We've Arrived

Well, we're here ....... what a beautiful city. We're in a very nice apartment in the middle of the center of the town of Sophia. The streets are paved in hexagon bricks and are the smallest streets we've ever seen. There is a lane for parking and just enough room left to drive a car through, everything is one way. The center street is like State Street in Madison -- shops everywhere and no cars driving though. There is an electric trolley that runs from end to end. We'll be exploring all the shops when we return to Sofia on Friday.

Our trip to Bulgaria was typical of the Komoll-Ollmann black cloud travelers .... there were storms in Chicago which caused our flight from Milwaukee to be late -- over an hour ..... that was the beginning. We had plenty of time to catch our connection in O'Hare so that was good, however, after we boarded our flight the storms continued and we sat on the plane, on the runway for almost two hours. The 747 that we were so excited to fly was the most cramped and hot flight we have ever flown -- of course, that flight was the longest! We arrived in Frankfort with just enough time to cross the HUGE airport -- go through 2 passport controls and have our bags x-rayed 3 times. Now that may not sound like a big deal, however, at each screening point we had to unload the computer, the DVD player, the pockets, the shampoos & stuff and all that -- then, on top of going through the scanner without a thing that could possibly beep you still had to be wanded over just in case -- and, of course, when you're in a hurry is when security decides that each of your bags have to be searched manually and you have to go have a "special test" done on the DVD bag so it had to go to the "special test room."

Once we arrived in Bulgaria Petco was waiting for us. What a nice person he is -- he showed us the apartment and walked us to the best place to exchange money, showed us the restaurants close to us and even helped carry the luggage up 3 flights of stairs.

Tomorrow we start our day at 9 a.m. -- we'll head to the notary first. We're doing things a little backward because of the holidays that begin on May 1st. Normally we would meet Gabriela and decide if we were going to continue before filling out the paperwork. They asked us to do it this way to save valuable time, we know that if it doesn't feel right we are not obligated.

The town Gabriela is in is Razgrad -- about 4 hours from Sofia. We will have Petco as our driver and a translator along tomorrow. The foster family and a social worker will meet with us -- the foster family is there to answer any questions that we may have ..... we're really nervous!


Lisa and Hailee -- so glad to hear that you guys had a relaxing day. Did you get time to start on that science project? (see Hailee, I can even nag a bit from Bulgaria) Oh, and Hailee, Dad wants you to know that the floors in our Sofia apartment are just like the floors in Uralsk. There are even dogs running around, just not as many.

Jonathan, Amanda & Hayden - hope that Hayden is feeling better ... please let us know!

Well, guys that's it for now, Jack is already snoring away and I'm exhausted. Will post more later. Love to everyone & remember to keep those comments coming.