Fast Forward a Couple of Days

Wow, that has a tough couple of days, but well worth it!  First of all, a huge thanks to Sam for taking up the blogging while I was busy.  Not that she doesn’t have anything to do with five kids at home!  I only have one to keep track of, and it just can’t be that hard, right?

He loves splashing his feet in the tub!

Well…. I don’t think that it is as hard as dealing with the other five, but it is hard in a different way.  First is that there is a communication barrier – Soshko (the diminutive Bulgarian nickname for Alexander, and the name the orphanage staff used for him) has only known Bulgarian spoken to him.  Here I am, predominantly English (subdominant mumbler) trying to communicate with him.  I think that we are slowly getting there…. I think that he understands when I say “want to go outside”.  He seems to be on par with Felix, my two year old at home.  But, on top of that and unlike Felix, Soshko does not verbally communicate besides through the use of grunts, groans, and, I have to say, marvelous facial expressions.  So that I think is the first difficulty that we are working through.

The second is that he has a strong will.  This is a tough subject considering that we are dealing with an adopted child – this is a common characteristic of children from an orphanage.  They are just given what they want so that the workers don’t have to deal with it.  We have had at least a couple of grade A tantrums just because we were staying in the room and not going out.  

I wanted to throw that in to just justify my absence.  See, two reasons and two days I’ve been off.  So, as long as everything goes according to plan, I will be your guide for the remainder of the trip!

I think that Sam did a good job of providing the highlights of the last couple of days; we’ve skyped and she has had pictures to put in the blog courtesy of Chelsea and Josh, who are picking up their son Levi.  It is actually quite refreshing having another family here at the same time; it is making it easier.

Wow, this is a lot of fluff before the meat, hey?  OK, today we are going to attempt mass.  Not only that, I am shooting for Mass in English.  Now, Mass will not be offered at the church, but in some tucked away part of the city on the other side of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral that apparently is owned by the Diocese of St. Joseph (I guess the diocese of Sofia).  So that is where I will pick up when I am back.

Soshko riding in the Ergo.  This camera doesn't do well in low light, unfortunately.

Adventure time!  As I am writing this, Soshko is working on falling asleep and my ankles are KILLING me!  So there should be some goodness to go with that, right?  WRONG!  Unless you mean by goodness, the fact that everything conceivable could be thrown at me to keep me from going.

First: Soshko was having an incontinent…ummm…rear end.  He was pooping like a wild thing!  He did not seem upset or disturbed by it, just that he was not able to hold that stuff in.  I was on the fence at that point thinking that it is either diarrhea or his body is just adjusting to a new diet and eating routine.  I changed his diaper at 10 and thought that if he poops one more time, that was it – no go.  By the way this was number 3 or 4 at the time.

Then I strapped him to my back, packed extra clothes (a shirt for me and a new shirt and pants for Soshko) and headed out on my 1.25 mile walk to the English Mass.  Soshko was a real fan of using the Ergo and seemed to almost be lulled to sleep.

At 10:50, I made it to the site for mass, and I saw no one.  Save a lone Bulgarian that was hanging outside.  I asked him and he said that there was Mass but it is at 11:00.  Well, usually it takes a couple of minutes (actually several) for a priest to prepare, so I wasn’t feeling optimistic.  At about 11:00, a German dude pulled up on his bike.  For a second I thought he was the priest, but he apparently wasn’t.  We all three looked around and concluded the obvious – there was no Mass.  Oh joy.

But not giving up, I decided, “What they hey, lets try the Latin mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral about another mile or so away!"  Soshko was up for it (at that point – he didn’t have to walk!) so we buckled down and went for it.

At this point, this is lesson number one for folks about to embark on this journey.  Verify anything that you want to do that might be out of the ordinary.  In hindsight, I wish I could have asked the receptionist to check to see if Mass would be offered in English at the chapel instead of assuming that it would.  So more pithy:  Assume nothing.

Alright…so we made it to St. Joseph’s about 12 minutes ahead of time.  At this point I thought that it would be prudent to go on check Soshko’s Diaper situation.  So, we went to the bathroom and what do you know, he had peed through his pants and onto his shirt.  By and by, this is a common occurrence for all little people that hang out in the Ergo: they pee on me.  Thank goodness, no poop! 

Lucky that I actually brought a change of clothes.  So I changed my shirt and I changed Soshko’s shirt, but then I ran into a problem when I attempted to change Soshko’s pants.  Soshko hated them!  He would not wear them.  Knowing that the probability of surviving Mass with an upset toddler at T minus five minutes or so, I tried to reason a solution.

The solution?  Put the original pants back on.  1) they were dark pants and 2) they were not totally drenched.  I figured that I just needed to do what needed to be done at that point.

So, lesson number 2: pack more clothes for your little one – (much) more than you think that you need.  Not only because they pee and poop and have other messy accidents, but because your little one could be fashion conscious.  Soshko does not like overalls, end of story.  So, if you can glean clothing preferences, if they exist, on the first trip, capitalize on them.

At that point, Soshko behaved about about as well as could be expected for a first time at Mass.  We made it through just fine till right after the homily.  That’s when Soshko had pretty much had enough and wanted to be outside of the Church.

Now, this is the first time, I think, that Soshko had ever been in an organized religious anything, so I know that there was a lot that he didn’t understand (and likewise, a lot that I didn’t understand), but I do believe that it was worth it.

After reception of Holy Communion, I had to head out.  Soshko was not handling the situation well at all: it was 1:00 and we needed lunch and my ankles were beyond shot.

I do have to say that I was greatly impressed with the German guy who came to the Latin Mass after missing the English Mass.  He looked after my man-purse and tried to help with Soshko when he went into full meltdown mode.  He even lifted Soshko to the priest for a blessing.  I don’t know if I will see him again, but he was a blessing to have for those few moments.

The rest of the day was beginning to look like what our routine would be.  We had lunch, we went out for a walk, we played in the room a little bit (well Soshko did).  But one thing is that Soshko began to slow down a whole lot more at the end of the day.  He went to bed around 7:45pm, at least 20 minutes earlier than yesterday and plenty earlier than the crazy 10:00pm bedtime the day before.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and following along.  Please continue to pray for both Soshko and I as well as Sammy and kiddles.

Winding down for bed this evening

St. Christopher, pray for us!

God bless,

Sean 

Unification Day

Today is a national holiday in Bulgaria--Unification Day.  What a fitting holiday for Sean and Alexander's first full day together! 

Sean hopes he can return to blogging soon, but as you can imagine, Alexander keeps him very busy.  So for now, you get the Cliffs Notes version in pictures.

Alexander fell asleep around 10 pm last night and woke up at 7 am.  The two of them went to breakfast and Alexander ate for a solid hour and a half.  The little guy really enjoyed eating his fill!

Around mid-morning, Sean and Alexander met up with their new friends Josh, Chelsea, and little Levi for an exploratory walk around Sofia. 

They walked for about two and a half hours, during which time they found a playground (with a surprisingly slick concrete slide in the shape of an elephant), explored the underground walkways and excavation sites, and braved a Bulgarian supermarket called BILLA to stock up on hotel snacks. 

 Back at the hotel restaurant for lunch, Alexander heartily enjoyed his tarator (cold yogurt-based soup) and bread rolls dipped in apple juice.  He really enjoys this dish, so we're extra glad that we have experience preparing tarator at home!

 Sean, on the other hand, ordered the enormous Budapest Burger.  Alexander couldn't believe his eyes! 

After lunch we Skyped, and then Sean put Alexander on his back in the Ergo carrier and hit the streets again, this time going to the St. Joseph Cathedral.  They stopped at the church for a little while before heading off to find a chapel where Sean heard that English Mass is offered.  He wants to go there for Mass tomorrow so that Alexander will be at least a little familiar with hearing the Mass in English when he gets home.

And on the way to the chapel, he found the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, one of the iconic landmarks of Sofia.

The guys made it back to the hotel just in time to meet up with Josh, Chelsea, and Levi for dinner.  And unlike last night's 10 o'clock bedtime, Alexander was fast asleep around 8-8:30 pm this evening, right after his bath.  All in all, it was a great first full day together for my guys across the sea, praise be to God!

Gotcha Alexander!

Today was the day!  Sean picked Alexander up from the orphanage, once and for all!  They spent most of the day on the road, and they're both wiped out!  So no blog from Sean today, but here are some pictures to show how the day went.

Daddy and son reunited at last!

Sean used the Goldfish crackers as an ice breaker.  Alexander remembered
them and Sean from the previous visit and was most impressed!

 

This boy likes lollipops!  But he hates car seats and fussed during most of
the trip from his region to Sofia.  No carsickness though, thank goodness!

Isn't he handsome?!  We're not sure why he has a scab in one nostril, but
it didn't seem to bother him much.  Alexander was happy to be able to
walk around outside for a bit during breaks on the long drive back to Sofia.

When they got to their hotel this afternoon we Skyped for the first time!

Sean and Alexander met up with another adopting family who picked up
their son today, too, and they all enjoyed dinner together.  Alexander didn't eat
his soup, but instead systematically broke up pieces of bread to dip in his apple juice.

Mad Fumble Across the Globe

"When we last left you, Sean was just about to hop a plane to Germany and he forgot his restless legs meds.  Will this be the end of the line for our intrepid traveler?  Can he stave off insomnia and insanity?  Can he make it through the night?  Stay tuned….”

Ok, yeah, I know that you all are not really reading this thing for me.  But at the moment, it is all about what happens to me.  Wow, this is rather self-centered.  Maybe I should rather write this thing in third person to avoid stroking my ego.  It’ll read like a novel….yeah check it out, this is what it would be like:

Sean walked down the bridge that led to his vessel to overseas.  Every few seconds he would look down at the ticket in his hand.  38F.  All of a sudden, like it was like the I-285.  A traffic jam appeared.  Slowly the line of humanity made its way onto the plane.

38F.  Is that a window seat?  As Sean walked down one of the aisles he noticed the letter assignments.  F is smack dab in the middle; flanked by strangers.  Sean exhaled in resignation.  Boy is this going to be a long night.

Sean managed to make it to his seat on the 38^th row right in the middle of the plane.  What is this?  A pillow, a blanket, and what probably looks like headphones.  Oh that’s nice.  Well, Sean, being as suave as he is, decided that he could do without the headphones and proceeded to knock them into the foot space of his neighbor.  Even if he wanted to watch a movie or listen to that smooth jazz station, there is no way that he could get those headphones cause his neighbors feet were occupying that space.

Sean settled in and took out some reading for the flight: “Road to Gandolfo” by Robert Ludlum and “Rome Sweet Home” by Scott Hahn.  Once everyone was buckled in, the plane took off into the sky, off to the magical land of chocolate: Germany.

 After a couple of hours, the smell of dinner came wafting through the cabin.  Sean’s stomach began to grumble.

“Would you like the Chicken or the Alfredo?” the attendant asked.

“Chicken, please,” Sean replied.

A tray filled with portions of the most miniature sizes landed in front of him.  There were some utensils on the tray as well.  Sean, being the master of suave, apparently didn’t need his knife.  So, he dropped it into the foot space of his other neighbor.  It very well might have been a bottomless pit because even if he had second guessed on the knife, there was no way that he could get it.

After a surprisingly filling dinner, some wine and a Bailey’s night cap (the alcohol really flows on these Euro flights), Sean settled in to attempt the impossible: sleep.  The cabin lights were turned down so that everyone could get the idea that it would be time to sleep.  He gently reclined his chair and tossed and turned for the next 5-6 hours, sleeping in spells of 45 minutes to 1.5 hours at a time.  Not bad.

Where is everyone?  At least the camera is working now.

At about 2 hours remaining of the flight, the lights came back on and the breakfast service commenced.  There would be no choices on this one, a tray of pure carbohydrates landed in front of Sean.  A muffin, a granola bar and a fruit cup.  Oh, and a spoon to eat the fruit, which apparently was attracted to the headphones in Sean’s neighbors foot space.  Away went the spoon into the bottomless pit.  Sean was not one to use superfluous instruments.

Sean had about six hours to kill in the Munich airport before he flew to Sofia, so he decided to try to find a place to rest his computer and write.  Or study.  Or e-mail.  Just something with him and the computer.  He wandered around the terminal until he found this strange “establishment” alongside one of the many moving sidewalks in the terminal.  It was mint green and had wavy looking walls so that you couldn’t look into it.  Chocolate colored writing on the wall advertised, “Work.  Rest.  Sleep,” and other wonderful words.  Curious as Sean was, he checked it out.

Ah ha!  He found an international refugee camp.  Folks were all sprawled out on the floor and on these sun chairs that would never see sun.  There were some nice looking fake trees that gave a good vibe to the place, but they could not outdo the raw disorganized humanity.  

In the corner was a desk with two chairs and a power outlet access for both seats.  Under one chair was a sleeping dude, so Sean sat in the other chair.  For the next hour or so, Sean and the compy communed (more importantly, he knocked out his morning prayers on the Universalis website).

Around 13:00, it was time for lunch.  Considering that it was Germany, Sean wanted to partake of some of the local cuisine if he could.  And only now as he writes this blog post does he remember, he did not see a McDonald’s at all in Munich, which makes him smile on the inside.

Anyway, the Sean at 13:00 on September 3 walked around aimlessly surveying restaurants, trying to find a place to eat.  Most places were terribly expensive, but he managed to find someplace that did not cost an arm and a leg.  Only his big toes.

“I’ll have the special,” Sean requested of the dude behind the counter.

Blank stare.

“The three sausage special that I saw back there”

Blank stare.

“You know the one for twelve…”

“Eighty,” said the lady who was beside the dude and doing fifteen other things at the same time.

“Yeah, that one.”  Having had water recently and considering the price, he didn’t want to ask about a drink.

“Do you want white or a lager?”  The dude awoken from a state of comatose enquired of our traveler.

Blank stare.

“Do you want a white wheat beer or a lager?”

Not knowing much about beer except that it makes things a little more amusing, Sean replied, ”Uhhhmm, lager.”  Isn’t Budweiser a lager?  That’ll do, I’m sure, Sean thought.

Not only did the meal come with a drink, but apparently it was imperative that it was a beer!  That’s Germany for you!

Then the dude sprung to life pouring a pint of lager, pulling three sausages out of a crazy-looking container that holds sausages and putting them into a ceramic pot, and adding a large pretzel.  The lady poured some hot water in with the sausages and covered with a plate.  Some mustard packets (nice, NICE, mustard packets mind you) got added to the jumble on the tray before it was presented to the king of suave.  Or swooft.

Hello Sofia!

The flight to Sofia was rather uneventful.  Except for the announcement that there was white smoke coming from somewhere that had everyone’s undies in a bunch.  The captain later explained that it had to do with the air conditioning and that there was nothing to worry about.  Although the captain said nothing about the gremlins chewing on the wings of the plane.

Sean deplaned and proceeded to acquire all of the luggage that followed him to Sofia.  As he walked towards the exit, he expected to see his new best bud, Yavor, to pick him up.  Sean was all ready to riff on him if he was holding a sign with Sean’s name.  

But that would not be.  There was some guy from the hotel, the BudaPest, with a sign, “Sean Patrick Bailey.”  Yavor must show up later in the story.  The flight to Sofia was severely delayed which might have had something to do with it.

Once back at the hotel, it was time to settle in, eat some tarator and head to bed.  Sean had a long ride ahead of him the following day to the town that still held his little boy.  The one who is the purpose of this entire trip.  The missing piece of this guy’s family.  Not long now until little Soshko would be home.

OK, so it was probably a little more muddled than I expected.  There are just so many little things that are different, but I just can’t write them ALL down.

Anyway, thank you to all of the folks who have been praying, I can feel that God is looking after us.  Oh, and unfortunately, the camera that I have is not that terribly great and I’ve had a couple of problems with getting it to work.  The fantastic and large camera from last go around stayed safely at home to take pictures of that adorable Mr. Sweet, Leo.  [Pssst….Sam, put a picture of “Mr. Sweet” in the blog S’il vous plait!].  So I don’t have many pictures at the moment, but I have the camera working now and we will have some nice Bulgarian pictures soon.

St. Christopher, pray for us

God bless,

Sean

Just Picking the Kid Up from Daycare...

...I’ll be back in two weeks!  Yeah its that time again, time to let this fool back on the computer to type up some blog posts as he busts his kid out of the orphanage on the other side of the world.  Come along for the ride – it will never be the same afterwards.

Well, not much for the first leg of the journey.  I managed to make it through the security area without getting the 5^th degree from Inspector Gadget, which is a good sign. 

The most interesting change from the last go around is that I have left my beloved companion at home.  That’s right my brown jacket!  So, I am trying to work out a whole new system rather than strapping all of my personal belongs to me disguised as a jacket.  That’s because I just now figured out the joy of….a personal item for flights.  That’s right, I gots myself a man purse to tote all of those personal goodies AND MORE without the weight of a flak jacket (not to mention the constant, “where’s this; where’s that” nonsense I ran into last go around).

First, there is a small story about my man purse.  A long time ago, in a state not so far away, I had to go to a business trip on Father’s day.  I think that it was 2008….but it could have been 2009.  Well the year doesn’t matter.  All that does matter is that I did not want to be there.  I was with my boss and we were trying to find clients at a governmental finance officers convention.  Sounds exciting right?  WRONG!  I spent most of my time working on a report for another (non-governmental bottling company) client.  Those few days I spent there was hell for this introvert.

But, the one nice thing was that the conference gave a nice, NICE, messenger bag for all of the vendors who participated.  The bag was so nice that I decided not to throw it away.  Heck, one day it would make one fine diaper bag.  That’s what Sam thought.

Well the years waned and waxed and….nothing happened with the bag.  It collected dust and sat tucked away forgotten amongst the insulation of our obnoxiously hot attic in Georgia.  Come November of 2012, I refind it in the attic:

“Wow, this is a nice, NICE, messenger bag,” I says to myself.  I threw it through the attic door for Sam to load into a box that will be going to South Carolina.  And then it was forgetten again.

Until….

“So, what are you going to do for a diaper bag in Bulgaria,” Sam asks.

Joey snapped this photo of us loading the luggage into the van.

“I dunno,” I replied, distracted by 1 million other less important things.  “Maybe there’s something out in the garage.”  I know, it sounded just as lame at the time.

A few minutes later, Sam emerges with this nice, NICE messenger bag.  “How about this?”

“Wow!”  Then it was like Divine Providence hit me in the face, here it is, this nice bag will finally meet its destiny.  Well, not before I use it as my personal item to carry many books and a computer into Germany.

Well, they are about to board us onto our night-flight to Munich any minute, so I am going to hang up now.

Dang it….I forgot my restless legs medicine….this might be a long night.  But not before I get some nice Lufthansa din-din!  Wonder what movies they’ll have on the plane….

St. Christopher, pray for us!

God bless,

Sean

Introducing the Littlest Bailey

 

Our baby Leo Michael was born peacefully at home as the sun rose last Sunday morning, August 24th.  Praise be to God!  I labored overnight as our other kids slept, and they woke up in the morning just in time to welcome their new baby brother.  The timing couldn't have been any better!  As magical as it is to welcome your first child, there is something just as magical in being able to share the joy and excitement of welcoming a new baby with the baby's older siblings.  Our eldest, Joey, was able to announce the baby's gender, and our next eldest, Rosemary, helped weigh Leo and announce his birth weight.  The little boys, Paul and Felix, helped Mommy eat her snacks and kiss the baby.  Our midwives were wonderful, feeding us a bacon and egg breakfast, keeping the kids happy, doing the laundry, and even involving the kids in the newborn exam.  We've really been soaking up this 9 pound, 22.5 inch long bundle of love!

Leo will be 9 days old when we drop Sean off at the airport tomorrow.  It has been one amazing week!  And to think this Friday, as in 4 days from today, Sean will be springing Alexander out of the orphanage once and for all.  It feels so surreal.

Felix turned 2 the day after Leo's birth and celebrated with his siblings
by splashing around in the birth-pool-turned-kiddie-pool. 

Daddy will have your new big brother home before you know it, Leo!

 

Also, if you take a look at our adoption savings thermometer on the side bar, you'll see that we have reached the fully funded mark!  What a blessing!  Saving for this adoption felt like David versus Goliath, but thanks to the generosity of friends and strangers, and God's providence in the form of bonuses at work, low living expenses, and Etsy sales to name a few, we're able to bring Alexander home without going into debt. We are so grateful to everyone who offered emotional, financial, and/or prayer support to us in this journey!

Ready to Grow!

Our homegrown baby will most likely be joining us within the next week or two!  We can't wait to find out who this little person is.  We don't know if we're having a boy or a girl, and we don't even really have names picked out.  There are a few names that we like, but nothing definite at this point.  We didn't have names picked out prior to the births of our last two babies, but when we met them we were inspired.  Hope it's the same with this baby!

This is a birthday-heavy time of the year for our family, and it's only getting heavier.  It all starts with Sean's birthday in July...

Then Paul, whose 5th birthday we celebrated this past weekend...

Baby will be born sometime soon...

And Felix will turn 2 at the end of this month!

And then on September 5, Sean will be springing Alexander out of his orphanage once and for all!  Their plane tickets are booked, and Sean leaves in 26 days.  This has been such a long journey--almost 16 months from when we first inquired about him to when he will be arriving home.  That is almost like two biological pregnancies!  It feels very surreal that our little one has less than a month of orphanage life ahead of him, and that his siblings and I will be meeting him in a little over a month. 

How blessed we are!