Day 8

"I guess baths are ok."

We kept a pretty low key day, but no day with the girls and Bozi is boring! We got up. Bozi had his usual breakfast of 25 dozen eggs, 4 gallons of yogurt and 8 cups of apple sauce and then I sent the girls for baths. They wanted me to curl their hair for our family pictures and I needed it dry by nap time.  We gave Bozi his third bath since we picked him up from the orphanage. Minimal screaming this time, mostly just when the water went over his face. He played in the bubbles and with his squirt toy. We gave him a faux hawk. He even laughed when he splashed the water. I love these little victories. 

After his bath we had snack and I washed some clothes. The washer is a front loading washer so you can see the clothes spin. I think Bozi and the girls sat there for a good 15 minutes watching it, pointing at it and “talking” about it. He really loved it. The girls are so sweet and patient with him.

Once we had lunch the kid was done and ready to nap. I read to him and laid down with

Better than a toy.

him for a few minutes until he fell asleep, then set to work curling the girls’ hair and putting outfits together for pictures. I love curling the girls hair. They feel so pretty and grown up. It’s so cute watching them prance around… They are excellent prancers, throw in a pink tutu and they are in Heaven. Then they started begging for make-up. Nope, not gonna happen!

I got the girls dressed and it was time for Bozi to wake up. He had some amazing bedhead again which required me to take some action. Kevin and the girls fed him snack. That is a major victory. He hasn’t really let the girls help him with food. He will push the spoon away and wait until I do it. It made them so happy. I’m so thankful for that sweet moment for them. I did better at hiding this time. Then, I got the cutie pants dressed and hair tamed. I got dressed, Kev got dressed and we loaded up and headed to South Park for pictures. 

The missionary who took our pictures is Natalie Key. Since college, she has been coming on mission trips to Bulgaria. After meeting her husband and adopting their son, they moved to serve full-time in Sofia. After she took our pictures we had the opportunity to chat a second. I LOVE meeting like-minded people in ministry. I can just tell we would be friends and could easily serve together. I’m not sure why that is so rare to find in ministry, but it was so refreshing to see her and her husband’s passion and love for the people here. We were talking about ministry and she said something I have said so many times--do something. I think I even have a whole blog post about that from a couple years back. Why is that concept so hard when it comes to ministry? I have no idea. People endlessly talk about solutions, the best way to do something, form a committee or create a chart, but why are people so slow to take action? Kevin’s football coach always said, “Just get out there and hit somebody!” Why can’t we take action like that?

For the love...he is so sweet.

I loved hearing what Natalie and her husband were doing here and she so graciously listened to me dump my life story on her in 2.5 seconds… Well we all know I can’t say anything in that short amount of time. Poor woman. I needed a face-to-face moment (with someone who spoke English as a first language) other than my husband who I could just talk openly with. The greatest way she served me today was by just talking and listening. 

If you are traveling for adoption and are interested in having family pictures made, contact her here. She will set up a time and you can pick the place or she will. Both she and her husband are so gracious and even asked whether we preferred they speak to Bozi in only English or if it was OK if they said some things in Bulgarian. That’s the first time someone has asked that. I didn’t care what language she spoke to him in, but her consideration was appreciated. I have already seen her photos of other families and sights around Sofia. She does a beautiful job. I’m so excited for our pictures. I’m also excited to have a new ministry friend and obvious prayer warrior!

Kev got the girls ice cream (dessert first for good listeners during picture time!) and I fed Bozi some food I had brought at a park bench. The weather was amazing, there were a violinist and a guitarist playing music in the park—it was perfect. I love the cool nights here. Bozi and I played little games with our faces together. I walked over to Kev and the girls and as the perfect night ended, once again I was stared down by a few older ladies. Sad to say they were never won over by the cuteness. Their loss. They were obviously disgusted, so I just stared back and smiled at them until they looked away.

We grabbed some food at the mall. (The girls like KFC’s exclusive “Street Box” and we ate outside at their request, while they pretended to be Australian teenagers and didn’t know us.) We enjoyed our walk back to the apartment in the amazing night air. We got upstairs, changed Bozi, had a successful toothbrushing (yay) and I read books to him for our bedtime routine. My friend Becca, AKA “Aunt Becca” to the kids, sent Bozi some books before we left the US. The last one we read every night is “Good Night, Good Night Construction Site.” She has written little notes in the back of each book for him. He already knows that when we get to that book, the lights go down, he lays back and slides down to get comfy, and his finger goes in his mouth. Amazing what kids can learn so quickly. I wonder what his routine was at the orphanage or if he had one. Some questions just never will be answered.

Thanks Aunt Becca!

Today was the first day Bozi didn’t call me Donka.