Sunday

Sitting in a restaurant with wi fi on Sunday evening:

I am sitting on a European bed in a European flat with a beautiful view right now. Brian is reading Harry Potter and I just finished (somewhat) organizing the orphanage donation of clothes and diaper cream that we brought with us. I also put together a few gifts for our hosts and facilitators.

It is Sunday about 6pm… I just realized that we didn’t arrange to use the internet at the hotel tonight, so we won’t get to call our girls. 🙁 Maybe when we walk to get dinner we will find an internet cafe? I don’t know. The flat we are in is very small and our facilitators were not sure they wanted to leave us here, because it is very “basic.” Our hostess seems very kind and we are glad to be away from fancy hotels for now. We will move to the hotel only if things don’t work out… the accomodations are quite sufficient. I don’t know where the our hosts will sleep, though!

This morning we had something called hemendex for breakfast. You know what that is. Think. Ok, say hemendex out loud. What breakfast dish sounds like hemendex? That’s it! Ham and eggs! It was wonderful. Brian had scrambled eggs with bacon in it. We all had toast (no butter!) and a hot drink. (tea, milk) Brian and I also ordered fresh orange juice. And it was fresh! So thick and orangy on top and just juice on the bottom. Yum!

From the hotel, we drove to my parents’ friends home (they are also friends of my parents’ church). We got most of the way there and then Dmitry, who was driving us, got out and found a cab who led us the rest of the way. Magi and her husband live in a nice home with one of the beautiful, lush gardens that are common here. I think everybody grows tomatoes and grapes! (The climate here is very similar to our home in the NW, but a bit warmer) We briefly met Magi’s mother in law. Magi’s husband was away at a church, but Magi stayed home to meet us. She led us inside and quickly set cake and bonitsa and coke in front of us… ooof, but we had just eaten a huge breakfast! We ate a little and talked a little. Brian helped Magi with something on her computer that we had come to do and we opened the suitcase full of gifts.

I wish I had a picture of Magi’s face when she saw what was inside. She had her hands by her cheeks and said something like, “A whole SUITCASE!? I meant I would like one box of cold medicine!” I laughed and said that my parents and church wanted to bless her and that she should share with her congregation. She was especially pleased to see the insulin needles. She was pretty astonished at the size of the gift and we took our leave soon after with smiles on our faces. She ran out to us just before we drove away with a gift for us of two beautiful new tablecloths.

After visiting Magi, we drove back to the hotel to pick up Chevdar and Elena and continued towards our final destination. The road was curvy after awhile as we went over the “mountain range” which would be called hills in Oregon. Just the same, there are hairpin turns regularly as the builders didn’t choose to use bridgework. I got very carsick, despite taking two dramamine. We stopped after awhile for lunch.

I want to note here, that I have been very good at going with the flow on this trip. I LIKE to have everything very controlled and organized and understood. Very little of that can happen or has happened! During the drive today, our Dmitry and Elena chatted long and often and I tried to rest and keep my stomach down. We stopped in a gravel parking lot for awhile and eventually parked. My clever senses perceived that there were two restaurants and that it was lunchtime. Lo and behold, despite them not telling me, I knew what we were doing! hehe

Lunch, even at little restaurants have courses. Salad, soup, main dish. I ordered white bread. Brian got a cucumber and tomato “salad” (sliced fresh cucumber and tomatoes) and some sausage. The others got chicken noodle soup with their salad and bread. Feeling a bit better, we drove the last hour to our sons’ hometown. It is a very large town… a city, right on the Sea and there are many tourists here. It is gorgeous, with the blue skies, red slate rooves and ocean stretching away. We stopped and we withdrew some local money from an atm and walked around briefly. Then we headed to our host home!

After calling twice to get help with directions, Nina met us in the street waving hello. She speaks some English, but it is very little. Her 3 year old daughter Misha was woken up by our noisy arrival and her son was at her mom’s house. Her son is 5… I don’t remember his name. Her husband is not at home. We didn’t try to visit right away, as her Enlish is very limited. She made up our bed and headed to her mom’s house. I wonder if she is going to stay there while we are here? As I said before, it is a very basic flat. Ther is a tiny kitchen, tiny bathroom, two bedrooms (only one with two twin beds pushe together) and a closet. The sheets are clean, it doesn’t smell here and the only thing I’m worried about is where are they and their children going to sleep since we have their beds!? I hope that having us is not something they regret! We have arranged to pay them a little for each day’s stay, so hopefully that is a blessing to them.

We are grateful that our facilitator was willing to let us deviate from her usual arrangements so we can stay here. We wished to meet another Bulgarian family, we wanted to get away from tourist areas, and we wanted to show the love of Jesus. I pray that God would meet us here, guide us through each day, and help us to love others, big bumbling Americans who don’t know the language that we are.

Well, we are going to go on a real adventure now! We are going to venture out with NO guide or translator! We’re going to walk to a restaurant and maybe the supermarket. I hope I don’t fall asleep on my feet. I am sooooooo tired. Feels like I’ve had a cranky newborn for a few weeks.

Tomorrow we get picked up at 9:45am to go to the orphanage! I am very nervous and excited about it! We will get to meet the director of the orphanage, possibly for the only time. That makes me anxious, because there is so much I want to ask and to know and there’s no way I’m going to remember half of it, much less have time to ask and have it translated. I could spend a week of days with her and I imagine we’ll get an hour or less. And then…. and then, the part that makes me so very excited… we will meet our son Jordan! I have a bag packed with a few toys and some Gerber puff snacks to help break the ice. We’ll see if he likes them… we’ll bring more when we bring him home if he does. 🙂

I love you, Anna and Maggie! We miss you so much and hope you are having a nice time with Grandma and Grandpa. We will be home after seven more sleeps!

Pictures to come…