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I wanted to take a few minutes to post a brief update about the boys and their status since they arrived home.  Gabe - After a few days of strongly disliking Valerie for the grief he has caused her, he has started to open up quite a bit. The first two days he was here he barely ate and had a hard time staying awake. After letting him rest up fully, he is starting to get back to his normal self. He is eating very well and is communicating effectively in Bulgarian. He's started to crawl around the house, exploring his new dominion and he enjoys watching Bulgarian children's songs on Youtube. He has bonded especially well with Joshua and Maren, with Joshua being his official "cuddle buddy". Aside from the normal anxiety leading up to the doctor visit today, he did very well at the doctor. He is going to have several referrals including the CP clinic, GI, Neuro and Vision. The biggest variable in his status right now is his vision - aside from nystagmus we th...

After spending the day cleaning up the house I left for the airport around 9pm amid snow showers and light rain. Their flight was already in the air so I knew nothing was likely to go wrong at that point. They arrived a few minutes late and we greeted them with smiles and hugs. After waiting a while four our bags (and did we mention there were a lot of them?) we headed for the van! Once we loaded up, the boys were too excited to sleep much on the way home. We finally arrived home around 3:00 AM Sunday morning. The kids got up and said hi while we prepped the boys for bed and then we all slept for a few hours.

Our first flight was a success and we are now sitting at the airport in Frankfurt waiting for our connecting flight. The boys have done well so far. We got off to a rough start with vomit and upset tummies prior to leaving the hotel, but once we were at the airport everything was smooth sailing. Gabe cried momentarily when I told him we were going to Germany first, but once I assured him that America was our next stop, he was a happy camper! Jesse and Eli were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. I wish I had taken a picture of their faces at takeoff. Pure joy. Priceless! Excitement, exhaustion and nerves also resulted in a lot of drumming, but so far, so good! Meanwhile, Richard's perspective and update... When I talked to Val at 0430 ET this morning she said that the boys actually did fine once they got to the airport. They were escorted through security, onto the plane and got the same escort off the plane in Frankfurt and between gates. I'm hoping...

This will be a quick update because I have to be up in less than 3 hours to start getting everyone ready for the airport. The past two days have been great. As Richard mentioned yesterday, everything went well at the embassy and as a reward for their superb patience (there was a lot of waiting involved) and excellent behavior, we took another stroll to the store and are pizza for dinner. . . .again . After lots of late nights and early mornings, the boys actually slept until 8 this morning. We laid in bed and snuggled and watched cartoons as long as we possibly could before heading downstairs for a late breakfast. Today we took the boys on a walk to the center of Sofia. We had a great time,took lots of pictures and eventually ended up at McDonald's for lunch (not my first choice, but the boys really wanted to go). After lunch we went looking for luggage. I have never adopted a child who came with any personal belongings. These three boys have so much stuff we had to bu...

Sorry everyone, but I don't have much of an update today. The good news is that everything went well at the embassy. The bad news is that back here at home the internet went down at our house this morning and hasn't been back since - So I ran some errands (grocery shopping) this evening and I'm chilling at the neighborhood McDonalds for a bit before I go back to my home-without-internet. Val didn't do a post tonight because she's woefully behind on sleep and she couldn't find her tablet so she took the easy way out and went to bed. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the internet at home again and I'll be able to post more pictures. As of right now, everything is on track for them to hit the friendly skies early Saturday morning. Stay tuned...

Today was our free day (free from official, adoption-related activities that is) so, I spent the day spoiling my babies. We enjoyed a lazy morning and a late breakfast before hitting the streets of Sofia. We stopped at the bank to exchange money and then proceeded to the grocery store where I allowed the boys to pick whatever they wanted. They were thrilled at the prospect, but before they chose anything for themselves they picked out something for my mom and I (and were so thrilled to give it to us after we returned to the hotel). Once they had loaded the basket with chocolate milk, candy, sweets, juice and other fine delicacies, we checked out, then stopped to grab some pizza before heading back to the hotel. This afternoon we had the privilege of having lunch with Alayna's birth mother, Didi and grandmother, Violetta, and their friend Natasha. Didi made some amazing desserts which we all enjoyed while we skyped with Alayna and she brought gifts for the whole family. ...