Three weeks

Well, we're a little over the three week mark of having Victoria in the United States with us.  These three weeks have not been without difficulty, but things are gradually progressing in the right direction.  Our sickness is virtually gone - just a tired daddy and mommy taking care of children with the after-sickness crabbies.  (Are mine the only children who are crabby after they are sick?)  Victoria has not been sick (she's the only one!).  She does tend to tattle and whine quite a bit now, which gets to be frustrating for those listening (often me, I confess).  I think that is because she doesn't feel totally in control of the situation.  However, as a whole she is adapting well to our family and we to her.

John has been back to work for about two weeks now.  Victoria at first really pouted when she woke in the morning and found that Daddy had gone to work.   She would ask about him several times during the day and pout then too.  Thankfully, she has changed quite a bit in a couple of weeks.  Lately, she asks about Daddy when she wakes up, after I tell her that he is at work she says calmly "later" (in Bulgarian) and proceeds through her day.  Tonight we're going to give her one more challenge.  John and I are going to try to go out on a much needed date (we haven't even celebrated his birthday yet), and the girls will stay with a very capable sitter.  We hope that Victoria will trust us enough to let us go for a while.  We've tried to prepare her a little bit for tonight in whatever language we speak now (English with some Bulgarian mixed in).  Never have we faced a date with such anticipation and dread in the same moment!  This is worse than leaving a newborn baby!  We'll see what happens...

As far as learning the English language, Victoria seems to be doing well.  She has picked up many English words.  During her early exploration of our toys she found the Alphabet song.  That is, by far, her favorite English song to sing.  She doesn't have the letters exactly right, but I have a feeling she will before long.  She also has learned how to count to ten in English with very little help.  She has copied her name in English letters and has done very well for a five year old.  What is funny is that Jocylin and Cherith have done some of their own learning too.  It is not uncommon for them to come to John or I and ask for something with a Bulgarian word thrown in!  It makes me laugh every time!

We have several doctors appointments scheduled in the months of April and May that we would request prayer for.  The most important ones are to confirm her diagnosis and form a plan of care for her.  There are some things that are largely resting on this appointment (i.e. physical therapy, procurement of a walker, our own knowledge of her needed care, etc.) that will make it easier to help her in the days/months to come.  However, we anticipate the appointments to be fairly traumatic for her, which will be hard to bear.

Thank you all for your concern and prayers!  We appreciate them more than we can say.

One Week

The best family picture we could get so far...

We’ve been home nearly a week now with Victoria.  Most of our week has been full of sickness.  Jocylin came down with it as soon as we woke up the morning after we were home and still is fighting it off.  Cherith was up last night with high fevers, cough, congestion and throwing up.  This is a really bad bug!  Victoria doesn’t have a fever or cough yet.  We’ll see what happens with her in the next couple of days.  John and I have not had any full blown sickness, but we've been fighting something for about 3 weeks.  Needless to say we've been a little overwhelmed.  However, our family's adjustment to the adoption has gone fairly smoothly so far, despite crabby/sick girls and tired parents.  We are told to expect it to become harder in a few weeks - something to pray about.  Victoria has even been sleeping well in her own bed!  She just decided one nap time that she wanted to sleep there and has slept there ever since!  John goes back to work on Friday.  Please pray that we'll be ready for this transition.  It would also be so nice if we could get back on our feet.  Thanks so much for your prayers!

Sisters in their matching jammies

Family of Five

Our trip home went very smoothly.  We saw God's hand several times orchestrating our timing - especially when we arrived in Chicago.  There we had to go through immigration, get all of our luggage, go through customs, recheck our luggage, go to another terminal, pass through security and find our next flight in an hour and a half.  A worker pulled us out of a long line (on her initiative) in immigration and sent us to be processed right away.  We were told there that we might miss our flight.  However, God allowed the other lines to be fairly short so that we arrived at our next flight about 10 minutes before we boarded (enough time to use the bathroom!).  As smoothly as the trip went, we were/are extremely exhausted due to the 8 hour time difference and being awake for about 30 hours.  Unfortunately, Victoria slept about 15 minutes of the whole travel time and was just beside herself when she arrived at her new home.  It wasn't a surprise to us when she cried uncontrollably and repeated over and over in Bulgarian "I don't like it here!"  I just sat in our bedroom and rocked her - with my own tears.  Although it wasn't surprising, it was still very hard to process those feelings.  It's not been the first time we've turned to each other and asked, "Are we really doing the right thing?"  Thank God for His grace that those moments do not last forever.

Shortly after Victoria calmed a little bit (fell asleep), Mark and Amy Stamper (who've graciously watched Jocylin and Cherith while we've been away) brought the girls home from church (Wednesday evening).  The girls have been so excited to meet Victoria that we finally agreed to let them see her (and me) while she was resting in my lap.  When she saw them, she calmed immediately.  The girls just chattered to her as fast as they could and she just looked and listened.  She extended her hand to both of them, and Jocylin and Cherith showered her with hugs and kisses.  We let them talk to her a little bit more and then ushered them off to bed - very reluctantly on their part.  John helped Victoria fall asleep, and I helped the girls in bed.  Then we fell into our own bed with such relief, and all five of us slept soundly until about 6:00 AM.  That sleep felt so wonderful!

We all awoke early in the morning, and so we began our day.  It wasn't long into our day that I noticed Jocylin acting very unusual - she wanted to go back to bed!  She also had a fever that went up to 102 degrees F.  She had a pretty rough day yesterday, but seems to be doing better today.  Hopefully she'll be the only one that gets that bug.  John and I have been under the weather also, although we might be seeing some progress for us today.

Our days have not involved much besides helping the girls stay busy and trying to rest - we often do shifts between the two of us.  It hasn't been easy with a sick little girl (Jocylin), one experiencing jet lag, and another busy toddler, but it seems to be coming.  I think we'll all be good and ready to get out of the house soon!

The girls have gotten along very well.  Victoria seems to be fitting into the role of "big sister" pretty seamlessly.  We have found her sympathizing with sick little Jocylin while stroking her hair and helping Cherith to take her last few bites of lunch so she can have a little dessert.  We've consciously given Victoria space as well to play on her own and be alone sometimes.  She's a very normal little girl and we often find ourselves working with her attitude or her obedience (along with two others of whom I don't have to name :) Jocylin seems to be handling having a new sister well too.  She is so excited to tell everybody with great exuberance that she has a new sister.  Cherith is also doing well, and has been the recipient of much sisterly advice and help already.

The biggest blessing so far is that, somehow,Victoria has felt comfortable enough to fall asleep on her own without crying or screaming!  We know that she is used to sleeping in a crib, so we set up our pack 'n play in the girls' room.  (We decided we'll have the 'Big Bed Battle' later.)  She calmly gave us a kiss and hug last night when we laid her down with the girls, and she even instructed the girls (who were not at all excited to be where they were) to go to sleep.  Next thing we knew, she was laying down and asleep.  The next morning she was so proud of herself!  She said several times with a big smile, "Mommy" as she put her hands together and rested her head on them to show me that she had slept well last night!  Amazing!  She did this again for naptime today!  John and I are already telling the difference of getting a little more sleep at night and having a little time together in the evening.

Watching a movie together

We think that we all are adjusting well, and now, we also think that Victoria changed her mind about liking our home.  :)  We haven't been able to get a picture of the five of us yet, but I'll post one as soon as I can get it!  Thanks so much for your prayers.  They have been holding us up!

Tuesday

Today was another relaxed day.  It's also John's birthday!  We hope we can celebrate a little bit better after we return home (I did fry up some eggs for breakfast!).  :)  Right now, we are packing up our things and anxiously awaiting being home!  Delyana, one of our translators, will be picking us up around 4:45 AM tomorrow (March 2) and taking us to the airport.  Our plane is scheduled to take off at 7:00 AM.  From Sofia, we fly to Munich, and fly from Munich to Chicago.  Twenty-some hours later we plan to land in Minneapolis around 6:30 PM on March 2 (we'll have lost 8 hours). I'm not sure I'm ready for this, but here we go!

Victoria is still doing well. I gave her a bath again this morning.  Contrary to what we read in the information about her, she LOVES her baths.  (I think they showered the children in the orphanage and just called them baths.)  She actually took the cup I used to wash her hair and splashed herself in the face over and over again - to my surprise!  She laughed and laughed!

The communication barrier, we've been finding out, has actually not been as big of a deal as we expected.  Thank the Lord!  Thanks for your prayers about that!  I think it helps that we are still used to anticipating needs and reading expressions of our young children at home.  We have learned a few Bulgarian words that have been helpful to us, but over all we've been able to communicate the basics fairly clearly.  This seems to be enough for Victoria for now.  She doesn't seem to get as frustrated with communication as we thought she might.  However, we are very anxious for her to learn more English so that we can explain more to her than just "do this" and "do that".

We were finally able to get Skype to work for us on our last day here and were able to talk to Jocylin and Cherith with Victoria.  Victoria was pretty shy, Jocylin was vivacious, and Cherith was pouting (I don't think she liked seeing Daddy and Mommy and not being with them), but it was so nice to see our two little girls at home again (we've been missing them terribly).  I think they also enjoyed seeing Victoria - especially Jocylin! 

I don't have a lot for pictures today, but I hope to post more of them soon after we get home!  See you back in MN!