Settling in Sofia

We've been in Bulgaria 3 weeks now. We've been busy with all sorts of things. Mike more so than me. They have him running around a lot. He's had this lingering cold for the past 2 weeks but now he is feeling better. He hasn't had a chance to get over it because it's just been go, go, go. He's so great! Doing all these things with a smile on his face and without a single complaint. My cousin Sasha, or "Sasho" as the Bulgarians say, does not stop moving from sun up to like midnight, no joke! He's constantly on the move. Between work and his ministry and his kids and getting their business going and doing things around the house he literally only sits down to eat and even then its only for a few minutes. And I thought Mike ate fast. So Mike has been his wingman. I've mostly been helping with babysitting (what else is new? right?); But also with their store. Sasha and His wife Oksana run a thrift store and the opening of their second store was this last week. There was a lot of work with fixing up the space and getting everything in there and up and in an organized fashion. And getting it ready for opening day. Not to mention decorating for the holiday season. It's been really nice getting to know his family. I knew them from their annual trip to California (during which they come to my parents one of the evenings they are in town) but only enough to keep up with how old the kids are pretty much. The kids teach me Bulgarian. Mark's children's books and Diana's Disney channel are also a great help! I'm still scared to speak it but I am getting a lot more comfortable with the understanding part, when people speak slowly.

Thursday and Friday of last week and this week were spent plugging into some of the ministries they have going. This girl Mariana goes around to the really poor gypsy villages and teaches the kids to read and write. There are no laws that require kids to go to school. Although most kids do go to school there are a lot of children that do not, and have not...ever. It was really sad to see girls, bigger than me, that could not copy the simplest of letters from a piece of paper onto the board. Reminded me of toddlers that haven't developed their fine motor skills. That's exactly what it was though, they just hadn't ever used a writing utensil. One of the girls had her nails painted she has to have fine motor skills to do that and they probably use silverware. But I'm sure it's different. Mariana says it was really difficult to get them civilized enough to create a classroom setting. Things like waiting their turn to speak and staying in their seats were foreign to them. It was good when we joined them though, it looked and felt like a typical classroom. She constantly needs to remind them to wear clean clothes and clean themselves before they come to school. I imagine it being very difficult for Mariana, she does this on her own. There were approximately 15 kids; all different ages and different levels of understanding. She has 3 groups of kids and meets with each one 2x a week for about 3 hrs each time. Thank God for people like her. She was so loving and patient with them. I was in awe! Another ministry we were able to help out with was visiting orphanages. One was for kids ages 0-7 and the other kids 7-18. I have met orphan kids before but I have never been to an orphanage. That was quite the experience. It was very difficult for me to see all those kids without a home or a loving family environment. Especially the one with the younger children. It felt and looked like a giant preschool. They had to like herd the kids along. Even if you gave the slightest amount of attention to one of them they would just be beaming. Or some of them didn't even know how to react; one of the many things that made me cry. Being in an orphanage and seeing how the kids live and how many forgotten kids there are is difficult for anyone to see I'm sure but with my exceptional love and compassion towards children it was especially hard. We went to the older orphanage 2 times and to the younger one once. I definitely need to prepare myself emotionally for when I see the little kids again. I have a favorite little girl there. But I forgot her name:( from the moment I walked into the room where they were all waiting for us I noticed her. It wasn't even the fact that she was really cute, it was more so how she acted. She would like blush every time I smiled at her. A lot of the kids are pushy and clingy but not this one. I don't know if they are taught this but when we were leaving they started to say "az iskam s tebe" which translates " I want to go with you". I did not know how to react. It was very difficult to fall asleep that night. I could not get them out of my head. Seeing a real orphanage definitely had a huge impact on me. I hope we get a chance to help them to a higher degree. We go back there on the 20th with our Christmas program but I want to see if I can discuss with someone about spending a little bit more time there and maybe on a regular basis. I would like to volunteer to help them with their daily routine, not just come and hang out for an hour every Friday. They only brought out the kids that were 3+ but they have little babies! That is going to break my heart!

The next two weeks will be spent visiting 25 different orphanages/old people homes in the city of Sofia and a lot of surrounding cities. We will leave as early as 630 am and not return as late as 10pm. We will make as many as 3 visits a day and we hear we will be doing quite a bit of driving. We will go with a Christmas program and with gifts. We spent all of yesterday preparing gifts and practicing a puppet show for the kids. We are really excited to take part in this.

We have been in our own apartment 1 week now. It is now beginning to feel like we're actually living here as opposed to visiting. We also have our own car. We will post more information about our new lives very soon. Now we're off to sleep as we have an early morning tomorrow and for the next two weeks.