Christy's 4 month update - Tonsils, Sleeping and Tubes, OH MY!

Fresh Air = Sleepy Girl!

Camping = Double Stroller Time!

You may or may not have noticed that I did not do a "Three Months Home" blog post about Christy, but I did.  I really wanted to do that, but I just didn't have the time, and our camera had gone missing so I couldn't post photos!

So much has happened since my last update on Christy that I can't post it all here, but here are some highlights, and then I'll tell you about her/my first ever sleep study plus updates on her current challenges!

"Wake Up Gi-Gi" (Carese's name for Christy!)

Right after my last "Christy Update" I took Christy in for a weight check.  After her feeding evaluation in July, I realized that she was not gaining weight so on the therapists recommendation I began adding Pediasure to her diet.  After two weeks of doing this I had her weight checked and she had gained 11 oz since she had come home.  So that was working.

Then we left on a long campout.  Our church has a campout every year, but we got up early. This year we arrive on Monday, and the official campout starts on Friday.  Christy did amazingly well at camp, adjusting quickly to the outdoor life.

The only problem was that her crib was right next to my bed.   Before the campout I was aware that she wakened about once a night and at home I would check on her when I heard her rocking her crib (literally) and usually it meant her nose was stuffy.  I'd put a little coconut oil on her nose at the opening of her nostrils to help soften any crusties, and apply some essential oils for nasal congestion and calming and she'd rock herself back to sleep.  I tried rocking her to sleep, but for so many years she has been calming herself to sleep, that if I try to rock her, she wakes completely up and thinks it's time to play....doesn't work at all to put her to sleep again.

Christy's bed right by mommy's
Head = sleep deprived mommy!

Well, it became apparent at camp that Christy was waking many more times than I had been aware, but she would usually comfort herself back to sleep.  But every morning at 4 am sharp, she would wake completely up and start making a lot of noise, between rocking her crib (which would rock the whole trailer) and happy noises as she would see that mommy was right next to her crib.  I would have to work to keep her quiet until she went back to sleep, which usually took 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  Needless to say, I was not getting much sleep at camp, so much so that I had to bail and go home with the girls Saturday so I could get some sleep and not have a complete meltdown at camp!

Christy doing table time, playing with blocks,
as part of her daily therapy/play time at home.

In August Christy and Esther both saw the ENT, Dr Englais (sp?), at Seattle Children's Hospital.  We discussed her snoring and sleep problems.  Esther got exrays to check on her adenoids/possible regrowth but she is all clear!  Christy, however, needs her tonsils out for sure, and the doctor said he was sure she needed her adenoids removed too, but didn't want to exray her for that and just make the final decision during surgery.  We also discussed having this done when she gets her dental work done (did I mention that she needs sedated dental work done due to some cavities?).  She will also get an MRI done when sedated so we have a better idea of the brain damage that resulted in her having Cerebral Palsy or a stroke (we are not sure which she has since we don't know when the brain damage occurred).

She does like to explore her world using her mouth!

The last week of August was our first Post Adoption Report home visit.  We had a social worker from our home study agency come to our home to see how Christy was doing and how well we are caring for her as well as how she is doing in our family!  We got the report back and it was like a pat on the back - she spoke of our family and Christy in glowing terms.  Boy that sure meant a lot to me.  This report should be back from getting apostilled any day now and then I will send it to our adoption agency and they will forward it to the Bulgarian authorities.  These Post Adoption Reports help countries like Bulgaria to determine if it is in the best interest of the children for them to be adopted into families in the U.S. so these reports are vital to the ongoing adoptions for other orphans!

Rachel cutting Christy's nails - Christy does not like this,
but she did give me this great photo between her
complaining and squirming to get away!

Just to see how the dietary changes were working, I had her in for a weight check the day before the home visit and we found that she had gained about a pound since her weight check 4 weeks before - that was great news!

The first week of September was her swallow study.  She did so well, cooperated so nicely, that we were able to get very good information about her swallowing...at least very accurate information.  Christy has major aspiration problems.  She showed laryngeal penetration (fancy term for food going down the wrong tube) on all thicknesses, even pudding.  There is no term for thickness thicker than pudding, so the speech therapist referred to it as paste.  This is not good, not good at all.  Both the speech therapist and Christy's pediatrician are recommending that we place a G-Tube to aid in getting fluids into her, but we are/were hesitant about this.

My happy girl - in the waiting room at
Seattle Children's Sleep Clinic in Bellevue

So, we have been working to get her the proper liquids by giving her apple juice thickened with Thick It to just past pudding thickness.  We were weighing her diapers to see how well she is extracting liquid from her foods/thickened liquids for proper hydration.  If I gave her 1/3 cup of thickened apple juice at each meal, she had more than sufficient output.  But, she has also been struggling to gain weight, so it's a balancing act at getting enough calories into her so adding more fluids (bulk with fewer calories) meant a possible trade off...being hydrated but not gaining weight.  So for two weeks I've been working at this, and it's a struggle and when my life got SUPER busy last week and this week, it was nearly impossible to ensure that she was betting proper nutrition and proper hydration, and as of yesterday the scale said that she had actually lost weight (around 1/2 pound in 2 weeks) when we started adding more fluids....and her reflux has gotten worse too.

Christy all ready for bed - waiting to get hooked up
for her sleep study.  Such a big crib....made me sad
to think of all those years she spent alone in a crib!

Yesterday I met with a nutritionist and we had a long talk about Christy's nutritional struggles.  She watched me feed her lunch while we talked about all of that.  She also recommended placing a G-Tube and we talked at length about the pros and cons of a G-Tube and so much of what she said now makes even more sense, especially after seeing how hard it is to get her properly hydrated when our days are busy.  Yes, the last two weeks were busier than usual, but even taking that into account, it is very time consuming to get enough nutrition into her, and she tires before we are done feeding her and she is refluxing more now due to the greater volume in her stomach at meals.  The nutritionist recommends moving to 6 smaller meals - great idea, but implementing that will be even that much harder for this busy mom. With a G-Tube she can get her in between meals food/liquids via her tube, and just feel her main meals by mouth, and give her fluids at meals through the tube.  It's beginning to sound like the best way to me now.

My beautiful Bulgarian Princess!

I was getting head of thing there...the appointment with the nutritionist was yesterday on our way home from the sleep study and her sleep study set up appointment was on Monday!

On Monday we went to the Everett Children's clinic.  After reviewing Christy's history, and check Christy's stats that day (wide awake and active her O2 stat was only 95%), she said they she was content to wait until after Christy had her tonsils and adenoids out to see if that corrected her sleep problems.  I mentioned that the ENT had called for the sleep study to be done before the surgery so they would know what they were dealing with when she was sedated.  She checked and I was right, so she quickly changed gears and started talking about scheduling the sleep study.  She said that they were scheduling into November, but that she'd put her at the top of the urgent, cancellation list.  She said they would call me tomorrow.  I got the call an hour later and they said they were scheduling into January, but that they had a cancellation for Wednesday night....I jumped on that one!

The cool, light up welcome sign
- doubles as a nightlight!

Fast Forward to yesterday!  We left early for the trip to Bellevue (about 1 1/2 hour drive in perfect traffic), around 3 pm, so I could have dinner with a friend/adoptive mom before the check in time of 7 pm.  We checked in after I got lots of exercise finding the clinic (left the instruction in the car and there was only one sign that I did not read completely as I thought there would be more signs on where to go).  They wanted me to bring her in to discuss the results a couple of weeks after the sleep study, but  was able to turn that into a phone call scheduled since we live so far away, phew!  If there was anything that caused concern, they would call us in two days to discuss that - so far, no phone calls!

After check in, we were shown to our room, and on the way the nurse pointed out an area where there were drinks and snacks that were available to us for free (which I was unable to take advantage of, except for a cup of coffee on the way out - but it was pretty good coffee!).  Then we got down to the business of filling out forms and getting Christy ready for bed.  She looked so tiny in the big crib!  She does not look like a 4 year old!

"Watch this - I can do the magic table cloth trick!"

Yeah, not a happy Christy...

Once I was done and she was ready, the wiring began!  They stuck things to her head for the EEG and then wrapped her head like a war wound victim and then a kind of stocking thing over all of that.  Then she put on waste bands to measure her work of breathing, monitors to her legs to check for restless leg movements and the PulseOx to her toe.  Lastly they attached a nasal canula that had things attached to monitor her breathing through her nose and mouth - this did not go over well with Christy at all!   After everything was attached, the gazillion wires were held together like a big pony tail down her back.

What does the hand say about the nasal canula?  NO!

Overall, Christy took it all in stride.  But her method or rocking herself to sleep, and moving in many different positions as she does this made things difficult.  As she would get close to sleep, some electrode or another would come off.  They also ended up with the PulsOx on three extremities trying to get a better reading, but 95% seemed to just be her best reading.  After 1 1/2 hours, she finally fell asleep...with that "hat" pretty much off her head.  Around 1 am she started into her waking/rocking herself to sleep pattern.  At one point they nurses had to come in and try to put the stuff on her head back on.  It lasted a little while.  At some point they added two additional waist band monitors too.

They ended up waking her up completely and making her unhappy with them twice in order to adjust things (mostly her nasal canula thing).  I got some sleep, but not much.  I heard Christy stop breathing many time, but usually for less than 10 seconds, so I am really curious about the results.  At 6 am it was wake up time (we had no choice and it was a bit shocking!).  Christy was a wired mess and looked like she had been tumbled in a dryer overnight!  It took a while for the nurse to removed everything, but overall, Christy just hung out and tolerated it all beautifully.....right up until I was washing her hair in the sink (no counter).

Finally we were ready.  Christy still had weird substances in her hair, but I put most of it into a half ponytail and that hid the worst of the problems....what I really needed was some detangler or conditioner (the hospital provided baby shampoo).

Christy ready to go home - did the best I
could with her hair as I couldn't get all the
gel out without traumatizing her!

We made a hasty get away, and I headed north - stopping to do the family shopping halfway home (she had taken a short nap on that portion of the journey).  Christy also had a physical therapy session late in the morning.  There we discussed acquiring braces/DAFOs for Christy to get her set up for weight bearing/gate training/walking practice.  Then I met Daryl for lunch (had only seen him for 10 minutes since Sunday night!), and then Christy and I were off to the nutritionist appointment.

So I'm editing to add that I just found out that the Sleep Clinic called yesterday.  I was able to talk to a nurse about her sleep study results already.  Christy does have obstructive sleep apnea.  Her O2 stats were on the low side, but not of urgent concern.  The study showed that she wakes often, but did experience REM sleep and deep sleep at least for  little while.  Thankfully, they believe that her tonsillectomy might correct this problem.  So we are moving forward with scheduling her surgery.  She will be having a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, dental work,  MRI and G-Tube placement all at one time so she only has to go under general anesthesia once (she was intubated for 5 days following her open heart surgery, so there is concern).  I still have many phone calls to make!

Wow - I feel like God gave me a cushion of time with Christy without any major medical issues.  That cushion is now gone.  It's time to get down to business.  Time to address her issues and work to make her life as pleasant as possible and enabling her to grow and develop and sleep (sleep is so important for growth and development, and so is proper nutrition and hydration)!

All Tuckered out - taking a nap on the way home!

I am excited about what the future may hold for Christy.  She has been doing so well - learning new things, actively exploring her new world and interacting with her new family.  Just think how much better she will do when she is not being hampered by her health issues!

I am also overwhelmed, but I've had two of the most incredibly busy weeks of my life.  Next week the only thing on my calendar is Christy and Esther's therapy sessions on Tuesday.  But that might change - I am making the phone call today about Christy getting a  G-Tube.

Christy's First Month Home!

Two Feet on US soil - a new US citizen!

Oh my, time flies!  I can not believe that as of this week, Christ has been in our home for a month!  Her first day in our home was May 18.  She has done so very very well in adjusting to our home!  She even acclimated to our time zone within days - faster than I did, that is for sure!

 We have been very busy settling in, finding a new routine that works for now, and getting her the medical diagnosis that we felt were important - here's a list of appointments she's had and what we found out from them:

Carese - the binky caretaker

May 20 - Pediatrician - basically got her height weight, updated our Dr with her new medical information and got her file started and a general look/see for her doctor and her.

May 22 - University of Washington Adoption Medical Clinic (3 hour drive each way!) - Dr Davies got her weight height and looked over both Christy and her latest medical documents and got referrals in place for things like cardiology, neurology, speech and physical therapy evaluations being top priority, Ear/Nose/Throat  evaluation, eye sight and hearing are all on the list too, only not critical.   She also had a myriad of blood work drawn and tested as well as stool cultures done.  So far everything has been great, with the one exception of a Vit D deficiency (we are giving her 1000 IU/day now).

She wasn't too sure about grass, but she warmed up to it!

May 27 - Pediatrician - checking Christy for cold symptoms, but mostly discussing the findings from Dr Davies and discussing referrals needed. She also got to watch Christy drink from a tippy cup and put in the feeding referral right away...told me to only feed her foods from a spoon until then (thickening everything to pudding consistency to be on the safe side).

It was hat day, or something!  Carese wanted to do whatever
Christy was doing that day!

Starting the next day, a virus passed through our family - Rachel, Elizabeth and Carese with high fevers, and I got tonsillitis, the worst case that I can remember (it really took me over a week to finally have no pain)!  Esther and Christy did not get sick at all which was totally weird!

Too stinking cute!

June 3 - Seattle Children's Hospital Cardiology/Echocardiogram -   I finally got all the answers - Christy did no only have an ASD correction like her earlier documents had said, but a very complete open heart surgery - they repaired an ASD, a VSD and an AV Canal defect.  They basically reconstructed the middle of her heart.  The echo was not as clear as they would like, but she feels that the surgery was very successful that she will not need any further repair work.  We are to bring her back in one year from now.  That was a very good sign!

Playing at her Neurology
Appointment

June 5 - Neurology - after reviewing her medical files, and observing her clinically, the pediatric neurologist has determined that Christy has brain damage.  This could have happened either when she was born (traumatic, fetal distress induced emergency C-section) or during her open heart surgery.  If it happened at or around the time of birth, then it is called "Cerebral Palsy" but if it happens later in life they refer to it as a "stroke."  Either way, it is a stable diagnosis (that means it is not getting progressively worse) but it is permanent.  At the same time she did agree that it was very promising that we were already seeing her use her right hand and arm more and more since we brought her home, and with therapy and the blessing of a home and many siblings to play with, she has great potential to gain more use of her right side and she believes that she will be able to walk someday too!  So that was great news, but I did shed a few tears as in my heart I had really hoped that it was just some pinched nerve that adjustment/surgery would correct.

All 4 in matching PJs!

June 8 - First time we were able to bring Christy to church!  She did great and we had a wonderful time introducing her to our church family.  She would not make eye contact with strangers and got a little stressed if people wanted to touch her, but she had no panic attacks and we were even able to stay after the service for the potluck!

Favorite toy - her own foot!

Jun 10 - On the 5th, I finally got a good look at Christy's teeth and immediately made an appt to see our pediatric dentist.  On this day my suspicions were confirmed.  Every molar had as least two cavities (one above each root) and she needed work done right away.  She has been referred to Seattle Children's for this and has a consultation scheduled for the middle of July, but she is on a cancellation list, so hopefully we can get her in sooner. So far no abscesses, but I am to keep and eye out for that and brush regularly.  She does allow me to brush her teeth, but I can tell that sometimes it hurts (she winces).

First Sunday going to church - all in
Matching dresses (all of which came
from a consignment store!)

That was the  last appointment so far, but in the next month we have the following:

(I have two appts for a new crown as a tooth broke last summer and last weekend it broke further...)
June 24 - ENT
July 1 - Esther's pre-surgery consultation for her dental general anesthesia procedure
July 3 - Christy - Physical Therapy Evaluation (hoping to get a referral for braces and her knees bend backwards to an alarming degree)
July 11 - Christy - Feeding Therapy Evaluation
July 15 - Christy - Seattle Children's Hospital - dental consultation
July 17 - Esther - Seattle Children's Hospital - dental surgery

Good night mommy!

So we have a busy month ahead.  We still have some things to schedule yet, but they are not urgent (like vision).

Matching PJs that were given as gifts from
Two different people in two different states!

As far as Christy's integration into our family - it has gone so very much better than I even hoped!  She really had no problems with our busy home, except occasionally if played with too long she would get grumpy, but would recover if she got some time by herself.  She loves to scoot all around the house exploring her new environment.  She continues to love reflective surfaces like our kitchen appliances. We have definitely had to do some "baby proofing" in the home, especially since she loves to put things into her mouth - she loves to chew on paper, plastic and other things....but yet she spews out things like Cheerios and Kix - go figure!



Here are some videos that I think you'll enjoy!

Christy at the UW appointment, having a great time waiting.  She LOVES mirrors, can you tell?

This was just two days ago - this is her right hand/arm that has pretty much been useless.  When we visited her last fall, she could only move it occasionally and it was usually to get you to stop messing with it.  This is purposefully using it to experiment with the toy!  This is miraculous!

This last video was taken that same day, only at bedtime.  Esther has pretty much ignored Christy until very recently.  We noticed that she showed jealousy for the first time just last week, and it was when she saw that Reuben was spending time with Christy and Reuben is Esther's favorite person.  Then, on this evening, she was actually playing with Christy on the floor and they were laughing together.  I thought it would stop when I took them to bed, but I was wrong and I was able to take this amazing, sweet video of them playing together!

Bringing Christy Home, AKA Overcoming Obstacles One by One!

Our wake up call actually came when we were both awake already, which was surprising since our wake up call was at 3:45.  We needed to meet the cab at 4:15 and we were hoping to arrive at the airport before 5 am.

I needed to take some things down to the front desk and we needed the suitcase trolley.   When I got out of the elevator I found the lobby full of men in the boxer shorts...Yeah, not what I was expecting AT ALL.  Approximately 20 British drunk rugby players. Talk about awkward.  But I could not wait - we had a deadline!  So I forged ahead and placed the items behind the desk and tried to get the one hotel staff person's attention.  It wasn't happening.  Here I am trying to not look at all the (basically) naked men in the room, and yet I had to take care of our needs.  So I made my way up to the bar (it's open in the lobby), much to cozily between two of these Rugby players and asked if we could get the luggage cart.  But he just could not get past the language barrier/noise level to understand what I wanted.  I did the best I could and then felt it was time to abandon the attempt and get out of there before anything really embarrassing happened.  So I turned to go towards the elevator, but to my great dismay, there were already several nearly naked rugby players in the elevator.  Needless to say, I was NOT going in there!

So I headed to the stairs and went up two flights.  At that point I checked out the elevator and watched to see what floor the elevator went to - of course it was the 6th floor.  So I gave up completely and went up all 7 flights of stairs.  Then we got everything ready to go onto the luggage cart, and still no luggage cart, so we gathered what we could and Daryl headed down to see what we could do.   Everything is kind of a blur now, but eventually we got the bill paid, the luggage in the cab and avoided any further encounters with the naked rugby players, except for hearing from the hotel clerk that they had broken into fights in the hallways and upset other guests and we could still hear them outside through the upper floor windows.

So we are finally in the cab with the grumpy cabby who can only speak on word in English, "No."  All settled in, Christy in her car seat and all our luggage in the back.  Then the cabby tries to start the cab and the battery is dead.  He tries again, same result.  After a couple more tries, the cabby gets out and heads to the hotel...Daryl and I are fervently praying now as we are already leaving much later than we had hoped!  Soon the poor hotel clerk is coming out, following the cabby - they are going to do a push start (the street ahead of us is slightly downhill) as, thankfully, the mini van type cab is a stick shift (unheard of in the US, but common over there!).  Just as we get to the end of the block and the down hill section the cab finally started...we both breath a sigh of relief!

The next hurdle was that we were unable to determine which terminal we needed to be dropped off at.  So he took us to Terminal 1.  We got there and got unloaded and fixed up out luggage so the two of us could take it all with us, which was a lot - 3 large check in, 2 carry on, a car seat in a bag with a shoulder strap, three "personal bags" and Christy.  Thankfully two of the check in bags and my rolling backpack had piggy back straps and that made it possible, but it was difficult to manage so we wouldn't want to have to go very far.

Once we got into the terminal, it took a while to figure out where we needed to be, but eventually we got help and determined that we actually needed to be at terminal 2!  And because of our early flight, there were no shuttle buses available and we would have to hire a cab.  This was a problem as I had spent the last of our Bulgarian cash...but there was an ATM and I got out 50 leva and we went back outside and hailed a cab...everything back in and off we went.  Once at Terminal 2 we unloaded and paid the cab (only 5 leva...how was I going to use up the rest???).   I was able to get preferential treatment due to traveling with a child - no waiting in any lines - skip to the front at check in, security and at the gate.  This was really what enabled us to even make out flight as by now we were running quite late and the airport was surprisingly busy (it was a Saturday morning).  We did find that the first flight would not allow us to use her car seat, but they did allow us to check it at the airplane so it would be available for the rest of the flights.

Our first flight went really well.  Christy did so much better that I had dared to hope - she sat in her own seat with just the seat belt like she had been doing it all her life!  She was so good and seemed to enjoy the flying experience even!

Our first layover was at Heathrow, London.  It was a long layover, and good thing.  We accidentally went through customs and ended up having to get our gate tickets reprinted and go through customs/security again.  We just took it slow and got through everything eventually.  We still had about 30 minutes to wait until the gate was announced and then 30 minutes to wait at the gate, so really it went very well.  I was able to exchange the Leva to Pounds and had enough to purchase a nice lunch while we waited for the gate to be announced!

The next flight was the longest one - 7 + hours.  To us this was a late afternoon evening flight so Christy took a long nap during the earlier part of the flight.  When she woke up she was quite upset.  I applied peace and calming oils and some peppermint (her nose was very stuffy) and then went to find a bathroom to change her diaper.  It took a while to find one that had the changing table and she was fussy the whole time - I was beginning to think the rest of the trip was going to be a long one!  One in the bathroom, the minute she was in a dry diaper she was back to her happy self and even making herself laugh right there in the bathroom!  The rest of the flight was spent trying to entertain her in the dark - we tried a glow in the dark bracelet, but she bit a tiny hole in it...so I cleaned out her tippy cup and put it in there and that worked.  I also had a spinning light up toy that helped a lot too.  Soon we were preparing to land in Philly and beginning to stress about collecting all our luggage and going through customs AND immigration and then back through security and we only had just over 2 1/2 hours.  Everything went as planned, with a couple of exceptions....

When we went to go through immigration, we were told that everyone would be served in the order that we came in.  That was not what we were told - we had been told that as US citizens (and Christy was a US Citizen as soon as we got on US soil) that we would be moved to the front of the line and processed immediately.  I explained this to the gum chewing agent (he seemed to have a superiority complex like someone from a movie or something) but he said no exceptions.  So we sat not so patiently waiting for our turn (there were about 10 files ahead of ours).  Eventually a new agent showed up and we could hear the first agent asking if what we said was correct, and yes, we were right.  So only after about 20 minutes of suspense we were processed quickly and moved on to collecting our check in luggage so we could go through customs.  Due to our delay, all the luggage was already off the conveyor belt.  But one of ours was missing.  We eventually found out that we would have to file a claim in Seattle and moved on.  Customs was a breeze, really nothing at all.  Security was a long line and we were not allowed to move to the front.  Eventually we made it to our terminal and we actually made it in time.  They had begun to make announcements, but no boarding yet.  We thought about trying to grab dinner, but just didn't have time and hadn't seen any restaurants that seemed like a good choice for food, and neither of us were particularly hungry.

There was no priority boarding again for families with children/babies, and since we ended up loading later we were also not allowed to bring our carry-ons with us either.  We had to do some re-arranging as all the baby toys were in one of the carry-ons.  I do not recommend flying into Philly on an adoption trip, that is for sure.

Our last flight was 6 hours and had to be one of the biggest rip-offs of all our flights.  No in flight movies, no blanket, no pillow, no nothing!  We were given 3 opportunities to have the standard drinks (pop, coffee or tea) but there was no even one snack, and you had to pay extra for the meals.  By this time we were tired and a bit grumpy.  The plane was a smallish one, and the noise level was bad.  We were sitting right in front of the bathroom and all the sound from around us seemed to intensify off the wall behind us.  For us we had now been traveling for nearly 24 hours, but those around us were not so tired and there was a lot of conversations.  Daryl was able to sleep, and so was Christy, but sleep evaded me.  I had only gotten about an hour's sleep on the last flight, so I was getting pretty miserable. Eventually we made it to Seattle and we even beat the sun - the longest Saturday ever - 29 hours and counting by the time we landed!

But we weren't done yet....we collected our baggage, and then went to file the claim for the missing luggage.  Due to not being able to find the original first flight gate pass, it took over an hour to process the claim.  Finally we were able to tell Jessica to come and pick us up.

Christy had been a gem, and had only cried that one time on the second flight.  She played contentedly with Daryl while I was doing the missing baggage claim.  What a blessing.  I was so wasted by now, that it would have been very, very trying if she had been fussy at this point.

The only thing left was the drive home.  2 1/2 hours later, we were entering our home for the first time just 8 hours less than 2 weeks.  Only problem was it was 1:30 am at home, but our bodies were still on the other time zone, which was 11:30 am - so very tired from traveling, but Christy was no even remotely ready to sleep!  So Daryl went to bed and after a few hours we swapped places.

In the morning we had the wonderful privilege of introducing Christy to the family, and getting lots of loves from our little girls who missed us so very, very much.  Everything, every moment was something to cherish.  That day was like no other and God's blessing and grace were nearly palpable.  God had brought safely back home.

"Is she my sister"  "Yes she is all yours!"

Christy's First Mother's Day weekend with a Mommy!

Saturday was a relaxing day at the hotel.  We had begun to get in the habit of eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then having snacks for lunch (instant oatmeal, fruit leather  and maybe some chocolate), and then eating dinner either in the hotel restaurant or going out somewhere (or doing room service if we were really lazy/tired!).  We were also falling into a routine of Daryl taking a late morning nap while I watched Christy, and I took an afternoon nap and it was really working well.  This day, however, Christy had gone into hyper exploration mode and was testing the sounds that different things made when she would kicks them - walls, doors, furniture...the louder the noise the better - but it made it difficult for our naps!

We had made plans to go to Jeff Shepherd's home to have a home made meal with his family, and we would be joined by two other adoptive families!  We left the hotel with Corinna W, her sister and her newly adopted son, Silas and walked to the meet up point.  Jeff was to meet us at the subway station to introduce us to traveling in the amazing underground system that is in Sofia. There was a little mix up (my fault completely) but it made for a unexpected blessing!  While Jeff was waiting for us outside the subway entrance and we were waiting for him down in the subway walkway, he spied some familiar faces!  There was a third adoptive family, the Hrbecks from Texas) who had just arrived that day for their first trip, and had been taking a walk!  So we all joined up and walked together for a few blocks and got to know them.  This also had the benefit of giving us new people to eat meals with and go shopping with for a couple of days!

Jeff is in this second photo talking with Corinna and her family, with the subway wizzing by just a few feet from them.  We then met up with the other family, Heather B, her mom and her newly adopted son, and took a few minutes to tour the Cathedral in the center of Sofia (no photos allowed), and then headed down to take the subway.  It was about a 15 minute ride, and Christy loved it after a few minutes.

Daryl had taken to carrying her whenever we went out, using the Ergo.  This was the best way and it kept her feeling secure.  Daryl got lots of looks from both women and men as I never did see another man using a carrier to carry a child or infant there!  I told him it made him a "chick magnet"!  We also found it funny as in the subway there were movie posters for some movie that showed a man using a similar carrier to carry a child!

We got off the subway and walked a few blocks to his apartment.  There we met his amazing wife, Lisa, and his son and daughter (who they adopted from Bulgaria 3 years before).  They both work at the American English Academy in Sofia teaching.  They are "working missionaries."  There we were welcomed into a most enjoyable home setting, and served an amazing dinner of Bulgarian style foods.  It was so fun to let our children mingle, to talk Star Trek stuff with Jeff's daughter, and watch Christy explore their home.  Christy's favorite room was the kitchen, especially the near mirror finish on the oven door!  I also found out that week that Jeff and Lisa are Settlers of Catan players, a game that our family discovered recently.  They invited us back for a game night Monday night - that was definitely something for me to look forward too!

All too soon it was time to head back to the hotel.  Jeff accompanied us to ensure that we got where we needed to go (until we were on familiar territory).  He was a great host and it was fun to get lots of trivia about the city from him.  He also invited us all to attend church with him, but I was feeling a little off, so we declined.  The other two families accepted his offer though.  He also introduced us to the amazing Ice Cream in one of the small shops in The Market!  YUM!!

Once back at the hotel, we settled in and prepared for bed.  Christy was worn out and went to sleep quickly, and so did Daryl.  But the heat had gotten to me, and I was quite miserable.  After a couple of hours, I was able to sleep though, and I felt fine again in the morning

Sunday was Mother's Day in the US (but not in Bulgaria - they celebrate something similar in March).  We had a quiet morning in the hotel room, and in the afternoon I went shopping with the two other moms in our hotel room.  We had a great time (both children were napping at the hotel with -Christy with her daddy, Silas with his Auntie).  We walked to The Market and did some souvenier shopping and had some Ice Cream again!  We were acting like kids and had a blast!  Were were all getting along so well and brought out the fun in each other in spite of jetlag!  Three new friends from three polar opposite parts of North America tearing up the town on the other side of the planet - only God could orchestrate such a blessing for us three that day!

I enjoyed finding some very unexpected things in the little artisan shops there - hand made soaps, inexpensive organic Rose Water - something Bulgaria is known for!  We are going to finally get to make Turkish Delight this year while we watch Narnia at Christmas time!  I also found matching dresses for Christy and Carese and some fund things to bring home for the other children.  Only some of the shop keepers spoke English, so it was a challenge at times to make transactions, but we did make it through eventually!

I did have some great times with Christy on Mother's Day too - I dressed us up to match even!  She had several of her amazing "I am SO happy" moods and I even got one video taped!  By this day we were beginning to notice that she was able to have more control and flexibility with her right hand/arm, but we weren't quite sure...time would show us that we were right!

Our day ended with the amazing night of giggles from Christy's crib.  I know I posted it in my last blog post, but I was a little mixed up - that was actually Mother's Day evening...such an amazing gift to be given on Mother's Day!  Starting with fun with Christy, then fun with friends, skyping with the children and ending with a hour long giggle fest in the dark.  Even though Mother's Day was spent away from the majority of my family, I was blessed.

Christy's first full days with a Mommy and a Daddy!

Christy in the sweater I made for her!

Daddy's Girls for Sure!

The day we brought Christy to Sofia (also known as "Gotcha Day") was Wednesday, May 7.  Thursday was the day to have Christy's passport application submitted and her photo taken.  We slept well, and Christy slept through the night - what a wonderful surprise!  In the morning we got dressed and fed Christy in our hotel room, and then went down for the hotel continental breakfast - good as always!  We were staying at The Budapest and they have an excellent restaurant and lots of selection for breakfast and it even varies from day to day which makes it especially nice when you are staying there for 10 days straight!

Poor baby!

After breakfast we prepared to meet with our team to go to the passport office.  It wasn't far, but it was faster to go by car.  We basically walked right in, as our attorney's mother was already there doing the paperwork.  We were only there for the photo.  Christy does not like to sit in an open chair, so "set her on the stool" was not an option.  Eventually after much stress and much crying by Christy we got a somewhat decent photo of her with her looking over my shoulder....crying and looking very mad/sad.  Then we were whisked back out to the street and driven to our hotel. 

They are making a new round about
So there were walls up for construction
Making photo-ops minimal

We had made arrangements to meet another family who was in Sofia for their "gotcha trip".  We made the arrangements to meet about halfway between our hotels, in the center of the city, to eat at Happy Bar and Grill.  We ended up walking about a mile to the restaurant, but did not find them there.  Christy was beginning to melt down at this point.  It was really hot, and she was unhappy.  We figured out later that the noise of traffic was something she does not tolerate.  So while trying to talk our friends to our location (tough when neither of you know the city, and the area you are in is a HUGE circle around a cathedral).  Eventually they found us and we went in to eat.  We were so stressed out by this time,, and Christy was just barely settled down, that I totally forgot to take any photos of our trip out, except for this shot of Daryl and Christy at the Lion's Gate Bridge.

We then headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap.  Then we were able to meet another mom who was on their "gotcha trip" too.  We had it easy and met them for dinner at the hotel.  Christy and Silas didn't pay much attention to each other at dinner, but later when they were playing on the floor in our hotel room, she laughed whenever he made noise or touched her.  It was so cute!  We did find out at dinner that she does NOT like an umbrella stroller.  She basically doesn't like any seat that is open.  She loves her car seat and a highchair, but open seats cause her to go into full panic in seconds. 

When she becomes insecure, the leg goes up behind the head (or her arm) and out pops that bottom lip.
It's a cross between fear and anger.  We now read her very well, this particular episode, we were still learning.

Thursday night was another good night's sleep.  I can not express how thankful we were that she slept so well at night - we were both still suffering from jet lag in a big way.  We did not have anything planned for Friday, so we pretty much just hung out in our hotel room.  We had plans to meet with Yavor, our interpreter from our first trip.  He drove us to Leo's Pizza - a true Italian restaurant.  I ordered the wood fired pizza, and Daryl ordered a pasta dish.  The food was excellent, and so was the company.  All too soon it was time to go back to the hotel.  We said "goodbye" to Yavor and thanked him for making our first trip so memorable.  Then it was time to tuck Christy in bed and go to sleep ourselves.

+

As we were lying there in the dark Friday night (she just would not go to sleep when I rocked her, so I placed her in the crib, hoping she'd settle down and sleep), she started giggling!  Let me tell you that sleep is impossible when someone in the room is giggling!  Especially Christy's giggles - they are adorable cute!  So, like a good mom, I got up and videotaped her giggles in the dark - it was just too cute to ignore.  She eventually quieted down and went to sleep, but she giggled on and off for over an hour!