Day 2 with E.

We have been gone to Bulgaria for 2 weeks! Now that we are home, I will be blogging all about our trip. Click theses links if you would like to first read about our trip to Bulgaria or meeting our daughter E.

From October 20:

Day 2 with our daughter went just as well as the first day! When we arrived, she excitedly greeted us with out stretched arms, ready for a warm hug. We were blessed with beautiful weather again for both our morning and afternoon visit.

During our morning visit, we went to another park. We climbed lots of steps up a huge hill. Andrew held E's hand on one side and I did on the other side. Walking with E is a little slow because of her Cerebral Palsy, but she was a trooper and walked all the way to the top. From the top, we had an amazing view of her city!

View from the top of the park.

At the top was a little cafe and a swing and slide. We got to take E. for her first restaurant experiences, a bottle of juice at an outdoor table at a restaurant at the park. and we pushed her on the swings for a while. E. was not even interested in the slide. Our translator and the social worker were nice enough to sit a little ways where they could watch, but we could have a little time just to ourselves. Of course, she wanted us to sing while we pushed her. E. likes to be pushed high, but we were cautious about pushing her to high. She would occasionally try to tell us the English word "higher" which sounded garbled! (Our translator had taught it to E. yesterday.) After a while, she got cold, but didn't want to stop, so I put my jacket on her, which was huge. She look cute with the sleeves rolled up! 

On the way down the huge hill back to the group home, we sang her a song with the words "I love you" in it and she joyfully told her social worker (who was often with us to supervise visits) "they love me!" I don't think I will ever fully be able to understand the joy of an orphan at having a mommy and daddy come and adopt them. Sometimes during our visits, she would look at me or Andrew and get excited all over again. A huge smile would takeover her face and she would exclaim "momma" or "daddy" and throw open her arms for a hug!

Lunch with our translator Ivan and driver Dimo 

On our afternoon visit, we stayed at the group home. We pushed E. on the swing in the back yard, sang, and had fun batting a balloon around.

This afternoon, I was full of emotion and teared up. E. did not like my tears. She wanted to know what was wrong. She told me not to cry, that we were going to be that "happiest family in the world!" Our translator tried to explain they were happy tears, but E. just gave him a look of disbelief. I think she only understands tears as sadness. 

My favorite memory from our second day with E. was right before we left. Andrew got down on his knees to tell E good bye. As he gave her a goodbye hug she took his head/face in her hands and gave him a kiss on the top of his head/forehead! I love seeing them together! I think she might just turn out to be a Daddy's girl!

The story continues here with our 3rd day together.

I know you all want to see pictures of our beautiful daughter. However, I won't be sharing any pictures publicly on the internet. In order to be allowed to take pictures with E., we had to sign papers saying we wouldn't publish her name or photos online.