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It appears as though the exhaustion of the past few years finally caught up with me yesterday! I went to bed at 10 pm Friday evening and didn't wake until 1 pm on Saturday. I cannot recall a time in my life where I have ever slept for so long, but it was a very much needed, much appreciated rest! Fortunately yesterday was a rainy and windy day, not very conducive to exploring the city, so I didn't feel quite as guilty for not getting out to explore! It is a beautiful day in Sofia and, this morning, I had the chance to go to the city's center and see some of its most popular attractions. The following is the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral , one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world. My pictures certainly do not do it justice (if you click on the link above you can see more pictures and read more about its history)! The inside of this church is absolutely breathtaking (unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside the cathedral so you will just have to take ...

Today was my last day with sweet Lily. Our time today was bittersweet. Today was the birthday of a little boy in her group and there was going to be a party to celebrate. She didn't want to miss it and so she came to me this morning crying. She cried for most of our visit (she thought she was missing the party), but the sweet part of our time together was that she came to me and allowed me to hold and comfort her while she cried. Generally I do not like to see my children sad or hurting and Lily is no exception, BUT it was wonderful to be the person she came to for love and comfort. I held her, rocked her and rubbed her back while she cried and, despite her unhappiness, it was a wonderful bonding moment for both of us. Fortunately, Lily did NOT miss the party! When it was time, her caregiver came and invited us all to join them for the festivities. They sang to the birthday boy, gave him hugs, kisses and some small gifts and then enjoyed sweets from the bakery, music, dancing and e...

Today's visits brought a mixture of emotions, the most prominent being frustration. The morning visits are always difficult because there are constantly people coming in and out of the room to"check on us" (we really don't need to be checked on. . .Lily doesn't speak much, instead she uses gestures and those are generally universal. . if she needs something, I recognize it and can help her, or she helps herself. . she is very independent). Whenever someone comes into the room to "check on us" she thinks it is time to go and, once she gets something in her head, she wants to follow through. She will start waiving goodbye and packing my bag and tries to head back to her group. Trying to convince her otherwise or distract her is a difficult task and it leaves us both a bit frustrated. This happened no less than 10 times during our 2 hour visit this morning. The most frustrating interruption was when the head nurse came in. We met her yesterday and she info...

Today was absolutely exhausting. . . .a wonderful kind of exhausting. . .but exhausting nonetheless! Our day started a little earlier today because Toni's van has been having some trouble and needed to be seen by a mechanic. This van has carried her through many adoption trips, but it is nearing its end and has been having problems for quite some time. She is in the process of purchasing a new, more reliable van, but she is still waiting for the loan to be approved (our fingers are crossed for tomorrow) and so the old van is carrying us through this trip and it has been letting us know that it is not happy about that. Marty (Toni's brother) dropped us off at the orphanage at 9 am this morning for our visit with Lily and then left to take the van to the mechanic. Unfortunately the van had not been repaired by the time our visit was over and so Toni and I sat on the porch of the orphanage and enjoyed each others company as well as the BEAUTIFUL weather. When it became apparent ...