First day back to work and airport video repost

Since I only had 4 weeks vacation and any other time would be unpaid, I went back to work today. Kayti went to Grammys very early about 5:20. She didnt even wake up thankfully. Her and Grammy had a good morning and she even went to the potty for Grammy. Very happy she is adjusting so well and is such a good natured, go with the flow girl. Not much upsets her, unless you take a snack away from her now! LOL! She loves watching Nick Jr, and will watch it intently and talks and sings along. I think she is somewhat of a night owl, as it takes her awhile to unwind at night. Last night we were up on and off till about 1:00am.  Not good when mommy and daddy both work early shifts.  We continue to use the potty chair almost exclusively. Hard to believe how far she has come in a week. She went for a ride on the fourwheeler with Daddy this past weekend and loved it. Wish I had got out to take some pictures. Then last night she was facinated with Dads state truck and wanted to get in it. LOL! Her facination with trucks and wheels continues! Maybe she is going to be a truckdriver! She has expanded her words to say mama, mommy, daddy, papa, grammy, kayti, nana (Lianna), Mikey, please, thank you, love you, bye-bye, ok, and doggie. She can also tell you to sshh! Last night while watching Dora, Dora said circus say circus and she said circus pretty good. Hard to believe we have been home over 10 days. I need to get a good set of scales to monitor her weight as I want to be able to say how much she has grown. There are still times I cant believe that we actually finally have her home. So strange not to be wanting to check email every 5 minutes for news. I was reading her a story last night called God found us you and I had tears in my eyes reading it as it was so true. Overall, I was very sad to leave her today, but I know she is in good hands and it was good to get back to work and develop somewhat of a routine. I am reposting the video from the homecoming at the airport as I dont think it worked the first time. Can't wait to see what being home a month will bring!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hIAiQj1rC8&feature=g-upl

Back to work:(

Today was my first day back to work. Unfortunately, my vacation is almost used up and there is no paid leave for an adoption where I work, so had to leave Kayti with Grammy today. She did very well. She had a good day. It was very hard for me to leave, but I know she is in good hands and it was good to be back at work.  Only worked a half day, then a full day tomorrow. That way the first week is short as will next week. She can now say mama, daddy, Kayti, bye-bye, thank you, please, Grammy, Nana (Lianna), papa, love you, no, doggy, and Mikey. She went for her first four wheeler ride with Daddy this weekend. Wish I had got out to take some pictures. Then last night, she wanted to get in Dads state truck. Her facination with wheels and trucks continues. Maybe she is going to be a truck driver! Still sometimes have to pinch myself to believe she is really finally home. First time I have been at work in 3 years I havenet felt the need to check email every 5 minutes. You fellow adoptive parents can relate right? Got teary reading her a story last night called God found us you:) I recommend it! Cute book. I also wanted to repost the airport video as I dont think it posted last night. Cant wait to see what a month home brings. We have been home 11 days today!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hIAiQj1rC8&feature=g-upl

Finally home Video from airport!

Home 5 days!!

I was going to wait until we had been home for a whole week to blog, but I have been asked by lots for an update sooner, so here goes. We arrived home Saturday night and had a wonderful reunion with family. When we got up on Sunday, Dale ran to the store for me as I had not bought many groceries before we left. Then we ate breakfast and went to church. She was a perfect child in church. Sat and ate a bag of cheerios the whole time. By the way, she LOVES cheerios. Will cry very loudly if you take them from her. She even sang along with the hymns in church! Then my cousins stopped to see her. Mom had planned a party for those who met us at the airport. Nothing fancy just burgers and hotdogs, etc. It turned out to be more than that as we had even more family here. Kayti did great with this as well. She absolutely loves our neighbor Evelyn and talked up a storm to her. So cute!! Then Lianna, Dane, and Naomi took her out in the yard. She loved running through the grass. She learned to catch and kick a ball quickly! Bath time Sunday was still not fun. Monday, Mom and I went to the chiropractor and then we went shopping for some smaller clothes and a potty chair. Also got some light up shoes. She liked shopping. She learned to say sshh to be quiet today and then kept telling it to us! She is eating better all the time. She loves yogurt and will eat an entire adult yogurt. She also likes bacon a lot and is eating 4 slices for breakfast. Tuesday, we had our first trip to Wal-Mart. Loved riding in the cart. Wednesday was a day to relax and stay home. I think she had too much running around and needed this downtime badly. We did very little that day! We had a major accomplishment that day though. I got her up from her nap and she was still dry, so I thought that this is the perfect time to try our new potty chair. Mommy is happy to report that it was a success and she LOVES her potty chair and has gone in it almost every time with the exception of overnight and once today. We have done #1 and #2 as well!! Yay! Let's hope it continues. So amazed at how well she has done. Went to Dr. Stabile today. He thought she was pretty cute too. She did everything he asked her to do including taking a deep breath. So funny. She can say a few english words now, mama, daddy, Kayti, Grammy, Mikey, Nana, Papa, thank you, bye-bye, ok, love you, and potty. Overall, I would say it is going fairly well. She appears to be getting more comfortable with us and her new home everyday! Cant wait to see what another week brings!! Thanks to everyone again who has been following our journey and offering comments and support. It has been an emotional rollercoaster and could not have got through it without you all!! Much love,
Lori, Dale, and Kayti!

Sitting here watching Kayti sleep in her bed:) Priceless! So many times I have looked at it and longed to see her sleeping in it and now I am! She did absolutely fantastic on the plane rides home. Never fussed once. Slept three hours on the long one and about 45 minutes on the first one. She actually liked take off and giggled and laughed each time. The flights were all good. Very smooth. The plane ride from Dulles to Pittsburgh was delayed by about 20 minutes. Of all flights to be delayed! Landed in Pittsburgh at about 6:15 instead of 5:50. Had to wait and get our one check in bag off the plane as it had to be stowed. Then off to meet our waiting family! Such a sweet moment. I will post pics when I am done, but Kayti smiled at everyone. She particularly liked her Uncle Mike and rode on his lap!! She thought that was great! She did great all the way to Golden Corral where we stopped for supper. Then she started falling asleep. She didnt eat much but had ate fairly well all the way home. I forgot to mention she now knows what snack bags, ie chips, cheese puffs, teddy grahams, etc are and gets excited when you show her anything like that. She will take one snack for each hand and look at them for a while before eating them. Had a couple of nice surprises at home. There were balloons and a sign in front of the house. Also, there was a welcome home Kayti sign on the sign at our church! Have to get a picture of it tomorrow for her album! It was so nice to see so many of our family at the airport!  It meant a lot to see every one! Another surreal moment was handing the US officials her paperwork and having them look them over and say congratulations! We'll process her paperwork and she will get her citizenship papers in the mail. Sorry this post is kind of just rambling, but we are all very tired! So glad to be home!!!!!!!

Our final day in Sofia!

Cant believe this is our last day in Bulgaria. I have to say the week here flew. We were busy every day. Today she finished an entire yogurt for breakfast, as well as cheerios, eggs, bacon, and a few bites of some orange. She didnt seem to want to go for a walk today. She would walk a little and then want picked up. We have walked an awful lot this week, though. More than she every has I'm sure. We have been going to a little park near the hotel where she can swing and go down a slide. I see us getting a swingset in the VERY near future. She loves to swing. Bought the last few souvenier things I wanted and by this time it was lunch. Of course, it was KFC. She is eating a little more every day. I found out she would rather drink from a bottle or regular cup than to have a sippy cup. She drink a whole bottle of water today which is very good for her!  I'm guessing every one at home is probably bored with my blog as I have not had as many comments lately! LOL. That's ok. We were told by Nadia yesterday that Maggie would pick us up at the hotel lobby and walk with us to FNA as we did not know where it was for sure. After being there, I can say we probably would not have found it on our own! Got all our travel documents and all of Kayti's information, ie medical, birth certificate, adoption decree, etc. So nice to see it all in writing and have the actual paperwork in my hands that says she is ours! Very surreal moment looking at all of it! Got the pictures and video Maggie took on my computer. I am going to sent them a copy of the DVD of photos from the first visit. It will eventually maybe posted on their website. She played with a toy there and ate pretzels. She is learning to chew more all the time. Gave her cheese puffs today and oh boy did she love those. Wanted one in each hand! Had to buy another bag for a snack tonight. We had to sign some documents and she was facinated with the pen and I gave her a piece of paper and made some lines and held her the pen and she did the same. She was so happy with herself. Smiled and would not let go of that piece of paper! Carried it all the way back to the room with us! Then it was time to say goodbye to our FNA family! I was very sad to say goodbye to Maggie. She has been so kind to us. I am so glad we will be able to keep in touch! Ran into one of the families from the meeding yesterday on our way to supper. We are all very excited to be going home! Came back and packed everything we dont need in the morning. We are leaving for the airport at 6:30 AM which is 11:30 PM home time. Our flight from Sofia to Vienna leaves at 8:05. We arrive in Dulles around 2:30 pm and leave around 4:50 for Pittsburgh arriving at about 5:50.... It is now 9:30 and Kayti and Dale are asleep and I should be too. I will post today's pics first. Thank you everyone who has followed our journey and offered comments, support, etc. We appreciate it more than you will ever know. Overall, our adoption experience has been at times very trying, but in the end it has all been worth it and we can not wait to see everyone at home. We have enjoyed our time in Bulgaria very much both trips. Everyone has been so nice and helpful and we have many pictures and memories to share with her when she is older. Still, can not wait to get on the plane tomorrow! Love to all for the final time from Bulgaria. Next stop home sweet home!!!

A busy day!

Got Kayti up a little earlier today, as when we went down at 9:30 yesterday breakfast was pretty well picked over. She ate an amazing breakfast of eggs, bacon, yogurt, strawberries, and a whole lot of cheerios. She really loved cheerios. I thought today was going to be a relatively short day, as our appointment with the US Embassy was not until 2:30. We came back to the room and the phone rang. It was Maggie saying our US Embassy apt had been moved till 1:30 and her collegue would pick us up in the lobby at 12:45. We took a walk and found a jewelry store and we bought Kayti a cross necklace to give her on her 16th or 18th birthday. By then it was 11:00 and we headed back for lunch. Dale had some pizza from the pizza shop next to the hotel. It had really thick crust. Kayti and I had, you guessed it, KFC. She ate almost 2 chicken strips and 3/4 of her potatoes. Plus a couple bites of Dales pizza. Then we relaxed till time to go the lobby. Not enough time for her to have a nap today...She did fine without one yesterday though. We met Nadia and took a taxi to the Embassy. It is an impressive place. There were many students waiting to get their visas so it was very crowded. Nadia took care of things until it was time for them to call us for our interview. It was very quick and informative. We met Andrew Baker who was very familiar with our case. He asked us if we would like to stay and meet with Patricia Hickey who is a US government official in charge of adoptions in Bulgaria. There were 5-6 other US families who are here picking up their children invited. My friend Connie was one of them, so we finally got to meet and give each other a hug. This was for us to give them feedback as to what could be done to make the process better. There were many stories told and many things talked about but the concensus of all of us moms was this; the process takes too long and the wait between trips is excuciating and can it be combined in one 2 week trip. Hoping and praying some good will come of this and they will take our suggestions to heart. It was so nice to be able to see the other families and their children and hear their stories. Nadia left after our initial interview when we said we would stay because by that time it was 2:45 and the meeting was at 3:30. We went to a little store and she had her first ice cream. We got cookies and cream and a plain chocolate. She loved cookies and cream, but would not eat the chocolate. Headed back to the Embassy and waited till they called us and then were taken to the meeting room. It lasted till 5 and probably could have kept going! Felt really bad for one poor family. I wont post any details of their journey here, but praying for them and what they have been through. We had to call for a taxi back to the hotel and it was rush hour, and there was some construction, so by the time we got back to the room it was 6:15. Dale went and got spagetti and pizza for supper and she ate a ton. Very happy with this. She did miss her nap today as she was tired from the time we got the Embassy on. While waiting for the interview she fell asleep in my lap for about 20 minutes. I dont think this helped. Think it only made her more tired. Watched Barney while she ate supper, then it was bathtime. No progress there! Cant wait to try it at home with some toys and a tub. She is now asleep and snoring. Really cant believe tomorrow is our last day here. It has gone very quickly. We now have to pick up her paperwork at FNA tomorrow at  3:30 and we are ready to travel. It has been a very long day for all of us and I am heading to bed soon too! Cant wait to see everyone in a couple days!! Love to all at home!

DAY 3 continued....

It is now 9:20 pm and Kayti has been asleep for about 15 minutes. She fell asleep tonight holding the bear Grammy sent her:). Took a picture of it! She ate Pizza Roma spagetti and pizza again for supper tonight plus a container of applesauce. I only brought 4 and we are now down to to. Tried to find some here, but have not been able to. Did find some Gerber Baby Stage 4 mashed apples which may work well. My Bulgarian adoptive friends who recommended Pizza Roma, you were right! It is delicious!! We watched another Barney episode tonight. She LOVES Barney and watches it intently and sings along when the kids sing, or at least her version! So cute! She also really loves the Baby Einstein DVD we brought.Talked to Grammy tonight while we were eating supper because she was chattering up a storm. Mom was able to hear her and I am sure she loved it. She said Daddy, Mamom, Kayti, and byebye, plus a whole lotta babble we cant understand! Bathtime was traumatic as ususal. Even though she played in the sink a little this afternoon. I thought it would help, but wrong! Dale and I usually work together so we can get it done fast. Stopped and got some Nivea chapstick for her lips as they seem to be dry and chapped a little. I really cant believe how well she seems to be doing. She seems to have bonded with us both very quickly and is completely happy most of the time (99%). The other 1% is bath time and when I change her. Not really sure about the changing. Any other adoptive moms have issues with changing diapers at first? Took some cute video tonight of her singing with the Barney DVD. Cant wait to share it! Tomorrow is a free morning up until 2:30 in the afternoon when we go the US Embassy with our attorney from FNA. Not sure of our exact schedule on Friday. I think it depends on how fast the US Embassy gets her visa done. We so sometime Friday morning to FNAs office to pick up all of her documents. These include her birth certificate, a doption decree,  passport, visa, and medical clearance to travel to the US. Then we get to head for home on Saturday morning. It seems to be going VERY quickly on this end, but I know it is not for those at home waiting! She loves having her lotion put on at night and when she is sleepy loves her hands and feet rubbed, especially her hands and fingers. Hoping to try and catch Connie and her family in the morning for a little bit. We explored the city today a lot more and know our way around a little now. Have to give her two types of medicines for her digestion. One is a probiotic. The other is for her lactose intolerance. She took them fairly well the first day, but every day after has been a struggle till we are all almost all 3 in tears. You cant fool her by putting it in her food either, as she is wise to that and just spits it all out. Any advice moms? Better get to bed as it is 9:42 and I want to try to wake her by 7 for breakfast. Trying to get her a little used to our early schedule. Of course there is a 7 hour time change to consider as well! Thanks for all of our comments and for following along!! Much love from Lori, Dale, and Kayti!

Day 3 ni

Kayti slept from 8:30 last night till about 9 this morning. Did not have the greatest start. She would not eat anything from the hotel breakfast. Not even a bite of scrambled egg. We ate and came back discouraged, but I had brought applesause from home and she ate a container of that and a few gerber apple cinnamon cereal type and a few cheerios. Then we went for a lonnnggg walk around town. Went to the park, but because of the big rain last night, I didnt take her on the swings again as it was very muddy. Trying to get together with my friend Connie and her husband who are here picking up their cute little boy Ethan. Kind of hard when we are not at the same hotel and dont know where things are. We are not giving up though. Exchanged some money and bought some souveniers and came back to the hotel and Dale went and brought KFC back to the room. She LOVES KFC chicken strips. Wants to feed them herself. I am afraid she will take too big a bite. I wasnt feeding her potatoes fast enough to suit her so she picked up her spoon and did it herself. You can see this in my new pics. Thought she was going to take a nap. But she layed there for about 15 minutes and babbled and laughed out loud and kept trying to find something to play with. I guess maybe a nap everyday is not going to be in her plans! She is so cute. She still loves teddy grahams and goldfish and is having a snack of those now. Then we are going for another walk. We have no appointments today, so we can relax and do whatever we want. We go to the US Embassy tomorrow at 2:30 for her exit interview and then to FNA's office on Friday to pick up all of her documents and we are ready to go home Saturday morning. Sure hope we see lots of smiling farmiliar faces at the airport! More tonight! Love from Bulgaria!

Day 2 evening!

Talked to my Grandpa tonight. He was glad to hear from us. I have forgot to mention she seems to love jewelry. She loves my rings and will hold her finger out for me to put it on hers. She also likes my necklace. We bought her some pants tonight. They all have adjustable waists and are the equivilant of 3T and 4Ts. Found a pair of Puma shoes for her. They are the equivilant of an american 7 1/2, and I brought 9 1/2s. Her feet are tiny. She watched an entire episode of Barney tonight and chattered and sang and loved it. Also really loved a baby einstiens old mcdonald dvd. Bathtime tonight was not much better. The only thing I can say is she didnt shiver and shake tonight. We ate supper at Pizza Roma and had pizza, spagetti with cheese sauce, and sauted potatoes with dill. She ate a lot. She loved the pasta and the pizza. While we were there an unexpected rain storm popped up. It poured and then it hailed. We stayed there until it was over. We have no appointments tomorrow so we can sleep in a little. We went to a small park after getting her clothes and shoes. There was a swing there and I swung with her in my lap. She loved it. Also loved going down the slide. We will go there again tomorrow. Hard to believe that it is almost Wednesday already. So excited to come home in a few days.  We had a great day today and hope for an even better day tomorrow.

Day 2 as a family of 3!

Kayti woke up very happy this morning and ate an amazing breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, half a banana and some strawberries. She especially loved the eggs and strawberries. Met Maggie at 8:30 in the lobby and we took a 10 minute taxi drive to a private hospital/dr office building. Met with an ear, nose, and throat doctor, an eye dr., who says she will have to see an eye dr after she gets home and settled a while because she could/would not do the necessary things to test her vision. Then we had a long wait for an apt with a pediatrician. She talked up a storm while we were waiting. Kept saying conche which is horse. We left Liannas horse at the hotel and I think this may have been what she wanted. She also started calling me mamom. Dale and I sometimes say mama and sometimes mommy so this may be her version of combing the two? The periatrician told us again about her third tonsil which is why she snores as loud as Dale or my dad! LOL. Will have to get this looked into at home too. Other than that, the pediatrician said she will make great strides gaining weight now with a family and not in the orphanage where they are fed and given 10 minutes to eat and what they dont is thrown out. She needs someone who is patient to feed her as she gets easily distracted. I am trying to have NO distractions around while feeding and not let her up til I feel she is comfortably full, as she likes to get up and walk away and come back. At least till we gain some weight. Her size four pants are a tad too long, but fall down around her waist the minute she stands up. Luckily I brought 2 pair from Pennys with adjustable waists that you can tighten the waist and she has worn those the past 2 days. We need to go shopping and get shoes and pants. We got back from the dr. appts at approximately 11:45 and Dale walked to KFC and brought lunch back to the room. She LOVED mashed potatoes with gravy. And KFC chicken strips. Also had brought some small things of applesauce with us and she at half of one of those as well as her bowl of mashed potatoes and an entire chicken strip. Now her and Daddy are napping and I am relaxing:)  We are going to Pizza Roma for supper tonight. We couldnt find it the first time we were here and I have heard so much about it, I cant wait to try it. We have a free day tomorrow. Yay! Oh, before lunch I took her in the bathroom and turned on the sink to wash her hands and the second I turned the water on, she started crying, so I am sure bathtime tonight will be no better. I want to thank everyone for your posts and following my boring rambling blog. Your messages have meant a lot while we are so far away! We are halfway through. 4 days down, 4 more to go! Hope you enjoyed some of the pictures. Maggie has more on her camera that I wont get till Friday. Love from Bulgaria!
Lori, Dale, and Kayti

Gotcha Day continued...

Wow, reading my posts makes me realize how tired I must have been! It had many typos in it. Pretty bad from someone who types for a living! A couple of things I forgot to mention yesterday. First, one of the things I gave her before we left the orphanage was the horse Lianna got for her at horse expo. It is soft and colorful and squeeks and rattles. It is one of her favorite things. She STILL loves the farmer see n say more than any of the others I got her. Also she is learning how to chew because the kids are mostly all on a liquid diet. I dont want to give her too big of a mouthful at once. Found out she LOVES goldfish crackers. I had a few in my hand but was only giving her one at a time and she tried to pry the others out of my hand! We found a restraunt at about 7 pm last night and she ate another dish of mashed potatoes and some cheese bread. She did not like my chicken skewers. I even tried to mix a bite in w the mashed potatoes and she was not fooled. I had her using a spoon and feeding herself mashed potatoes. She did very well with that. I was helping a little, but still very pleased she got the idea right away. Dale and I think she is left handed. She seems to use it more. Just like her aunt Lianna! Stopped at a market and got a banana, grape juice, water, and some yogurt. Then it was time for what I was dreading and that is bath time. She started whimpering from the time I took her diaper off. We have no bathtub in the room only a shower and I thought a shower would absolutely TERRIFY her. There is a large sink in the bathroom so I filled it with water and put her in there. Got her bathed and her hair washed. She was absolutely terrified the entire time. She cried big tears and was shaking very badly. Felt so bad for her...But we hurried and then I rubbed some baby lotion on her and put her in her jammies and wrapped her in a blanket and held her for about a half hour. She started playing a little more then. Tried to dry her hair with a hairdryer and she was scared of that too. Got it dry though and then it was time for bed. She is either a night owl or just very wound from a  long and trying day with so many firsts, but she did not want to go to sleep. I layed her in bed wiht us even though there was a little toddler bed in the room. She talks to herself and self soothes a lot. Before we went to eat she wanted a kleenex and she held on to it the entire time and took it to bed with her along with the horse. Finally after a lot of tossing and turning by all three of us, I picked her up and put her in her toddler bed. That did not work either. She was still playing with the kleenex and horse. Finally took them away and she went to sleep. She slept soundly all night. Yay! It is now 7:00 am and we have to be in the lobby at 8 to meet Maggie, so I am going to have to wake her soon. Overall, she is doing amazingly well for a little one with her whole way of life suddenly changed. Will try to post pics tonight. Maggie took some too, and I am going to download them to my laptop this afternoon and then will be able to post some. Miss everyone at home and know we are going to have a wonderful welcome committee at the airport. It is already Tuesday so our week is going pretty fast. More tonight!!!

The most anticpated Gotcha Day ever!!! I'll start from the beginning and you should expect a very long and detailed post! We arrived in Razgrad at at about 6:30 last night. We had the room that our interpreter had the last time and she had our room. We had a very nice dinner in the hotel restraunt. I was VERY jetlagged from the the long flight.and only being able to sleep about two hours the night before we left. I probably got 3 hours sleep on Friday and maybe 2 hours sleep total on the plane.  When we got there, we asked the hotel for some boxes for our orphange donation and the  gifts for the caregivers. After dinner, I boxed up the clothes up for the orphange and wrapped the gifts for the caregivers. We went to bed at around 8 and were sound asleep by about 8:05. Unfortunately, I woke up around 12:30 and could NOT go back to sleep till about 5:00 till 7 and then it was time to get up and ready. I decided to get up and get showered and then I got Kaytis clothes packed up and a bag ready to take for her. We met Maggie for breakfast at around 8:00 AM. Wow Dejavu!! We had trouble finding the orphanage this time, but not too much. We were there shortley after 9. We were taken to the directors office first. She asked for Kaytis clothes and we gave them to her along with the gifts for the caregivers and donation clothes. I had asked if we could take some pictures of her group of kids and with the caregivers.  Unfortunately, I was told no on the children photos. So my fellow Razgrad adoptive parents, I was not able to get this done. Our driver did video tape for us though and I believe he got some shots of them when they werent looking. We will see how it turned out. Denise, I was able to deliver your gifts and ask how they were doing and was told they were doing well. I am not sure they would tell me anything else though! I would love to have loved on them for you. They would not let us go in with the kids. We could look at them through the glass window and they were all playing so that made me happy that they do seem to have a little play time. That may have been because we were there though. Then they brought us her stuff. Her photo album, see n say, bear, and book. We had to search for the photo album though. I also got back the DVD I sent her. We really dont know if she ever got to see it or not. Then we signed some papers and the director told us we could go and see where she slept and the room and look at the other kids in the playroom. We were told we could take a picture of the care givers with her too. Then, it was time to go see Kayti. Saw the one caregiver who spoke English in the hallway and she smiled and said hi to us. She told us the shoes we brought were too big and she was looking for a pair for her to wear. I will keep those for her. They told us she eats a soft, liquid diet. No real reason why. We were told again she is lactose intolerant which was in her medical report and she takes a medicine for that so she can eat dairy.  They also told us she doesnt like to drink liquids, ie water, juice. Sorry I got off track. We went upstairs and went to the bedroom area. She was sitting on her bed. They were just puttingzzzzzzzzzz (LOL Kayti just put the zs on there as she is sitting on my lap) her shoes on when we came in. I really dont think she remembered us at first until I got down and started talking to her then she started smiling and looking very happy. Holding her in my arms and knowing this time was forever was PRICELESS. My tears were flowing. We took the photos of the caregivers, went to the directors office, and then stopped and got a memory card with some photos of her and her group. Our translator has them right now and will download them to my laptop tommorow. My laptop battery died and had the wrong type of converter plug, but Dale made it work tonight. After getting all of this it was time to walk Kayti out of the orphange forever.. One less orphan as of about 10:30 Bulgarian time. Such a surreal, happy moment. I know she has no idea the magnitude of changes coming her way. We then headed to the bank to exchange money. Then back to the hotel to collect our luggage and head for Sofia. The car ride is about 4 hours. Was REALLY concerned about car sickness, but she was such a good little traveler. We stopped at about 11:30 for lunch. She ate a whole plate of mashed potatoes, a few bites of my chicken, and some white cheese off Dales salad. Also a few slices of bread. The only thing she did not like was corn. Tried three times and all three times it came back out. The corn did not really taste like our corn though. So maybe that will change. There was also a yellow cheese on Dales salad she would not eat. She also drank some banana juice and some water on the way here. Oh, before I forget, when we were done eating, Maggie and I had to go to the bathroom. She went ahead of me and I told Dale I better go too, and left Kayti with him and the driver. I was not even able to go, because I could hear her crying from the bathroom and Dale saying Mommy got out of your site huh. Maggie went out but nothing stopped her till I got out there with her. Needless to say I didnt get to go. I can not be anywhere out of site or her lip turns up immediately. That didnt take long! Got her some drink boxes. She loved it. Gave her her sippy cup tonight in the room and she is drinking from it herself now after I showed her once. Once we got to Sofia about 4:20, we had to go to the passport office and have some photo taken for her medical appt. tommorow. That took till about 5:00. Then Maggie our translator left us and the driver took us to our hotel. Maggie is picking us up at 8:00 in the morning for the Dr. appts. She is seeing 3 drs. Not sure why, but I guess that is standard? One is a family dr, an ear nose and throat dr., and I am not sure who the other one is. The hotel is very nice. Not really a good view, but the room is clean and big with a kitchenette, etc. Almost like an appartment. It is now almost supper time. We talked to our moms a bit ago. Both grandmas were glad to hear from us. Mom talked to her. She listened intently. Now she is starting to have some fun with us now. Making faces in the mirror and playing with her toys. Taught her pattycake. She thought that was great fun. She is not potty trained but I already expected as much. She does not care for me changing her diaper yet. Hopefully we will work on that at home so we dont have to have one any more soon. Well, Dale and Layti are ready for supper and so am I. Sorry this is so long. Wanted to try to get as many details of our day in as possible. So far it is going very well! Will write more later! Love from Bulgaria!!

WE ARE HERE!!!!!!

Wanted to post to let everyone know we made it to Razgrad at 6:30 pm Bulgarian time. That's about 11:30 am home time. We arrived on time in Sofia and drove 4 hours to Razgrad. Lets hope Kayti doesnt get car sick tomorrow!! Had a nice dinner at the hotel restraunt. Got the clothes ready to go to the orphanage and the gifts for the caregivers and director. Our suitcases should be a lot lighter. Poor Dale looked like a pack mule at times. LOL!!!! Can not believe in less than 12 hours I am going to see my girl again! Can not wait to post GOTCHA tomorrow!! The plane rides were all very smooth, except the one from Pittsburgh to Dulles, which had propellers and was very loud. The drive here was definately an experience and I will tell you all about it another time. Let's just say I thought my hair may be white by the time we pulled into the hotel!! Miss everyone at home! Keep the facebook post coming! It helps to hear from everyone!! Love to all from Bulgaria:) Looking so forward to my post tomorrow!!!

In less than 70 hours we will be taking off to go pick up our daughter! I am currently testing out my new laptop which I bought for the trip and am loving it so far!!  So many thoughts are running through my head right now. So surreal that after 3 years of waiting, this next week we will officially be parents! I really thought I was prepared, but the closer it gets, I am starting to get nervous. Worrying about everything from the language barrier (which was NOT an issue when we visited her in October), to how she will react to us taking her away from the only world she has known for the past 2 1/2 years. Any last minute advice from my fellow adoptive BG parents would be appreciated. I ask everyone to please take a moment to pray for us and Kayti as we begin our life as a family of three! Thank everyone for their support again and keep watching for more posts! The next one will be from Bulgaria!!!