Wendesday in Sofia

It’s Wednesday afternoon here. It’s a full week since “gotcha day.” Daniel’s health is much more stable now that he is eating and eating more. I’m alternating between feeding him pureed fruit or fruit/cereal baby food and yogurt. I water them down until they can run off of the spoon a bit and feed him bite by bite. I offer him a large serving (maybe 6 ounces) about five times a day and most of the time, he is eating the entire amount. He fusses while I fix his meal and scoots over to eat it calmly and slowly, little bite by little bite. It is my great pleasure to put this food into him! He is having plenty of wet diapers now and his lips are no longer noticeably chapped. He hasn’t had a bowel movement though, yet, so this afternoon is time for suppositories. I tried to find milk of magnesia, but I didn’t have any luck. I have some at home that I decided not to bring… wish I had! I’ll be home Saturday!

Today we decided to walk all the way up to the city center and see some of the sights. It was a long walk, but we saw some fountains on the way and a fancy garden… then we enjoyed lunch and a souvenir shop in the much loved “walking district” of Vitosha Blvd. We saw a couple of the famous buildings there near Vitosha, but we were all too tired to do more at that point (it was 2pm and we’d left before 10am). So we hailed a taxi that looked like it said “OK” on the side for a ride back. Turns out, it wasn’t actually part of the nice OK taxis and he tried to charge us about 40 leva for a ride that should have been 7-8 leva. I got out, waited til Dad and Maggie were out and handed him a 10. When he asked for forty, I told him no and turned my back. I’m not sure how mad he was, but he got a tip for a dishonest ride. Maybe I should have given him a 5 instead… but then he may have yelled at us instead of just giving us the stink eye and driving away.

So the rest of today I’ll be resting and seeing about that suppository for Daniel. Hopefully once this insides start moving it won’t be too painful. I want to give a “thank you” right here to my friend Vanessa who is sharing her experience as a nurse freely with us. I appreciate your generosity and am thankful from the bottom of my heart, Vanessa. Thank you.

Tomorrow is a busy day with a medical appointment to check Daniel’s TB test, which appears to have gotten a false positive. (It’s a skin test that is often a false positive due to immunizations received) So we’ll have to do an xray too, which may be challenging if Daniel doesn’t hold still. After that’s all finished, I go to the embassy appointment. I’m pretty excited about that, because it’s the last step before we get our exit papers! While I’m at those appointments, Dad and Maggie are going to be tourists for the day.

Pictures to follow for more detail on our sightseeing today! Daniel was a trooper… he tolerated being carried for extended periods, he was still able to eat even though he was stressed out and he even was playful. What a different little boy than my Jordan boy! I miss my kids at home a lot and my husband and his hugs so much. This experience has been valuable to me, but not much of a vacation! 🙂 Maggie is getting a little tired and my Dad has made everything a million times easier.

Okay – pictures!

Yesterday, Dad was tired and laid down for a nap. I was busy with something, so he set Daniel there beside him and rubbed his head. Daniel liked it!

Daniel stayed with dad while he napped for a good 20-30 minutes. <3

The beginning of our walk! Maggie doesn’t need to be encouraged to stop and smell the roses. Or to climb on stuff.

She promised me she’d be careful and she walked nice and carefully as she walked along the stairs to the subway. She mentioned that she hoped an ant didn’t scare her so that she wouldnt’ fall in. 😮

Where Jordan is averse to touch, or at least finds it difficult, Daniel leaned his head against me for long periods while wetwalked! Made my heard melt!

We passed a small smoothie shop that had multiple women ordering. I took that as a sign that they made good smoothies! We got a strawberry/banana/yogurt/honey smoothie for her and it was delicious! The man poured the extra into another cup and handed it to us “for mama.”

The water fountain park was really nice!

Selfie! Daniel didn’t cry much, but he wasn’t especially happy until I fed him lunch later. He was curious about everything!

Hahaha –

Wwe got lunch stir fry style on Vitosha Blvd and this funny and skillful cook made our lunch for us. We took it across the street to the McDonald’s where we bought Maggie’s lunch.

Fed, souvenir’ed and across from the lion statues…. Daniel’s emblem.

The cathedral.

There was a funeral in session, so I went behind everybody to snap a quick picture without disrupting.

All for now! So glad things are going pretty well here. I will be really happy to be home.