The Black Sea and Balchik Palace

From first through thirteenth grade in Germany, I had a classmate whose father was Bulgarian. Every summer, this classmate of mine traveled to Sofia to spend several weeks with her grandparents who always took her to the Black Sea. As a child, this entire experience seemed so wonderful and exotic to me that I vowed to myself that some day I would see the Black Sea with my own eyes. I am amazed how so many years later life presented me with the opportunity to follow through on this dream via our daughter’s adoption. I couldn’t believe it when I found out that her hometown is only 35 km from the shore of the Black Sea. I decided right then and there that this was the universe’s way of telling me to go for it, so I did.

Half way through our week in Bulgaria, we took a taxi to a small coastal town and resort called Balchik. Our translator had arranged this little excursion for us after I expressed my desire to see the Black Sea, so we didn’t have to worry about anything. The taxi dropped us right at the entrance to Balchik Palace and waited for us for over two hours while we explored the area.

Balchik Palace, also known as Quiet Nest Palace, was built between 1926 and 1937 by Romanian royals who had control of the region at the time and wanted a summer residence near the sea. Today, the palace grounds include everything from the original buildings, to botanical gardens, to a chapel, to open air baths, to historic water mills, bridges, waterfalls… All of it is stunningly beautiful and in excellent repair overlooking the Black Sea. I have now put it out to the universe that some day I would like a patio area with the same atmosphere as this amazing place:

We were able to walk through the palace grounds right to the beach and the Black Sea. It was a bit windy by the shore and the waves were crashing in, so I couldn’t get really close to the water without danger of drenching my lower half, but I still gleefully managed to get myself sprayed by Black Sea water as seen in the photo. Yippeee! It was a dream come true.

And as I looked across the sea to where it meets the sky, I couldn’t help but think that less than 200 miles beyond its distant eastern shores, our son is waiting for us while his sister lives only a few kilometers away from the western Black Sea coast where we were standing.

Bulgaria Orphanage Donations

As some of you know, over the last year we have held a few fundraisers to collect money which has helped us buy diapers and other supplies for our children’s orphanages. We took a huge dufflebag full of donations to Bulgaria this month and then purchased over 600 Pampers for the orphanage while in-country after the orphanage director had let us know the sizes of diapers she needed the most. My mom also brought approximately 13 pounds of children’s clothing, pacifiers, bandaids, etc. from Germany.

Here we are folding clothing and wrapping the donations up into bags donated by Bed, Bath and Beyond. Everything in this photo that isn’t part of the hotel room was going to the orphanage:

Here’s a photo of the donations making their way out of the hotel to the taxi:

We received many sincere thanks for these donations and were told by the orphanage staff that everything was very useful. We were so happy to hear this and would like to express our gratitude again to everyone who has participated in our fundraisers. You have clearly made a difference in the lives of approximately 80 children at our son’s orphanage and 100 children at our daughter’s.

We will have one final orphanage fundraiser next month, so please consider contributing one last time to help these little ones in Eastern Europe. We did not buy diapers for our son’s orphanage yet and would like to be able to do so when we pick him up. I’d also like to buy children’s toothbrushes for both orphanages. I can promise you that any remaining money we have raised and are still going to raise will reach the orphanages and improve the lives of dozens of children aged 7 and under.

IAC 177 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 177 which was held on 03/18/11:

1) French dossier from 2010 referred a waiting child (#1273) with a profile on the MOJ site

2) Italian dossier from 2010 referred two waiting children (#1164 & #1165) with profiles on the MOJ site

3) Canadian dossier from 2011 referred a waiting child (#449) with a profile on the MOJ site

4) U.S. dossier from 2011 referred three waiting children (#812 & #813 & #783) with profiles on the MOJ site

5) Swedish dossier from 2011 referred a waiting child (#1141) with a profile on the MOJ site

6) Swedish dossier from 2011 referred a waiting child (#1239) with a profile on the MOJ site

Isn't She Lovely, Isn't She Wonderful

Our experience visiting our daughter at her orphanage in Bulgaria was very different from the week we spent with our son in another Eastern European country. You can read about the wonderful time we had with him and his caregivers here and then compare to our days in Bulgaria.

Our very first visit with our daughter lasted about 15 minutes and cut into her nap time. We had come straight from the airport, briefly met with the orphanage director and the social worker and were then taken to a small ante-room outside of our daughter’s temporary group room (her usual group room was being renovated). This small visiting room was furnished with two big cabinets and a large couch. The windows were high and we could not really look outside unless we were standing up. We were crowded in there with the translator and the social worker and before we knew what was happening, our daughter was brought out to us by one of her caregivers. Even though we were aware of her current measurements, I was still shocked by how tiny and light she was after she was placed into my arms. She let me hold her, but it was clear that she was confused and scared about the entire experience and I cannot blame her. The setting was stressful for me, too. We were standing up with many people around, it was hot, and there was so much talking in two languages. After a few minutes in my arms, I let Craig hold her and we sat down for a little bit before being told it was time to go. I really wish I remembered more about this first meeting as I do with our son, but it’s all a blur. I know I cried and I know I tried to tell her that her Mama was here, but I doubt she was able to absorb any of it in this sensory overload situation.

When we returned in the afternoon for a second visit, we were given a different visiting room, this time a very small space with a large couch, a high window, a table, some toys, a cabinet, a TV and linoleum flooring. We spent about 90 minutes with our daughter though toward the end of that time she was hungry and became grumpy. Once again, I couldn’t blame her as she is on a very strict eating schedule and when a meal isn’t on time, she is unhappy. The room was so hot and our little girl got sweaty being passed back and forth between Craig and me. She was in socks, so she couldn’t cruise along the furniture because the floor was too slippery and she couldn’t crawl on the floor because it was too cold. We had a few toys and books we got out for her and they held her attention for a while, but what she liked the best was to be lifted up to the window by her daddy to look outside. I think she would have loved doing this for hours and she was much more animated during this activity. Over and over again, Craig held her up to see the big world she will join with us some day soon.

We spent the next three meetings with our little girl in either of these two rooms. I had asked if she could wear shoes, so she could cruise and the request was granted. There was also a carpet placed in one of the rooms, so we were able to let her crawl a little bit. She is very interested in textures, probably due to sensory deprivation in that department, and felt everything from the rough underside of the carpet to the buttons on my shirt to daddy’s hair. She also liked to feel the different things in the board books we brought. She enjoyed looking at our family photos in a soft book. We rarely saw her smile or heard her laugh though we were assured she does in her familiar setting.

On Tuesday afternoon we took our daughter out of the orphanage for about one hour to have her visa/passport photo taken. When we returned, I was allowed to feed her and learned that meals are all about speed and getting the food into the child as quickly and efficiently as possible. On Wednesday, we were allowed to walk with our daughter outside for a few minutes.

In our entire week at the orphanage, we never interacted with our daughter’s caregivers. We only saw them in passing or when they came to bring her or get her from us. If we had questions, they usually went via our translator to the social worker or the doctor and from there to the caregivers and then answers came back to us the same way. We asked to see our daughter’s eating, playing and sleeping quarters and were told this was not permitted, so we only stole brief glimpses of her room as the door opened and closed very quickly. We also never saw any other children except from afar. Our main point of contact was the social worker who was always available to us and who was friendly and helpful. However, we did not have the same warm and welcoming experience we did in our son’s orphanage where our entire time felt very natural and we were treated like beloved family right from the start.

Our last two meetings with our daughter took place in the orphanage’s physical therapy room. She was familiar and comfortable with this room and able to crawl and use the equipment there which included a giant ball pit. In this room, she finally warmed up to us and discovered that Mama’s singing is soothing, that long eye contact can be enjoyable, that parents respond to babbling, that touch is comforting, that Oma is fun, that showing off her skills earns applause and bravos, that it’s okay to giggle, that it’s safe to try her hand at trust, that she is loved beyond measure, and that life will be good. I wish we could have had more time with her in this spacious, bright, interactive setting because there we saw our daughter’s true spirit which is sweet, inquisitive, and gentle.

Bulgaria Trip 1

After accepting our daughter’s referral on April 6, we were pleased to be able to travel to Bulgaria very quickly. Throughout the coming days, I will elaborate in more detailed posts on some of the things we experienced while there, but for now here’s a brief overview of the week we spent in Bulgaria:

April 16: Depart Cincinnati.

April 17: Arrive in Paris, connect to Sofia. Overnight stay at an apartment in Sofia.

April 18: Fly to our daughter’s hometown. First and second visits with our daughter. Meeting up with my mom who joined us for the week from Germany.

April 19: Third and fourth visits with our daughter. Delivery of orphanage donations. Explore our daughter’s hometown on foot.

April 20: Fifth and sixth visits with our daughter. Travel by taxi to the Black Sea Coast at a town called Balchik. Explore Balchik Palace and Botanical Gardens as well as the Black Sea shore.

April 21: Last visit with our daughter. Fly back to Sofia. Sign paperwork to proceed with her adoption. Explore Sofia on foot. Overnight stay at an apartment in the capital.

April 22: Depart Sofia, connect in Paris, arrive in Cincinnati.

And a few odds and ends that I don’t think deserve a separate entry later:

1) Our flights from Cincinnati to Sofia were extremely smooth. We had no delays and did not even encounter any wait lines for check-ins and security inspections. It was the most pleasant international travel experience we have had in years. On the way back, things also went well, but we had various long lines in Paris and in Cincinnati as well as a long time waiting for take-off in CDG.

2) Everything we ate in Bulgaria was delicious. We had meals at restaurants, a breakfast buffet at the hotel, and also meals we bought at the grocery store. I can assure you that there is plenty of variety for a vegetarian like me. Craig enjoyed his meat dishes, too.

3) Our apartment in Sofia was located in a six story building built in 1964 or 1968 (I can’t remember). The apartment was completely remodeled with a small kitchen, small eating nook and living room combination, a bathroom and a bedroom. Our hotel in our daughter’s hometown was very, very nice with a beautiful, quiet location on the edge of a large park, modern amenities, friendly staff, and a good restaurant.

4) Our translator was great and with us whenever we needed/wanted her. We also appreciated that she made the arrangements for us to visit the Black Sea at Balchik after I expressed my desire to see the coast on the first day.

More details to come soon, so please stay tuned.

IAC 176 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 176 which was held on 03/11/11:

1)Swiss dossier from 2007 referred a child aged 2 years and 7 months, female

2) French dossier from 2008 referred a child aged 3 years and 10 months, female, deficit with NAP

3) U.S. dossier from 2008 referred a child aged 3 years and 11 months, male, with congenital visual anomaly

4) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child aged 6 years and 6 months, female in a healthy status - vision problems

5) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child aged 7 years and 7 months, male

6) French dossier from 2010 referred a child aged 5 years and 7 months, male, with data on family history, chronic disease and vision problems

7) Italian dossier from 2010 referred a child aged 8 years and 3 months, male

8) Italian dossier from 2010 referred a child aged 10 years and 10 months, female

9) Italian dossier from 2010 referred a child aged 10 years and 8 months, male

10) Italian dossier from 2011 referred two male children - biological brothers, aged: 10 years and 2 months & 8 years and 3 months, one of which has a deficit in the NDP and speech problem

Orphanage Donations Part 2

As Craig and I prepare to meet our daughter in Bulgaria, we have been purchasing donations for her orphanage with some of the money we have raised over the last year. In the spirit of accountability, especially to those who have contributed, I wanted to let all of you know how the funds have been spent, so here’s what we bought for our daughter’s orphanage:

12 new diaper covers $1.20

13 bottles of children’s vitamins $55.51

3 board books $3.00

Baby Einstein Lullabies CD $4.00

20 pairs of socks $9.50

10 tubes of children’s toothpaste $10.00

2 boxes of Q-tips (500 ct) $3.40

3 tubes of Neosporin $11.58

6 tubes of diaper ointment $13.44

2 boxes of Band Aids $4.40

192 Crayons $7.92

Sand toys $1.50 (not pictured)

20 pieces of clothing $14.50 (not pictured)

All of these donations are packed, along with half of the children’s clothes that were collected by our friends last fall.

In total, we have raised $560 thus far. $150.86 was spent on our son’s orphanage, $139.97 on our daughter’s. An additional $150 will be used to buy diapers in Bulgaria. This leaves $119.17 for our son’s orphanage when we return to pick him up.

We are going to have one last orphanage fundraiser in May, so please stay tuned.

Happy 50th Birthday, Pampers!

As some of you may know, Craig works for Procter & Gamble in their Baby Care Division and today he and I got to be a part of Pampers' 50th birthday celebration and Little Miracles campaign kick-off. We were able to share the story of our son's adoption in progress with an audience of co-workers and their families as well as local media. If we make the news, I will post a link later.

Pampers is asking all parents to talk about their own little miracles on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pampers. Please go there and let everyone know about your miraculous international adoptions and share what you have seen and heard while visiting your children's orphanages. Most importantly, ask Pampers to get involved in helping orphans worldwide. What a difference P&G could make to the health and comfort of these beautiful little ones with diaper donations to orphanages everywhere. Please, please, please, spread the word about the Little Miracles campaign and use it as an opportunity to encourage Pampers to get involved with orphan care worldwide!

It's A Girl

A few hours after I posted this entry to our blog, I received an email from our agency to give them a call. I didn’t exactly expect it, but figured that the call would have something to do with the request we had made during the preceding weekend for a waiting child we’d seen on the MOJ site. I was right… sort of… as we got word that MOJ could not grant our request because we had just been matched with another little girl through the main procedure. In other words, we got a huge Valentine’s Day surprise by receiving news of a referral from Bulgaria. And yes, it came exactly two years to the day after we’d mailed our initial adoption application.

After a long month of anticipation and some other adoption craziness that I don’t care to share, we finally were sent the file of our little girl. I cannot reveal too much about her yet, but I can tell you that when we initially read her report, the prognosis for her health and development seemed grim and we were not sure we could proceed with her adoption. It took another three weeks to get clarification on her medical history (which, by the way, included many inaccuracies) and the results of some medical testing she’d undergone. We are so glad we requested updated photos, videos, additional testing as well as asked a lot of questions and consulted with a local IA doctor because without this information we might have missed out on our child.

Our daughter is lovely, very small for her age with orphanage delays and a medical condition that will need to be monitored and maybe treated/corrected in the future. She’s a toddler just as we requested and we are so excited to meet her later this month.

And now we’ll have to get ready for virtual twin toddlers from two different Eastern European countries to join our family before this year is over.

Dollars For Diapers Bake Sale Success

Today’s fundraiser bake sale was a great success. In four hours, we sold most of our baked goods and at the end of the day, a gentleman came up and bought everything that was still left on the table for his church. We raised nearly $212, half of which will go to the Martini Coalition for Muscular Dystrophy Research and Development and the other half of which Craig and I will use to purchase diapers and supplies for our children’s orphanages. I also got a $20 donation, so today we raised $126. I couldn’t be more pleased.

Here’s a picture of my baking contributions (banana nut bread, chocolate chip cookies, blueberry-peach cobblers):

And here we are all set up at the start of the sale:

I had a wonderful time meeting the members of the Martini Coalition and their families. My sincerest thanks go out to them for allowing us to be a part of this event. I also want to express my gratitude to everyone who came and supported our fundraiser. You guys rock!

Dollars For Diapers Bake Sale

Tomorrow, April 9, 2011 from 1:00 - 5:00 pm, I will be participating in a fundraiser bakesale at Harrison Bowling Center. I am teaming up with the Martini Coalition for Muscular Dystrophy Research & Development. A number of children in the Martini family are affected by the disease. The proceeds of the bakesale will be split 50/50 between the Martini Coalition and my efforts to raise money for our children's orphanages.

Along with the bakesale, the Martini Coalition has also organized for many other vendors, such as Pampered Chef, to be there and sell their products. A percentage of vendor sales will also go to the Martini Coalition.

There will be no leagues on Saturday afternoon, so plenty of lanes should be open if you’d like to do some bowling as well.

If you’re local, please come and support this fundraiser (I promise the goodies will be yummy) and please spread the word about it via social media outlets and email. Any money Craig and I raise will be used to purchase supplies (primarily diapers) for our children’s orphanages.

IAC 175 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 175 which was held on 03/02/11:

1) French dossier from 2007 referred a child 3 years and 1 month, male

2) Greek dossier from 2008 referred a child 5 years and 10 months, female, with specifics in health - data on family history and suspected chronic lung disease

3) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child 5 years and 3 months, female

4) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child 6 years and 2 months, male

5) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child 7 years and 7 months, male

6) Italian dossier from 2010 referred a child 10 years and 3 months, female

[In February 2011, a total of 31 referrals were issued by the IAC.]