Starting of Something Special

Good morning Bulgaria!  How’s the traffic out there?  Not bad?  OK!  Time to start the day.

Now it looks like I’m getting into a routine now.  Breakfast was at the same time as yesterday and it was roughly the same thing as yesterday, and Yavor and I talked about the same sort of things as yesterday at breakfast.  Seems routine.

So, today the first visit with Abraham would be centered around going to the photographer to get his photo for his visa.  Seems fishy to be taking out a credit card so young?!  NO!  Not that kind of Visa!  This is so that he can eventually become an American Citizen.  But, first it was play time.

Now, it looks like Abraham is starting to get bored of playing the waiter game with the cups.  He played with it a little and then went to look for some other toys.  I watched him do his imaginative play because I needed to ask a boatload of questions to the doctor.  Before now, I’ve been picking off questions off of the list and following up with appropriate questions rather than just going down the list of questions that we had.  Reason being I’d rather play with Abraham.  So, due to my lack of diligence, I had to make up with grilling of the staff.

I was able to feed Abraham some more of those cookies, and I have to say that I am very impressed with his motor skills, both fine and gross.  He would ever so delicately pick up the cookie piece that I broke off for him and he would put it in his mouth.  And better yet, when the cookie was done, he knew that it was time to go off and play.

Abraham checks out the cups while the social worker and Yavor look on.

But today, he seemed to get bored of the playroom a little too quickly.  I tried to show him the magna-doodle that we brought but he would have nothing of it.  Same reaction to the little green plane.  He would make his way to the door of the room and point at it.  He didn’t care for being in that room; he wanted to be out.  The problem was that we needed to wait for the driver to come.

One thing that Abraham seems to not like is to wear his jacket for too long while playing.  Bulgarians in general tend to bundle up in layers.  Almost all Bulgarians that I have seen are wearing a thick jacket with most probably a t-shirt underneath.  But anyway, Abraham comes to me and shows me that he wants the jacket off, so I oblige him.  Underneath he has at least two t-shirts on – more than enough for playing inside in my opinion.

After a while, and after grilling the doc on my last couple of medical questions, the driver came and was ready to take us.  Because we were going out, Abraham needed his jacket, and the staff tried to put his jacket on.  He would have none of it – he was crying and fussing and did not want his jacket put on.  At this point I saw the most familiar sight and I knew what to do.  I stepped in and got his jacket on him all the while during the fussing and then scooped him up.  He hunkered down on me and was calm in the blink of an eye.  It was beautiful.

Now, in Bulgaria, children do not generally ride in car seats.  They sit in the back (or on the Mama’s lap, unless she’s driving.  I don’t know, maybe even if the Mama is driving.  Got to start early if you want to drive on those crazy streets!).  The driver had his car right by the front door for us to hop in.  I helped Abraham in as he sat down between Yavor and me.

During the drive he was so well behaved.  I think he really loved the driving especially the stopping and going and sharp turns etc.  Once we got to the photographer, I held his hand as we walked.

It was a somewhat steep walk, but he handled it very well.  The photographer’s studio was rather small but served its purpose well.  It was a small room in the back of the shop that was set up with the background and lighting.  They put Abraham on a pink stool and took a couple of photos and that was it.

Pretty much the way back was just like it was on the way there; Abraham was so well behaved and the driving was insane.  Yavor was thinking that he might figure out a better way to the orphanage because the photographer was close to our hotel, but he said that the roads he took were too small and had too many cars.  It was interesting to say the least.

When we got back, it was time for Abraham’s lunch to commence.  So we said out “Ciao’s” and went back toward the hotel for lunch.

Yavor first went to pick up the photos from the photographer.  The parking around the photographer was packed and in fact many people started to double park, Yavor being no exception.

“You know how to drive manual?” Yavor says to me as he is hopping out of the car to get the photos.

“Uuuhhhh….no, no I don’t.”

“Ok.”  And Yavor takes the keys and goes.  I spent what felt like 20 minutes looking furtively around to make sure that the owners of the cars that we blocked in did not come back.  That was about as nervous as I’ve been all trip long.  Thankfully, Yavor made it back before the drivers of the other cars.

We had lunch and went back to the orphanage for round two.

We were again in the play room as the weather outside was slightly cold.  And they do not like taking the little ones outside in the cold at all.  So, we played and ate cookies like he usually did, but Abraham was more restless, he didn’t want to be in that room – he wanted outside.

We were able to distract him by playing the piano for a little bit.  He first sat in the social worker’s lap and would press on the keys one at a time.  Then he would play two notes at a time.  Each time he sounded a note, he listened intently at the sound of the note as if it had more to say than F#.  I then set Abraham on the chair by himself in front of the piano just to see what he would do by himself and he was happy for a while just playing on the piano.

Abraham got tired of that and again would go for the door of the playroom, he wanted to go outside.  So, the social worker consented to have him go outside for a walk around the building just so he can be outside.  We put on his jacket and away we went.

I held his hand as we walked outside the front door.  The “front” door opened up into a decent expanse of asphalt.  Across from the front door on the other side of the pool of asphalt was a half retaining wall over which we could see wildlife running free.  I took Abraham over there to take a look.  I held him up to touch the leaves of a pine tree (or some sort of conifer) and to look at some chickens that were walking about amongst the grass.  He seemed to take everything in stride and just liked being out of the building.

I held his hand as we walked around towards the back where the play-yard was.  He was absolutely content just holding my hand and walking.  Even when we got to the back, he did not try to pull free from me to go play, a reaction I expected from my four other kids at home.  He was happy even to walk up the stairs and go back into the building.

By the time we were back to the play room, it was time for his snack.  In a way, I am really glad to see that he is bored here because that shows that he really wants to learn more, see more, experience more – something that he will get in spades once back home.

Unfortunately, the next day we will only be able to see him in the morning, but we will have a longer session starting at 8:30.  So this means only two more visits before I have to go home.  It makes me sad to think about leaving him here, but I know that eventually he will be in a much better place.

Before ending off, I had a most interesting experience.  After dinner, as Yavor and I were walking back, we heard the sounds of traditional Bulgarian music filling the streets.  They were having a concert not too far away so we decided to check it out.

Traditional Bulgarian music can be summed up as trying to cram as many notes as possible in the shortest amount of time.  And, they don’t have a really regular time signature.  Very interesting to listen to it.

St. Christopher, pray for us!

God bless,

Sean