She's Perfect!

I collapsed into bed last night after dinner and I think both Jason and I slept like rocks. We were exhausted. But nothing could stop us from seeing our daughter, Olivia, for the first time today.

We enjoyed a breakfast with our translator (who has been a God-send). A bit of history about Bistra....she is a recent college graduate and studied translation in school. She has been working with the adoption agency for almost a year, and it has been such a comfort to have her with us all the time.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the Social Services Bureau in the town of Shumen. We were a bit early, so we took a walk down the main street. Lots of shops, outside cafes, etc. Once we had killed a bit of time, we anxiously walked back to the Social Services Office.

Once entering, we went upstairs to the information desk. Olivia was sitting in her foster mother's lap, and two social workers were present. My breath was taken away at seeing her for the first time. I have been looking at her picture for months, and I couldn't believe that I was finally seeing her in person. Amazingly enough, she was not shy at all. She ran right to Jason, raised her arms to be picked up, and she grabbed the sunglasses off of his head. That was her favorite item for quite some time. She also became interested in my sunglasses, and we enjoyed playing with her while passing the glasses back and forth. We were desperately wanting to take pictures but didn't want to bombard Olivia with photographs. Once we were led into a small playroom, we were able to spend more time with Olivia.

Despite the fact that we didn't want to pull the camera out right away, I just couldn't wait. Amazingly, her first English word was "smile." She repeated it right away when we started taking her picture. Then, of course, we showed them to her on the screen and she was completely fascinated. She was pushing all the buttons on the camera, wanting to take more pictures. She kept saying, "smile," which let us know she wanted more pictures taken. Once we stopped taking pictures, we took out some of the gifts we brought. She loved the new markers and stickers. She even started learning more English words. One of the stickers was a star, and she learned that word right away.

After a while, we went outside to a small courtyard to play a bit. She let Jason take her hand and lead her down the steps, and we found a ball which she loved. She and Jason played soccer for a while, and she laughed and laughed the entire time. I enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with her and she loved being tickled. While outside, she also said the word "yucky," as I would describe trash on the ground. Pretty funny!

As the temperature became hotter, we went back inside to play for a bit. It was hard to say goodbye, but she gave each of us kisses and said, "ciao" as she left. She was also calling us "Daddy" and "Mommy" by the end of the morning. When we would point to each other she would call each of us our names with a prompt. When she kissed Jason goodbye, she got a funny look on her face and rubbed his whiskers. You could tell that was a new experience for her.

All in all, it was a great morning, and we can't wait to see her again tomorrow. We will get to spend more time with her tomorrow, and we're hoping to take her to a little carnival that we saw just down the road.

We couldn't believe how well adjusted she seems to be and how easily she took to us right away. God has truly blessed us and has blessed our daughter in so many ways. We continue to ask for your prayers as we continue our week here. And, we'll do the best we can to update you as often as possible. Love to you all.