Monday

Monday was an incredible day.  We woke up, both of us with butterflies in our stomachs.  You wouldn't think it would bother two grown adults to want to impress a five year old girl so much!  We settled for a granola bar instead of the hotel breakfast, prayed together and found our guide in the lobby.  Our hotel is only a 10 minute walk from the orphanage.  We found (just by watching) that you have to be really careful not to trip on of the the many bumps or holes in the sidewalk (there's really not much of it intact) or get run down by the cars that don't wait for pedestrians.  We arrived at the orphanage and were pleased right away.  The grounds are not elaborate, but everything is clean, bright, and adequate.  It seems that the caretakers truly care for the children.  We began in the director's office, a nicely decorated room with a desk and laptop and two leather red doors studded with decorative nails said to be from the communism era that ended in Bulgaria only 20 years ago.  We were not able to ask many questions  because the director is away until Wednesday, so we waited for them to finish dressing our little girl before we could see her.

 I really can't describe yet how I felt when I first saw her for the first time - it was all so amazing.  She was obviously nervous, but very brave.  We were told that she knew she was meeting her daddy and mommy.  She came in with assistance, holding her caretakers hand for balance and shuffled in the door.  Her blue eyes were wide.  I reached out for her, and she came over to me.  She asked us who we were and we told her, "Daddy and Mama". She gave a little smile.  I tried not to tear up as I gave her a hug that she did not reject.  She was fine with sitting on my lap, and I held her and hugged her and kissed her as gently as I knew how for the first few minutes as we got acquainted.  As we were talking through a translator, we found out that Victoria likes to color - and does she ever!  I had brought a little coloring kit in a pencil box with me, and when I took it out of my bag, she was hooked.  Jocylin would agree with her new sister first color choice: purple!  We continued to talk and color for about an hour. John held her too and she was fine with that.  Then it was time to go.  We gave our new daughter a hug and kiss goodbye, and she went off for her lunch and naptime.  We would see her again at 4:00.

Our guide has been so helpful.  We spent the remaining time exchanging currency, having lunch and getting a little rest.  Walking is a primary mode of transportation, and we've really enjoyed being able to get a taste of Bulgaria while on foot.  Burgas is a nice city with a population of about 200,000.  It is on the coast of the Black Sea which we will visit one of these days.  The main employment here is for tourism, but, as we do where we live, Burgas has four seasons.  This make summertime the busiest for them.  We're told that people from many different European countries make this their vacation spot - especially people from Germany and Russia.

At four, we returned to the orphanage.  Victoria smiled when she saw us and came right away.  She reached for John's hand to help her right away, and then mine.  Caretakers were asking her (in Bulgarian, of course) who we were, and she would say each time, "Daddy, Mama" with smile.  She was obviously very proud that she had her own now!  We were told that the children are told that someday their family will come for them.  It was somewhat sad to see all of Victoria's peers look at us with longing eyes.  One little boy cried and reached out to us as if to say, "Me too!  Me too!"  I wish we could take them all home!

We had another nice visit with Victoria playing with the coloring kit and Playdough that we had brought.  We were able to see her bedroom - a bright, cheerful room with twenty or so cribs lined up in a couple rows.  She was very proud of her space and let us take a picture of her in her bed.  Then it was time to go--more hugs and kisses goodbye.  We stopped by a little grocery store to buy a few snacks, for our stomachs still on a different time zone and said goodbye to our translator for the day near our hotel.  We went to a very nice restaurant that was recommended to us and enjoyed our dinner (the dessert was fabulous!).  We have been enjoying having the evenings to ourselves on this trip with some much needed time together after the busyness of the last couple of weeks.  We're so thankful to the Lord for His assurance in this.  It gives us confidence to see His hand working in this. 

Oh, and we also were able to give out our new daughter's name officially for the paperwork: Victoria Faith Isenberg.