Last visit

Yesterday during the girls' nap time we went to visit Rila Monastery.  This is the largest monastery in Bulgaria and they are rightfully proud of it.  It is beautiful, well maintained and in as wonderful a setting as you can imagine - high up in the mountains with a flowing river nearby.  Our driver visits here often and could tell us all about the area and the history.  It was a great way to spend the "waiting" time and our girls got a nice long nap since we got back to the orphanage a little bit later than normal.  It made for a very fun afternoon with them.  Have I told you how great they are? :)  
We had our last visit today. It was so hard to leave them, not knowing when we will be allowed to return to bring them home - my babies (although they will ADAMANTLY tell you that they are not babies!  We were only there in the morning today but we stayed a little longer than normal.  The kids were tired and hungry by the time we left but it made them more willing to snuggle so it wasn't all bad :)  "N" asked if we would be back tomorrow and our facilitator explained to her that we had to return to America to get their bedroom ready and do work before they could come home.  She took it well and told us as we were leaving that they would wait for us - break my heart.  We are really praying that we will be able to have court in July.  Our documents are all here, updated and ready to go so we'll pray that God intercedes and we get an early court date. 
After we returned to the city, our facilitator dropped us off in the city centre (aka downtown) and we walked around for awhile, ate a leisurely lunch and then took a cab back to our hotel.  The hotel is very nice (Hotel Geneva). It is slightly outside of the city centre and therefore about 1/2 the price but with all the amenities that we spoiled Americans expect in a hotel - even in Eastern Europe.  ;)  We took naps this afternoon and will be packing tonight for an early start in the morning.  Our flight leaves at 7:15.  I'm torn between my desire to stay and spend some more time hangin' out with my girls and the fact that I miss the other 4 yahoos who are waiting patiently for their parents to come home and show them pics and videos of their new sisters.  It won't be long and we'll be back in Bulgaria- ready to bring some more fun and laughter into our house in the form of 3 spunky sisters!

Visits 2 & 3

Every day looks the same for us on this trip.  We leave the apartment around 9:00.  Arrive at the girls' orphanage at 10:00.  Play until lunch.  Kill time until 3:00 (when they get up from their naps) and then play for another couple of hours before heading back to Sofia.  The kids have been very open to us and would be perfectly happy if we took them with home with us on Saturday.  Unfortunately for all of us, that is not allowed.  They will be traveling to the coast for a few weeks this summer so they are happy not to miss that.  They are such funny girls.  "N" is the oldest and very much in charge.  She is only 18 months older than "M" but she lords that difference over the other two.  "M" and "K" are 11 months apart and chatter at each other all the time.  "M" is very sweet and generous, "K" is the spoiled baby.  They all prefer to spend their days outside so today we sat outside and colored, climbed on the playground equipment, painted nails and played with play-doh.  That playdoh has caused so many arguments!  They each have 3 containers of it but they can't seem to keep from trying to steal their sisters' - especially "N" and "K".  "M" is very picky about hers and doesn't want her colors mixed together (a girl after my own heart) but the other two have smooshed pink, purple, green, and orange in all sorts of nasty fun ways.  "N" was quieter today and was obviously torn between spending time with us and playing with her friends.  We told her it was fine to play with her friends but she still stayed with us and looked longingly at them.  Eventually one of the girls came up to where we were and she and "N" played for awhile across the playground from us - still within yelling distance for "N" and Mama and Taty.  Tomorrow will be more of the same.  We only have about 6 more hours to spend with them - boooo.  We are praying that we are able to have court in July so that we can return hopefully in September.  It will go fast, yet feel like an eternity!!! 

The adventure begins

We are here and THEY ARE AWESOME!  I can't be too specific but today we met our new children.  We arrived in Bulgaria yesterday and spent the day with our dear friends Latcho and Lucy, in whose home we are staying. They took us to a church with a cloister of nuns about 30 minutes outside of Sofia and they fed us lots of yummy food and then sent us to bed early :)  This morning we stopped by the notary's office to sign paperwork before traveling to the kids' orphanage for our first meeting.  It went as well as we had hoped and leaving these sweeties in a few days is going to be very difficult.  Tomorrow we will visit in the morning and the afternoon.  It is supposed to rain so keeping busy hands and feet occupied when we can't go outside should be a trick.  Keep praying!