New Year, New Update

WOW.  I'm so sorry! So much has happened and our lives got crazy and I just have neglected to update.

In October, we made the big trip over and were able to visit with The Child. The trip was, as EVERYONE assured me, no where near as scary as I was prepared for. The flights were long and uncomfortable. The layovers were weird and uncomfortable. The bathrooms in the airport in Paris are strange. Oh, yeah, and people speak French there, en masse. That made me laugh.

We arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria and met up with a missionary family who offered to let us stay with them for the time between our flights. We became acquainted with traditional Bulgarian bathrooms because I desperately needed a shower. Then we were amazingly rude and crashed on their son's bed and slept, hard, for a few hours. And they fed us pizza and helped us exchange our dollars into lev. It was so nice to be greeted by a familiar accent and their family is so sweet.

We hopped over to Burgas, where The Child is, and spent the weekend trying to acclimate to living in the future. 

We slept. 

We ate delicious fresh bread. 

We went to put our toes into the Black Sea.

(I don't know who that guy is. Oops. Sorry, random Bulgarian man.)

Monday morning we were taken to the orphanage, introduced to the social worker, giggled over how our translator and the social worker were adorable saying "Dobre. Dobre. Dobre" with the Bulgarian head wobble nod. It really is the cutest thing. Then we were shuffled into a tiny room that was lined from floor to ceiling with stuffed animals and toys where we waited, nervously, while they readied The Child to come meet us.
Did I mention the wait was rather nervous?
We were nervous.
But when he strolled through the door, we were in love.
He came straight to me and fell into my arms, wrapped his arms around me and held on tight. He spent some of that first visit clinging to me or Charlie. He's a physical one.

(Now, this is skipping ahead in the story some, but I'm sharing his country, city and now his name and photo ONLY because he IS legally our son while I am writing this post.)

Allow me to introduce our son, Ivan Mycroft, in this shot Charlie caught of our first hug.

He was scared when we held him. He wanted to be held but he didn't trust us yet. He was happy. He was smiling and playful and allowed us to engage him. He allowed us to touch and hug him. He allowed us to play with him. 

We were allowed to visit for a few hours in the morning then for about an hour and a half in the afternoon.

Each day allowed us to see Ivan experiencing different moods, displaying different behaviors, and let us gather just as much hands on information about him as possible. 

He has receptive language (!!!!) and he follows directions easily and readily. He uses all his senses to learn about the world around him (which means things go into his mouth a lot, heh). He loves being held and touched and petted (on his own terms). 

He seriously has the prettiest eyes, too.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

(HOPEFULLY SOON)

(NO, I PROMISE, SOON.)