Day 4

Monday, May 7, 2012

 Today we met.   First, we went to meet M (the brother). He was waiting outside for us. He shook our hands and introduced himself.  Then we all went inside to meet with the director. Tim and I sat down on a couch, and M sat down very close beside Tim -- like close enough to touch.  He started out very quiet and shy.  He showed us his drawings we had seen in the video we received.  He is very proud of his drawings.  We gave him one of the gifts we had brought -- a mini Pillow Pet...a shark -- which he promptly named Tony.  He would answer questions but was noticeably nervous.  We decided to go outside to play, but first he wanted to show us his room. He shared a room with 2 other boys. He got out a photo album, sat between us on his bed, and began telling us all about all of the pictures.  Next, he took us downstairs and showed us the room where they watch TV, the room where they do their homework (and showed us his desk), and the room where they eat.  Finally we went out to play.  We had brought a frisbee, but he had never seen one. After a few tries, though, he was getting pretty good.   At one point he asked our translator if we had been to see V (his sister).  She told him that we were going there next. He asked if we would tell her he said hi.   : (

 We stayed about an hour and then went to V's orphanage.  We had to wait for her to finish an activity she was in.  When she came in, she sat down beside us, smiling but very quiet.  Like M she would answer questions but was otherwise quiet. We gave her a mini Pillow Pet also, and she seemed to really like it.  Later when I was holding it, I pretended it kissed her, and she looked up at me and giggled.  Our translator talked a lot with the director.  Finally, she told us that V was going to go eat her lunch, but when she was finished we could take her to see M.  Wow!  We had hoped to meet them together, but since we didn't, this was quite a surprise.  She seemed perfectly content to sit between us in the car. 

 Seeing them together was so sweet.  First M was off doing something. While we waited, they gave her a piece of paper to draw.  When M came in they gave him a piece.  They sat quietly just drawing for the longest.  M drew a house with two people on one side and two on the other.  When asked, he said that two were him and V. The other two were his mother and father (hmm.  Hint hint!). They were both very detailed about their pictures. When finished we started outside, but M wanted to show his sister around. They went down the hall holding hands. In his room, he showed her the picture album, but he started taking some of the pictures out and giving them to her.  He said he wanted to give her some so she could see him. Once she said, "You're so sweet."  They were so cute together!

 As we went outside, M announced that he was going to call us Mama and Taty (Daddy).  (They had introduced us as Tim and Libby.)  We started to teach V how to play with the frisbee. M tried to help her, and when she would throw (even a bad throw), he would tell her "good job".  After awhile, M wanted to kick the soccer ball with Tim like they had done earlier. They did, and V and I went off to play. I was impressed when V took me by the hand and led me to something she wanted to do.  Then Tim outdid me, M had given him a kiss to thank him for something. He said something to V about "Mama and Taty" then asked, "Did you hear me?"  He asked if we were going to come back tomorrow. We said yes, and he responded with "Yesssssss!"  They both smiled and laughed so much!  At some point we learned through our translator that he had said he was a little shy because he could not understand us. I told her to be sure to tell home we were shy too because we couldn't understand him. Another time he said we spoke English really fast.  I said I thought he spoke Bulgarian really fast!  Those kinds of remarks seemed to make him feel at ease. He became very interested in learning English. He had Tim name all the crayons in his box and tell him the numbers to ten. He was also overheard telling V that "Mama and Taty would help her learn English."

As we left, M gave V a kiss goodbye.  We told everyone bye and M that we would see him tomorrow.   Then we drove V back to her orphanage.  She was quick to tell us bye (but smiling) because she had friends to go play with. I can just imagine each of them spending time later telling about their special visitors. Tomorrow we will be telling them that we are, in fact, going to adopt them. We then spend tomorrow and two more days with them. Friday we will be back in Sophia signing papers.  Then we leave on Saturday.   

Now, a footnote about the sights. So many of the villages we passed were very poor looking. Most buildings looked like stucco with red tiled roofs. The buildings also looked quite old and dirty. Some looked abandoned until you noticed a few items hanging out to dry.  Our kids' villages were no different. V's orphanage was accessed by one-lane dirt roads with large holes in them. Once we had to stop and wait for a man to get his cow to move out of our way.  And the buildings were right on each side of these narrow roads.  The poverty was really troubling to see. The orphanages themselves were not fancy, but they were okay and the best buildings in their villages. We didn't tour V's yet, but M's was very clean.