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!