving around lunch time.  Then we all took a nap.  Then we got brave an made our way back out to Jeff's house via the subway on our own.   We not only successfully navigated the subway system, but Daryl was even able to find the way to Jeff's apartment.  It's not easy to find and they were surprised that we were able to do that!  There we enjoyed pizza from the restaurant downstairs and while Daryl played Wii with Elise, I played Settlers of Catan with Jeff and Lisa!  I surprised everyone, including myself, by winning!

Here's  a video showing how Christy reacts to "coming home" after being out and about most of the day.  She would just revel in being able to scoot around in her "safe zone"!

Then we headed home.  When we got off the subway were got to surprise a couple from England who were lost just by speaking English to them!  That was a fun little encounter all by itself!  Then it was time to settle in for the night.  Only it took a long time to get to sleep as I was not feeling well.

Tuesday we pretty much hung out all day in our room - none of us were feeling our best, and we had nothing e had to do so we just didn't do anything but eat and rest.  I did make a quick run to corner grocer with Corinna's sister, Sarah.  It was cloudy and windy, but refreshing.  When I reached my hotel room, it was raining like the sky was falling!  We had gotten back just in time.  Then the lightening and thunder began.  It wasn't as good a storm as I love (like in the mid west where the lightening and thunder are almost continuous), but it did have some great thunder.  Just at bedtime, as we were getting into bed, there was one bolt of lightening that was a simultaneous lightening strike and a crack that had both of us jumping out of our skin!  It was terrifying and so loud!  But within seconds we were laughing so hard as we both we so startled by it...and the thunder shook the hotel and caused car alarms to go off in the street below!

For some reason (sarcasm intended), Christy had trouble going to sleep that night, and Daryl took over around 11 pm, and finally got her to sleep around midnight.  So Wednesday we were very tired.  We ended up staying in our hotel room again all day, only leaving for breakfast and dinner, both of which we ate in the hotel restaurant.  

Here's a video showing Christy in "her zone" of happiness in her high chair in the hotel restaurant!  She LOVES being in a high chair, can you tell?

Thursday was our embassy appointment.  We got picked up early, we went to the medical clinic to pick up Christy's test results (she tested negative for TB, yay!), and then went to the embassy.  We ended up getting there too early and just hung out in the car for about an hour - but I was able to feed Christy her lunch and she got a short nap.  Then we went into the embassy - in order to get through security, I had to eat some of her juice and baby food to prove that it was just that!  Good thing I liked what I brought for her that day!  It took over an hour of waiting for our "interview" and we were just asked a couple of simple questions, and that was it!  We were to leave her passport with them so they could add her VISA to is, and our attorney would bring it to us on Friday!

Christy loves to scoot into tight places - this is the bottom of
the closet - she loves playing with a ball in there after I
had packed for our return trip!

Thursday night Corinna and I walked about a mile to Tony's Pizza to get take out pizza.  While we were ordering there was a flash and a bang and we all just about jumped out of our skins!  Something about the fuse box - it was like a small explosion!  The lights went out too.  Good thing we were ordering wood fired pizza!  We chose to wait outside for out pizza as one guy was messing around in an ancient looking fuse box with a screw driver!  Yikes!  By now, Corinna was convinced that being near me meant that excitement was always just about to happen! Ha!

Friday was packing day, and at dinner we finally got to meet our dear attorney, Toni.  This wonderful woman has a big heart for the orphans of Bulgaria and the families who are adopting them.  I had almost daily phone calls from her and she would be praying for us on each step of the way.  When comparing notes with other adoptive families who used other agencies, Dreams Foundation and Toni far out shown the others in the care they take to keep the families in good care every step of the way.  Thank you Toni, for all you do and I count it a blessing to have worked with you to bring Christy into our family!!!

Christy providentially went to sleep the earliest yet Friday night - and it was a good thing as we had to be up and out of the hotel by 4:15 am!  The incredible trip home will be on my next blog post as there were so many unusual things that we encountered...mostly just getting out of Sofia!

Christy's First Mother's Day weekend with a Mommy!

Saturday was a relaxing day at the hotel.  We had begun to get in the habit of eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then having snacks for lunch (instant oatmeal, fruit leather  and maybe some chocolate), and then eating dinner either in the hotel restaurant or going out somewhere (or doing room service if we were really lazy/tired!).  We were also falling into a routine of Daryl taking a late morning nap while I watched Christy, and I took an afternoon nap and it was really working well.  This day, however, Christy had gone into hyper exploration mode and was testing the sounds that different things made when she would kicks them - walls, doors, furniture...the louder the noise the better - but it made it difficult for our naps!

We had made plans to go to Jeff Shepherd's home to have a home made meal with his family, and we would be joined by two other adoptive families!  We left the hotel with Corinna W, her sister and her newly adopted son, Silas and walked to the meet up point.  Jeff was to meet us at the subway station to introduce us to traveling in the amazing underground system that is in Sofia. There was a little mix up (my fault completely) but it made for a unexpected blessing!  While Jeff was waiting for us outside the subway entrance and we were waiting for him down in the subway walkway, he spied some familiar faces!  There was a third adoptive family, the Hrbecks from Texas) who had just arrived that day for their first trip, and had been taking a walk!  So we all joined up and walked together for a few blocks and got to know them.  This also had the benefit of giving us new people to eat meals with and go shopping with for a couple of days!

Jeff is in this second photo talking with Corinna and her family, with the subway wizzing by just a few feet from them.  We then met up with the other family, Heather B, her mom and her newly adopted son, and took a few minutes to tour the Cathedral in the center of Sofia (no photos allowed), and then headed down to take the subway.  It was about a 15 minute ride, and Christy loved it after a few minutes.

Daryl had taken to carrying her whenever we went out, using the Ergo.  This was the best way and it kept her feeling secure.  Daryl got lots of looks from both women and men as I never did see another man using a carrier to carry a child or infant there!  I told him it made him a "chick magnet"!  We also found it funny as in the subway there were movie posters for some movie that showed a man using a similar carrier to carry a child!

We got off the subway and walked a few blocks to his apartment.  There we met his amazing wife, Lisa, and his son and daughter (who they adopted from Bulgaria 3 years before).  They both work at the American English Academy in Sofia teaching.  They are "working missionaries."  There we were welcomed into a most enjoyable home setting, and served an amazing dinner of Bulgarian style foods.  It was so fun to let our children mingle, to talk Star Trek stuff with Jeff's daughter, and watch Christy explore their home.  Christy's favorite room was the kitchen, especially the near mirror finish on the oven door!  I also found out that week that Jeff and Lisa are Settlers of Catan players, a game that our family discovered recently.  They invited us back for a game night Monday night - that was definitely something for me to look forward too!

All too soon it was time to head back to the hotel.  Jeff accompanied us to ensure that we got where we needed to go (until we were on familiar territory).  He was a great host and it was fun to get lots of trivia about the city from him.  He also invited us all to attend church with him, but I was feeling a little off, so we declined.  The other two families accepted his offer though.  He also introduced us to the amazing Ice Cream in one of the small shops in The Market!  YUM!!

Once back at the hotel, we settled in and prepared for bed.  Christy was worn out and went to sleep quickly, and so did Daryl.  But the heat had gotten to me, and I was quite miserable.  After a couple of hours, I was able to sleep though, and I felt fine again in the morning

Sunday was Mother's Day in the US (but not in Bulgaria - they celebrate something similar in March).  We had a quiet morning in the hotel room, and in the afternoon I went shopping with the two other moms in our hotel room.  We had a great time (both children were napping at the hotel with -Christy with her daddy, Silas with his Auntie).  We walked to The Market and did some souvenier shopping and had some Ice Cream again!  We were acting like kids and had a blast!  Were were all getting along so well and brought out the fun in each other in spite of jetlag!  Three new friends from three polar opposite parts of North America tearing up the town on the other side of the planet - only God could orchestrate such a blessing for us three that day!

I enjoyed finding some very unexpected things in the little artisan shops there - hand made soaps, inexpensive organic Rose Water - something Bulgaria is known for!  We are going to finally get to make Turkish Delight this year while we watch Narnia at Christmas time!  I also found matching dresses for Christy and Carese and some fund things to bring home for the other children.  Only some of the shop keepers spoke English, so it was a challenge at times to make transactions, but we did make it through eventually!

I did have some great times with Christy on Mother's Day too - I dressed us up to match even!  She had several of her amazing "I am SO happy" moods and I even got one video taped!  By this day we were beginning to notice that she was able to have more control and flexibility with her right hand/arm, but we weren't quite sure...time would show us that we were right!

Our day ended with the amazing night of giggles from Christy's crib.  I know I posted it in my last blog post, but I was a little mixed up - that was actually Mother's Day evening...such an amazing gift to be given on Mother's Day!  Starting with fun with Christy, then fun with friends, skyping with the children and ending with a hour long giggle fest in the dark.  Even though Mother's Day was spent away from the majority of my family, I was blessed.

Christy's first full days with a Mommy and a Daddy!

Christy in the sweater I made for her!

Daddy's Girls for Sure!

The day we brought Christy to Sofia (also known as "Gotcha Day") was Wednesday, May 7.  Thursday was the day to have Christy's passport application submitted and her photo taken.  We slept well, and Christy slept through the night - what a wonderful surprise!  In the morning we got dressed and fed Christy in our hotel room, and then went down for the hotel continental breakfast - good as always!  We were staying at The Budapest and they have an excellent restaurant and lots of selection for breakfast and it even varies from day to day which makes it especially nice when you are staying there for 10 days straight!

Poor baby!

After breakfast we prepared to meet with our team to go to the passport office.  It wasn't far, but it was faster to go by car.  We basically walked right in, as our attorney's mother was already there doing the paperwork.  We were only there for the photo.  Christy does not like to sit in an open chair, so "set her on the stool" was not an option.  Eventually after much stress and much crying by Christy we got a somewhat decent photo of her with her looking over my shoulder....crying and looking very mad/sad.  Then we were whisked back out to the street and driven to our hotel. 

They are making a new round about
So there were walls up for construction
Making photo-ops minimal

We had made arrangements to meet another family who was in Sofia for their "gotcha trip".  We made the arrangements to meet about halfway between our hotels, in the center of the city, to eat at Happy Bar and Grill.  We ended up walking about a mile to the restaurant, but did not find them there.  Christy was beginning to melt down at this point.  It was really hot, and she was unhappy.  We figured out later that the noise of traffic was something she does not tolerate.  So while trying to talk our friends to our location (tough when neither of you know the city, and the area you are in is a HUGE circle around a cathedral).  Eventually they found us and we went in to eat.  We were so stressed out by this time,, and Christy was just barely settled down, that I totally forgot to take any photos of our trip out, except for this shot of Daryl and Christy at the Lion's Gate Bridge.

We then headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap.  Then we were able to meet another mom who was on their "gotcha trip" too.  We had it easy and met them for dinner at the hotel.  Christy and Silas didn't pay much attention to each other at dinner, but later when they were playing on the floor in our hotel room, she laughed whenever he made noise or touched her.  It was so cute!  We did find out at dinner that she does NOT like an umbrella stroller.  She basically doesn't like any seat that is open.  She loves her car seat and a highchair, but open seats cause her to go into full panic in seconds. 

When she becomes insecure, the leg goes up behind the head (or her arm) and out pops that bottom lip.
It's a cross between fear and anger.  We now read her very well, this particular episode, we were still learning.

Thursday night was another good night's sleep.  I can not express how thankful we were that she slept so well at night - we were both still suffering from jet lag in a big way.  We did not have anything planned for Friday, so we pretty much just hung out in our hotel room.  We had plans to meet with Yavor, our interpreter from our first trip.  He drove us to Leo's Pizza - a true Italian restaurant.  I ordered the wood fired pizza, and Daryl ordered a pasta dish.  The food was excellent, and so was the company.  All too soon it was time to go back to the hotel.  We said "goodbye" to Yavor and thanked him for making our first trip so memorable.  Then it was time to tuck Christy in bed and go to sleep ourselves.

+

As we were lying there in the dark Friday night (she just would not go to sleep when I rocked her, so I placed her in the crib, hoping she'd settle down and sleep), she started giggling!  Let me tell you that sleep is impossible when someone in the room is giggling!  Especially Christy's giggles - they are adorable cute!  So, like a good mom, I got up and videotaped her giggles in the dark - it was just too cute to ignore.  She eventually quieted down and went to sleep, but she giggled on and off for over an hour!

Road Trip to Christy

We left home early Sunday morning to head to SeaTac.  Just to be safe, we left very early.  It worked great - we were 3 hours early.  But I'm OK with that.  We settled in for the long wait, got some lunch and all went just great.  We even got our third check in luggage checked for free when we explained that we were flying for an international adoption of a child with special needs!

Our first leg was flying into Chicago.  The flight was fine, our layover in Chicago was just enough time to get where we needed to go and get a small break between flights.  We also grabbed dinner as the first flight only served beverages.

Cool light and music show in Chicago!

The second flight, the LONG one (8+ hours) was a rough one.  We were sitting up against the wall for first class and it did not give me enough room for my feet.  We were basically looking at a wall the whole time.  The last 2 hours or so were hard - turbulence and motion sickness.  By the time we got off the flight we were both in really bad shape.  Thankfully we had a 4+ hours layover so I had great hopes of being able to recover before the next flight.  Yes, and no.  It was a lot of time, but although Daryl was doing so much better, when it came time to board, I was still in bad shape.  We had tried ginger pills, dramamine and drank lots of water, but nothing could calm down our stomachs.  Then I remembered that we had Di-Gize (the Young Living Oil blend for intestinal issues).  This was the ONLY thing that gave us any relief.  So when the boarding began, I was mostly better stomach wise, but I just could not face another flight yet.  At this point we had been on the road for 19 hours with little sleep and that did not help in the least.  As we approached the door of the plane, I just could not go in.  So I waited outside the door praying like mad and applying Peace and Calming and Stress Away and Di-Gize oil blends.  I was on the verge of tears, had tingles going up and down my spine and was having trouble breathing properly - yep, a full on panic attack.  With God's help I was finally able to board the plane (yes, I was the last person to board).  I asked the stewardess if she could make a bag of ice for me to put on my neck and explained about how and why I felt so miserable.  She was very compassionate and got me set up with the ice bag to place on my neck (a recommendation from a friend on Facebook).

The last flight was beautiful.  I was still feeling miserable, but the flight did not add to my discomfort.  Gradually I was able to calm down and even get a little sleep with the use of my noise cancelling head phone, eye covers and neck roll.  By the time we landed in Sofia, I was feeling almost normal.  God is so good!

We picked up our luggage after going to immigration, and then met our driver (a hotel staff person) who then brought us to our hotel.  We checked in, went straight down for dinner as the restaurant was going close very soon, ate out dinner and then headed to our room to settle in and prepare for bed (it was around 10 pm there).

We both slept relatively well, and were able to be ready on time for our trip to her city.  The Budapest Hotel held our large pieces of luggage and we took only what we'd need for the one night there and what we'd need for Christy on the drive back for Sofia.

We met our new driver, Marty (our attorney's brother), and his cousin, Dani (she was our interpreter), and got everything in the van and headed out.  The drive there was typical for Bulgaria - insane drivers passing when it was too close, too many slow moving vehicles, horse or mule drawn carts, rough roads and all.  We just sat back and took everything as it came.  We did eat a late lunch on the way, and before dinner time we made it to the hotel.

We all settled in for about a hour, and then met to walk around and go for dinner.  We ate at the Happy Bar and Grill and it was as good as I remembered it!  Then we settled in for the night and got some sleep.  Not much, but some.

Christy's first mama - the one who
taught her to love and prepared
her for her real mommy!

We met our team for breakfast and then headed out for Christy's group home.  In no time, after passing through the now familiar streets, we were pulling up to 'The Pink House'!  We walked into the home and were escorted into a back office where we saw Christy in her high chair!  She immediately got excited and was doing her happy thing!  It seemed as thought she recognized us!  There was a young girl, whom we later found out is called Katerina, next to her that I recognized from our first trip.  There was papers to sign, and lots of talk between Dani and the director, some of which was passed on to us.  I found that Katerina girl spoke English and was able to talk with her about Christy.

The Director - an amazing woman
with a big heart for special
children in her care!

 Watching her interact with Christy I could tell that she loved Christy and that Christy loved her.  While there we were given a backpack of things for Christy - clothes, diapers, wipes, a cup, a spoon, a water bottle, a comb and other items so lovingly packed for her.  This was such a surprise!  We were also given the toy and books that we had left for her, as well as a new photo album with photos of Christy while she was living there.  Best of all there was a little file that I will call"The Story of Christy" - it was photos along with her story told as though Christy was telling it herself!  I'll try to include this in another post later!

Christy's Therapist

Then we were taken upstairs (we had never gone upstairs!), and taken into a large room where we found two tables set with food and drinks and all the workers from the group home - even those who work other shifts!  It was a going away party for Christy!  I was given a small bouquet of flowers.They each wanted to say goodbye to Christy and she got passed around.  She did not like this and was complaining a lot.  There were many familiar faces there.

Eventually it was time to go, but before we left, I was able to leave my email address with the Katerina.   As we walked out all the workers followed us, and Katerina was never far from my side, and from photos I saw later I now know that she was holding Christy's hand - it was so very, very sweet!  I almost felt guilty for taking Christy away from these special people who had taken such good care of our daughter....almost.  But I knew this was God's plan for Christy and they would go on to love another child in her place that so desperately needed it!

As we left the home, one woman spread water on the steps and we were asked to walk through it.  Then on to the car, and settling her into her car seat.  She finally calmed down once in her car seat.  All the workers and the director gathered around the car and waved goodbye.  As we drove away, they also spread water on the road for our car to drive over.

Our drive to Sofia was smooth sailing.  Christy ate the baby food I had brought with no complaints, she traveled amazingly well. We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner and she did well then too.  She even took a nap in the car too.  With Christy to car for, the trip went so much faster than any other one!  We arrived at the hotel around dinner time, so we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Christy did great again and then we headed up to our room to settle in for the night.  We now had a suite that had lots of room, and her bed was already there, as well as a fan.  They also provided us with an electric kettle (great for making instant oatmeal for her breakfasts and our lunches), and a drying wrack for when I washed clothes by hand!

Christy and her lovingly packed Hello Kitty backpack!

Christy ate well, then I gave her a bath and cut her bangs - they hung down below her eyes!  She love the bath though, and for that I was thankful.  Some orphans have never had a bath and are terrified of it when they are adopted.

I prepared her for bed, wrapped her up in a blanket and gave her  bottle of formula which she took quite well (her suck/swallow is messed up, but I thickened the formula and it went better than expected).  Then I rocked her for a while and she fell asleep in my arms.

We were so blessed.  Everything about our day went amazingly well. Christy was ours forever and she was such a good little girl!  We all went to sleep and slept as good as can be expected.  Christy slept through the night like an angel!

Christy is Home!

I have been waiting to start blogging about our trip to bring Christy home until she was home as I was trying to protect my family - it's not a good idea to let the world know that your children (even adult children) are home without their parents.

She is totally a Daddy's Girl!

She is such a beauty!!!

To sum it all up, our gotcha trip was amazing.  Everything went quite smoothly.  We had some excitement (like lightening hitting very close to the hotel, and small explosion from a fuse box in the restaurant and 20 rugby players in their underwear in the hotel lobby as we left) and a few minor difficulties, but God carried us through and over all I feel so very, very spoiled by my Father.  Christy has been a little miracle.  She has adjusted to everything very quickly and we are watching her adjust to being loved on by her family and relaxing and gaining more use of her right side even!

Christy sure has a great personality!  This is her "I don't like this" look.
She never liked the stroller - we'll be working on that!

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to go back and blog about each day and what happened and the difficulties we overcame and the blessings we had showered upon us.  I have TONS of photos and videos to share with you.

For now, I've put a few of my favorite from our trip here to whet your appetite for more!

I will be posting the details of the trip both here and on my adoption blog, A Seventh Sister.

Because He Can...

(cross post from our adoption blog, A Seventh Sister)

That is a phrase that has stuck with me from the movie "Facing The Giants."  The man was overwhelmed by God's goodness in his life after going through some really despairing times.  And He not only met this man's needs, but He threw in some things that go above and beyond this man's expectations....and the man says "Just Because He Can"...that God has done something not because it was needed, but the overflowing cup kind of blessing because He can!

Well today God did something "just because He can."  We were "fully funded" through some amazing events way back in April. An amazing matching grant from strangers (now friends and our sister and brother in Christ!), and outpouring of generosity from people locally and around the world to help us reach the goal for that matching grant.

But then there were legal changes, and a missed flight that pushed our expected budget so that we were looking at a shortfall of possibly as much as $3,000, especially if we had to get our flights quickly.  Well, we did not have to get our flights quickly and we were able to book flights out 7 weeks from purchase time so we got really good deals on the flights.  Plus I found I could book our hotel stay through Hotel.com and saved money there even thought we booked a bigger room - plus we will get 15% off all our meals there!  So were were just a little short on paying for the flights and the rooms, but someone had promised to be back up funds for our remaining expenses, so that got covered.

As our trip loomed near, Daryl has been squirreling away a little money every week from his overtime - this is usually his "project money" but usually ends up going to car repairs.  But just this week he decided that we'd use that to cover our expenses for the trip.  There was "probably" enough...it would be tight and would not cover anything unforeseen, but it was definitely a good start.

I knew we had some bills that were unmet, and not sure if we had enough money.  We didn't really want to even ask for the funds even though we knew we could get what we needed just for the asking.  So I asked God.  I wrote in my prayer journal earlier this week. "God please provide what we need to cover these expenses, and I realize I'm asking for something miraculous"....

Then today God moved on our behalf and we were given more than enough money to cover our expenses - enough to cover the prescriptions we had to get for Christy that will not be covered  by our insurance (they were written in my name and we don't have time to change it now), and the cost of our extra bag on the way there and so much more!  We had many expenses preparing for this trip, like a new suitcase, clothes/shoes/accessories for Christy plus some unexpected medical bills at home that have built up but we were going to deal with it when we got home - not now...now we don't have to.

God tells us in the Bible not to worry about anything, not what we will eat or what we will drink or what we will wear.  He is our provider.  He doesn't necessarily provide ahead of time or more than we need, but He does provide.  And sometimes He provides so generously.  He has erased all my fears and worries in one fell swoop - He Is Faithful.

When God Calls, God Equips.  His Calling Is His Equipping.  Period.  We just have to follow His call and step out in faith.  He takes care of the details and stretches us in the process drawing us closer to Him and teaching us so much about His love and care for us as our LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER.

And no, I'm telling where this came from.  I would not have expected this.  There is no other explanation other than God working in mysterious ways.  Just stand next to me, amazed at what God can do.  And yeah, I'm barefoot again, socked blasted clean away....again.