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?
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| 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.
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| 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
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