Grace saw Kolina August 2012!

I am so blessed to have friends who are adopting from the same orphanage as Kolina! Grace is there this week bringing home her new daughter Sam! Sam was only a few doors down from Kolina's room. Grace blessed me with this video and picture of beautiful Grace and my girl! Kolina looks so good! Her Baba Vera must be getting those calories into her! Thank you Grace!

I'm so excited! An adoptive mom who is in country right now, took this video of Kolina!!! I'm so happy to see her looking so good!

More Maria and Sisters

Some more pictures from the other day. Glad to catch her on film smiling...and the one where their hands are up in the air, we're singing, "The Itsy, bitsy, Spider" When she wants us to sing it she makes the spider motion and says "spider".

oops and now here's the pictures....

Home for one week!

So hard to beleive it's already been a week at home. It's like she's always lived with us!


Seriously, no bumps in the road with her at all. The only change I made was putting her in the crib. I had planned on putting her in the bunk bed in Mariana and Myia's room, but she made it clear the first night that she was not going to sleep in that bed. Not that she had a fit, but the minute I walked out of the room she got out of bed and sat in the little chair in the bedroom with her arms folded across her chest. With obvious resolve her body language said, I'm not sleeping in THAT bed.


So I took her across the hall to Molly and Beth's room and put her into the crib that I have ready for Kolina and she settled right in. OK, little one! I'm fine with that! She has been there since.


She eats evrything that is put in front of her. No food battles, no hesitation with anything (well, there is the quiet insistence that she doesn't eat grapes - she rolls them across the table to Beth, who loves grapes) She is eating not only one helping, but asking for more of everything. More milk, more, sandwich , more, more, more. Yes, I know it's very typical out-of-the-orphanage behavior, but it's thrilling as a mom to have NO FOOD ISSUES!


She is signing about 15 signs and SHE IS TALKING!!!


She had no Bulgarian words that anyone could recognize, but she is consistently saying "More", "Up", "Mama", "Bye bye" "Stop", "no", "spider", "dog", "cat"....very clearly, no guessing if she's really saying any of those words.


Although she is 9 years old, it's obvious her peer group is Molly, 5, DS and Beth 2, Larson Syndrome. And that's perfect too, since it makes regressing her for bonding that much easier.


So now to some pictures!

Day Four - Out of the Orphanage

I can't believe I skipped yesterday's post! I heard once that if you miss writing in your journal, it's because you are too busy having fun to stop and write. I think that's true for me. Being with this little munchkin is totally captivating.
So yesterday - Day Three out of the orphanage. We walked through the capital city, much like we did the day before, only I took a different street once we walked to down town. We came to something I've only ever seen on tv - that is a public water park. Not the kind we Americans think of, with slides and rapids and inner tubes. This is a place where the locals bring their big water jugs, and in open faucets they fill up their containers for their daily water. There are tile sinks with spigots just every few feet - maybe 20 of them and people were lined up at each one waiting their turn. How many times at home do we automatically turn on the faucet and get hot and cold running water - drinkable water, and not even think about it. We are so blessed, and we don't even realize it - in so many ways.
Every morning there are people wearing yellow vests sweeping the sidewalks and streets. Hand sweeping, kids, like you sweep the kitchen floor after dinner. Same kind of broom. Sweeping - every morning. Many of these sweepers are older people - like Grandma and Grandpa's age. One toothless old lady came up to me to look at my watch to see what time it was. I was guessing she was hot and tired and was wanting to go home.
We concluded the morning back at the same park near the government buildings. Maria demonstrated learning another sign. Dog. She patted her leg and said "woof". So now she knows eat, drink, water, mama, more, out, shoes, and she says "Mama" and "more" in addition to signing them! She also points at the hotel door and tells me "Chow" when she wants to leave.
That's something else that's interesting. They say "Chow' which is Italian for goodbye, and "merci" for thank you, which is French. And when they answer the phone they say, "Hallo" (almost English LOL) and they said Dobre - which means "OK" but they also say, "OK"
Maria still is having a love affair with her stroller. She has now learned how to strap herself in and does it over and over. And always with her shoes on, even if she's in her pajamas...like maybe that Mama person will take me outside if I have my shoes and I'm strapped into the stroller.
Each night I continue to try to get her to take a bath, but she still only stands in the tub, hanging onto the wall. And locks her knees if I try to sit her down. She won't have anything to do with sitting in water. I figure when we get home a time or two in the tub with a sister and she'll trust that it's an ok thing to do.
She's using the toilet! She walks to the bathroom door, pulls down her pants and sticks her hand out to me. She can't get up onto the toilet, and if I didn't hold on, she'd fall in, a situation she's very aware of and hangs on to the point of leaving marks on me, but we're having very few accidents during the day.
This morning, Day Four out of the orphanage, after Skyping with the kids at home we went down to the resturant for breakfast. Tammy and her family were there also at shortly after seven because this was the day for the Doctor visit and Embassy interview.
Our facilitators drove us to the appointments. I wasn't prepared for this medical exam. The first stop was a shock because the doctor only looked in her ears and we were done....literally - done with that doctor. Then we went to a different floor and the next doctor only looked at her eyes....literally - no ophthalmascope - no split lamp exam. The doctor bent over, looked at her eyes and said, "Thank you"...done with the Ophthalmologist. Then the pediatrician was the next stop. This one did paperwork and listened to her heart, pressed on her abdomen and was done! $64, please. Ok, glad I have the best pediatrician on the planet at home! I guess she's fit to travel and enter the US!
Next stop was the United States Embassy. I have to say, that there's somethig about seeing the words THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY and see the beautiful red white and blue flag flying that brings tears to my eyes. It made me proud and homesick at the same time. Tammy's husband kissed the grass on the inside of the gate - much to the startle of the senty! He poked his head out of the guardhouse when he heard us all laughing and saw Mark on his hands and knees kissing the ground. He probably thought we were some American hooligans!
We went through a security post like at the airport, only difference is they let me keep my water bottle, but they made me take a drink out of it before they'd let me take it in with us. I guess they wanted to see if I would blow myself up.
The Embassy interview really wasn't an interview. The consular just told me what to do with the documents when I go through immigration with Maria. Done, "Have a nice flight." Wow - that was easy.
So, by 1:30 we were back at the hotel. Now there is nothing official to do until tomorrow evening when we meet Toni for dinner and she gives us the passports and documents from the Embassy.
Then Saturday we fly home! It will be nice to get home to the other kids and introduce them in person to their sister. And the urgency is now greater to start the second stage documents so I can come back and get Kolina. It will be hard flying out of here without her. The sooner I get those papers done, the sooner I'll be back to bring her home.

Day Two -Out of the Orphanage

The day started early for us, since I Skype with my kids at home at 5am - that makes it 7pm at home, just before the little kids go to bed. They got their first glimpse of their sister. She had slept through the night but woke up before me. When the alarm went off I opened my eyes not knowing immediately where I was and there was Maria with her head in her hand staring just inches from my face. Big brown eyes!
The first things she did when she got up was to get into the stroller in her pj's! So funny and so cute. So we skyped with my kids at home, then we skyped with Jesse at my grown son's house. Then it was time for a bath....she would have nothing to do with the big bathtub. And I do mean big. You have to climb up and over the side and it's deep. Even if you don't fill it with water you are sitting way down inside it. Imagine what that must look like when you are only 40" tall! Maybe like being down in a well!
So after I pried her off me, I just took her small orange bowl to the bed with some warm soapy water and washed her down on the bed. There's so much time for all the new stuff, that terrorizing her now with a bath, is not on my priority list.
I was going to just walk her downstairs to the breakfast buffet, but she insisted on the stroller so we took that. I sat her down in the closest booth to the food and went to get her a plate. For those who haven't travelled yet, the Budapest breakfast buffet is great! She had two pieces of french toast, two helpings of scrambled eggs, a big glass of milk, and topped it all off with watermelon, honey dew melon and peaches. This orphan ate like she had never eaten before. She puts her head right into the plate and she shovels it in as though she's afraid I'm going to take it away. Another thing on the to do list - slow down her eating- but again, in the big scheme of things that can wait. I'm just grateful she's eating -and she's definately not going to be a picky eater.
So many things she missed as an orphan with Down Syndrome. For example, a little feeding therapy to phase out the tongue thrusting when eating and the ever present food remaining behind after each swallow. She just hasn't learned to use her tongue and cheeks to move the food around to get it all out of her mouth. Same thing with drinking. She is drinking from an open cup, but she places her tongue inside the cup when she drinks. That's another thing on the to do list! Schedule a few visit with our old feeding therapist for a refresher course for mom! LOL
After breakfast we went back to the room to try to get her to use the toilet. Nope! She just doesn't like this big one. No big deal. When you have 3 in diapers and 5 in Good Nights, one more is not a problem.
At 8 am sharp, happily strapped back in the stroller, (Thanks again Aunt Mary!) we took off to explore. When I was here in October I had gone down to the main drag and turned right. There wasn't much there as far as hisotric sites, but it had been a nice walk. This time turning left was the jack pot. Beautiful old buildings, statues, churches, government buildings and an archeological dig!! I've always been fascinated with digs and watch every tv documentary I can find. This one is happening right downtown. See below for pictures. - or maybe it's above-I can't figure out what I did wrong with yesterday's post! LOL
On the way back I stopped at the same store that we were at yesterday across from the police station. We picked up a package of diapers for night time as the pull ups didn't quite do it for her last night.
She was facinated the entire morning just being in the stroller and watching people. There was a man playing the violin that we stopped and watched. And farther down the street there was a man playing the accordian and a blind man singing. She was captivated.
Back to the hotel around 11:30 and we had jelly sandwiches and apple juice. I decided to not put her down for a nap today just to see if she gets cranky. So far, I've not seen any crankiness or aggressiveness. She did slap me once on the arm, but I think it was just harder than she intended to get my attention.
This afternoon we stayed in the room, looked at books, played with coins - in the coin purse and dump them out, then back in the coin purse and dump them out. I think she's left handed. She using both hands, but her pincer grasp is more developed on the left side. I had brought those plastic rings that you can use to hang things on the crib with for the babies at Pleven and the orphans at the hospital, but didn't use them all. She spent a lot of time trying to hook one to the other to make a chain. Really good focus. By far her favorite activity was bubbles. She was pretty quick to learn how to blow. However, there was a Kodak moment that I missed the first time I blew them for her and a stream of bubbles came out! She was startled! We used up a whole bottle.
The only thing that I'm concerned about is she is chewing on her lower lip and it's looking pretty nasty. I keep trying to get her to stop, but it seems like it's a pretty ingrained habit. It looks so sore, but she keeps at it.
Then I got adventurous and took her down to the resturant at around 5pm. Dido met me at the elevator and said he was sorry but the resturant was closed tonight because they were remodeling the breakfast buffet room. He said we could have room service, but then he said, "or if you want to sit at the table nearest the kitchen you could eat there if you don't mind the noise of the workers. I chose to stay, thinking this would be a good opportunity to have her sit and wait for food. Not a good plan. That concept was foreign to her. So glad we were alone in the resturant. After trying to get her interested in the colored pencils and book (thank you Amanda!) we both gave up and she pointed to the stroller, waved and said, "chow". Ah-h no, we're not leaving, but I let her get down and she got into the stroller. (Have I said thank you, Aunt Mary???) She was content to just sit there until dinner came.
Ok, this girl has an appetite. I ordered the omlet for her and when it came it could have fed both of us. It was at least a 4 egg omlet and fried potatoes - she probably ate 3 of the 4 eggs and all the ham and cheese. Good grief where does she put it all?
When we got back to the room she walked straight to the bathroom, pulled down her pants, took off the diaper and pointed to the toilet. I held her on the seat and she went!!!!
Then we skyped with Grandpa and Grandma, and Adam, Jessica, Beth and Molly. What an amazing invention this Skype thing. What will they think of next? She's lying on the bed right now. It's 8:30pm and she's wide awake. Hopefully, it's not a bad omen!