Day 1

Day 1 

Her view:

Yesterday was pretty eventful.

We both went to work super early so that we could ensure everything was caught up prior to our trip.  It’s always nice to go somewhere and not worry about what you left behind.  At my job, I am missing graduation (which is next Saturday).  I am a little sad that I will miss seeing so many of our student receiving their diploma, but I’m very happy to be in Bulgaria hanging with my daughter that day!   Bobby is about to get a new commander at work, and there is a big production every time that happens.  His office helps to coordinate these events – and Bobby isn’t there to help.  It’s okay though, we are both stoked to be going to Bulgaria.

After work yesterday we went home changed quickly, and then went to a ballet recital for a local studio here in Germany.  Five girls that we babysit were preforming, as well as one of my colleagues at work.  It was such a cute production, and I am happy we made the time to go.  I was so proud of the girls up on stage! They practiced so hard, and did such an amazing job!

At the performance my friends daughter Big G (yep—totally not her real name) gave me two purses to give to our Princess.  They are so, so adorable! I can’t wait to give them to her (and don’t worry I’ll take lots of pictures). J

On our way home from the ballet recital we got stuck in a stau (aka traffic jam).  We were in this jam for about 90 minutes, for a trip that normally takes about 5.  I took a much needed map and Bobby read one of my US Weekly magazines (I think I just destroyed his man card…) while we waited. 

When we finally made it home we took Lucy over to our friends house (thank you so much for watching her!) and said out goodbyes to our lovely chunky-butt!  Then we went to a friends house to pick up a book for Bobby Economics class that started on Monday. 

By the time we got home it was almost midnight and we had yet to eat dinner or back our clothes.  We were both already tired, but my husband is a super –trooper (as if you already didn’t know this..) and helped (aka did most of the work) packing us and getting us ready.  We called and talked to our parents, went over our suitcases one more time, and I went to bed for a full 90 minutes before our alarm went off!  Bobby decided that 90 minutes wasn’t worth it (silly, silly boy!) and stayed up all night cleaning the house.  When I asked him why he didn’t just relax he told me that he knew when we got home we were both going to be stressed and tired and having a clean house would be one less thing we had to deal with.   We packed two of our rolling duffel suitcases and our two backpacks.  About ½ of the stuff in one suitcase is clothes/toys for our Princess that we are going to leave behind – plus we grabbed some snacks.   ½ of another suitcase is toys and things to entertain our kids during our visits.  We are hoping to replace this stuff with souvenirs, since we know on our 2^nd trip our luggage situation is going to be much less. 

I want to buy something from Bulgaria to put into their rooms, and a few things to give them every year on the Gotcha Day Anniversaries.  Oh man, I can’t wait until Gotcha Day…

Btw, Bobby is amazing.  I’m pretty certain you guys are tired of hearing me say this, but he has been taking care of me, comforting me, being my rock, and pulling more then his share the past couple of days as I have been an emotional mess.  I am so thankful to have him in my life, to walk beside me, to love me, and to travel to Bulgaria to meet our children and eventually bring them home.

When the alarm went off this morning I got up and we both got ready to catch the bus to the Frankfurt Airport.  In case you didn’t know, you can catch a full sized bus (think USO tours size here) from the Ramstein Passenger Terminal to the Frankfurt Airport Monday-Friday at 6 am.  You must call the PAX terminal though prior to showing up to ensure there is space.  Today’s bus was only half full.

We arrived at the airport about 8 am, and went into the USO lounge (AMAZING) and slept until 11am.  Then we went on a hunt for Hooters.  My co-worker, Mike, always asks if we went to the Hooters at the airport every time we are here – and we have yet to.  So we went on a search and figured it would be nice to get an American meal .  Apparently, Hooters has been replaced with a restaurant called Chillers, so we ate there instead.  The food was amazing though and I highly recommend it.  It is in the Airport Mall in the basement of the airport (next to all of the shops and the McDonalds).  Our server was great! Plus, Bobby still got his buffalo wings and I had a delicious Chicken sandwich. 

And now we are sitting waiting for our flight.  Bobby found a Starbucks (another place he really misses from the states), so he just grabbed a coffee and now he is working on his Sudoku while I catch you up on our blog.   

Waiting at the Frankfurt airport for our flight :)

Look at me being all proactive – see now I’ll have something to post tonight.  Otherwise you would just be getting – we made it.  We are tired.  Good night! 

You’re welcome!

Love,

Lura

Day 1 – His View

The wifey snapped a picture while I was typing up my first blog....

I’m easy guys, my writing skills are sub-par for even a 7^th grader. Which means Lura makes me look like a two year old struggling to use a crayon. Anyways, yesterday hasn’t even ended for me so this will be a view from someone who may or may not become a cranky-pants by the end of it.

Work was a challenge pretty much all day. I can’t say I actually accomplished anything that could be considered helpful in my job, but I did straighten out a lot of loose ends that we needed to get taken care of before our trip.

The rest of the day is still mostly a blur. Maybe tomorrow I can tell you what I have actually retained as actual memory. We did go to a ballet performance that many of our friend’s children were in. It was enjoyable for the most part, but it is hard not to feel out of place when you don’t have any children of your own that are performing. They all did a great job and there were lots of high-fives to go around.

After ballet was a lot of running around and scrambling to finish everything before we went to bed. By the time we could comfortably say we were ready to leave it was already past 3am. At this time, my body had just reached some sort of energy explosion and I knew there was no way of going to bed. So I let Lura sleep and I fixed the house up as best I could. Some sort of tornado comes through the house every time we pack, and I just wanted it cleaned up before we left. It may still be slightly messy, but at least I know that a new ecosystem won’t be waiting for when we come home.

That brings us to where we are now. I woke Lura up with enough time to get ready for the shuttle to the Frankfurt airport and it took about 2 hours to get here. After waiting a few hours with maybe 30-40 minutes of dozing off, we finally checked in to our flight. We were able to find coffee a few minutes ago and I should be able to sustain myself until the flight.  

I am very nervous and excited about the trip but my exhaustion is keeping it in check for the most part. I am looking forward to sleeping as much as I can tomorrow so that I am a normal person when we finally meet the kids. I know everyone reading this is excited for us too, so we will keep you up to date all along the way. Wish us luck!!

-Bobby

 Day 1 cont'd - Her View-

This was the sign when we got off the plane -- Thank you Bulgaria -- I think I will... :)

So we made it to Bulgaria. Our layover in Vienna, Austria was only 17 minutes (from the time we landed, went through security, passport control, and sprinted through the airport) until we were back on the plane to Sofia.  Our plane out of Frankfurt was 35 minutes behind schedule...:(

We made it though!

Here are a few pictures from the airplane:

Toni (our attorney in Sofia) picked us up from the airport.  Her brother Marty will be our driver while we are here and Eva will be our translator starting on Sunday.  We get picked up in our lobby at 10am for our drive to the coast.  

We checked into our hotel and ate dinner at the hotel restaurant (its was almost 10pm and we didn't want to venture too far tonight). 

Now its shower and bed time! Tomorrow it is time to explore!

Love, 

Lura

p.s. Toni is amazing and gave us actual pictures of our kids from their original referral letter (or something like that -- it is in Bulgarian and I have no idea what it says).  We have a picture of our Prince from when he was  a bit younger (I'll take a picture this weekend and put it up), and another picture of our daughter (she was missing one of her front teeth in it). :)  So so excited!!!