Meeting the 5th Bailey Child at Last

I am skipping a day’s account because….well, most of it will be repeated on Friday (mainly the drive to Abraham's town and some other interesting pieces, but somewhat secondary to the purpose of the trip – getting to know Abraham).

Well, the day started at 2:00 in the morning.  I woke up and had my usual confusion about the time.  My computer is still on East Coast time which is now 7 hours behind me.  So at 2am, I’m still trying to figure if I need to add 7 hours or take away 7 hours.  I was slightly hungry so I got up, ate a little bit, prayed a little bit, read a little bit and then went back to bed.  With some doing, I got to sleep.

I woke up at 7:30.  I don’t remember the last time that I woke up so late!  The beauty of waking up so late comes with the uncomfortable knot that I got thinking about the things that I could have gotten done if I woke up a bit earlier.  It didn’t take me long to untie that knot.  I was to meet Yavor at the restaurant for breakfast at 9:00 so that gave me some time to pray the Rosary and finish up the latest blog post.

Breakfast was a very traditional Bulgarian breakfast: Sirene cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, bread, jam, some salami triangle things, and olives.  I pretty much cleared my plate (except for the olives…I just wasn’t feeling it that morning).  Yavor had to leave early to go check on the orphanage about our visit in the morning.  

So, I gathered some things that I thought that Abraham would like along with his blanket.  I also took my folder with my various papers.  I met Yavor in the lobby and then off we went.

Now, I assumed that Yavor knew exactly where the orphanage was.  I was wrong.  He sort of knew where it was, like what side of town it was on, but not exactly.  To be honest, I don’t blame him – he drove sans GPS and the roads are all manner of off kilter.  Not like a grid.

So, he thought that the people nearby the Orphanage would know exactly where it was.  He was wrong.  We were asking people that were literally two blocks from the orphanage where it was and they only knew where it generally was.    After about five minutes of driving around and asking folks, we finally found it.  I must say that it looked a little scary looking.  There was a lot of over growth and the building looked a little on the dilapidated side.

Whoa – sorry just got to interrupt this blog to tell you that Spotify plays Bulgarian advertisements for me now!  Talking of Spotify – check out Imaginary Flying Machines’ album of Ghibli film tunes.  Especially if you like Studio Ghibli and/or extreme metal!  Its playing the Yumi Arai song from Kiki’s Delivery Service now.  Awesome….OK, on with the story…

 

Inside, the place looked very institutional, somewhat middle of the 20^th century sort of feel.  I first met the director of the orphanage who did not spoke Bulgarian exclusively.  So I was really glad to have good ol’ Yavor present.  We had some slight paperwork to do but not too bad.  

After that, we were taken to what looks like a play room.  There was a table in the middle of the room with a stuffed animal on it.  There was a piano in the corner and shelves that covered a whole wall full of toys.  And then there were about like 30 chairs arranged for a chorus with a couple along the perimeter.  This was where I had to wait for my son to come.

It must have been only five minutes or even less, but to me it felt like an eternity.  I gave Yavor the camera so that he could capture the first meeting of Abraham and me.  I waited 'cause there was nothing else to do.

Then the little guy came into the room.  Wow, it was one of the most beautiful and awkward moments in life at the moment.  Few times in life do you fall in love at first sight, and this was one of them.  He was just like his photos!

The first hug

For me I couldn’t believe he was finally here.  Now he on the other hand, was looking around for the toys he liked to play with.  I just had a hard time working through what to do for the next couple of minutes.  Yavor did well in breaking the ice and getting things moving.  I learned his nickname and some of his favorite things (like color; it is yellow!).  

Turns out, out of all the things I brought for the first visit, he liked my paperwork folder the best.  He would use it to pat on the chairs and run around and pat on other things.  He loved giving hugs and was just a beautiful little boy.

Playing with the folder

He has a developmental delay, but they think it is  most likely an institutional delay that will likely resolve for the most part after a time of living in a family.  And I can tell that this little guy is quite intelligent and quite agile with his motor skills.  I cannot wait to bring him home.  It makes it difficult to think about leaving him behind at the end of the week.

One funny incident had to do with my coffee.  The staff offered me coffee and asked how I liked it.  In Europe, the coffee is “smaller” because it is more potent; Americans have more watery coffee.  In fact, quick aside, the French call American coffee “sock juice.”  mmmMmmmm sock juice.  Anyway, I said that I’ll take it European style with just sugar.  They asked how much, and I said two…tablespoons.  When they came back, I guess they were unsure that they put enough, they brought a box of sugar cubes (not really cubes – rectangular prisms!).  Abraham immediately honed in on the sugar cubes and ran right up to it with wide eyes and wider grin.  He knew what that was and to be honest there was no way that I wasn’t going to let him have some.  But to be polite, I asked the staff.  They gave their approval and Abraham enjoyed his little lump of sugar.

I was amazed at how well Abraham was able to finely move a shallow cardboard box filled with little memory game cards in it.  He would take it off of the table (which was rather high for him) and would very skillfully transfer it to a chair.  Then he would pick it up again and move it to another spot all the while not spilling the cards inside of the box.

He was very sweet and loved to hug.  Abraham wanted to play with the drum later on and got quite attached to it.  He would beat on it ever so lightly and would place it here and there.  When it was time to go, he didn’t want to let go of it.  I was scared that he was going to be upset to leave it, but the staff let him take his drum with him.  I was happy to see that.

Little Drummer Boy!

After lunch we came back for round two.  In the interim, Yavor and I bought some cookies to feed Abraham, but we didn't get around to them on this visit.  To sum up, visit two was all about laughing!  We played this little tickling game that he absolutely loved.  And then I would spin him slowly on the floor and he thought that it was the funniest thing.  

When it was time to go, Abraham picked up his drum and headed to the door; he knew that it was about snack time.  The staff says that he loves his food; definitely going to fit in well at home.

I can’t wait for our next visit.  Weather permitting we will be going outside to play, which I think will be great for the little guy.

St. Christopher, pray for us!

God bless,

Sean