There and Back Again

I am starting this blog where the last one left off... we were waiting for our trip to pick up our little boy.

 

I need to fill y'all in with all of Victor's adventures. I am sure you do not want to hear about the months of hideous waiting, so I will skip ahead to the good part - our first days with Victor Boy!

After many delays, our pick-up trip finally happened! We flew away and scooped up our little boy on April 7, 2014!

We arrived in Sofia late Sunday afternoon, and after a night of refreshing sleep, we arose early to travel to a town about an hour and a half south where our little son was born and raised in an orphanage. This orphanage had been his home sweet home for almost all his life - he had been sent there straight from the hospital and had never know anything else.

To tell you the truth, the orphanage wasn't that bad... it was one of the good ones. I say this with a great deal of perspective... it was good for Eastern Europe. If it had been located in the States, it would have been a shameful institution of neglect and abuse. However, circumstances, culture, and differing worldviews can redefine these things. The dear women who looked after our son-to-be were really sweet, good-hearted souls who did what they thought were the right things to do within their means - some of them even loved him. I hold nothing against them, in fact, I have a great deal of gratitude in my heart for all their years of taking care of my boy.


Little Victor Boy is waiting inside!

We drove up to the orphanage gates! Our little boy was waiting inside! We were so nervous and excited! Would he remember us? Did he grow since we saw him last? Did he know that this was the last day as an orphan and the first day as our son?

We were led into an office and spoke to the director of the orphanage at length. I don't know if we heard a word she said, we were so eager to see our son! But we had to listen, it was all about his medications, routine, etc. - information that would be crucial in the days ahead!

But then we were taken to a back room... and then they walked him in! Our forever son was finally in our arms!

This was a beautiful scene... it was. I want to cry with joy each time I think of it.

But he did not remember us... he was led into the room and after a second, he turned away from us and left the room - he thought that his nurse was taking him to eat... or go outside. What were mama and tata to him?

I was also shocked at his appearance... he had been very sick and in the hospital that winter and looked it. He was skinnier than when we last saw him with dark circles under his eyes. There are some things about his time at the orphanage that I will not share online... but you could tell that little Victor Boy had had a hard time recently.

But we were overjoyed to see him! We took him up in our arms and kissed his face, he was ours at last!!!!

The rest of the hour at the orphange was spent thanking the staff and giving them gifts - it was a very happy time for all with songs and flowers and smiles all around.


Our forever son.

We then carried our little boy to freedom - out of the orphanage and into our family! We put him into the car seat and away we went! We had to rush back to Sofia in time for an appointment with the police department for his passport.

We made the appointment in time and, after many screams and tears, finally were able to get a decent photo for the passport. We then visited the pharmacy to get his medications and went home to the hotel.

We now had a week and a half of waiting, with an appointment every couple days as we worked our way through the visa process.

Father and Son

This was a very difficult week for Victor - so many new things and new people. I am sure he missed his nurses and his crib. Victor took to us well enough - especially to his daddy. We feed him good food and played with him and held him as much as he would allow. We were getting to know each other.

Nights were extra hard - falling asleep is impossible when you have never slept anywhere else and are not sure whether you are safe with these new people or not. Essentially, Victor fell asleep only when he was exhausted and could not help it.


Victor Boy looking at his phone.

As the week wore on, Victor got more comfortable with us and even began to enjoy all the attention we were giving him. And his new toys! His favorite toy that we brought was a toy iPhone, with songs and flashing lights. Now we had been told that Victor was completely blind. When we met him in September, we know this was not the case - that he had some sight - but no one believed us. Does this look like a boy who cannot see?

He would also spend hours by the window in the hotel room - the orphanage had windows but Victor was kept in his crib for the majority of the time and this was a rare treat! Fresh air and sunshine!

Fresh air and sunshine!

We would go on walks about the city - anywhere just to get out of the hotel. Sofia is a beautiful city, and the Bulgarians are a wonderful people - we loved each moment of experiencing Victor's land. We found a wonderful park by the National Theatre with fountains, playgrounds, and live accordian music courtesty of a Roma street musician.



A smiling Victor Boy playing at the park with daddy!

Ian worked hard and quickly picked up enough Bulgarian to communicate about most of the things we needed - I am so glad I married a language wiz! The people were friendly and loved it when we would try their language - even though a lot of them did speak English as well.


Old Palace

Russian Church

We did some sightseeing about the city but did not venture very far as Victor could only handle so much - he was easily overwhelmed so we took it easy. And after the first museum, we decided against further visits to large, echo-y buildings. We had to leave when Victor Boy discovered that his voice echoed throughout the entire Archeology Museum - there was no stopping him and his shouts were getting quite loud!

 

We ate delectably yummy food - Bulgarian food is delicious! We even tried some rather odd dishes - like pickle pizza. It wasn't too bad at all, though I am not sure I am going to be ordering it from Dominos any time soon.



Pickle, corn, and ham pizza

And the coffee! We were in coffee heaven! Even the vending machines served excellent, better-than-Starbucks coffee. And the cafes! It was truly amazing!

Mmmmmmmmm!

Victor had a medical appointment for the visa - they were mostly concerned with TB. He was tested and it came back negative. Hurrah! We then had an interview at the US embassy. The security took forever to get through, then we waited forever, and then had a three-minute interview! A couple of questions and it was over! We were surprised at how easy it was - but then again, we had done all the paperwork ahead of time. Victor would become a US citizen the moment we landed back home!

It was not all fun times - after the interview, we discovered what happened when Victor was pushed beyond his limits - a six-hour temper tantrum! The only thing that helped was to have him in his toddler carrier - such a sad, overwhelmed, little boy! And everytime I sat down, he would cry again! Such a tired mommy!

A "please stop crying" selfie

When we finally got him to sleep, it was like we had finished a marathon! I am sure he felt that way too!

Sleep at last!

After that, we had a few more days of waiting for the visa to be available. I highly recommend the Sofia Free Walking Tour - it was very good and in English too! That and other sight-seeing passed the time and soon we had the visa and were ready to go!

The flight home was ok for the first leg. The second leg involved an extra long tantrum again... that resulted in me standing with him in his carrier in the aisle for the majority of the flight to keep him from screaming. It did not help that there were four other screaming children on the flight and each time one went off, they all did. Fun, fun.

But we landed, went through customs, Victor became a US citizen and we were met by loving friends at the exit! It was amazing. We went home and plopped Victor down in his little bed that had been waiting for him for over a year!

The next day, we introduced Victor Boy to his new world... and he was happy to be home!

Welcome home Victor Boy!