Welcome Home, Olivia!

Thank you to all of our dear friends that hosted a "Welcome Home" party for Olivia and our family yesterday afternoon.

The food was delicious and we truly enjoyed everyone's company. Thank you friends for having crafts downstairs for all of the kids, who I think outnumber the adults. :) The Bulgaria information and coloring sheets were great, and I loved the map showing where North Carolina is located and how far away Bulgaria is from our home. How special! We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful support system here. We are so grateful for all of you.

It's been 5 weeks!

It has been 5 weeks today since we brought Olivia home. Our social worker made a visit today to check in and see how things were going. It was a gorgeous day, so we were lucky to be outside the entire time. We were able to share how well Olivia is doing. She's eating, sleeping, playing, talking and is just a joy in general. Tomorrow, some of our dear friends are hosting a "Welcome Home, Olivia" party. We are looking forward to spending time with everyone and hopefully getting some great pictures! Enjoy this updated shot of Olivia.

Finally Home

It's hard to believe that we are finally home. After 24 hours of travel on Saturday, we arrived home to a very boisterous group of children. My parents said it was like Christmas morning all day long at our house on Saturday. The kids could not wait to welcome their baby sister into the family. Upon our arrival, there was a balloon, a welcome home banner, 4 very excited children and 2 emotional grandparents. After spending some time together, everyone went to bed.

Olivia had a tough time falling asleep, and even though she was exhausted, she woke in the middle of the night ready to play. The time change was definitely affecting her.

We spent Sunday enjoying time together, bonding with grandparents and taking a beautiful walk around the neighborhood meeting anxiously awaiting friends.

On Monday, the grandparents said goodbye, and we enjoyed a day to ourselves. The kids are eager to help out with Olivia. They enjoy helping her eat, carrying her around the house (even though she doesn't need to be carried), getting her dressed, and Kaylee even helps with "potty time."

Olivia slept through the night last night, and we're hoping for more of those nights to follow. She's eating like a champ, talking up a storm, and is a complete joy to have around.

We thank all of you for your prayers and support throughout this time. We're so grateful to be home but understand that it will be tough at times. We'll try to update our blog with significant events as best we can. But as you can imagine, things are pretty busy around here. :) Feel free to drop us an email, find me on facebook, or give us a call.

Safely arrived in Vienna

Things went well this morning. Made it to the plane without much fuss and arrived in Vienna safely. We leave for d.c. in an hour or so and should arrive in 8-9 hours. Olivia did well on the flight but did not enjoy being restrained with the seatbelt...typical 3 year old. otherwise things went very well. More updates when we arrive in d.c.

Our Bulgarian Finale

Well, today was a relief in a lot of ways. We had a great time sightseeing and got all of the paperwork in order, so we’re finally ready to bring Olivia home! Here’s a synopsis of another “eventful” day in the life of the Williams family:

Olivia woke us like clockwork again this morning at 7AM. I guess the 9AM wakeup call the first morning was a tease. But we had a nice, leisurely breakfast and prepared to make the trip to the mountains. We were told of a gondola ski lift just outside of the city that would take us to the top of Sofia’s most famous mountain, Mt. Vitosha. However, as we arrived I knew something wasn’t quite right. No gondolas seemed to be heading up the mountain. Sally went inside to inquire about tickets to the top and I stayed with the car. We soon discovered that the lift was not operational today, and we would later hear that the owner of this and many other lifts and ski properties in Bulgaria is keeping them closed to boycott some governmental policies and effect legislative change. This, of course, makes the resort and hotel owners very angry, and doesn’t seem to have made much political headway, but he’s doing it, nonetheless…(Can you imagine the owner of Vail or Lake Tahoe’s ski lifts shutting them down to convince Congress to do something????)

Of course a little thing like non-operational ski gondolas couldn’t keep us from the top of the mountain. As luck would have it, a taxi driver overheard Sally’s conversation and offered to drive us to the top. When she told him we had a car already, he offered to lead us up the mountain for a cost of 10 Euro. We quickly accepted the offer and made our way to the top. Halfway up the mountain, he stopped and pointed at the road and told us to keep going straight…we could make it on our own from there. So the adventure continued and about 30 minutes later we found ourselves near the peak at a ski resort filled with children taking ski lessons. The scenery was beautiful, the air was chilly, and the resort employees were quite hospitable.

As we walked around, a very pleasant older gentleman came up to us and struck up a conversation. We discovered he was a ski instructor, had two boys, and studied abroad in Delaware for a time in his youth. Fifteen minutes after meeting him we found ourselves in a small ski rental shop that doubled as a coffee house drinking tea with this gentleman and talking with him and 3 other employees. We learned a great deal about the area and the ski industry, and after we finished our tea we began our preparations to leave. One of the employees, an older lady who slightly (very slightly) resembled Livi’s foster mother, had held Livi for a while and carried her outside. As we tried to pry Olivia away from the lady, she threw a huge fit and started screaming. It became apparent to us that Livi thought of this lady as her foster mother and didn’t want to leave. While this was a bit of a shock to our systems, it was actually quite encouraging to us. In our preparation to adopt we have found that orphans frequently have problems forming strong, lasting bonds and will often drift from relationship to relationship without intimate ties. This is a chronic problem with institutionalized children in general, and especially with children Orphaned from birth. But Olivia’s display at the Ski Lodge encouraged us that she will have a strong capacity for forming these lasting bonds, and this gives us lots of hope for her future. (Interesting side note – after spending about 30 minutes with these folks, the older gentleman gave me his business card and his e-mail address…he said we can now communicate once we get back to the states. Very friendly folks!)

We left the mountain, took plenty of pictures along the way, grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed to the U.S. Embassy. Within 10 minutes we had Livi’s passport and Visa and were off without any problems (a great relief to me since this was our last real barrier to taking her home). We then went to the adoption agency to complete the remaining paperwork and say our goodbyes. As I sat there preparing to leave, I realized that these 4 women each had integral roles in our ability to adopt our daughter, and despite our brief interactions with them, we will be eternally grateful to them for all of their hard work in making Olivia a part of our family. No words or gifts could ever indicate how much their work means to our family….

Tonight will be spent packing and then we leave bright and early for Vienna. From there we fly to D.C and then on to Raleigh-Durham. We should be at RDU by 7PM and hopefully we’ll be home before the kids are in bed. Please continue to pray for safe travels…we’ll update tomorrow as we are able.

One Step Closer to Home

Today started off slowly but was very productive and ended with a wonderful Bulgarian experience….We had an appointment at the U.S. Embassy at 1:30 to apply for Olivia’s Visa. One of our Bulgarian attorneys met us there and had all the paperwork in order. So all we had to do was meet with the Embassy agent for about 10 minutes for an “interview.” This really just consisted of him telling us the process we will go through when we bring Olivia into the country.

One interesting fact he told us is that Olivia will actually remain a Bulgarian citizen throughout her life, and will automatically become an American citizen when she sets foot on U.S. soil. Kind of cool, I thought...

After that meeting, we went back to the hotel for a while and then headed into the mountains near Sofia for dinner at an authentic Bulgarian restaurant overlooking the city. The food was excellent, the service was fantastic, and the atmosphere was wonderful. We were able to take some beautiful winter photos along the way and then headed back to the hotel for some rest.

Tomorrow we hope to take a “lift” to the top of one of the nearby mountains for some more sightseeing until we can pick up the Visa. Starting to feel the end is in sight, can’t wait to get home!

Bulgarian Medicine and Toddler Temper Tantrums

Today was an interesting introduction to the Bulgarian medical community. The U.S. Embassy (the only country who requires this, we’re told), requires that every adopted child undergoes a medical examination prior to issuing a Visa. So we ventured out to Vita Hospital in the eastern part of Sofia this morning for an 11 O’clock appointment.

With my experience in the Irish medical system, I assumed this was going to be a long day. In Ireland, I often saw an afternoon clinic of 20+ patients who were all told to arrive at 1PM. The system was first come, first serve and many waited hours to be seen. I loved our time in Ireland but the medical system, like our own, certainly needs repairs. I was even more concerned when the Bulgarian hospital's website indicated that physician's only see patients from 10AM-12Noon and 4-6PM daily, unless you're in labor, in which case they will make an exception!

The Bulgarian experience today was much different than I anticipated, however. The “hospital” seemed more like a clinic or a very small community hospital. Although I’m sure we were kept in the outpatient side of things, I honestly don’t see how they had space for inpatient care, operating rooms, or labs. It was simply another small-ish building in a long row of apartments at the end of a side street. There was no parking, no ambulance bay, and relatively little commotion. Of course, this is a private facility so the public hospitals may be much different, but it was certainly not what I expected.

My concern over waiting to see the doctor was heightened when our translator told us we had to see an Otolaryngologist (ENT specialist), an Ophthalmologist, and a Pediatrician. Imagine trying to get all that accomplished in one morning in The States! Even as a physician I understand the plight of the patient having to wait forever, and I can’t imagine seeing three doctors in one afternoon. But this experience was incredibly streamlined. We waited 5 minutes for the ENT doctor to finish with her previous patient and then we walked right into her office/examination room (all three physicians had a small room with a desk, computer, and the exam equipment pertinent to their specialty – very bare bones). She swiftly, yet thoroughly read through Olivia’s medical records, did a focused exam, and then sent us on our way. We arrived at the Ophthalmologist’s door and literally entered without a wait. Her treatment of Olivia was very similar to our previous appointment, and she thoroughly explained her one concern to us in broken, yet very understandable English. The pediatrician’s room was immediately next door, where we actually had to wait 10 whole minutes to be seen! His care and thoroughness was similar to the previous two physicians, and after completing all of our paperwork we left to pay our bill. The entirety of the visit cost 56 Leva, or about $37 USD. This wasn’t a co-pay, it was the cost of the entire experience. Amazing. Of course, from a physician’s point of view I can see that these physician’s don’t make nearly what we do in the U.S., which certainly makes it harder to recruit people to the specialty. However, I must say that our first (and hopefully last) experience with Bulgarian healthcare was a pleasant one.

Afterwards we took a taxi to the city center where we visited some of the sights we did not get a chance to enter on our tour. We walked around for a bit and while we were on our way to eat Olivia had quite the meltdown. She repeatedly screamed “No” at us and swatted Sally’s hand. One of us would scold her and she would immediately cry out to the other to “hold” and “comfort” her. When the other one scolded her as well, this made her angrier and it took a while for everything to calm down. Quite a scene….

The interesting thing we are learning in this process is that Livi is like any well behaved 3 year old who just has her moments. The problem is that most 3 year olds at least can understand why they are being scolded and what their parents are saying. So, this will be one of our unique challenges in the coming months. Despite this little experience, Livi has been a very happy, joyful, well behaved child, for the most part. More importantly, she seems to be adjusting well and we are absolutely thrilled to be spending so much time with her.

Tomorrow we head to the U.S. Embassy for our final set of appointments. I just hope I haven’t done anything too bad in my past to prevent us from getting a Visa…Pray that there are no outstanding warrants!

Seeing the Sights

Amazingly enough, Olivia slept until almost 9am this morning. Because of this, Olivia is currently our favorite child:) We enjoyed another hearty breakfast at the hotel and decided to venture out into the city.

We had heard that there was a free 2 hour English-guided tour of Sofia starting at 11am. Sure enough, a small crowd had gathered for the tour. Our guide, Kiril, is in his final year at Sofia University, studying Balkan language and history. His thorough walking tour of Sofia was fantastic and gave us great insight into the history of our daughter’s country of birth. Olivia tolerated the tour with minimal fuss. She was very cold, but as long as we fed her a snack and carried her she was alright.

Upon returning to the hotel, we grabbed a late lunch and settled in for the afternoon. We tried to give Olivia her first bubble bath, but she was having none of that. Even with the bubbles, she was not happy about getting a bath. She was pretty tired after her bath experience, and was close to falling asleep when our room phone rang. Our translator Svetla had called with great news. Olivia’s passport was ready, and we had an appointment to visit the Dr. tomorrow morning. We have an appointment at 11am and then will find out what the next steps will entail. We are hoping to get the passport and head to the US Embassy to apply for the visa. But, it seems that the adoption agency has a plan of their own in mind and it doesn’t always mesh with our wishes. The European timeline is not always of the essence. Urgency is not one of their strong qualities. But so far things are going smoothly, so we praise the Lord for that.

After receiving that great news, I got a quick nap while Jason and Olivia went down to the gym. Olivia woke me upon their return and we enjoyed time together in the room. Many have asked how is Olivia, what is she like, how is she behaving, etc. Her gross and fine motor skills are right on target with a child her age. She’s able to color, use stickers, and turn pages in a book. After returning from the pool yesterday, she was running around only in her underwear. A few minutes later, I turned around and saw that she had completely dressed herself….shirt, pants and socks. Pretty good, I must say! She walks and runs with a purpose, more often than not swinging her arm back and forth and moving with a slight “strut” (much like her daddy!). However, she has learned that saying “up, please” gets her a ride in mommy or daddy’s arms. Her temperament is much like that of any 3 year old. She tries to back talk us (in Bulgarian, of course), but we’re trying to scold her for that. We keep reminding her that we’ve done this 4 times before and nothing surprises us anymore.

All in all, it was a nice day. The weather was cold, but clear. And it was nice to be out in the fresh air for a while. Hopefully we’ll retain the information that we learned about Bulgaria. If not, there’s always the internet!

Pictures, Pictures and Swimming

There's not much to share about our day today. We had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, and then Svetla met us so we could travel into the city for some adoption business.

We went to the police station so they could take Olivia's picture for her passport. It's kind of like going to the post office in the US when we get our passports, but all of our paperwork was already done. They just had to snap a picture. We were in and out pretty quick. After that, we headed to a local photo shop to take pictures to send to the US Embassy. Once those things were completed, we were able to have the day to ourselves.

We returned to the hotel and I took a nice nap while Jason entertained Olivia. Well, I say entertain, but we have found that Olivia is fantastic about entertaining herself. Once I woke up, we ventured out the "cinema," which was located next to our hotel. It's a movie theater that has a huge food court. We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant, and then returned to our hotel. I guess it was only fair that Jason got a nap since I got one this morning. But, again, I got to check my email and create my newest Jazzercise set while Olivia entertained herself with stickers, crayons and her "ochila" (sunglasses).

Many have asked and been concerned about the fact that Olivia is potty trained. Concerned because "how in the world will we know when she has to go to the bathroom?" Before parting with her foster mother, we asked what Olivia said when she had to go to the bathroom. We picked up on those words quickly, and thankfully, we haven't had any accidents since we took her. She's been great about telling me when she has to go, and more often than not, she does exactly what she said she needs to do.

With the "potty issue" mostly under control, we decided that this afternoon we would take Olivia to the indoor pool here at the hotel. It was cold and snowing, so taking her to the pool was a great option. Jason said she had a good time, but clung to his neck the entire time. I was able to get a picture before heading back to the room. Enjoy the photo, and hopefully the weather will clear up and we'll get to go sightseeing tomorrow.

Once in a Lifetime Experience (Adopting our daughter or watching Jason talk his way out of going to Bulgarian Prison?)

What a morning! As we sat down to breakfast, we prayed for a time asking God to bless us in this new journey. We couldn’t believe that an almost 2 year adventure had almost come to its conclusion.

Olivia showed up to our hotel with her foster mother and 2 social workers. We quickly jumped up from our table and walked over to her. Her foster mother encouraged her to give us hugs and kisses. According to the social workers, her foster mother has been preparing Olivia for about a week for our arrival. She would look into the sky searching for airplanes and saying “mommy” and “daddy.” After some paperwork, it was time to say our goodbyes. It was emotional for the two of us and I imagine emotional for her foster mother, although she remained strong through our visit. Once everyone was gone, Jason and I congratulated each other on becoming parents for the fifth time!

We got on the road to Sofia around noon time. Fortunately, we had several reports that the roads had been cleared of last night’s snow disaster. And they proved to be true. We had no trouble whatsoever getting from Shumen to Sofia. Well, no trouble with the weather anyway. We were about 5 minutes from our hotel, and Jason got flagged down by the Polizei (Bulgarian police). Thankfully our translator was with us and was able to communicate on Jason’s behalf. Apparently Jason was driving 100 kph in a 60 kph zone. Despite Svetla’s (our translator) efforts, Jason was required to get out of the car and “do business” at the police car. The police originally wanted to take Jason into the police station and then take his driver’s license for 3 months. Jason asked if he could just pay a fine at the police station and keep his driver’s license. Immediately, the police knew they hit the jackpot. They said that couldn’t be taken care of at the station, but of course, Jason could pay the police officers now and they would take care of everything at the station. Yeah, right! So, we gave them all of the Euro that we had in our possession. Thankfully, I hadn’t taken out much money yet. But, we’re sure those police officers were laughing all the way to the Dunkin’ Donuts after we pulled away.

I think we have taken SvetLa on quite an adventure. She told us that all of the other trips she has been on with other families go very smoothly. I replied with, “when you travel with the Williams family, nothing is ever boring.”

Tomorrow morning we’ll venture out to apply for Olivia’s passport and handle some other paperwork. Then we plan on touring the city a little bit if it’s not too cold. We’ll be sure to blog about that tomorrow night.

And, rest assured that Jason is not missing the Falcons vs. Giants game. He discovered a site where he paid quite a hefty dollar to watch the game online. He says it will be worth every penny. I just hope the Falcons win!

The Blizzard (Or, How Surgical Residency and Sunflower Seeds Saved Our Lives)

Weird title, I know, but very apropos as you will soon discover. We landed in Sofia Saturday at about 12:30 PM local time after nearly 24 hours of travel. Friday was actually pretty nice. We had a huge layover at Dulles so we spent some time at the USO (where we are always pampered and treated like royalty) and then we ventured out of the airport to the new Air & Space museum in Washington D.C. It was incredible, with literally dozens upon dozens of new and old aircraft on display and within arms reach. We saw the space shuttle, the SR-71 Blackbird, and countless other aircraft up close while we enjoyed a free, two hour guided tour. It was a nice way to pass the time, spend some time alone together, and relax before our big journey.

Of course, evening came and our flight left without incident. We “enjoyed” a low key 8 hour trip to Vienna, Austria, had an eventless layover, and hopped on a 1 ½ hour flight to Sofia where we were greeted with snow flurries and not a small dose of fatigue. Fortunately, our translator and escort, SvetLa, was at the terminal promptly to meet us and begin the next phase of our journey. After some frustrating moments at the car rental counter, we finally found our vehicle and set off on the 5 hour trip to Shumen.

Unbeknownst to us prior to our arrival, Sofia is set snuggly in the middle of the Balkan Mountains. So for us to make it to the east coast where Shumen is located, the first half of our trip was set through mountain passes and tunnels. The terrain is absolutely beautiful, but as luck would have it, our journey was interrupted by the largest snowstorm of the winter.

By the time we made it to the outskirts of Sofia, there were at least 8-10 inches of snow on the ground and the plows were having a very difficult time maintaining the already poor roads. We spent long stretches of the first two hours of our trip at a standstill on the road, but finally made it to the point were we were able to make continuous, albeit very slow progress.

God’s providence was upon us during this “ordeal,” however. On more than one occasion we came to points in the road where the other side of the road was stopped and clearly would be stuck all night long. Our side of the road heading east continued to move, however, and while we made very poor time, we managed to keep moving the entire day.

As you can imagine, we hadn’t had much sleep. In fact, I think I started driving at the 25 hour mark of our trip and had only managed a 1 hour nap on the plane overnight. Fortunately I’m used to this type of sleep deprivation and was able to recognize the signs of fatigue before it became too dangerous. Once I felt myself nodding off, we pulled over to a gas station and bought my trusted sunflower seeds. I’ve found over the years that the only time it is impossible for me to sleep is when I have sunflowers seeds in my mouth. So, for the next 5 hours I chugged Bulgaria’s finest seeds, downed liters of Coke, and prayed for a safe journey.

The Lord brought us to our hotel promptly at 9:15PM local time after an 8 hour drive through mountains, a blizzard, and two lane roads. I can’t say it was the most enjoyable day, but we were again reminded how blessed we are to have a Father in heaven to protect us and also to provide us with some fun stories to tell Olivia about 10 years from now as we recount this tale.

For now, enjoy the pictures with the beautiful scenery and say a quick prayer of thanks for our safe travels yesterday. We will finally be getting Olivia in about an hour, so more to come on that tonight….

Guten tag from Vienna

We have landed in a "snow-less" Vienna after an 8 hour flight from Washington Dulles airport. We were all settled in, ready to start a movie, and our screens, remotes, lights and remote controls did not work. Can you imagine an 8 hour trip without any entertainment? Fortunately, the "very good" technician fixed everything after about an hour and we got to watch parts of a movie. After dinner and a one hour rest, we decided to watch a movie on the iPad (thanks Mike LaBarr). We are now sitting at a Starbucks in the Vienna airport waiting to board our flight to Sofia. Again, we hope for an uneventful flight. Once we land in Sofia, we will meet our attendant, rent our car, and drive the 5-6 hours to Shumen where Olivia is located. We'll try to blog once we arrive at our hotel, but sleep might overcome us. Until then.....

We're on our way

After leaving Hillsborough at 7am this morning, flying to Dulles International Airport, and enduring a 7 hour layover, we are finally on our way to Bulgaria. We first will fly to Vienna, Austria, land there at 8:30am local time, have about an hour layover and board a plane for Sofia. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. So far everything has been pretty uneventful (and we hope it remains that way). We will update you after we land in Europe.