When two becomes FOUR

What’s a beach?

2011-11-06T11:41:00.001-08:00

This, among others, is a question that we imagine our kids think when we talk about going new places (and when we arrive there). At about two months home there was a going away gathering for a friend in a park right on the water. It was the first time we really ventured out and decided it would be a ‘safe’ place to gauge how Jonathon and Madison were doing (nice, open environment).

This was the first time either of them had ever seen water outside of a bathtub and been to a beach-like place (it’s not a ‘real’ beach but since it was low tide it counted as one)! We had no idea what to expect, would they be scared? run away from us to go to someone new? love it? Madison (who is turning out to be our risk taker) immediately wanted to check it out. Jonathon, who is more reserved, was content staying in Joe’s arms and observing for awhile.

Both kids impressed us by staying with us the entire day. They were curious about other people just looking at them (Madison gave them all her serious stare down), but were interested only in being with us or near the other kids. One example of how great they did was Madison was playing with a couple kids a little ways away when her water shoe came off. She picked up the shoe and handed it to friends daughter and pointed at Myra then started walking towards her. Myra was in a group of a couple other women, but Madison made sure that the shoe got to her to help get it back on!

The low tide made for a lot of tide pools with a ton of hermit crabs of all sizes. It didn’t take long before both kids were really into it and having a blast. A good friend of ours took amazing pictures for us:

Our original plan was only to stay for an hour or maybe two because of nap times and not wanting it to be too much for the kids. However, Madison was having so much fun we couldn’t put a stop to it and Jonathon surprised us by falling asleep on Joe and then staying asleep on a nearby blanket!

Some friends had a homemade ice cream contraption that different people took turns with, resulting a very good chocolate milkshake. Madison really enjoyed this – another first!

Our First Month Home

2011-10-17T05:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay…we are SO behind! At the request of many we are not going to wait to catch up on everything (since these catch up entries take forever and are super long) so we will be switching from past events to current blurbs about the kids progress (after this one!). Here’s a past one (obviously)!

Wow – that first month! It seems like an eternity ago, yet it really has not been so long. That first month held some big challenges but also some of the greatest joys we've ever felt. We all know that learning how to be a family is challenging, we ‘knew’ this too…but did not REALLY 'know' it. Nor did we anticipate what this new family would look like when two scared, unsure two year olds were brought thousands of miles to a new home (something they had never imagined) where only English was spoken and with parents (also a new concept) who had never parented before! Twins is an absolute blessing and we think it's great for them to have each other...but it also keeps you on your toes!

The first couple days home were a lot of fun watching the kids discover all the new fun toys (real toys and objects that became toys) in our house and start to learn about their new home. Jonathon can’t seem to resist luggage and both kids love their little kitchen…here they are looking at each other through the microwave window. Good friends from Oregon sent us a ton of wonderful clothes that actually fit the kids now (so many of the clothes we had for them were way too big). As you can see Madison liked the box they came in (it helped that Joe dragged her around the house in this box).

The first couple weeks were riddled with many tantrums, mostly from Madison. Myra swore one night that the cops were sure to show up at our door as Madison screamed like a banshee for hours in the middle of the night and the neighbors blocks away were certain to have heard. We were at a loss some nights and just tried lots of holding (when they would let us) and tried to just talk to them. We knew they were grieving immensely, were confused and felt out of control, however we still found our patience running thin and questioned if we were up for this! It was tough and thank God for his strength and understanding friends and families who listened with care.

Sleeping was one of the hardest things, often consisting of an hour and a half (at least) of crying and screaming before we could get them to sleep. We quickly gave up the ‘ideal’ family bed for portable cribs next to our bed as no one was getting any sleep this first way! Jonathon took to his immediately, seeming relieved to have his own space. Madison cried and screamed the first night like we were abandoning her, it was heart-breaking. But, she also quickly seemed to really like her ‘own’ bed. Madison is very against rocking and at nap or bed time and immediately wants to be let down into the crib. Joe is able to rock Jonathon to sleep and he seems to really need this to calm down and allow himself to go to sleep. However, toward the end of this first month Madison wouldn’t go to sleep unless Myra was rubbing her back – progress! We settled on what our routine would be before bed (and for the whole day really) and kept things very very structured. We saw such a change in the kids (less fear) when they knew what to expect each day. For this first month, we really stuck to the same activities with very little deviation.

We quickly discovered that Madison really liked to ‘help’. Myra was carrying out laundry one day with Madison in tow (Madison likes to follow either of us when we leave the room). Myra turned around and Madison had disappeared, she then immediately came running with some clean clothes she found so she could carry some too. Those clothes were extra clean that day. She also likes to imitate us with sweeping or wiping the table:

As mentioned, both kids were scared to death of the bath tub. After a couple weeks home and one very messy day of playing with the water table outside (and Joe dumping water over his head...then letting the kids do it to him), Madison decided the tub wasn’t so bad and started to cry when it was time to get OUT! Jonathon was still very scared of it, but we could see him watching Madison closely and had high hopes. We tried some playtime in the bath tub with clothes on, but he still wasn’t buying it with water!

Another VERY exciting event this first month was Jonathon started to walk on his own after being home about a 1.5 weeks! With lots and lots of encouragement he went from only taking 3 or 4 steps then crawling to walking all around the house on his own he became pretty steady in just a few days – it was so wonderful to see! Once he started, there was no stopping him! Being able to walk also opened up so many more opportunities for development and we saw such a huge change in him in this area as well.

The days seemed to really fly this first month and we probably would not have eaten if it wasn’t for great friends who provided us with 2-3 meals every week! We are SO SO SO thankful for all the fabulous food we were given, we had never eaten so well! At the beginning of the month the kids still (understandingly) had food issues were they would scream and cry for it as soon as they saw any, but towards the end they were becoming much more selective…starting that typical two-year old behavior. Now they are almost TOO picky :) ! They do have some favorites that are ALWAYS a hit: yogurt, fruit, chicken tenders (for Jonathon) and hot dogs/sausage (for Madison). They also really enjoyed their first chocolate pudding:

It was quite hard being cooped up and not being able to have visitors for more than a few minutes, although we really knew it was necessary and for the best (we can really see how important that was looking back now as well). Still, we tried to escape for a couple short trips in the car to get the kids use to it and we really enjoyed our backyard. Both Jonathon and Madison were so excited when they saw the big wheels, once on they were off – staying on the curving path quite well! They also really like being pulled around in the wagon.

Our cat has been one of the big sources of conflict in the house. Anyone who knows her understands this well. It doesn’t seem like anyone is backing down – who will win?

Despite the challenges, there has been so much joy as well. It is so fun to watch the kids discover new things and just be kids…we are really starting to see their personalities emerge and they are fun and full of life! The kids are really staying near us throughout the day and there is even a little cuddling….no real eye contact yet or affection initiated, but it is way too soon to expect that! Here are some fun pictures (links to a few more):

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Just because you haven’t seen enough, here are a couple favorite pictures (can you tell we are proud new parents?).

Believe it or not, that’s just a snapshot of our first month! It’s still just so amazing to think that less than a year ago we never imagined that our family would look like this! Stay tuned for some bullets of what month 2 had in store! Even more awesome changes!

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1)

Home at Last: LATE on August 6th, 2011

2011-10-15T12:14:00.001-07:00

When we FINALLY arrived in Tampa after about 24 hours of travelling, both kids were soundly asleep. A couple friends met us at the airport - they brought us our car so we didn’t need to park for so long, try to drag the kids and all the luggage to the car and/or drive home after all that traveling! Thank goodness! Here are some pictures they took of our first minutes on the ground in our home state:

We visited for a few minutes at home while the kids took it all in (thankfully they slept the car ride home, we were worried about the car seats being scary to them because of strapping them in). They left us with some food in our fridge (on top of a full fridge thanks to a couple of Myra’s friends at work!), we were thankful we didn’t need to think about that! Then off to bed we all went to try and find some sleep….

That Fateful Plane Ride Home (AKA “Are we there yet????!!!”)

2011-10-14T04:10:00.001-07:00

We will apologize up front as this is not a very exciting post and sounds a bit negative, it is really mostly for our memories….we are in catch up mode so fun pictures to arrive soon!!

~~~~~August 6^th, 2011: Time to go home!

After very little sleep, 4:30am arrived, we had all the suitcases by the door and really just needed to get ourselves ready, make coffee that we didn’t drink and then change the kids. A confused Jonathon and Madison snuggled into their ergobabies and we were able to get all the suitcases downstairs and into the car with little hassle. We rode with a woman and her teenage daughter, also from America that were on their first trip to meet siblings, 3 and 6. Our Vesta agent helped us get all check in.

The flight from Sofia to Munich was pretty uneventful and fairly calm. Then we had a 3 hour layover in Munich where Madison would whine to get down, then up and down and up and down….. We were able to entertain her for a solid 10 minutes chasing her up and down in a less crowded portion of the airport. We tried food as a distraction...fruit and a parfait…the GROSSEST ever…so sad….We also allowed them to climb on the airport ‘golf cart’ (picture below) with only a few dirty looks from passer-bys (all without any kids probably!) – don’t judge us for wanting 10 more minutes of happiness before an 8 hour plane ride!

Next we had to wait in a rather long line for the United agents to ask a whole slew of detailed questions of each passenger. The kids did okay at first, but when it was our turn they squirmed and cried and did not want to stay put during the questioning that probably lasted 5 minutes, but felt like 30! Right before boarding Madison fell asleep in the Ergobaby. We were in the middle row of 5 seats, taking the two end seats in the hope that no one would sit in the middle….but, alas there was someone who had that seat (they gladly took the aisle and let us all sit together). There really is no sugar coating it – this was not a pleasant flight. Madison made it about ½ hour after take off, and never slept again. About an eternity into the flight with crying, screams, distracting with different toys, distracting with food and walking, we realized we only made it 2 hours!! We both looked at each and said ‘I don’t think I can make it!’. The flight attendants were surprising unfriendly about the kids (just attitudes is all we can describe). Thankfully, a few of the passengers were very kind and sympathetic….one lady said “oh, don’t you worry, what comes around goes around…I use to travel like this by myself with 3 kids and you know people shuddered when they saw me coming’!” Jonathon eventually did fall asleep (after many attempts by Joe to sit down with him, only to have him wake up! Eventually Joe was able to sit down, but the way Jonathon was laying on him put his arm to sleep, however Joe said “I would rather lose my arm than wake this child!” Madison refused sleep…Myra even had her laying across 3 seats (Myra was on the floor) to try and get her as comfortable as possible…hours later and no luck. The kids would not eat hardly any of the air plane food (do you blame them?), but thankfully we packed crackers and half a loaf of bread….their favorite – talk about carb overload! Ten minutes before we landed, Madison fell fast asleep…..

Next up – customs in DC!

After landing and waiting in the customs line and showing them the envelope for the kids we were directed to get our bags, recheck and go to the customs office. What a nightmare baggage claim was! They had TWO baggage carousels with about 12 international flights…talk about over stimulating and overwhelming for the kids! There were so so many people everywhere, a bit mob like at times…thankfully we had them tight against us in the carriers – otherwise we aren’t sure what would have happened! After quite a long wait (not surprising) for the baggage we were able to squeeze into the line to recheck our baggage. Next up we headed to the customs and immigration office, there was a large sign to leave our baggage outside the door (which we did reluctantly) and then we handed our paperwork to the agent. This had to seriously be the rudest agent and we were very embarrassed that he was who welcomed people to our country. There was a lady ahead of us in a wheelchair (at least in her 80s, maybe 90s) that he was trying to get fingerprints and he was SCREAMING at her because she wasn’t relaxing her hand enough or something…afterwards he muffled sarcastically “welcome to the United States…good luck”. Then a father and son came into the room (pulling a piece of luggage) and he yelled at them “Can’t you see the sign?!?...do you see anyone else with baggage in here?!?!!....that means LEAVE IT OUTSIDE”…wow. He was okay with us, abeit mumbling under his breath about the first customs agent messing up or something. But, it was over soon enough and we were able to leave that unhappy place…hoping that he actually routed our paperwork correctly! Our kids were now US Citizens!!!

Of course looking back, we’ve forgotten the pain and we think ‘it wasn’t so bad’….our advice for those who have yet to travel (which was given to us) is just don’t worry about what the other passengers think – you will never see any of them again!

Delayed Picture Sharing

2011-08-20T11:44:00.001-07:00

We wanted to share some of our favorite pictures from our first week together as a family (in Bulgaria). You can double click on the pictures to make them larger. We took soooo many it was hard to choose! Below is our first family picture on Gotcha Day (in their orphanage) and pictures waiting for (and on the plane) from Sofia to Varna":

While waiting for Vesta the kids like to walk around all the suitcase (and play with the wheels) and look at photo book we made them from the first trip (with lots of pictures of them with us):

In between appointments, we spent the week almost exclusively in the apartment playing. The kids LOVED the singing Elmo microphone (still do, after 3 weeks we are dreaming in Elmo voices and songs). The tub picture was Myra’s attempt at convincing the kids the tub was fun…didn’t work!:

The kids were very interested in the washing machine (after they stopped being afraid of it).

Here are a couple pictures from the Munich airport during our ~3hr layover. Yup, we were THOSE parents that allowed our kids to climb on airport owned equipment to allow for 10 more minutes for entertaining.:

It’s okay to throw up the White Flag

2011-08-11T12:11:00.001-07:00

Catching up….Our last day day in Bulgaria was pretty much filled with playtime and trepidation over what the next day had in store for us. How on earth would were going to get our kids home on the long flight and all stay sane? Well, one day at a time.

Thankfully we spent a lot of time sight-seeing on our first trip to Bulgaria because there was no time for that this trip. We chose to really not go out much because the busy streets, cars, stores, etc. were all just too stimulating and we wanted this week to be our first week of cocooning in order to build a secure attachment (which will of course be months to years down the road). Friday was no exception.

I’m sure there were funny tidbits from the day (they entertain us on pretty much an hourly basis with cute and funny things). Many/most of the videos we took end abruptly because Jonathon crawled over to grab the camera or we needed to throw the camera down quickly to go stop some impending damage yelling ‘neigh’ along the way (‘no’).

Madison still had a Myra fetish which is actually a good sign, that she is on her way to hopefully attaching with her. But, she is much more open to play from Joe which is actually great considering it had been less than a week. We did go buy some more diapers at the pharmacy for the trip home and they ended up being too large, but manageable (since we had no choice anyway!). Madison went down for a nap, but after much trial, Jonathon refused so we let it go… Petko came by early evening to drop off the kids Visas, Immigration paperwork and discuss what to expect while passing through Passport control and US Customs & Immigration. That was it – our case was closed and our kids could finally enter the country!

We had bath time again and tried to coax them by playing with toys outside the tub and throwing them in, but it didn’t help. We decided to just try and get it over with quickly, poor things! We tried to order take out from Pizza Roma again, but today the kids didn’t like ANY of it. Thank goodness we still had lots of bread/pasta/etc for back up, we’ll be sure to have better options for back up once home! Bedtime was awful, we tried to put them to bed for about 1-1.5 hours and eventually threw up the white flag. Of course we tried so hard not to laugh, but they were so cute playing and singing to each other. We just couldn’t calm them and looked at each other said, ‘we surrender’!. We still needed to pack, it was about 8:45 and we needed to be up at 4 am! Myra brought the kids into the other bedroom (where all our clothes were) to let the kids play while Joe concentrated on the living room (where all the toys and random things were). About 9:45pm we could see signs that bedtime would probably work with little fight so we tried again and success! About 11:30pm we had everything packed and were ready to try for some sleep, in the end the only thing we forgot to pack was a couple DVDs we brought – at least that’s all we’ve discovered so far!

4am was going to come might early…

Don't cry over spilled Cheerios

2011-08-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

Last nights sleep went pretty well. Jonathon rolled out onto Joes mattress (the twin mattress on the one side of the bed) but was unphased so he left him there. It's only about a 6 inch drop from mattress to mattress. Of course 45 minutes later he was uncomfortable so Joe put him back up on the bed and he was asleep in no time (why isnt it this easy all the time!) Happened one more time during the night, about about 1am but again a quick plop to the middle of the king bed and he was out. Madison rolled onto Myras mattress about 430am and she was also unphased so Myra let her stay there until she started kicking Myra in the head for a while as she squirmed. They both stayed asleep until about 7am...not bad!

Again they played for awhile when they woke up and then we went out in the living room. We went for scrambled eggs again since they were a hit, but this time we made some for us too. They did pretty well allowing us to have some bites for ourselves. Again, Madison didnt finish hers but Jonathon cleaned the plate, minus the jarred strawberries that neither of them liked. And of course no meal is complete without lots of bread.

Madison played by the bathtub with Myra again, throwing things into the tub, Jonathon however hugs the hallway on the side to avoid the bathroom altogether. We've decided to put off bathing for one night....

The kids played for a bit and Jonathon occasionally led Joe back into the kitchen, so he eventually finished Madison's plate and had some more bread. Petko called about 10:45am and said he would be by at 1:30pm to take us to the US Embassy for the visa interview. Of course, right in the middle of naptime, we improvised. We fed them some macaroni and cheese, peaches, and ....bread around 11:15 to suffice for lunch and then tried for naptime. After an hour rocking, chasing, and listening to Jonathon scream we gave up and said no nap for him. Madison was asleep after lots and lots of screaming in about 45 minutes which at least gave Myra a chance to shower and grab some bread and cheese to eat for lunch. Joe got ready then and dressed Jonathon while Myra woke Madison up at 1:15pm (she wasn't exactly thrilled about that). Petko came and they both did well on the ride to the Embassy and in the waiting area. Since Madison seemed so scared yesterday Myra had kept her tightly strapped to her in the Ergobaby carrier the whole car ride (no, there are no car seats here) – this seemed to do the trick!

When we first entered the waiting area, Jonathon happily pointed to a picture of President Obama and shouted “BEBE!” (of course many pictures of a people get labeled as 'Bebe', but we got a laugh out of it). Jonathon loved swinging a velvet rope at one end of the long room (the opposite end of where Myra and Madison were sitting). Madison knew it looked like fun and after a bit of coaxing came running down to Joe to take a swing. So great to see her smiling face come to him. He usually only gets to see if from afar while she is playing with Myra! Joe has fed her a couple times, but she only gets halfway through and then needs Myra. So there is still lots of progress to make, we just have to wonder how long that will take, will she attach to him?

The wait was really good as Jonathon walked Joe around the place. He is really starting to pick up some speed but not confident enough to walk around without support unless its 5 steps or so from Myra to Joe. MAJOR improvement over where he was just 4 months ago when we visited. He has come a LONG way in those 4 months and we are so proud of him and thankful to the caretakers.

They got a little fussy but again Cheerios to the rescue. We got called into the interview room ("The Long FAMILY"... that has a nice ring to it)! And this is really where the only trouble was. Myra forgot to close to Madison's bag of cheerios (and Madison has to be independent and carry it herself) and so cheerios went everywhere. Which meant Myra scuffling to the interview room with Madison with her hands full to say we're sorry but we'll be there in a minute and Joe and Jonathon try to pick up the Cheerios. Not the scavenger hunt we were looking to have! A nice man came over to help and get cleaned up so we could go get interviewed for the kids visa's! They have bulgarian passports and a visa to enter the US, but they will immediately be US citizens when we land in DC on Saturday (yikes, that plane ride is only two days away...). The "interview" was really just a guy congratulating us.

The ride back was uneventful and we got back to the apartment around 330pm. We gave the kids some yogurt, bread, and peaches for a snack, this time Madison finishing hers and Jonathon (when distracted, not finishing his. Definite improvement but a lot of other times as soon as the food is gone (ie cheerios, mac and cheese, etc) he goes into a tantrum. We're very afraid of the plane ride when we may not be able to distract when the food is gone, and that NEITHER of them is going to sleep.

The kids were playing and eventually walked/crawled into the bedroom to play around. Myra and Madison left at one point and while messing around in the kitchen they decided to walk up the road a block to the pharmacy to get some medicine (Myra has come down with a bad head cold). Before they were back (less than 10 minutes), Jonathon was asleep...tired boy!

Joe went down the street to get some food for dinner and by the time he came back, Madison had dragged Myra into the kitchen to each two more bowls of yogurt and some bread. Hungry girl! Then she had a piece of pizza on top of that. She played for a bit and then the usual screaming bedtime with the girl asleep about 45 minutes later (7:45pm). We agonized over whether to wake Jonathon up. he's been sleeping since about 5:00pm....will he make it through the night? Joe went in to see how sound asleep he was (caressing his head, kissing his forehead, etc) and he didn't flinch at all so we let him sleep. We may be in for a disaster come 3am but he went to sleep so easily we hardly wanted to pass this up.

They were both in bed so early that we are finally sitting down to drink that anniversary wine. Just peeked in on them – it's amazing how they can start in the center and so quickly end up on the edge of the bed – certain to fall on us again!

Number 9

2011-08-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday our wedded bliss turned nine years old. We can honestly say that 9 years ago, this isn't where we thought we would be, but God led us on this path and its been a roller coaster that is entering an amazing loop.

Tuesday night both Jonathon and Madison slept all through the night (without any falling out of bed) until about 6:45 (when Jonathon heard the alarm Myra had set on super low setting because we needed everyone ready by 9am). Upon waking up the kids just loved playing in bed with each other. Rolling around, laughing, giggling, etc. So Myra took that opportunity to hop in the shower and Madison seemed ok with her departure. After awhile Joe coaxed the kids out of the room (it was clear they were waiting to be removed from the bed like they were their cribs). We went in the living room and looked through some photo books. Myra had made two books of all the pictures from our first trip of us with the kids. The ones we left after our first trip only had pictures of the two of us and we thought this would be great for them to see how they had been with us before. They loved looking through these books. So much so that Madison stayed in the living room with Joe the entire time Myra showered and got ready. Amazing. The behavior didn't stick, but he'll take any moment he can. For those of you that know Joe well, he is often a a favorite of kids so Madison's 'fear' of him is rather heartbreaking at times.

Joe made some scrambled eggs, strawberry jam on croissant, and some peaches. Both the kids LOVED the eggs (and the bread of course). Sorry for the details...some of you may think its a bit much but grandparents like to picture every moment and Myra and I want a way to remember every moment. They actually sat in the kitchen eating their bread while he made the eggs so thats little improvement (but they still needed some food). Kitchen has now become synonymous with food.

We were all set by 9 and waited for Petko to take us to the medical clinic for their appointments. They were a little fussy by the end of the ride (Madison especially) but made it through the wait for the doctor thanks to the blessing of Cheerios. The doctors visit itself was very quick. He checked their lungs, heartbeat and then reviewed their immunization records and that was it. 10 minutes tops for both of them. Then Petko waited in the doctors room for him to finish the paperwork and we headed down to the cafe. joe picked up a couple of juices and was looking for another snack when the lady behind the counter asked what he needed. He said a kids snack so we went in the back room and grabbed some puffs snacks. The four us ate this big bag of puffs (breakfast for Myra and Joe) and they had some juice. The doctor filled out a name incorrectly so Petko had to come down for another form which means the puffs didnt last long enough (thats a recipe for disaster). So we headed outside to distract them and wait. Madison seemed drawn to talk to boys (about 10), even grabbing one's hand - but did not appreciate any adult males talking to her. Petko arrived withn 10 minutes and we headed back for the apartment. When we hit the bumpy cobble streets Madison screamed for the last 10 minutes home. When Petko reached the apartment, he stopped in the street and said "Just put them to bed". Ha - didn't need to suggest that twice, that's what we did. Took about 45 minutes to get them alseep but it was worth it. We skipped lunch because they had eaten so many snacks already.

During naptime we made something to eat and checked our email. It was about 2:30 or so when Joe checked his email an say a message from our friend saying Happy Anniversary. To which he turned to Myra and said "Oh crap, happy anniversary", and after second she said 'Oh, yeah, happy anniversary!" Needless to say a bottle of wine went on the grocery list for today.

Madison woke up about 330 and had a gerber meal (still so thankful we packed so many small meals and snacks!), and once again we woke Jonathon up after about a 3 hour nap. He also had a meal and we played together until about 6:30 when we decided to go for a walk. One thing we played was 'throw things into the tub', Myra was able to coax Madison into the bathroom by acting all silly and loudly throwing plastic bath toys into the tub - she caught on! Joe eventually convinced Jonathon it was okay too (he is very timid about the bathroom) and both had fun doing this. However, we aren't so sure this will really help come actually bathtime - but maybe just a little. At 6:30 we headed out for our walk. Jonathon is ok with the ergo baby carrier, Madison is hit or miss, today was a miss and she refused to be in it as soon as we hit the street and insisted on walking. We just decided to head to McD's (a 10 minute walk) and grab some food to go and that was about enough stimulation for the kids with all the people, stores, etc - Madison did enjoy pointing at lots of different things and then looking up for confirmation that we saw that AMAZING blue large garbage can (and similar items). They both loved their chicken nuggets and some french fries. Again, they actually didnt finish their meals. Madison is good about stopping and then she often goes to play with Myra. You can tell when Jonathon is getting full because he gets playful but he will just keep insisting on more. If you turn him away from the plate so he is looking at something else and then put him down and immediately walk with him away from the table he does well and does not cry which is progress.

We had all the lights dimmed in the apartment and put all the toys away before dinner was over to try a calming atmosphere before bed. Let them play with each other about a a half hour or so in the living room and then off to bed. This is where our anniversary present came. For whatever reason, they love to play with each other bed. We should have stopped them from playing, but it was the most precious thing we have seen. All we could do was videotape it for a while, preserving our memory of this anniversary forever. After our first trip they put their cribs together to try and form a good bond. We think it worked. Madisons comfort thing is to pull her shirt up to her chin, hold it there and suck her thumb. Then sometimes she likes to hit her belly (not hard). At one point Myra and Joe were between the two of them (to try and get them to sleep). Jonathon heard the belly-slapping noise (and couldnt see her) and he immediately pulled up his shirt and did the same thing. Before laying down they also like to stand a couple feet away from each other at the end of the bed, hands on the footboard, and just go up and down (like doing squats) - so cute.

Again, getting them actually sleep was a tough experience. Madison finally fell asleep about an hour or so. Jonathon finally went down about 1030. At one point Joe held him and rocked and then Myra came in and hugged him from the other side so it was a Jonathon sandwich. Seemed to work, but he always wakes up fter 5-10 minutes and screams. He likes to rock himself and sometimes all you an do is sit there and be with him which is tough. Putting them to bed was exhausting enough for us. They start crying as soon as we take them in to the room to lay down. Any other families with tips out there....let us know!
We went to bed soon thereafter, too exhausted to even drink our anniversary wine.

Little Victories...

2011-08-03T05:59:00.000-07:00

So we're catching up during naptime...posts will get shorter and not proofread...we're thankful if they end up even semi-coherent...2 toddlers have us a bit scattered.

Madison slept through the first night until 7:15 when she rolled out of bed onto myra. she actually just looked at myra and smiled, i think glad that myra was still there!. jonathon however woke up at 230 and 330 crying but Joe easily had him back asleep in 10 minutes. At 4:30 he woke up and just would not go back to sleep. He tends to rock himself a lot, and sometimes just his head side to side but we think this is typical orphanage behavior, they have always had to rock themselves to sleep. He was in a weird place, and scared. Myra took over at about 6am and got him to sleep only shortly before madison fell on them! All in all they did better than i would have if soeone plucked me from my home and took me to a place i had never seen, with people i didn't know and who couldnt understand me, and I had no idea what the heck they were saying.

they had some oatmeal, 1/2 strawberry bar, and bread will jelly on it for breakfast. jonathon ate it all, madison maybe half. we're thankful for the apartment so we can eat in. joe gets to do all the food prep because madison cannot be left in a room without myra and if the kids see food in the kitchen they need to eat it right away and breakdown if they can't. Sippy cups were still a no-go. They are too used to regular cups but we are trying. Jonathon still has a major breakdown when the food is gone and if he sees food. So we have been put on an effective diet plan where we don't eat all day until they are asleep at naptime or evening.

We gave them a snack mid-morning (I think yogurt and bread, peaches, and juice) and then went for about an hour walk to the grassy mall area where they walked around a bit and loved seeing/chasing the birds. We stopped at Pizza Roma on the way back and ordered a chicken pizza and shopska salad to go. They did ok on the 10 minute wait and then each ate a piece of pizza and peaches, (we tried eating a piece while feeding them and it was ok this time as long as it was gone before theirs). Our lunchtime victory was our ability to get them BOTH tricked into trying their sippy cups (without the one-way valve put in it)! We're on our way.

Then it was naptime which is always a struggle. Takes us about an hour or so to get them calmed down, Jonathon especially. He is just always hyper and Joe needs to actually (gently) restrain him and rub his back for a while. he screams for awhile but eventually he gives in. we hate restraining him but otherwise he does a lot of violent rocking and just can't calm down. Naptime was our shower time and some food, Joe went to get groceries. It was glorious! Madison woke up about 3:30 but Jonathon just kept sleeping (he needed it after the night he had) but we finally woke him up (he was getting restless anyway afraid of how bedtime would go).

We were supposed to have our medical appointments at 3:30pm but they called and said they would not be until the next morning. So we spent the rest of the day playing as a family.

They had an afternoon snack with some pasta and bread (they LOVE bread). Tried to give them some ham pieces but they both hated the texture. They had a fit at the end of snacktime but a little playtime soothed them. Our victory that afternoon was Madison taking Joes hand to walk into the other room with Jonathon. Shes usually a bit fearful still but hopefully this is a sign she'll one day be a Daddys girl. Our other victory is Jonathon finally not screaming during diaper changes, he actually smiles now.

We gave them pasta for dinner (Bulgarians make a GOOD pasta sauce) and peas. Madison wasn't a huge fan of the peas but loved the pasta. Jonathon loved it all. BUT our victory here was that NEITHER of their finished their meal! Joe knew he put a lot on their plate but didnt expect for them to actually regulate themselves based on hunger. Wonderful to see.

Unfortunately that victory was marred by bathtime which was truly awful experience and they screamed so much. Myra even had her bathing suit on and was in the tub, along with some toys. That was no help. We made it quick and then got them out wrapped in towels and went out to watch some Animal Planet. They were soo amazed by the TV, it was so adorable. Unfortunately we didn't think about our DVDs not be compatible here. Staying naked in the towels was a good idea, until Madison pees down her leg and starts to bawl....diaper time!. Next we think try playtime in the bath time with no water.

We tried for bedtime at 8:45pm (they were playing with each until then). Lots and lots of screams and them trying to play. We gave up about 9:45pm and brought them back out to the living room but kept it with some mood lighting. They played a bit and then we got some warm milk and went back to the bedroom. They drank the milk from the sippy cups (still no valve) but then still would not sleep. Jonathon was doing so much moving/rocking and joe restrained him again (feeling bad). he finally went to sleep but madison was the difficult one this time. she just wasn't having any sleep. joe went to leave the room (heck, his job was done and myra is usually the one who gets to leave first!) but madison starting screaming (victory?). So he came back, laid in the room (but not near her she doesnt like that...he just had to be in the room). By about 11:15pm she finally went to sleep. Finally...dinnertime! Starving, we got ourselves some pasta, exhausted, and just cleaned up the house. We got things ready for tomorrow morning because we knew it would take time to get everyone ready by 9am.

We'll try to post some pictures soon...

Gotcha Day - A Day of Firsts....

2011-08-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this a couple days late but you can guess why!! A summary of our Gotcha Day:

Sometimes a week long severe lack of sleep can be a blessing... we both slept a solid 7.5 hours last night, very important for this day of 'Firsts'. We headed across the square for the continental breakfast and then to the grocery store to buy some juice to give the kids when we picked them up (and have them practice drinking out of their first sippy cups before getting on the plane). Afterwards, we just sat in mostly silence just waiting for our agency representative to call and have us come down to the street to get picked up. (this was the same taxi driver as yesterday, and last trip, he is very trusted by Rosi, our representative, who came to Varna this morning).

We headed the same winding route to the Orphanage that we took last trip in sheer anticipation. Pulling up the hill caused major flip flops in our stomachs! After signing a ledger/”sign out” sheet, we gave the kids clothes to the social worker so she could go have them changed. The social worker had told us the caregivers have been talking about us constantly and that Madison and Jonathon have just been waiting for us (so thankful for that!) She also said that the caregivers have been spending extra time with them because they will be missed when they go! Waiting on the edge of our seats in the social workers office the door FINALLY opened and here was the FIRST meeting when they were officially our children! As you can imagine, this was such a happy, amazing moment! Madison stood in the door unsure at first, but with some coaxing ran into Myra's arms. Her well-known and often talked about 4 pigtails were gone which came as a surprise. They recently gave her a haircut! Still, of course, cute as ever. Jonathon was very happy to go right to Joe. Jonathon was not in the shorts we brought because they were way, way too big! Turns ourt he wears 9-12 month pants. we've heard this from other families but thought we remembered our kids being a little chunkier! guess we were wrong. We asked for the scrapbooks and their blankets/teddy bears/albums we left last time. To our disappointment, they could not find the scrapbooks so the social worker gave us a baby picture of each of the kids from their file. To which Madison spoke for the First time today, yelling BEBE happily and holding each picture in her hands. After some quick questions (including getting the caretakers names for the kids to have as they grow), we whisked our kids off to the Varna airport. We were really only in the orphanage for about 30 minutes. It seemed go by so fast and with little fanfare. So many people were on vacation (the orphanage director, Jonathons “grandma”, the social worker we worked with last time, etc). A bit disappointing but we left their gifts for them in the office.

They did very well for us in the car and waiting in line, which was an adventure all in itself. The airport was very crowded and we had to try and make our way through any other lines to get to ours. Thankfully, Rosi was amazing (as always) and pushed our luggage cart through (all 100+ pounds of it!). We thought we would have time to rearrange before getting to the counter so we ended up carrying on a little more than we thought we would. Again it was just going by so fast. We were in the airport less than 3 minutes and our bags were checked and we were on the way to security (while the airport was very busy, Sofia wasn't an extremely popular destination.

We fumbled a bit at security trying to rearrange, carry the kids, and dump out the juice they never had a chance to drink. Sippy cups are not in their repertoire. Rosi was gone at this point, off to meet another family! The would not let us take the kids through security so he made Joe go through while the TSA guy held Jonathon and then Joe went back through and carried Jonathon through. Same for Myra/Madison. Jonathon was ok with the stranger, Madison was none too happy, mainly we think because it was a male.

Once to the gate (really just a large room with multiple doors), Myra put on her Ergobaby carrier for the First time to carry Madison to look for juice. She was SOOOO thankful to have that carrier! Freeing up her hands was great and her arm was falling asleep trying to carry her. Madison did very well in the carrier and didn't seem to mind. Madison helped Myra pick out the juice and after a very unsuccessful attempt to get them to use sippy cups, we finally just unscrewed the tops and let them drink out of the cup like they are use to. Joe was able to finally 'trick' Jonathon into realizing it was okay, but Madison has quite the stubborn streak. Jonathon ate ½ a banana we bought that morning, but Madison was only interested in walking around with Myra and showing her all the very cool things in the airport, especially the grates (that was her favorite). After boarding a shuttle bus (First shuttle bus for them) to get on the plane (First plane) we thought we were settled and decided on staying together on the side with three seats (and no one take the aisle on the other side which was also assigned to us). Then, while they are taxing down the airport they tell us we can't both sit with children in that row. We had a hard time understanding what they wanted us to do, still taxing, but after a quick shuffle later we had no idea what happened except Myra had Madison strapped to her at the widow with a harness, some larger man now sat on the aisle seat of where Myra was (he just popped out of nowhere). And then Joe was on the other aisle with Jonathon harnessed to him. Myra was able to toss over some puffs for Jonathon so he would swallow during takeoff to pop his ears. Jonathon did eat some cracker puffs during takeoff, but Madison refused to eat the yogurt bites she was eating in the car (but she didn't really seem to enjoy them at that time) so Myra was very worried about her ears, BUT she was fine (fussy during takeoff,but we think she was just scared). The refreshment cart provided juice for Madison and a chocolate filled crossient – THIS Madison was all about and ate the whole thing (minus the two pieces her starving mother stole- bad mom!). On the way back down she ate the other banana ½ and we landed safely with no screams. Jonathon also had some juice and a croissant. This was a little past their lunchtime by now so their schedule was all off.

Getting off last (since we knew we'd have to just wait on the shuttle until the last person got off) we then waited to get our luggage (again Madison was strapped in the Ergobaby). We didn't see anyone waiting for us at first so we called our representative (Eti this time) on the cell they gave us and waited a little bit. Jonathon LOVED to walk around the luggage cart and play with the wheels on all the suitcases!

Our First stop after leaving the airport was the police station to apply for passports. This took quite some time, because there was a lot of paperwork to fill out. Of course Eti took care of it all for us while we tried to entertain the kids. Madison did great for the passport photo, but Jonathon wasn't having any of it. He started screaming and crying. Joe tried, then Eti, then Joe...the first three pictures didn't work because one of them was in it by accident or he wasn't looking. The picture we did get was priceless. He looks sooo mad! But they said that it was okay for the passport unless we wanted a nicer one – nope, we're good...its perfect for a guilt trip for hi later in life! After that we went to the apartment (about 3:30) to try and get them to sleep and go grocery shopping (nap time had also come and gone during all this travel). Neither happened though. There was a cabinet FULL of toys inn our apartment),..it took 2 seconds for them to find it. :-) They played a lot, Madison surprised us by picking up a toy phone, saying 'hallo' and then giving it to Myra! Jonathon has changed quite a bit in that he seems to understand 'how' to play with toys more than our last visit. Jonathon ate a gerber meal, Madison was having none of it. There is always a little 'meltdown' from Jonathon when the food is gone, but usually a distraction away from the table helps it to pass quickly. Then came the FIRST diaper change, what a tragedy that was. Madison was so upset (lets not forget they missed their normal 12:30-3 naps so for this to be her first meltdown is really very good!), but quickly bounced back. Soon after it was Jonathon's turn – poor boy! He had the WORST diaper rash – thankfully some friends had given us this wonderful ointment they swore by (weleda) and by the 2^nd diaper change later it was already looking better! Madison helped Joe by making sure he got Jonathon's shoes back on (he left them off as Jonathon went to play but Madison tracked him down and insisted on shoes) and she put away the wipes case. She is a girl who likes/needs structure and order and lots of it. A funny diaper story was Madison soon after clearly needed another change. She watched Myra set it out the wipes and changing pad and even helped to open the wipes case – then she stood up and pointed and walked toward Jonathon saying 'Pepe!' (this is what they called him in the Orphanage). We started laughing so hard...but tried to stop when her little face got all mad knowing it was her in store for the change. They are really starting to open up and although Madison watches when Myra leaves the room she is clearing becoming more comfortable with Joe, but not quite ready for him to cuddle with her or play too much. They both laughed and talked with us a lot this afternoon, although the only thing we know they said was ball (topka).

It was almost 7pm so we fed them some Mac & Cheese we had brought with us for dinner (nope, we are not worried about them being healthy eaters during this week, just that they eat!). That went over great! Then is was time for diaper change/pj's/bed (8pm). They weren't excited about any of those things. We thought they would go right to sleep since they missed their nap, but this was not the case. There was a lot of crying, followed by the cutest interaction between them (and First time we saw them really playing with each other). They laughed and poked at each other on the bed (while Joe and I laid on either side in an attempt to coax them to sleep). Then they discovered the blinds and curtains behind the headboard – they had sooo much fun with this for a long time, it got to the point that we knew they would never stop and we had to try and calm them down.. Here came the meltdown...our poor babies....tired, scared, not sure where they were or why, they fought off sleep the most the could. They had a well-deserved tantrum and we just held them and talked them through it and all of a sudden Madison just stopped yelling laid down next to Myra rubbing her back, and was asleep! Jonathon was much more difficult, but Joe was very patient with him and eventually he gave in to sleep as well.

Next – a little after 9pm, Joe was off to find whatever food he could since we had nothing to eat since our 7:30pm breakfast. McDonalds has NEVER tasted so good! I can't even tell you the last time we had it. Not really a place we frequent in the U.S. We were sitting here recounting the day when Joe said he would check in on them again. He was in the process of looking for the flashlight Myra had in her purse (yup, likes to be prepared for anything), when we heard a noise and some crying. Jonathon had fallen out of bed! Thankfully, they were very low beds, but we had just been talking about moving the mattresses from the other room to go next to them....this sealed the deal. Jonathon was scared, but fine, and they are both happily taking over the queen size bed again in about 10 minutes. Good thing there is a twin mattress on either side of the bed now for us to sleep in because they clearly aren't willing to share the main bed!

We are happily exhausted, wondering what they are thinking, praying for more improvements tomorrow and thanking God for our kids! Tomorrow is our First Full day with the kids- wonder what it will bring!

Leaving on a jet plane (well, 4 actually)

2011-07-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

Seems like every time we fly, we're leaving early morning to head to the airport so today felt pretty weird. Our flight wasn't until 1:40pm so it meant not leaving our house until almost noon. So we had plenty of time for our Saturday morning ritual of pancakes and coffee in our pj's at the breakfast bar. Of course, as we sit there it suddenly dawned on us...this will be the last time we have our Saturday morning ritual at the breakfast bar. After all there are only 2 seats! Wow, what a wonderful thought.

We had time to clean up and get the cat's food/water ready (there was no way to really prepare her for what was coming) and then rearrange the bed in our room in preparation for the arrival of Jonathon and Madison and the room we'll all share at nighttime for awhile. During naptimes we'll try to have then sleep in there room which as you can see from the pictures is all ready to go!

Along with the back room that was once a dungeon and now FINALLY is finished (6 months after we started it). Now we have our laundry room, half bath and playroom!

Ok, back to the day at hand, We had some friends over last night to see us off with a few beers and then we pretty much got everything packed by 2am (we couldn't sleep anyway). We had been getting everything 'staged' on the guest bed for weeks, so its not like we JUST started at 10pm the night before. We paired it down to 2 suitcases, a carry-on roller-board, and then a backpack already full of our 'plane items' for the kids on the way back (toys and snacks). It feels a bit weird carrying the backpack on the plane right now, but there was no room in the suitcases (and we barely made the weight limits with 49 and 48.5 pounds anyway!). There is already a fully-stocked diaper bag taking up space in the suitcase (yeah,Myra likes to be a bit prepared). Our friend Kara came by to pick us up and take us to the airport which was wonderful of her to offer so we didn't have to deal with parking.

No problem with the plane from Tampa to Dulles. When we landed in Dulles Joe turned on his phone to immediately hear 'beep,beep,beep,beep...” meaning a barrage of text messages! Turned out it was from our family in New Mexico who had a layover in Dulles and were boarding in about 30 minutes. So of course we were four concourses away but we started briskly walking in their direction and 20 minutes and about 795 escalators later (along with 'glistening' faces) we found them at a little commuter terminal at the end of a hallway. So we had a wonderful quick 10 minute visit with the 5 of them (and mini family send-off) before they needed to board a plane to go up to Joe's parents house for the week. What surprise we got to meet them there!

Then over to our gate for our flight to Munich. Boarding was painless but when we will lose our premier status and economy plus seating air travel will be much less inviting! Thankfully we'll have the extra room for us and kids on the way home. Unfortunately, we went to pull away from the gate to find that our EPU (External Power Unit) broke. So back to the gate to get plugged in and checked out. Not a big deal, apparently and we could make it without it (I suppose its like a gallbladder or tonsils) but needed to get it looked at anyway. Not sure if they ever even fixed it but about and hour and half later we were on our way to arrive in Munich in a little under 8 hours. The ipod made an appearance in between movies to try and practice (in our head anyway) a few 'key' Bulgarian phrases, which will no doubt come out as “fat green chicken” instead of “I love you” or something along those lines!

Our gate in Munich wasn't far away so the hour late arrival wasn't a big deal but there wasn't a whole lot of time to spare or grab a snack. But, we were pleasantly surprised to find we had been upgraded to business class which meant an actual meal on our way to Sofia. It was very European (which we like) with yogurt, cheeses, breads, etc. But then they made it even more eclectic by adding in a piece of sushi. Departed a bit late but landed in Sofia right on time.

We were first of the plane and breezed through customs to find our luggage just coming out the belt. Fastest airport experience we've had in some time. To our surprise Delyanna (from our Bulgarian agency VESTA) was waiting for us outside security to welcome us, give us a cell phone to use, etc. We had nice visit with her and then sat for a latte to start our 3.5 hour layover before we could check in for our intracountry flight to Varna. More practicing of Bulgarian phrases, snacking, etc to pass the time. Flight was delayed about an hour but no real hiccups. Our taxi driver was waiting for us and brought us right to the hotel. VESTA really works out all the details.

We threw on some shorts and went out for some non-airline food. But we weren't in the mood for fancy so we had a beer and ate at the Happy Bar and Grill. You may remember us talking about this place from our first trip. Popular here, kind of Dennys'ish. The city of Varna changes so much with the seasons. In March the place was dreary and desolate (but easy to explore!). Now the place is packed as people flock to the coast for a summer vacation.

We explored lots of Varna on the last trip but took a stroll among the crowds to look through all the craft vendors, look at the sea and think about Jonathon and Madison getting ready for bed just 20 minutes (rather than 28 hours) away. We talked lots about how they probably have no idea that as of tomorrow, they will be leaving the only place they have ever known. How scared they are going be. In a way its heartbreaking to think about.

Now were getting things rearranged in the suitcases, getting out gifts we want to leave with people at the orphanage, and then MAYBE getting some sleep if we can. Their 'Gotcha Day' outfits are all laid out. We can't even fathom, our last night with just the two of us. In some ways it still doesn't seem real. Is it actually happening? We've been married for just a few days shy of 9 years and as of tomorrow we finally get to share our love with our twins. The first day of forever.

Introductions

2011-07-20T06:02:00.001-07:00

We had been hesitant to post pictures of the kids, even after the court date but the process is official and the kids are ours...so it's FINALLY time for some introductions!

We'd like to introduce you to our new and growing family. 'Gotcha Day' in T minus 12 days...

Please welcome:
Madison Antoaneta Long & Jonathon Petar Long:

It's Official!

2011-07-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well we just heard that during our court hearing yesterday the judge officially approved our petition for adoption. SO, as of yesterday July, 4, 2011 Jonathon and Madison are officially part of our family and we are legally their parents! What a tremendous feeling. Now we wait about 3.5 weeks to head back to pick them up (with our list of things to do it will likely pass quickly). August 1, 2011 will be our 'Gotcha Day' (and often-used term in the adoption world). Amen!

Travel Dates!!!

2011-06-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

We have a couple other posts in the 'Draft' folder BUT we couldn't resist letting everyone know that we got a call today with our travel dates!!! This is amazing because we haven't even had our court date yet. They schedule travel dates after the court date to ensure that everything goes smoothly with your case but apparently they are very confident with our case because they assigned us dates and gave us the go-ahead to buy our tickets.

We will fly out July 30 and arrive in Varna on the 31st. First thing on August 1st we will go to the orphanage to pick up our kids!! We will then immediately fly to Sofia at noon (just us and kids...yikes!) for the rest of the week (appointments with doctors, the US Embassy, etc. etc.). We will arrive back on American soil (after 3 long flights) on August 6th. The nerves are setting in!

Unfortunately we will be there one week AFTER their second birthday but what a way to celebrate our 9th Anniversary (August 3rd)...as a FAMILY!

More updates to come about things that have been going on and on our preparations!

Toddler Shower: The Pennsylvania Edition

2011-06-26T06:35:00.001-07:00

Back-to-back weekend flights to the north resumed as we both flew up to PA for another toddler shower, this one at Joes’ parents house! Lots of people in attendance from Joes family, childhood church, and some of his high school friends! It was an awesome time of celebration and having the opportunity to show everyone pictures and videos of the kids (of course in all reality many of them had already seen the pictures Joes mom carries around!). It was another short trip (Friday night to Sunday afternoon) but it was a great time and we take every opportunity we can to see our niece and nephew (you of course their parents! :) ). Thanks to all for the wonderful presents and celebration. It was physically impossible to manipulate everything in the suitcases this time but Joes parents were on their way to FL in a couple weeks so the rest was delivered to our door!

Toddler Shower: The New York Edition

2011-06-23T18:37:00.001-07:00

We’ve been so humbled by the generosity and excitement of our friends and family as we all wait for the homecoming of Madison and Jonathon. In the beginning of May Myra flew up to Syracuse for a weekend because her mom hosted a toddler shower! It was a great day with family and friends and so exciting to start to prepare with things we need for the kids.

Of course the fun started even before the shower when Myra’s aunts and grandma sent a double stroller to us in St. Petersburg! We love it! Now we just have to figure out how to fit it through doorways! This on top of the diapers, toilet seats, and car seats family and friends have purchased is such a wonderful surprise and blessing.

The real challenge came in getting everything back home but with empty suitcases packed inside of empty suitcases on the way (think of those wooden Russian dolls) and Myras superior packing skills it all made it back. Of course when she emptied it all out in the living room to show Joe, he about fainted from the overwhelming realization of everything we need for the kids (and will our house be big enough!?!?)

Court Date Scheduled!

2011-06-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

You might think we are a little behind with updates, but the sad part is...there weren't any updates to be posted! We are hoping to add some posts soon with pictures from the wonderful 'toddler showers' our friends and family have been having for us, and some the 'nesting' that is going on around the house. But in the meantime, we FINALLY have a court date scheduled!!

July 4, 2011 will be the court date. Obviously not as soon as we would like, but at least we have a date. We are praying this next 2 weeks goes by quickly.

Whats Next: After the court there is a one week period for people to contest the courts decision. Then, provided we passed court (they oftentimes ask for additional information and postpone the decision), and no one contests the adoption, it takes 2-3 more weeks to issue new birth certificates and the court decree. Once those documents are issued we can travel to pick up Madison and Jonathon! So we are looking around mid-August...we HOPE!

Stage 2 - CHECK!

2011-05-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

Great news. Our Article 5 was issued by the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria last week and it was officially delivered to the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice on Monday (May 2). Again, something that took much less time than expected. These were kind of anomalies from what we understand so we are trying not to get our hopes up that this expediency will continue...but lets pray it does anyway ;) !! Bulgaria has had a long road of revamping their system over the last few years so the process wasn't entirely smooth in the beginning. But from what we can tell by the way our case has been handled so far, they are really improving things and finding ways to speed up the process for the well-being of the children in their care. They deserve a lot of credit for this.

Movin’, movin’, movin’, keep that paperwork movin’!!

2011-04-16T06:14:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, there are three primary steps that our paperwork needs to move through before we can schedule our second travel date to pick up Jonathon and Madison. So just to recap:

Approval at U.S. Immigration: 4-6 weeks

Issue Article 5 from the U.S. Embassy in Sofia: 4-6 weeks

Bulgaria Ministry of Justice issues court date: 2-3 weeks

Provided the court doesn’t request more information, travel will be about 2-3 weeks after court date.

Well GREAT news. We got our U.S. Immigration approval early this week which means it was processed in only 2 weeks (see don’t knock the speed/efficiency of the all federal agencies!!)

Lets pray for continued speed but we’re ecstatic that we appear to be 2-4 weeks ahead of schedule!!

Lazy Saturday

2011-04-13T15:03:00.003-07:00

After a hard, late night of registering, we decided to sleep in and enjoy one of our last few Saturday’s to do this. About 10 minutes after being awake (we will NOT reveal the actual time) Myra received a call from a friend to see if she was heading to some garage sales. She declined as she still hadn’t managed to get Joe out of bed. BUT, shortly after with pancakes a cook’in, Joe got a call from another VERY excited friend about a great kids table she found at a neighborhood sale (only a few minutes from our house) and convinced us that we better go! How fun! We actually ended up buying a number of things for our kids (and running into our friends along the way, thankfully they let us use their house as a temporary dumping area for all the things we bought)! We ended up coming home with a very large handmade kids table, a grocery cart (kids) with lots of food, a ton of books, some puzzles, blocks and of course a shape sorter!

Following our shopping spree a number of friends were heading out for a ‘beach’ day, again not wanting to pass up such an appealing lazy and fun day we joined them! Joe even tried his hand at paddle boarding and stayed on despite attempts from an unnamed person to give him so waves and knock him off! J

Registering Breakdown…

2011-04-13T15:03:00.001-07:00

Friday night (April 8^th), being home a week and with upcoming showers (thank you moms!!) we decided to start registering! Really, there is no need to write a long story about this…despite the fact that Myra use to sell baby things as a job, we were still quite overwhelmed by the selection! When we left (well, were kicked out because they were closing), Myra got into the car and actually started to cry….Why? Because she ACTUALLY registered for OUR kids….she said “I’m having a shower….it’s not about the ‘things’, but the fact that I am having a celebration for MY kids…I didn’t know if this day would ever come!”

The Trip Home

2011-04-13T15:02:00.001-07:00

Time to play some catch up here! As soon as we got home Joe was only home for a day and a half before rushing off to a conference. We feel a bit settled, for a few hours anyway, and wanted to update!

Leaving Bulgaria was an odd experience, on one hand it was a relief to be heading home, on the other we were leaving our children – 7,000 miles away from where we live. We were picked up at 4:30 in the morning so only half awake, which was probably a good thing. Our plane landed in Frankfurt at 7:30am and we weren’t heading back out again until 5:30pm, so we decided to take a little break and see some of the city to get our minds off of things.

We got off the subway at a big farmer’s market and after some fruit for breakfast (okay, the fruit was actually in the subway station!) we started walking to our destination – the old Dom Cathedral (and other historical areas). Half awake still and our minds continuing drifting back to the week that had past we finally found Old Town portion. We decided that the 368 stair hike to the top of the cathedral would be good for us and work off the Cider Beer and Pretzel we were dreaming about in advance…The church was impressive and view was amazing!

Following our ‘hike’ we crossed this old iron bridge built in the late 1800s, there were hundreds, probably thousands, of locks on the bridge – many with engagement dates. We need to look this up – some sort of engagement tradition? After wandering around to find ‘the’ place for taverns and famous cider beer, we wandered back to the subway stop. We could not believe what a HUGE difference a few hours made in activity! When we walked through in the morning there was hardly a soul out, on our walk back the pedestrian streets were packed with shoppers, performers, families and bikes!

Our trip home was fairly uneventful, until we received our ‘welcome home surprises’:

Arriving to our car in the parking garage at about 1am in the morning we found a ticket on it. We had forgotten to update our tags before we left and they expired during the week while we were gone (guess our minds were elsewhere?). THANKFULLY the nice Tampa ticket enforcement made sure to drive around the parking garage and look for tags that expire mid-trip , so thoughtful! ;-P When we pulled into our driveway at 1:30am a VERY large branch had fallen and took a large potted plant with it…hmmmm….When we walked in the door it appeared we had left out our welcome sign for all the ants in the neighborhood – they had moved in and overtaken our laundry and poor cat’s food and water ….WELCOME HOME!!!

But, really, all that barely phased us (Sadie might had been slightly bothered) – we had just returned from an amazing trip…we met our kids….we enjoyed their country…we were making plans to bring them home!!!

Our final day in Sofia

2011-04-02T23:48:00.001-07:00

Friday morning was time for some final paperwork that VESTA needed before we left. After finding a little French bakery near the apartment, Rosi met us and walked with us to the notary’s office to complete all the remaining forms. She then showed us to the city square which is lined with the Hall of Presidents, Kings Palace, St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, among many other beautiful buildings. Nearby, a large statue of St. Sofia stands in the center of a main thoroughfare. Before saying our goodbyes she pointed us to stairs leading down to an underground street crossing which she suggested was the best place to buy Bulgarian souvenirs. We spent a good bit of time there (even though there are only about 8 small shops) and found one gentleman extremely easy to talk to and he taught us a bit about Bulgarian traditions/items while he carved some of the wood items he sells as part of his store. We actually went back to him three times throughout the day! We are excited to have some traditional gifts for our kids!

Along the walk we passed by an artists shop and outside was a large painted egg called “The Happiness Egg”. The plaque in front said you were supposed to touch the egg and make a wish. We both made our wish and I tend to bet most of you reading this can guess what it was!

We stopped at a chain restaurant called “Happy” of which there are two varieties; Happy Bar and Grill and Happy Sushi. We had tried the former in Varna so this time we sampled the sushi (I know, we are really diverting from the Bulgarian ‘experience’ today). Within a walking loop around the square (and in front of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) there was a line of women selling hand-sewn items (of course we couldn’t resist) and then another flea market-type area with a wide of array of items. We fell in love with a painting a gentleman was selling but just couldn’t get over the thought of trying to pack it and get it home. We must say the people in Bulgaria have all been so welcoming and nice. Everyone working in the stores and markets smile, try to help us via hand gestures, etc. One young guy worked in a supermarket near our apartment that we went to about three times. He was there when we went at 8 in the morning and again at seven at night. He always smiled when we came in and we said “I know, we’re back”, to which he replied, “Yeah, and I’m still here”!

We got back to the apartment earlier today after a day of walking and shopping (about 3:30pm). We relaxed a bit, wrote out some of the days events in the journal for the kids (which doubles as our blog posts), and of course ate yet another dessert we picked up at a little pastry shop on the way back (we walked a lot, right?). This second apartment was probably even nicer than the first (even had a dishwasher!) although again, you really wouldn’t know it by looking at the outside! Most buildings/offices are really that way here.

We went over to the same Bulgarian restaurant at about 6pm to have our last Bulgarian beer and tried a traditional Bulgarian stew (yum) and a few other dishes I’m sure we’d never be able to replicate.

Two or three times during the day we sat down and looked through all the pictures we took and watched a few videos. Really it made us smile to remember the time we had with them. Throughout the day we would stop and ask each other, “Do you think they expected to be taken from the room to come see us today like all the other days and then got disappointed thinking we left them”? “Do you think they will remember us”? “Will they be mad we left and didn’t come back for 4 months”? Those kinds of questions are hard to think about; what is really going on in their minds? We sometimes looked at our watches and said, “Oh they are just getting ready to eat lunch now”, or “they should be getting ready for bed now”. Those thoughts are somewhat comforting; their life, as they know it, will go on for a few more months and the caretakers will hopefully talk to them about us, show them the photo albums we left them (thanks Johnny!), and push the buttons on the bears so they can hear us say how much we love them. We talk often about what we will bring the second trip, how many suitcases we will pack, and have started the packing list. Preparations are a good way to pass the time.

Soon it will be time for lots and lots of house preparations. Finishing our backroom so it’s not the child hazard it is now (exposed holes, power tools, electrical wires, etc) and preparing their room to welcome them home. It’s an exciting time. God is good.

Back in Sofia…

2011-04-02T23:29:00.001-07:00

On Thursday after we left the director’s office we headed directly for the Varna airport to return to Sophia. Varna is actually the second or third largest city in Bulgaria (there’s debate over whether Sofia and its neighboring city are one city or two), home to about 1 million people. In the summer it is extremely busy because it is a vacation destination (guess coastal cities tend to be that way!) but in the winter the hotels and restaurants along the coast are rather empty. In the winter there is about one flight to/from Sofia but in the summer there are more (at a higher price of course). So, to make a long explanation longer, we had one chance to get back to Sofia and that was a departing flight at 12:30pm.

The flight was an uneventful 50 minutes where we actually nodded off a bit right after take-off, mostly from emotional exhaustion. We landed in Sofia, caught a taxi and picked up the keys to our apartment for the next two nights. After dropping off the luggage, Rosi oriented us to where we were (still on the main road like the last apartment, Vitosha Street, but a bit further down the street from downtown). We parted ways with Rosi and then we headed to nice traditional Bulgarian restaurant near the apartment for a 3pm late lunch! We drowned our sorrows in a nice, refreshing Bulgarian beer (Zagorka I think), and fed them with some roasted red peppers covered in tomato sauce (delicious) interesting pizza and a mixed bowl, which I’m pretty sure ended up to be a bowl of mostly cheese (time for a cholesterol check after this trip!).

We decided to head for a walk towards downtown and went past a large Russian church in the center (right by the courthouse - where VESTA will, by power of attorney, represent our adoption case to the judge over the next few months).

On a roll and lacking many souvenirs or future gifts for the kids we kept walking to the City Market and then on to the “Woman’s Market” which is an outdoor flea market with lots of produce and clothes. We had read to be weary and were later told that even Rosi is a little frightened to go there..hmmmm. BUT, we were smart with placement of things and honestly didn’t find it scary at all. We bought a little traditional bell (often worn around the waist in ceremonial dress) which will serve as our Christmas ornament (which we like to collect from each place we visit).

At the market they even had an outdoor store with about 12 wooden barrels of wine. You can bring your own container (people were lined up with large water bottles, etc) and fill it up with the wine of your choosing!

We’ll digress here for a minute to explain a holiday here called Martinista (we’ll check the spelling on that) which is on March 1^st to celebrate the coming of spring and is quite a large celebration. The city becomes adorned with white and red ‘yarn dolls’ of different shapes/sizes. The traditional one is a boy and girl doll, which we bought in a couple sizes. This is a holiday we’d like to celebrate with the kids, just a fun way to celebrate the arrival of spring (which honestly in Florida may be a little hard to differentiate). Even though the holiday is over and there isn’t much evidence left we were able to find the dolls and some bracelets people wear hanging throughout the city.

On the way back from the Woman’s Market (with legs feeling numb by this point) we stopped for a quick chicken gyro and headed back for some rest.

Explanation

2011-04-02T23:28:00.001-07:00

We’ve had a couple inquiries about the math references in one of the previous posts (glad to see those Polinsky/Lynch’s are a curious bunch). One time when Myra was at a womens’ leadership conference they were discussing how women are often more emotional than men and in a workplace environment dominated by men they may want/need to suppress this at times. One of the suggestions was to start doing simple math in your head so that you activate the other side of your brain and essentially ‘shut down’ the emotional part that controls those tear ducts!

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu…

2011-04-01T06:56:00.001-07:00

Today was the 'big' day so to say...when we had to say goodbye to our children for a few months. Part of this day was to give the caretakers anything else we wanted the kids to have close them over the next few months. The teacher and social worker also wanted to know what their new names would be so that they can start calling them by these names over the next few months. We fretted over the decision of changing their names. But for a bunch of reasons that we won’t go into here, we decided to change them. Our coordinator had mentioned earlier in the trip that the caretakers at the orphanage are often surprised when a child’s name is not changed. What you often see in the U.S. is that the child’s given name becomes their new middle name to retain a part of their heritage. This is what we have chosen to do. Interestingly, we’ve been told that officials/caretakers here are also surprised by that practice (assuming both names would be changed). When children are adopted here domestically, both names are usually changed, so this is nothing unusual and made us feel even better about our choice.

SO drum roll please…..we will now refer to them by their new names: Madison Antoaneta and Jonathon Petar.

Okay, on to the day. We arrived at the orphanage at 9am with our remaining toys for them to play with/donate and their teddy bears that have our voices recorded in them. We arrived with the Italian family again; they had their little boy they just adopted with them – so cute! We were brought back up to the family room and awaited the arrival of Madison and Jonathon. After a few minutes the social worker arrived, carrying Jonathon and Madison holding her hand. As soon as the door opened both were noticeably very happy and when Myra called to Madison she came running into her arms! Jonathon was immediately excited to be in Joe's arms and the social worker told our coordinator, Rosi, that as soon as she arrived to get the kids from their room, they knew why she was there and where they were going and so Madison turned to the kids in the room and said 'Ciao' and went right to her. Apparently she was noticing a routine!

After allowing Myra to hold her for a minute Madison went to the paper bag we brought everyday to see what the new toys would be (Joe had that fabulous idea – to bring the toys in the same way everyday and she definitely caught on!). Madison started with a turtle and then allowed Joe to show her the coloring books and crayons. She tried to color by Joe for a little while before walking over to Myra's lap with the book and crayon.

Jonathon enjoyed playing with different toys (with Joe of course). A couple times we tried the kid swap, but today whenever Myra would try and hold Jonathon, Madison would soon head over and plop down on her to try and claim ownership. Jonathon, who we’ve already been told hates to share attention, would get mad immediately at the thought of ‘divided attention’ and would fuss until he was let go and could crawl over to Joe. We'll have to work on this down the road! But for right now we are just thankful that they both seem to feel some sort of affinity to one of us. At one point after the social worker had left, Rosi also left the room and soon thereafter Madison walked over to the door wanting to also leave. The family room is really pretty small with limited things and she preferred to be down in the big playroom. Joe tried to get read her the animal book (which she was ok with on some previous days) but she quickly hustled away, threw herself on the ground complaining and needed some comfort from good ‘ole mom from mean ‘ole dad. She still resists eye contact from both of us but feels comfortable sitting in Myra’s lap for long periods of time coloring or reading. She LOVES books. And Jonathon pretty much loves anything he can bang around or materials he can crinkle (he didn’t let go of a sheet of stickers for a solid half hour, but they are no longer stickers…just a ball of paper!). Madison still LOVES to put things away. We took one video today that shows her putting everything back up on a table and then grabbing the big bag of foam blocks again (we’ll be sure to get another one of those to have at home!). She put them down and Joe thought this was his chance. He unzipped the bag for her and she started getting out some pieces and handing them to him (only 2 pieces, then she takes them back and puts them back in the bag). But alas, after about 5 minutes she stood up, picked up the bag, walked around the back of Joe, around the perimeter of the whole room and back over to Myra and plopped them in front of her.

We brought yogurt again as a snack and we got those out when both started to feel a little pent up. Madison sat in a little green chair and we decided Joe would feed her again. She is fine with Joe feeding her the snacks (but not lunch), although she doesn’t really look happy in the process! They are used to a rather strict way of eating which is something we’ll have to work on when we get home. Jonathon was a bit fussy but Myra eventually fed him standing up and got through it! At least this time there wasn’t a major fit when it was all gone! After the yogurt, the social worker took us to go see their rooms and play room (we had asked for this as we wanted pictures to show them later). They waited to do this until all of the other children had gone outside to play. At first when the social worker came in to lead us downstairs, both kids started to have a meltdown; turns out they thought they were leaving US. Myra had a little tear in her eyes about this one....time for some math (some will get this, but we can tell whoever is curious what this means later)!

We were quite impressed with the eating and play rooms. We saw their cribs and the caretakers had put the blanket we brought each of them and laid it in their crib. They also took the teddy bears at this point (we had introduced them to the kids a few time in the room the past few days) and also placed them in their cribs. The playroom (renovated about 8 years ago we were told) had lots of bright primary colors and toys! While there, the caregivers pointed out Jonathon's favorite toy, the blue rocking horse we saw him on in the early videos (he clearly LOVED it in the video). The social worker wanted to show us how much he loved it so she took him from Joe to put him on it and he immediately started screaming – he wanted JOE more than his favorite toy! The caregivers all said (in Bulgarian), ohhhh, he wants Daddy! This was a good sign! He calmed down immediately when he was in Joe’s arms again (ok, Joes turn to do some math!). While in the room Madison had gone over to a toy bench and picked up a toy piano and carried it around. When it was time to leave the room she did NOT want to leave it behind so they said to go ahead and take it with her (ok, making notes…she loves books and a piano!).

Now we had only about 20 more minutes left with the kids, then we had to say goodbye. We had to leave at 11am to catch our flight back to Sofia. We spent this time in the big playroom, which they seem to love. Madison spent some time pushing around a big dump truck (she’s not much of a doll girl but give her a big truck and she’s happy!). Jonathon walked (with Joes support) to the yellow riding truck that he loves to push himself around on. We’ve seen this almost every day with him! Madison played in the big plastic play barn for a while and loved to open/close the windows. Their teacher came in at one point with two other kids and started to play the piano for one of them and Madison seemed to really like this. She walked over to play keys on the piano but was redirected to the toy piano by the teacher and she seemed to enjoy playing along with the teacher. Jonathon at one point walked over to the riding three-wheeler (it was battery powered but no longer works) and Joe put him on it and pushed him around for a solid 10 minutes. After some more playing and swinging the kids around, the time had come. We held them and stood close together explaining (although it was really for us as they don't understand English) that we had to leave, but we loved them and would be back as soon as we could. We explained we would travel on a big plane and then come back soon and all four of us would get on the next plane together and go home as a big family (Myra was practically solving differential equations in her head by this point…). The social workers assistant came to take the children but again they started to get visibly upset. She tried to call the kids teacher because she believe they would go to her and be less upset but because she did not answer she took Jonathon in her arms and then took Madison's hand. They started to walk down the hall and we waved furiously at them saying ‘Ciao, Ciao!’. The silhouette image of them walking down the dark hallway (which seemed to take forever) is still burned into our memories. Jonathon’s precious face peering over the caretakers shoulder and the back of Madison (still with the crazy hair ponytails!) walking hand-in-hand. We did well not to cry in front of them because we didn’t want to scare them. And Myra only allowed a few tears to fall in the midst of so many people in the playroom.

We stopped by the director's office to say good-bye. She said that she is thrilled that we are happy with our visit and that the kids are happy with us. She told us not to worry and that they would take VERY good care of them until we could return. We know this is true and that is somewhat of a comfort.

Our Bulgarian Feast

2011-04-01T06:54:00.001-07:00

Wednesday night we went out to a traditional Bulgarian restaurant with Rosi, another VESTA agent (whose name we know but cannot spell!), and the Italian adoption case worker. It was great to sample lots of traditional Bulgarian foods with the atmosphere of Bulgarian clothing and decorations. Not much to say but the wine and food were all wonderful….and highly recommended! We even liked the traditional plates so much we bought some in Sofia (but more about that shopping trip later).

Our first field trip

2011-03-30T08:57:00.001-07:00

Today we arrived at the orphanage about 9:15am. The kids were brought to us in the large playroom as we had to immediately go get their pictures taken downtown (more about that in a second). We discussed having Joe start with Antoaneta to try and encourage her to interact with him more. When the kids were brought out Myra went to take Petar from the caregiver, but both kids were cranky and Antoaneta was having none of Joe. She went behind the caregiver. So we aborted that plan and switched back to our normal mother/daughter, father/son matchup (at least she didn't completely run away from us!).

Next – we had to bring them outside again (yikes) and into a car (double yikes!). We were going downtown to bring them to a photo shop for pictures. Turns out the FBI requires good pictures of the kids so they can do a criminal search in their databases using face recognition software....hmmm...wonder what those two toddlers have been up to? Well, they were 'okay' in the car, mainly just staring out the window with a few short fusses. At the photo place we took off their coats and Petar was up first. The photographers assistant held him on a stool and with the use of some toys in the background the photographer got a few nice 'smile shots'. Antoaneta...not so easy. She didn't want to sit on the stool, or stand on it, or sit on the assistants lap, or look at the camera. They tried for a bit, then took what they could get! Good luck FBI officer! Rosi went to fill out the papers and the kids stayed with us. Antoaneta loved pointing out a Pooh calendar to Myra and then she starting talking a lot about the different cartoon greeting cards. Petar stayed with Joe without any problem until it was time to put the coats back on when both melted down letting people in the store and on the street know about their displeasure. They calmed down but continued to squirm and be unhappy when we got in the car. The morning happened so fast and we are never really sure of the schedule until things happen. Because of this, we didn’t have a single toy with us (and we brought a suitcase full to Bulgaria on the plane!). Rookie mistake. We should have had something to entertain/distract them. Luckily Myra’s purse was full of little (though not age appropriate) things that got us most of the way home (flashlight, tripod, mirror….) It was so strange because during the car rides they just had us hold them on our laps – no seatbelts or anything! But, they are not use to such things and it worked out fine - none of that happening in the U.S! We did learn that we severely lack knowledge of nursery rhymes, kid’s songs, etc. We can get through about one verse (if that) and then we look at each other baffled and make something up or just fall back on “Second verse same as the first!”.

The playroom was fairly busy when we got back (this room is just for kids playing with adults). We had to stay there for a bit but it was just too much and Petar REALLY wanted to ride the car around again. The “no” answer he got was NOT appreciated causing yet another scream. We finally went back up to the family room after about 10 minutes or so. We took out a couple new toys, one was a BIG hit. It was a cat w/ wheels that you just push down on and it speeds across the room. Petar really was into crawling back and forth to chase it around the room! Antoaneta went back to some of the previous days toys. When she found the textured animal book she took it over to Joe (shocking!) we think because he read it to her yesterday. We had some more play time and Myra learned that she could get eye contact from Antoaneta by doing an 'airplane' with her so she was looking straight down. We also brought flavored yogurt for them for a snack today – THAT was a big hit (except when they finished it, then the world was a very very unhappy for a moment), but Antoaneta let Joe feed her the entire time!

Their teacher came in with the social worker so we could ask them a whole list about their development/achievements (through our coordinator Rosi) – what a VERY useful meeting! The teacher had a lot of information for us and we could tell that they really keep track of the kids. It was also fun to learn about the party they have for kids to celebrate the first time they walk. They have a celebration including a number of items on a table that the kids walk up to and choose one item. The items represent different professions (e.g. stethoscope, etc) – they believe the toy they choose may represent their future career. They then told us that they actually have pictures of this and several other milestones, along with a scrapbook that we will get during our 2^nd trip – this is more history of their first years of life than we ever hoped to get! This orphanage seems to 'lead the way' for others and really do so much to teach the kids and help them to have some normalcy in their lives, as much as can be expected in an institution. We also learned that starting now (because the adoption is happening), their beds are being rearranged to be beside each other so they can create a good bond as siblings. They will also often show them the picture books, teddy bears with our recorded voices, and blankets we brought and speak to them often about us so they are more prepared when we return. They have found that this really helps them have a more successful transition and we are so thankful to know this.

After the meeting we fed them lunch again, this time they brought us bibs...guess we made a bit of a mess yesterday? Antoaneta still struggled with Joe feeding her lunch...but also wouldn't eat it all for Myra. The order is still important and she is becoming more independent (also noted by the teacher) and prefers to feed herself by drinking from the bowl (which she does rather well). In general the kids were more comfortable with us today and we were able to get more laughs and smiles, especially out of the very serious Antoaneta.

After lunch we sat down for coffee again to look through our pictures and videos of the day. Then we walked around Varna some more, including a visit to an Ancient Roman Bath and some pictures down at the beach (yes Rob, we picked up your sand sample today!). We also bought a random dessert from a grocery store just to try something new. We really do like this city and the Bulgarian people are so friendly and forgiving of our non-existent language skills. Tonight Rosi will be taking us to a traditional Bulgarian restaurant – we are excited!

Tomorrow is our last day with the kids, we actually only have a couple hours because we need to head to the airport to get back to Sofia for all of Friday's paperwork. Thank you so much to all those thinking about and praying for us – we can truly feel them! Please pray for the parting tomorrow, especially that we can control our emotions to not scare the kids and that they can leave us somehow knowing that we care and are returning for them! Our kids are healthy and as many positives as we note, institutionalized life is hard and there are things that we can’t wait to provide for them at home that they just don’t have the means to give them here. It will be very hard to leave them here, knowing what kind of life and attention they can have with us.

We use to really emphasize how hard for us this whole two trip thing was going to be. However, we now overwhelming believe that this really is in the best interest of the children and they are the ones we need to consider, not how hard this will be for us. This allows them to get to know us, at least briefly, in a safe (safe to them) environment; allows us time to ask questions about them and observe them so we can better prepare our home (favorite toys!) and outside resources; allows us to give items (such as pictures) to their caregivers so that they can talk to them about us more and prepare them to leave with us; allows us to explore their birth city and take pictures to share with them later; and allows potential parents to make a very informed adoption decision so to reduce problems down the line (although not really applicable to us since we aren't faltering!). The best way to approach this to reduce the trauma on them is through a gradual transition. Just imagine the trauma of swooping into a building, picking up two kids the first time you meet them (especially when they are toddler age or older) and taking them from the only place they know. That induces much more trauma and therefore can take longer to recover from the transition. We really believe in this type of gradual transition, which is why many countries (and domestic foster care adoption) are focusing on this. The wait will be sad, and hard at times, but in the end we know it is best for them and that is what is the most important. Of course we wish the time between trips was shorter than ~ 4 months, but it is what it is. The transition home with us will still be difficult as they will be grieving all they are losing, but hopefully it will be just a little less scary if all four of us are more prepared...

Day 3

2011-03-29T12:13:00.001-07:00

Today we really had the chance to be with the kids for an extended time! We were so nervous over breakfast about what the day had in store. We knew today would be a good day to really see how the kids responded with us and also give us a chance to learn more about them and challenges they are facing in their development, not to mention more about their likes and dislikes! We left the hotel about 8:45 and made it to the orphanage at a little after nine. The social worker met us at the front and then showed us to the family room. Shortly after she brought the kids up to the visitation room!

We had a paper bag with a collection of different toys we brought to entertain (and entice) them for the morning. Antoaneta wasted no time in picking out a BIG bag of foam 'wood-faux' blocks. She sat down on Myra's lap (as usual!) while Petar crawled on Joe's. Both started methodically picking out a couple blocks at a time until Petar decided it was time to pick up the whole bag and dump them on the floor. At this point we heard, for I think the first time, a noise of excitement from Antoaneta! Antoaneta entertained herself for awhile stacking blocks (and taking them away) in Myra's hand. Peter made all sorts of happy noises playing with Joe, especially when Joe brought out these textured bouncy balls we had for them to play with! We continued to find Antoaneta very serious-faced and needing a bit of interaction to get a smile out of her – but, we are new and unknown people so we were just happy she seemed content being in our laps and playing! Petar is primarily just a happy little guy and seems to enjoy attention from anyone, although he crawled mostly towards Joe!

At one point we decided to do the ‘kid swap’ and Joe carried Antoaneta around for a bit and put her at eye level with some more toys that we up on a shelf. She found one toy that played a song when the button was pushed. The song is now forever engrained in our heads considering the number times she handed it back and said ‘again’ in Bulgarian.

The social worker brought some coats to the room and said we could take them outside for a bit if we wanted. About 10:45am we decided it was time to venture out. We walked to the outside playground and tried a see-saw-type toy that did NOT elicit any positive reaction. Next up our bag of tricks was to blow some bubbles we brought. Joe tried and tried to get them to enjoy blowing, chasing, or even looking at the bubbles to no avail. We thought those were going to be a major hit! They seemed generally scared to be outside with us and the sun seemed to both Petar’s eyes a bit. For one more attempt Joe blew up a beach ball and we tried throwing/kicking it around. Again…nothing. When they do use the playground it is generally with a larger group of children and being out there alone may have made them a bit uneasy. Then we realized that going back inside was the best choice.

We went into one of the playrooms and they seemed to be familiar with this place because they were instantly much happier. Petar especially loved it when he would push himself on a 'car' and Joe would 'get him' and tickle him. Antoaneta had DEFINITE opinions of which indoor swing was okay and which one was not (the blue one for some reason was NOT an option and she made that known). At one point Antoaneta saw a caregiver who was with two other boys giving them some crackers. She quickly hustled over in her direction looking for the food! She had part of a cracker and came back to Myra but unfortunately she dropped it on the floor. Before she could muster up too much a meltdown Joe quickly got the goldfish from our bag and just one of those seemed to do the trick (you could tell by her face it was definitely a new taste though). She also really enjoyed a push around the playroom a few times by Joe in the BIG car. Joe tried to push Petar on the swing for a bit but when he tried to take him out, it was taking a bit too long and the screams and tears started flowing. Luckily after only a few seconds he was back on his plastic car smiling and zooming around the room.

We went back up to the play room about 11:45am because they would be bringing their lunch to the family room today and allowing us to feed them. That was an interesting experience. Myra was feeding Petar and besides making a COMPLETE mess out of him he was doing okay. Antoaneta on the other hand was not having any of the tactics Joe was trying and was NOT happy. With each attempt to feed her the bread or rice she would grunt and turn her head away. Shortly after our coordinator realized what was happening and said 'Oh, the SOUP is first, then the main course and dessert'. PLUS they do not eat the soup with a spoon, they just drink it right from the bowl. Apparently routine REALLY matters to her! Even once we established the routine, it was still clear she preferred to be fed by a female. So again, we did a quick ‘kid swap’ and Joe switched over to Petar and Myra fed Antoaneta the rest of her lunch. Petar scarfed down just about all of his but Antoaneta, being a bit unsure about the surroundings and people feeding her, stopped a bit sooner. Again being a girl after Joes heart, she got up from the table and started picking up the blocks (and every other toy in the room) and putting them in the bag the blocks came in. She does like her organization!

Before she could finish, the kids were whisked quickly away for their nap at which time we headed out with so much more on our minds then the day before. We all (us, our coordinator Rosi and the Italian family & coordinator) headed out for lunch (we didn't realize how hungry we were!).

After lunch (at about 2pm) we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. We used this time to relax at a coffee shop watching the videos and looking at the pictures we took that day. We also took a walk around Varna. We really like this city and made sure to take lots of pictures to share with the kids some day!

The Spanish restaurant was calling our name for dinner and gave us a chance to discuss our decision on names for the kids (not to be revealed quite yet) over some Tapas and beer!

Only TWO more days left with the kids! Watching them leave the room and go over to the tiny elevator each day is hard. Not knowing where they are going, who is taking care of them, what they are doing, etc. is very difficult. We’ve only been able to see small parts of the orphanage (directors office, lobby playroom, and small family visitation room). Other than the hallways the rest is a bit of a mystery.

P.S. For those who don't already know we cannot share with you any pictures of the kids. Until all the paperwork is done and the court proceedings completed (so, about 3-5 months after our 1^st trip) we are not allowed to share these publicly due to strict privacy laws in Bulgaria to protect the children's rights. After all, until that happens, they are not legally our children. We respect this wholly and won't do anything to jeopardize our adoption! Just think of this as our 'expecting' period where you don't get to see the kids until the official 'birth'!

Day 2 – THE BIG DAY

2011-03-28T12:40:00.001-07:00

This morning (Monday) we packed up to leave the apartment and head to Varna! We had a fairly good night sleep, considering our anticipation of the big day ahead. We walked around the streets of Sophia around 7am trying and find breakfast but nothing was really open (not even Dunkin Donuts!) so we just stopped into a little 24 hr corner market and bought some interesting yogurt, bread and cheese - no coffee to be found! There were only a few people scattered around, which gave us good access to more pictures of Sofia, including a pack of random city dogs (wild dogs we've noticed are not uncommon here).

Our VESTA agent, Rosi, met us outside the apartment at 7:45am where a taxi took us (after many attempts to figure out how to cram all of our luggage into a very small car) to the airport! We found out on the way that the drive to Varna was about 7 hours and that the orphanage policy was to only allow us to visit in the morning from 9am – noon, so we were very thankful that we were flying, otherwise today would be a no-go! We had a momentary scare when the flight was canceled but later found out it was just combined with a flight going to another city along the coast and Varna as just added a layover now. The flight was only about 50 minutes, but still included a shot of coffee and a yummy crème filled croissant. It was still so unreal that we were actually on our way to the city where our children were born!

Again, because of our American super-sized amount of luggage, we had to take a taxi as opposed to sharing a car with another family :-) . We went straight to the orphanage and the 30-minuted trip on the way there now seems like only a blur. We kept looking around, anticipating a stop around every corner. Once there we rushed in with a couple suitcases and proceeded to madly pile all the donated clothes in the Directors office and make up a quick gift bag for the staff (the bonus is we were now on our way to reducing 5 suitcases to 3). We sat down to ask some questions when the door open - OUR KIDS WERE COMING IN!! We didn't even have time to think (for the 789^th time) "will they like us, will they be scared, cry, be happy? They were here!!

Antoaneta (nicknamed, "Toni") was in a cute pink little dress with white stockings and black shoes and immediately spotted the doll Myra was holding. She came and grabbed it and promptly walked away. Petar, in a yellow jumper, laughed and smiled at Joe as he walked in holding the hands of the social worker. Immediately without thinking we both dove right for the floor and sat down at their level in front of the Director desk (feeling bad now, we may have seemed a little rude!). Myra went and placed Toni on her lap and quickly found out that Antoaneta was more of a "shape stacker " than a "doll girl " and she sat contently on her lap to play (future engineer or architect?) . Petar sat on Joes lap for most of the time but instead of pushing the dump trunk back and forth it mainly just became a plastic projectile. He laughs and giggles so much and loves to be held. They are adorable! We spent about 15 minutes in the directors office just talking to the kids and asking her some questions about their daily routines (Rosi was our translator the entire time). We then picked up our kids and headed upstairs to the family play room. We had another 25 minutes to play with them (she graciously extended our stay 15 minutes past the visitation time). Antoaneta was very shy with Joe (they don't see many men), but happily took the toys he gave her and directly handed them over to Myra. Petar continued to laugh and enjoy playing with Joe and a light up toy (which really grabbed both of their attention). Joe was thrilled to see that one of Antoanetas favorite activities is to pick up all the toys and put them all away in a bucket . A girl after his own obsessive-compulsive heart :-)!! Myra FINALLY got a big smile and little laugh from the typically very serious-faced Antoaneta when she tossed her up a little and laughed with her. Petar enjoyed any toy put in front of him, as long as he was being held. Petar then enjoyed playing with Myra's hair and Joe turned on his 'baby whisperer' charm towards Antoaneta . She started to warm up to him just in time for us to give them back to the social worker. She picked Petar up and we brought Antoaneta to her side. As soon as the social worker opened the door, Antoaneta went darting out of the room (with people running after her before she reached the stairs!). The end happened just as fast as the beginning! BUT it was a WONDERFUL first visit, the best we could realistically hope for - thank you everyone for your prayers!! As you can imagine, children are often very scared and unsure about these visits, but their 'grandmother' and social worker really prepared them for today. While they don't really understand the concept of "Mom and Dad" they were well aware that someone was coming today just to see them, and only them. This played a huge part in how receptive they were to us. They didn't cringe or pull away when we kissed them (but tomorrow is another day and attachment will be a long process – much much longer than a few hours, days, weeks, or months!!). The only part we regret is it all happened so fast that we didn't have the camera ready. It stayed in the Directors office will all of our bags when we quickly left there and went to the family room. Really the world was a blur from the moment they came into the room and we dropped everything where it was (we're actually still missing some things!) and devoted the next short but precious 45 minutes to our kids. Honestly not having the camera was probably good because it was short and we were able to just concentrate on them. Tomorrow the camera and video camera come out to capture the pictures and video that will help us through the next ~4 months!!

We left in another whirlwind off to check into our hotel in downtown Varna. Our hotel is very nice and right in the middle of this big pedestrian-only square. It is only one block from the beach of the Black Sea (though it is a chilly 50 degrees here now). After a short break and talk about our morning we had lunch with Rosi and asked her lots of questions about Bulgarian culture, customs, and holidays. Rosi then offered to walk us around the city square of Varna and took us to a beautiful "Church of Assumption'. She purchased us two candles and we went into the church and decided to light them in honor and prayer of our two children. We are certain that all the Vesta personal are great- but we have found Rosi to be wonderful and feel quite lucky to have been assigned her!

After our walk we went back to the hotel to do some rearranging, but Myra prevented Joe from napping by rearranging some suitcases (and him (see picture)- yes, she's so mean) and then took a walk along a road by the Black Sea.

Dinner was at a nice Spanish restaurant with Rosi, another VESTA coordinator, and a case worker from Italy. Tomorrow we leave at 8:30am to go to orphanage and are able to stay until ~12:30, we are going to be allowed to feed them lunch this time! We are bringing a whole new bag of toys for tomorrow… it is fun learning what they enjoy! We will have normal visitation hours tomorrow and Wednesday but Thursday will be shorter as our place leaves for Sofia at 12:30pm. We thought we would be there through Friday, but it turns out the notary (to complete the paperwork) is not there past 1pm so they like to get us there early to make sure nothing goes wrong with the paperwork. The bright side is we now have some time in Sofia to purchase gifts for them to bring back home and give later as they grow up to educate them about Bulgaria. We'll make the most of the hours we have and can't wait for the morning to come.

And…we’re OFF!!

2011-03-28T11:16:00.001-07:00

It feels like we've been packing and preparing for the last two weeks. How much can you really pack you ask? Well, the answer is 3 checked bags, 2 carry-ons, and 2 briefcases. Granted only one suitcase and some of the carry-on luggage is for us, but I guess this is just preparing us for future travels with the twins! In a way it still doesn't feel real. Maybe that's because we travel a lot so sitting in the airport isn't really a new experience. We left the house at 5:30am Saturday, all our luggage in tow and after the first leg of our flight (Tampa to DC) Joe's brother picked us up at the airport so we could spend our 7 hour layover with his family and Joe parents who drove down for the day. It was great seeing everyone and we filled up at Olive Garden hoping that a full tummy would put us to sleep on the log leg from DC to Munich. So much for that plan! Really the flights were on-time and uneventful but lacked any significant sleep.

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We arrived in Sofia at about noon on Sunday and were met by Petko who works for a sister agency to All God's Children International (our adoption agency in Portland). Surprisingly when waiting in line at customs we ran into another family that was on our flight who is from the U.S. and is on their second trip to Bulgaria…picking up their twins! Congrats to Stephanie and Josh! Petko drove us to our apartment in Sofia for the night. More than we could have asked for, a two bedroom apartment with full kitchen and equipped with some toys and child potty seats (we'll appreciate all that on our second trip!). I must admit though we learned early on not to judge a book (a building in this case) by its cover. From the outside we weren't sure exactly what we were going to think of the place we were staying but the apartment inside is AMAZING. VESTA (the sister agency) is really taking incredible care of us (the inside pictures aren’t very good because they are screenshots from a video). Petko oriented us to the city from our apartment and then sat down with us at a restaurant for lunch. While he wasn't able to stay, he just wanted to make 100% sure we were comfortable and oriented before he left.

We couldn't let our first meal go by without trying some authentic shopska salad (we've made this for some of you at our house but I can tell you….ours doesn't hold a candle to the real thing). This, paired with a beer and some Bulgarian wine set the mood for a great lunch. While we debated over the menu, the waiter stopped and asked if we wanted to try something traditional from Bulgaria, to which we of course answered yes. He quickly chose two nice dishes (one lamb, one chicken) and sent them our way. The restaurant was in an outside courtyard and with the sun shining and temp rising into the 60's, we had a wonderful introduction to Sofia.

Even though our eyes could barely remain open we were determined to stay awake and try to put our bodies into the local time zone (7 hours ahead of East coast US). We started walking around the city and found an extensive park and shopping area (after a quick shot of coffee (yes, literally 'coffee' is about a shot worth of liquid) from the Bulgarian McDonalds! A large mountain range provides an awesome backdrop to Sophia, especially from the airport (so the picture here doesn't do it justice!). We walked for a couple hours, thinking we were heading to this outdoor market which we unfortunately never found (skipping ahead…Monday, after resting for the night, we realized that the right we made should definitely have been a left!!).

Throughout the whole day we would have flashes reminding us that, yes tomorrow we will meet our children and yet it seemed so unreal. Our eyes barely remained open long enough to head back to the apartment at about 5:30pm. We took a nice 2 hour catnap and then got up and decided to find something to eat close to the apartment. Not much was open but we found a couple of quick chicken wraps. Our suitcases seemed to have exploded in the apartment so we needed to get them in order because Monday morning we needed to head out for Varna (city on the Black Sea where our children's orphanage is). We were told upfront to be flexible during this trip. So taking that to heart, when they said we would be flying to Varna in the morning instead of driving, we just respond with, 'OK'! Really it is the best choice. Varna is a 6-7 hour drive from Sophia and would have REALLY cut into our visitation time at the orphanage.

Myra spent some time wrapping bows on the presents we brought for the caretakers at the orphanage and we rearranged the suitcases with the expectation we would be heading straight from the airport to the orphanage. Thanks to help from friends and family we filled one suitcase with clothes to donate to the orphanage (who lost much of what they had in fire about a month ago…). We wanted to have these, the gifts, and some toys for the kids easily accessible. We finished up about 10:30pm, set the alarm, said a prolonged, "Oh my gosh, we are meeting our kids tomorrow" and then headed off to bed….finally. A big day awaits….now where is that needed sleep?

Family Fun

2009-10-12T17:40:00.001-07:00

Time to catch up again! Let’s just start with August….the Franz Family Picnic! We flew out to NY to spend a week in the beautiful Adirondack mountains…the day we flew in was the annual Franz Family picnic. It was REALLY great to see everyone (some we haven’t seen in a very long time)!

The day consisted of GREAT food and the annual water balloon fight…which turns into an annual ‘how many cousins can we get soaked’ fight (we forgot about that one and were fully clothed!).

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The day ended with our annual campfire, songs lead by Myra’s uncle Paul – this year he even brought ‘instruments’ for others – it was a ton of fun!

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For the rest of the week we had rented a cabin with Myra’s parents and brother on a nearby lake. We had a great time biking, tubing with family, canoeing, golfing, hiking and of course playing cards with Grandma!

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Graduation (finally!)

2009-07-26T17:34:00.001-07:00

So even though the defense was back in April, we celebrated Joe’s PhD graduation again the day he walked in the ceremony. His grandparents, parents, aunt and uncle and Myras parents flew out for the event. We got to take some trips to the coast and to the mountains before/after graduation day! It was also cool that two of our closest friends were getting their PhD’s at the same time (and one who couldn’t make it to the ceremony because she already moved to Australia). The ceremony was pretty typical and thankfully we were allowed to leave before they handed out all the undergraduate degrees. We followed it with a BBQ for all three graduates their families and friends at our place. Good times all around. The wives of the graduates surprised the crowd with photo collages (embarrassing actually) and T-shirts to start a feud!.

Here’s just a few snaps from the day …

Rooster Rock

2009-07-12T19:16:00.001-07:00

We want to try and soak in all the Oregon scenery while we still can!! So a month or so ago we went for a day hike up to Rooster Rock. The peak itself is a bit hard to get a picture of but the views from the top were better than we even imagined!

April 2009

2009-07-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

Now that I look back, April was a pretty busy month for us. I suppose most notably is that Joe defended his PhD on April 20th. His parents flew out to celebrate Easter with us and a number of our friends and then worked on a number of projects around the house while he crammed to finish up during the last week. He did take a few breaks to join in the remodeling fun but really Mom and Dad deserve all the credit for these jobs!!

Joe's professor had a celebration dinner/party the night of his defense which was a great way to finish off the day.

After a few days of finishing up some details of the dissertation we took off with Joes parents up the coast of Oregon and Washington and into the temperent rain forest in the Olympic National Forest. We stayed a night at Ocean Shores, Washington and woke up early to find we were in the midst of hundreds of people who came to the coast for the one open weekend of Razor Clam season! Joe's parents flew out from Seattle and then we took the train back to Oregon. You really can't beat the west coast views! Click on the picture below to see a few more!!

We finished off the month when Myra hosted a baby shower for our friend Joani. You can tell we are a bit late posting all this because little Alilson arrived over a month ago!!

Catching up ...

2009-07-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well considering it's been since Thanksgiving since we posted anything, a little catching up is in order. So of course descriptions of everything are going to be pretty limited but hold on to your hats, cause away we go.....

Farewell to the Chileans:

In December we had to say "goodbye", or at least "So long for now" to a couple of our dearest friends as they returned to Chile. It is time for Pato, Ximena, Bea, and Max to head back to their home and families but nonetheless we had to have a party and a few tears to say our goodbyes.

Christmas:

We celebrated Christmas in a number of places this year. First in Oregon with a couple white elephant exchanges, then in New York and Pennsylvania with our families. It snowed in Corvallis which is a bit of a rarity and caused everything to come to a screetching hult. And last but not least, the Christmas tree we eyed up in our side yard finally came tumbling down and made it's way into the house.

Grandma Franz Turns 90!

It wasn't long after we got back out west from Christmas that we turned around and flew back for a long weekend to help celebrate Grandma Franz's 90th birthday. Short trip but it was a great chance to see the entire family which hasn't happened for a number of years.

Thanksgiving Double Take

2008-12-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, it's a little past Thanksgiving - but, again, better late than never! We drove up to Washington to spend Thanksgiving with Melissa (a friend of Joe's from high school), her husband Giancarlo and their two ADORABLE girls, Angelina and Victoria.

On Thanksgiving Day, Giancarlo had to work so we enjoyed our Thanksgiving day meal on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. Afterwards, Giancarlo gave us a great tour of the ship - it was very impressive and quite interesting for a couple engi-nerds!

On Friday, we enjoyed the traditional Thanksgiving 'fixings' at their house. It was a great, relaxing day of reminiscing, playing with the girls and catching up. Of course, their was lots of food preparation going on and the day wouldn't be complete without a couple minor 'incidents' (misreading ingredient quantities and early 'removal' of the turkey), BUT, no worries, the meal turned out FAB-U-LOUS and of course, put us into an early food-induced coma. We ended the night getting schooled by Melissa and Giancarlo in the game Sequence. I blame it on the food-coma and want a REMATCH!

Cape Lookout

2008-11-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

With a break in the rain last weekend we took the chance to head out to the beautiful Oregon coast. We went up to Cape Lookout and did a hike out to the end of the headland. We got there a little later than we had planned (darn outlet malls along the way!) but it gave us a great view of the sunset over the ocean. It just meant we had to hike a little faster on the way back so we weren't stuck in the dark!! If you haven't seen the rocky shores of Oregon...you're missing out. The trails had some pretty muddy spots but nothing impassable. Really of course the highlight was being able to watch Myra use the logs across the trail as the catwalk for her model runway (sorry no pics of that...that was just for Joe ;)

Halloween Fun...

2008-11-01T22:39:00.001-07:00

We spent Halloween over at our friend's Jen and Todd's. Jen is a FABULOUS cook/baker - check out all the great spread! And this wasn't all! Soooo creative with decorations and food! Yumm, yumm, yumm!!!!!

It's been a few years since we dressed up for Halloween and we decided to do a 'group' custome with our friends Dan and Natalie. We all voted and decided on dominoes, of course Myra and Natalie couldn't just settle on the boring description of putting white dots on black clothing. Sooooo, here we are as dominoes - the women decked out with dominoe earrings, headband and braclets. Don't you think the guys pulled of the gold 'Mr T' like domino 'necklace' and 'Rambo-like' headband well?

We entered the party in 'true' dominoe style, that is, falling down knocking each other down. Here is an reenactment, although we were MUCH less graceful coming in and ended up scaring little Ethan (sorry!).

We weren't the only ones sporting fun outfits though! Check out the other great costumes.

Fruit Loop Day (what do you think this means??)

2008-10-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

We decided to take a day 'off' this past Saturday and drive the Fruit Loop in the Mt. Hood area. Now, get your head out of the breakfast aisle (or gutter) and stay with me here - the Fruit Loop is a 35 mile loop around 30+ orchards in the Mt. Hood/ Hood River area (yes, only in Oregon). On the way up, Myra decided she wanted to take the scenic route to check out the changing leaves through the mountains (this way took about 3 1/2 hours) - it was very pretty, but nothing compared to the changing leaves of the Adirondacks!

The 'loop' started with a visit to a real, live, Alpaca farm - lots of baby Alpacas, soooo cute. We found out that female Alpacas are worth $10,000 when there little baby feet hit the ground! The owners were talking about how this farm has really helped them diversify their portfolio - no kidding! They really do have nice 'fleece' though...but $10,00???

Next, we stopped at a place, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, for a BBQ behind an old country store. It was very good (with cider baked beans and pear coleslaw) - a bit crowded as there was a tour bus - yup - a tour bus! They were also making fresh apple butter the ol fashion way over a fire in a big copper pot - Myra took a turn stirring the pot to relieve the worker (really, just because she likes doing dorky things like this).

The rest of the afternoon was spent going to different orchards, getting some fresh fruit and some hard cider from the locals. Then we took the 'non-scenic', scenic, route home (an interstate along the Columbia Gorge), which was only a little over 2 hours....But, after all that, we were still back home in time for take out and a movie - what a great day!!

Harvest Time!

2008-10-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Myra decided to do a major harvest of the garden the past couple weekends. The tomatoes and squash plants were dying so it was time to bring the 'veggies' of her labor inside for some major cooking!

The tomatoes made some fabulous salsa!! Only about half of the squash have been cooked (those things are a pain!). So fun fact - when different varities of squash are planted close together they crossbreed and you never know quite what you will get! But, still, there was enough 'buttery' squash to make a ton of squash gnocchi - yummy!!

Celebrating and saying good bye....

2008-10-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

After only be back home for a couple weeks, we packed up for a quick visit back east, and I mean QUICK. We arrived at Joe's parents' house in PA at about 3:30am Sat. morning, and left again on Monday afternoon! It was WELL worth the quick trip though.

Our reason for such craziness was two-fold. (1) To celebrate Joe's grandmothers 90th birthday at a surprise party(Ruth Long) (2) To see Joe's brother Jeremy, wife and Erin and beautiful little girl Isabel one last time before they moved to Brazil a few days later...

The 90th birthday celebration started with all of grandma's children and grandchildren attending church in the morning - what a large section we took up! Ruth is the oldest charter member of that church and was celebrate by everyone there though! Next we went to a great buffet where we had our own room with lots of food and pictures. Below is a picture of his grandmother, one with her and her living children and one with her and her grandchildren...

Following the celebration Joe and Myra went back to grandma's house to help her open her presents and cards - very fun experience! :-)

Of course our second reason for visiting was no less important - to see off Joe's brother, wife and little girl, I'm not sure we let anyone else have much time with little Isabel. She is TOO adorable. Here's just a few pictures of our too short time with her:

In Memory of Olivia Marie

2008-09-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

Today is a day of very mixed emotions. It’s one of celebration but also one of grief. Rarely are celebrations sad.

Today would have been Olivia’s 1^st birthday.

It’s hard to believe that one year has past and it may sound weird but I think we kind of wished time would stand still and the day would really never come. Not because we want to ignore this day or because we’d rather not move on, but because we wanted it to be done right and we aren’t sure what “right” is. We promised ourselves that we would always honor her birth in some way and this will be the first time we have a chance to celebrate her very short earthly life. But as we do that we remain comforted that she continues to live in heaven, aside the God we put our trust in.

We don’t mean for this post to be morbid in any way. The purpose is not to make you sad or for us to seek your condolences. Rather it's only for Olivia and to make certain she is remembered for the child and human she was. We were very torn about whether to post this or not. But at the same time it is our responsibility as Olivia’s parents to celebrate her birth as any parent would. Olivia will never have the chance to carve out a path and meaning for her own life and so that responsibility lies solely with us. What we do BECAUSE of her birth and to honor her memory, is what will define that meaning. That’s a lot of pressure and not something we take lightly.

Going to the hospital at 4:30am one year ago, we were totally unprepared for what was going to happen. We aren’t going to rehash all the details but we will say that if the hospital had not been prepared and given us things to remember her with, we would not have coped as well as we have. They gave us her hand-made baby blanket, hat, photos they took, and number of other memorabilia that at the time we assumed came from the hospital. We learned later, that there is an organization called Heavenly Angles in Need that makes all of these things for babies born prematurely, and then gives them to the local hospitals for the family. Without these, we would have nothing to look back on and we are eternally grateful to them. Because of this, we have made a donation to them in Olivia’s memory so that other families can be as blessed as we were.

We write this mainly so that all of you can remember her just as fondly as we do. She was born with perfect features, from the fingernails, eyebrows, and right down to the toes.

The anger and guilt have mostly passed but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t sad. In reality, this day will always be sad. But we’ll never forget that God created Olivia for a purpose; a purpose that we will help fulfill for the rest of our lives. Of course selfishly we wanted the chance to raise her and watch her grow but she is in heaven now with the Ultimate parent and we couldn’t ask for anything better.

So in the end we can still celebrate the time we had and whisper a "Happy Birthday" to our beautiful baby girl.

Europe Friday (12th) and Sat (13th)

2008-09-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

OKAY, well we ended up not really having internet the rest of our trip – so we are going to 'back-blog' for a bit...stay tuned.
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Well, back to our Friday (12th) travels (remember this may be lengthy because its also our travel journal)...After feeling a little happier about having dry clothes on we continued onto Köln, Germany for a quick stop to look at what is considered, to some, the most amazing Cathedral in Germany. We paid for the English tour of the church, but haven't decided if it was quite worth it. The only cool thing is you get to go into a gated portion of the church that is normally closed to visitors – an alter used for special occasions where relics of the wisemen are kept and where the more important members of the church used to sit. This Cathedral was just amazing, between all the 'chapels' turned burial areas, the unbelievable height, captivating paintings, sculpture and windows – some more than 3x as old as the USA!!! No words can really describe it – but we can tell you that it is worth the stop, even if you just have an hour in your travels to spend admiring it!!

After that – on to Koblenz, one of our stops along the river Rhine. We were pleasantly surprised that our Hotel (Hotel National) was really close to the train station - about a 5 min walk. We were even MORE happy with the fact that we didn't have to maneuver around mold, plugged up sinks or squashed bugs anywhere we went! Nothing fancy – but clean, decent breakfast and pleasant owners....

As you saw in our previous post – our entire room also doubled as a drying rack – Myra was quite sad that some of her 'famous pamphlet' had been destroyed in the hour run through the storm in Bruges – darn souvenirs! After setting in – we wandered down to look at the Rhine and then back to the train station for a real German pretzel appetizers while trying to figure out where to eat. We have to put in a little plug for the place we settled on for anyone heading to Koblenz someday. We ate at Piper's Corner – a Celtic Irish Pub and it was VERY VERY good, of course we had dinner with our beer (or was it the other way around?) For Myra's family – the name of the beer was Franziskaner (for those who don't know her maiden name is Franz).

The next day (Sat) we left our luggage in a locker in Koblenz and took a train to a little town along the Mosel River (Moselkern) with a supposedly 90 minute hike through the woods and up to a fully intact castle, Burg Eltz. It was very interesting and really in the middle of nowhere...The rain was still following us and we were able to do the hike up in 60 min flat. We were lucky and there was enough people for the English tour – yeah! Afterwards, we wanted to be sure to catch the :43 after train leaving, but left the castle with only 58 min to get there. Joe MADE Myra run through the trail (and since she's writing this she'll add that there were cliffs, no railings and a ravine hundreds of feel down) – okay maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration – but we BOTH did try and book it down the trail – we made it back in about 45 min, a little sweaty, but that just secures a seat by ourselves....

Next up, Marksburg Castle – passing through Koblenz we went about 15 min to Baurbach, where Myra's pamplet failed them and didn't have the directions to get there!! After wandering around aimlessly we finally came across the 'train' to take us up the very steep looking road (we heard there was a path but hadn't found it)...Unfortunately, this tour was only in German – we had a lovely sheet to follow along in english. However, the tour got quite boring as the sheet had about two sentences and everywhere we stopped the mean looking tourguide would ramble on for 10 minutes and the 30 German people around us would laugh and nod letting us know we were certainly missing out – or wasting our time. The castle had some different things – the favorite being the toilet that was just a hole that hung over thin air – this was obviously a vulnerable spot in the castle so was locked from inside the castle – yet, I wonder if the King had guards at the bottom to protect his royal behind when nature called? Guess we will never know..

So tricky part – this last little ho-dink train station had NO train schedule – we just hoped that there WAS one sometime going back to Koblenz....after waiting awhile we tried to ask a woman with a Canadian flag on her bag – she was at least able to make us feel good that we would get back. After going BACK to Koblenz, we picked up our luggage (why don't other little train stations have lockers?!) and got BACK on a train to go BACK past Baubach to get to our B&B in St. Goar. After about 15 min walk from the train station we found it at about 8pm!! Yeah – we've finally arrived! We were a little unsure how it would be since it's hard to tell from the internet – but... we HAVE to recommend to ANYONE traveling to the Rhine area – make your homebase in St. Goar and stay at B&B Alexi!! The woman who runs the place is wonderful and speaks great english – the rooms are very modern, clean and bright – ours had a view of the ruins of Burg Rhienfels... The breakfast was great and we were even waited on by her sweet daughter. Again – stay here!!!! :-)

Okay....off to a comfortable bed!

A Wet (still- see Day 2 below) arrival in Koblenz....

2008-09-12T12:07:00.001-07:00

After a quick tour of Koln (pictures to come later) we headed to our final destination for the day - Koblenz. Here's a picture of what our room looked like after discovering exactly HOW wet our bags had gotten! For those of you who know how neat and organized Joe is - you can imagine just how much he enjoyed this!!!

Bye Bye Belgium

2008-09-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

Day 1: The train got into Bruges at about 10:40am after which we started hoofing it the Market in the center of the city that happens every Wednesday and Saturday. When we got there we decided we had enough time to find our hostel and drop off our bags. We were staying at the Bauhaus hostel. Then we went back to the Market in search of some grub. We bought some local berries which we devoured quickly and then went to a stand in search of some Belgium fries (frites). Yes I know that we just wrote about trying the famous Dutch fries but what kind of fair-minded tourists would we be without trying and comparing them both? Of course, between the fries and baguettes we might be strutting around with 10-15 more pounds than when you last saw us. These fries come with many of the same sauce choices. Joe went for the fries covered in a traditional Flemish Beef Stew with beer based sauce and Myra opted for the most unusual veggie burger and fries with cocktail sauce which wasn't what we think of as cocktail sauce - as with most things around here...it was heavy on the mayo with a little whiskey for flavor. Ok, I should mention we are using this as a journal for ourselves so the details might get a little cumbersome so skim through as you see fit.

Next up was to start the Bruge City Walk which covered climbing thousands of steps (ok, I guess it was only hundreds in reality) up the belltower (Belfort) to get us started.

We swung by the City Hall in Burg Square (political center and religious heart of the city) where they were setting up for an outdoor opera (The Barber of Seville). Tons of beautiful canals along the way and then a stop in the Gruuthhuse Museum (mansion turned museum). The place was filled with artifacts and art (at which Joe took time for a quick stop on the bench nearby) and an AWESOME old guillotine that was able to wake him right back up. Probably one of the highlights was the Church of Our Lady which has the only sculpture by Michelangelo to ever leave Italy (Madonna and Child) while he was alive. I cannot stress how incredible this church was. It's amazing how they constructed it so long ago.

I should also mention (mostly to Natalie) that we passed a genuine Belgian pug! Oh I almost forgot...we stopped for a lovely belgian waffle covered in belgian chocolate!!!

We capped off the day with dinner at the restaurant in our hostel where they give you a three beer sampler for free. One of them was a famous Belgian cherry beer. I have to say over the two days we were there we tried 5 Belgian beers (don't worry moms...some were small sampler sizes) and they were all great. So for those of you worried about a Belgian company taking over Budweiser...I'm convinced they might actually make it a beer worth drinking!!

Day 2: We woke up and decided to tour an old windmill near our hostel (used to crush grain back in the day – very cool for a couple of engineers and old farm boy) and then to the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Supposedly they have a phial (housed in a silver tabernacle) that has some of Jesus's blood collected after the crucifixion and given to someone from Bruges in the 13th century for being a brave warrier in defending Jerusalem from the Muslims. They only open the tabernacle every Friday and parade it through town once a year.

Then we rented some bikes and rode through the countryside over to Damme. Just a small, quaint town where we ate baguettes with crab and grey shrimp from the North Sea. In typical Joe and Myra fashion (remembering prying off one bathroom tile resulted in a compete bathroom renovation) we decided to keep going until we got to the North Sea (they have awesome bike paths). We got there about 10.5 miles past Damme. But we loved seeing (and touching of course) the North Sea! Of course then it was time to start the trek back. Also in typical Joe and Myra fashion...we somehow lost track (or they forget to put them up!) of the bike paths sign and ended up in Blakenberge (NOT on our way). In reality it was only a 2 mile detour but we sure whined about it like it was a 17 mile detour. Anyway the trip back was again through the countryside (and a bit of a headwind) and through a cute little town called Lissewege. We finally made it back to Bruges about 6 hours later (5 hours and about 27 miles of biking) and the storm clouds weren't looking good but we still needed a picture to recreate the one we took from our honeymoon when we rented biked to ride down from a volcano in Hawaii. We did it (a bit slower and less flexible now that we're 30) in a small alley in Bruges and then booked it back to the rental place. Yet another detour meant we didn't quite make it there dry. A walk back, a shower, and nice dinner at a spanish restaurant made it all better.

One last night in our smelly and somewhat moldy hostel room (maybe we are too old for this?). We woke up to yet more rain, ate breakfast and were on our way. We had not yet bought any of the traditional Belgian lace so we wanted to walk to the train station rather than take a bus. What a mistake...so if you are one of the ones that gets a souvenir from Belgium....treasure it because we got SOAKED! We made it to the station in the pouring rain about an hour later and quickly hopped on a train to Brussels. We had decided not to stop and keep going to Cologne (aka, Koln) of course now I see and email from my friend Thom saying to definitely stop in Brussels. I guess we'll save it for next time. We had just enough time to change into dry clothes in Brussels and grab a sandwich (both which made us much more pleasant people!). Now we are on a posh International train to Cologne, Germany. Don't worry Don, Gary & Tuba (if you're reading this) we most likely will be coming back to work someday!

Stay tuned!!!

Europe - Here We ARE!!!

2008-09-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

And we're off!!

Joe's week in Hamburg went well, his presentation wasn't until Friday (yuck) but it was well received and its over now which is the best part. After a week of nothing but technical presentations and networking, I thought my head might explode.

So then on Saturday I went with a couple friends (Jamie and Marteen) that drove me to Den Haag in the Netherlands. It was a great drive though eastern Netherlands stopping in a few small towns (Devenntar, Leiden) and finally ending up in Den Haag. Beautiful towns with beautiful
canals, markets going on everywhere. Unfortunately the camera was in the U.S.

Meanwhile in another land far far away....Myra was in the middle of the Adirondacks for Shelley and Chad's wedding. From what I hear it was amazing!!! The bride was stunning, the groom was well...he was the groom – Luv you new 'cuz. She can say though that the mosquitoes in the Adirondacks are comparable to the size of a VW bus and thank goodness for 'AfterBite'. But in the land of Dutch ... Joe was anxiously awaiting the arrival of his own beautiful bride.

Sunday in the Netherlands was relaxing, slept late, ate some traditional 'pancakes' (pannenkoek)
covered in bacon and kaas (bacon and cheese). Then we went to visit the storm surge barrier protecting the port of Rotterdam. Ok, I'm a dork but it was amazing engineering. Still...,no camera.

Then alas on Monday Joe hopped on the train to Amsterdam to meet Myra at the airport. Before I could turn around I was mauled by what only felt like a linebacker wrapped around my throat, only to find out Myra had spotted me. Wow, shes 'purty' even after flying for 9 hours!! Of course the first words she uttered as she pointed to my coffee was...”I need one of those”. Huh, nice to see you too!

We spent the day in Amsterdam walking around, visiting the house where Anne Frank was in hiding for years before she was captured and died. Lunch at a little cafe on the canal...can't beat it. Somewhat in the center of town is a small little “compound” called . When catholicism was banned in the Netherlands this group of ladies (not quite nuns but close) were secluded in this area and left alone. Inside this Begijnenhof is a small church that we went to visit and after the Pilgrims left Britain in search of religious freedom they first went to Amsterdam. It was in this church that they went and prayed before beginning their Mayflower voyage. We went by the Rijksmuseum (lots of Rembrandt stuff) and Van Gough museum (but opted not to tour due to time and Myra's fading coherency). We walked by the Heineken Brewery which made us a little thirsty so we got a beer and sat by another canal for a bit. After a bit more walking around the town we headed back to the train station, with a detour through the red light district. Honestly, a little disturbing and probably not somewhere we need to go again, but it was an experience.

Myra took a power nap on the train on the way back to Den Haag and after a minor hiccup on the directions we made it back to Jamie's a little after 8:30pm. She had a huge dinner (appetizers, drinks, pasta, dessert) waiting for us. YUM! I recommend “Hotel Jamie” if you're ever in that part of town.

Tuesday Marteen (our personal tour guide and chauffeur...he was awesome!) dropped us off in the town of Delft and we did a little touring around the square by the “New Church” (“new” because this one was built in the 1600's). We were then back on the bus to Deltares (formerly Delft Hydraulics) where they work and where Joe was shopping around for jobs with people (yes thats right....I MIGHT actually graduate soon). We heard a lunch talk from a guy at the USGS (Myra was a trooper and sat through that) and then Joe had some meetings. Then we hopped the bus back to Delft and ate some more pancakes (chocolate and cheese (separately) this time). We bought a few souvenirs and then took the tram back to Den Haag. We just walked around the square and parliament building. We met up with Jamie and Marteen and went to a yummy Thai restaurant (yes, I said Thai). They were such wonderful hosts, tour guides, direction givers, etc. Thanks guys!!! Unfortunately...we didn't take ANY pictures with or of them!

Now we're on the train on our way to Bruges, Beligium. Check back in a few days for more adventures!!

Disney World!! YEAH!!!!

2008-07-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

In March, Joe had a conference in Orlando. After the conf. Myra flew out to meet him for some time at Disney World (NOT just for kids). Our good friends Dan and Natalie met us there as well. Joe's parents had transferred their timeshare from Maui to Orlando for all of us to stay in (thank you!). Joe and Myra also spent a day up in GA visiting with his Aunt Barb and Uncle Mel, their kids and grandkids - it was wonderful to see everyene. Barb and Mel even came down later and spent some time in Disney World with us!

We, of course, went to each of the four main parks! Here are some pictures from Hollywood Studios. The middle picture is of the 'Tower of Terror' ride - we loved that ride! No matter how many times we rode it we still screamed (of course none of us could scream like Natalie - love you Natalie!):

Now some pictures of Wild Kingdom. This park was very 'different' as far as amusement parks went. It had a lot of animals, a safari, and of course the usual rides and shows:

The Epcot Center was LOADS of fun! With my HP badge we had VIP treatment at Mission Space and got to go to a special lounge where we made an electronic postcard, had free drinks and were placed in front of the line!

And of course, you can't miss the most magical place of all! The Magic Kingdom!!

There were so many more fun things and pictures that we can't share here, just trust when we say - you should go!!!

Sarah's 30th +1 Birthday Party

2008-07-12T15:04:00.001-07:00

In Feb. we had a birthday party for our good friend Sarah. We made the theme a 'princess' theme - you'd have to know her to really appreciate this as she is a very much not an outdoors woman who really doesn't like pink. :-)

Our friend Jen (an AWESOME cook/baker) made this great cake! And of course, what is a 30th birthday party without a good kids game of pin the monkey on the palm tree:

Christmas 2007

2008-07-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, we know it's July 2008! But, its been a LONG time since we've done any updates and we thought that we would go back over the last 9 or so months and share so of the things we've done. For Christmas Myra REALLY enjoyed having a house to decorate and a REAL Christmas tree for once. We also had a 'White Elephant' party with some of our close friends before heading east.

Next we headed off to PA to spend Christmas with Joe's parents (we switch every year), we enjoyed spending time with family:

And then we hung out, ate lots and played games with Joe's high school friends (Jodi and Matt were great to host us all AGAIN!):

NEXT family time at Myra's parents house in NY:

We celebrated New Year's with some college friends, then our typical whirlwind holiday came to an end when we headed back to Harrisburg with Joe's parents car and flex on back to good old oregon.

Goodbye Chicken Wire - Hello REAL Fence!

2007-09-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Joe and his dad took on one of the biggest eye-soars of the outside of our house - our fence. This was a project that Myra was REALLY crossing her fingers would get done. We had this old rusted wire fence that was just begging to be ripped down (although, some of the posts just didn't want to leave the backyard):

Then they replaced it with a beautiful cedar fence! This of course involved a lot of digging with the pic ax, cutting, and back-breaking sledge-hammering since it wasn't 'worth it' to rent a hole or trench digger...We had a nice 'hump' right where the fence needed to go to assure it wouldn't get taken down by the county if they widen the road (hence extra digging). They were 'lucky' that they 'only' had to do one side of the yard since our back neighbor had a fence already that he said we could connect too and our neighbors on the other side already had one too...Here's some pictures:

More 'Random' Updates

2007-09-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well, there's no stopping them. Joe and his Dad crawled under the house (we won't say through what - I think the picture speaks for itself). This was all in the name of splicing off a pipe so that our automatic ice maker would actually get water to make ice!

They also worked on installing a couple new fans. One in the living room and one in the bedroom. Ahhhhhhhhhh.....our own version of 'air'......

A new mailbox ended up on the list as well, I know, I know - not really exciting - but the pictures were taken so here you go!:

More Doors!

2007-09-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Well, Joe and his dad are suckers for punishment. They moved on to the front door and our 'non-swinging', swinging door (it should've been a swinging door but was all crooked and just sort of shut from one side.

Here is a picture of the front door (old and new) and the threshold dad made for us:

And pictures of the old and new swinging door - this goes from the dining room to the kitchen:

New Interior Doors - was that on the list?

2007-09-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well, Joe's parents arrived late last Friday night and Joe wasted no time in putting his dad to work! :-) They went out on Sat. with the mission of finding a new EXTERIOR door since the list for when his dad was here included replacing the exterior doors. While looking for this at the local Habitat Restore his dad found beautiful solid wood panel interior doors - our interior doors were all these flat ugly white doors that had peeling paint and highlighters on them. Here's a couple pictures of the old doors:

So, the plan changed! Of course, it wasn't so easy to replace (nothing is!) since we have metal door frames that have the hinge location set to a specific location - this meant A LOT of 'tweaking' the doors (moving hinges, shaving, sanding, painting)...

BUT, in the end, we ended up with beautiful interior doors!

We have a FULL Bathroom!!

2007-08-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well, it has happened - we now have a half bath and a full bath. Joe finished up all the 'major' parts of the bathroom and now there are just some details left. Since this is Myra writing this - I can brag about what a FAB-U-LOUS job Joe did (the bathroom was completely his project). As you saw from a previous post he tiled the shower and did textured paint on the walls. Since then, he also tiled the floor. Moved the vanity from our half bath to this the full, fixed a leak in plumbing under the house and installed the new toilet. Not to mention all the little details...okay, enough of my bragging! Here are some more before/after pictures of the near finished bathroom...

From grafitti and holes in the wall (not to mention old toilet) to new textured paint, tiling and new toilet:

From layers and layers of wallpaper and an old light and sad looking vanity......

To a bathroom with our own fixtures and touch of style, or lack there of...you be the judge!

Well, that's all for now - more to come soon!!

Our smelly days are over ...

2007-08-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's offical, the tile is up, the grout is dry and has been sealed. Now we can actually SHOWER at our house! Who knew we could go so long without a shower. Now its time to finish redoing the rest of the bathroom -- any volunteers?!. Heres some before and after of the shower! Take note of how excited Myra was the day we started ripping the shower apart!

Tour of our new pad

2007-07-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

You've seen all the scary before pictures (if you don't remember just search through our old posts). Thought is was time to see some 'it's finally starting to get better' pictures after we are semi-settled in. Our low-tech virtual tour starts in the kitchen (the laundry room is actually through a door to the left by the fridge - but its not very exciting).

Next we bring you into our dining room/living room:

Going through our dining room leads us to our hall (the bookshelf is to the right as you walk through the arched doorway):

The green room is the baby's room (not really too much in it right now - more pictures in the future). Then our guest room is the chocolate/vanilla room (the ice cream room):

We'll skip the full bath for now....Here is a couple pics of our bedroom, the door is to the half bath:

A picture of the side yard and the backyard - see the New Windows blog entry for the front of the house.

That's the end our our tour of our new kick'in pad!

The BIG Moving Day

2007-07-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

At the end of May we decided that as wonderful as it was to finally have a house it might be a little more exciting to actually live in it! So, with work left to be done (we think there will ALWAYS be work left to be done) - we set the date and moved.

We sent out an email to our friends in the Young Marrieds group at church, not sure who could actually make it. Well, we ended up with not 10, not 15, but NINETEEN people at our apartment to help us move on a typical rainy Oregon day. Here's a picture of most of them. It took RECORD time to move out of our 2nd floor apartment in Corvallis to our house about 15 miles away in Albany.

We had lunch at our apartment for everyone to help (to get the energy to start the move). Then, we provided some yummy store-bought desserts at our house after the moving van and all the cars & trucks were unpacked. Promise of food works everytime!! :-)

A long overdue update - first THE WINDOWS!

2007-07-22T20:47:00.001-07:00

Well, as we mentioned MONTHS ago we had new windows installed. We were very excited to get the old barely working windows out and get the new ones in. Here is some before/after pics of the window.

The above is the front of our house (kitchen side) below is the living room side of the house (also front). Yeah, yeah, we know it's not that exciting - but it is to us!

The only 'bad' thing was that the windows had to be put flush against the front of the house, which means that we had a big ol gap in the inside of the house where you could see our cinder block walls.

A little hard to see here - but trust us, it was not pretty. Shortly after we moved in we found a young guy on craigslist who was just starting out. He did the encasements for all the windows for about the same price we would've paid the window people to do TWO. Here is an after picture. Okay, enough window pictures!

Coming soon ...

2007-05-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

WINDOWS WILL BE INSTALLED ON WEDNESDAY... FINALLY!!! We've also installed new kitchen floor, hung up some more light fixtures, re-hung our kitchen cabinets, and tore out the old green tub!!

Pictures of all this coming soon...as soon as we get a chance to breathe!

Some before and afters

2007-05-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well the floors are done. Sanded, cleaned up, sealed, and coated. Talk about a process but WE LOVE THEM! Here's some pics, they certainly aren't completed rooms but they are on their way!

Talk about a backache ...

2007-05-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

The wood floors we uncovered after taking up the carpet were in pretty good shape but they definitely need refinished. After we took up all the tack strips and staples it was about 120 man hours of sanding.

Bending over the machines for that long did a number on the back. But it was all worth it when we saw the results. After some filling and extra sanding most of the stains came out, at least as well as they could have.

We were hoping for hardood floors under the kitchen floor but after Joe and Dan chipped away at the particle board underlayment for an hour we didn't find any!

Painting Party

2007-05-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since we posted but tons of stuff going on. All in an attempt to get moved in next Sunday!! It will be nice to live in one place in stead of two. We had a work party to get a lot of painting done about a month ago.

Even better we tore into getting the carpets out at the end of the day! Unfortunately they we just disgusting, completely stained with pet urine and who knows what else!

Now we're getting somewhere!

2007-04-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

After that scary bathroom 'discovery' on Friday night (see below), we had a pretty successful weekend. Saturday we got a lot of priming done of the walls (we're having a 'painting party' this weekend to get the bedrooms painted). Joe did a great job fixing that pesky corner!! Here is a picture of pre-primer and after (this is the corner that had about an inch gap around it...it gave him a lot of headaches).

Saturaday night we tried to get the kitchen really prepped so we could start on the cabinets and ceiling on Sunday. First, we did get to celebrate Easter (on a smaller scale). We got up at 5:30am for a sunrise service (we went on a short hike with our friends Dan and Natalie to this mountian top that has a beautiful view).

Then after our regular church service we headed out to the house - super motivated to get our 'list' done. Joe did some patching while Myra painted the ceiling (talk about a crick in the neck)! Then Myra started to prime all the kitchen cabinets. Joe said 'Oh, I doubt those will take more than 45 minutes to prime'...and went out to mow our 'field'.

Two and a half hours, after Joe battled down the yard, Myra was still working on those cabinets. Then another hour and a half later - she was done! Painting some of the corner ones involved some special manuvers.

Joe did another coat on the ceiling and we were excited that we got what we wanted done (for once!)! :-) Here's some more pics.

Another 'Do we really want to go there?' moment

2007-04-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well, Friday night started out just fine, we had some 'goals' set out and were on our way. Then we thought 'Hey, let's take a look at this tub wall'. That's where things started going bad. Since the inspection we were a little worried about water behind the wall under the window. So we started out just removing a few tiles around the window.

Then we discovered that the tiles under the window weren't attached to the wall anymore, just each other!! The plaster behind the wall was just dust. Well, the next 'logical' thing to do was to figure out how much was really bad.

After a lot more wall came down (man that is A LOT of tiles), scared, we decided to just walk away....After a good nights sleep we realized that it was probably for the best - we are starting to get excited about what it will look like once we are done with it!

We did get some other priming done too...but this was the 'highlight'....

The Walls Came Crumbling Down, Slooooooowly

2007-04-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we decided that as much as we REALLY wanted to just paint over the walls in the guest bedroom, it was probably best to try to remove the 'junk' that was there.

Two of the walls were covered in some sort of dust/old glue that was fun fun fun to remove - a mere 8 hours later we were down to the textured walls - phew! Here's a silly video clip that Joe didn't know Myra was taking: VIDEO. Here's Joe with the oversized toothbrush we were using.

Myra tried her hand at this expanding spray foam to insulate the holes from the electrical work - guess they really mean it that you don't need to fill it more to 1/3 way - it oozed just a little..

Meanwhile Joe attacked the cracked guest room corner for the 3rd time - and no, 3 times ended up NOT being the charm, the entire patch feel off again! Frustrating!!

After finishing up the scrubbing of the wall, the next project was texturing the small bedroom walls. For those of you who have never used textured paint before, it is basically paint with sand in it - and it not a lot of fun to put on...you use this crazy loop roller that splatters everywhere. You need to stir it really well first, as demonstrated by Joe. Then two gallons of paint only did 3 walls and Myra!

The good news is, we are that much closer to priming and painting! Its starting to look like a house! Here's a few more pictures is you are interested.

Look Dad...it's a Craftsman!

2007-03-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

So the lawn was getting a little out of control, it was time to purhase a lawn mower (or a hay bailor at the rate we were going). We were heading up to Portland to get an AWESOME vanity (just wait till the house is done...you'll see if in the 'finished' photos!) from a guy on 'craigslist'. So we found a couple other things. Got a great deal on a brand new mower (in the box) from a guy that bought it but then moved into an apartment. Then we made a third stop to get a ceiling fan someone was selling. We've saved a ton getting the house fixtures like this! Anyway Joe got busy plastering (whats new) and Myra mowed part of the lawn with our new self propelled mower. Its great...and it's a Craftsman (Dad will be proud).

They're bbbaaaaaaacccckkkk!

2007-03-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

So I can't really say why, but Jeremy and Carri and John and Sarah all came back again this weekend to help us with the house! Jeremy & Carri on Friday night, and John & Sarah on Saturday. Let's see, Friday we got a whole lot of random stuff day, a few plaster touch ups and then Jeremy put a second coat on some of the living room walls. Carri was busy getting the contact paper out of the drawers (better her than me!). We started refinishing a kitchen lamp we found at a resale store and then started sanding the kitchen cabinet frames. It was a long night.

Saturday we got back into painting (living room and kitchen cabinets). We had a whole bunch of things we crossed off the list, thanks to the help. Painting, plastering, removing paint from the cabinet hinges, relocating a light fixture, and then plaster, plaster, plaster...will it never end! Don't ask why Sarah's enthralled with the brush...I really don't know ---------->

John was getting a little unsettled so we sent him out to relieve frustration by ripping down the old fence!

We wouldn't be nearly as far as we are without friends! CLICK HERE for more pics from this weekend.

We spent the rest of the night sanding and plastering. Joe was opening up some of the cracks so that there was more surface area for the plaster to stick too, but when Myra walked in she was a bit suprised.

When Irish Eyes Are Smilin'

2007-03-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post something OTHER than the house from last weekend. We took a short break to celebrate St. Patricks Day with our Young Marrieds group. Joani organized a great meal of corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage....oh and Mt. Dew! We could only stay for a little bit, then it was back to HW (yep even on Sat. night). Luckily we had some good stuff to wear (we were told everyone was dressing up...jokes on us!) that was leftover from a failed attempt to New Orleans 6 years ago! Remember that Shelley?

POWERhouse

2007-03-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

The electrician came out this week to relocate the service (why did they install it there in the first place if it wasn't within code!!) and to replace the old fuses with circuit breakers. We were having a few switched put in too and then we are going to install some GFCI's and three-prong outlets ourselves. Although when we went to run the wires we found out that not only our exterior walls are cinder block (read below for when we found that out!! Its kind of rare for the wood-rich Pacific NW) but the lots of the interior walls are too! All-in-all....we live in a bomb shelter! Makes it hard to recess an outlet or an electric panel in the wall doesn't it. Surprises just keep coming, but so far nothing bad, just interesting so we're thankful for that!

Can't wait to see what we get done this weekend!

Dan & Natalie come for a day of PaInTiNg

2007-03-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

We can't really say why we decided to move towards painting some of the rooms except we want it to have time to cure before we starting redoing the floors and filling the house with dust. The living/dining space was all patched and retuxtured so we started to paint (makes us feel like we're actually getting things ready to move-in too!). It all started by painting our walls pink...its all the rage these days.

JUST KIDDING, thats just a tinted primer so that the eventual crimson color will look like it should. Throughout the weekend and some of this week we got the ceilings painted in the living/dining room, hallway and guest room, and the walls in the living/dining room and entryway. Progress in baby steps. Thankfully our friends Dan & Natalie came and helped us out on Sunday! Thanks guys!!!!!

Raise the roof ...

2007-03-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well we've been doing lots since we had time to post yet. Myra's been sanding, preping, and priming all the kitchen cabinets (it didn't seem like so many when they were still hangin'). Joe's been getting a lot of practice in patching plaster cracks and holes and taking many attempts to match the original wall texture -- a rather impossible task.

We spent lots of time the other weekend trying to repair the ceiling in the small (blue) bedroom. There was a sag in the one corner where the plaster & backing (theres actually no lathe; just a thick cardboard backing) pulled away from the ceiling joists. After many trips up and down from the attic and pulling away the insulation we found the spot and used plaster washers and drywall screws to lift it back into place. It worked fairly well, except we were limited in where we could reattach it (i.e the joists are on 16" centers). So theres still a little bulge but nothing like it was. Now its time to plaster over the cracks we made and over the plaster washers! Lets hope it works!

Investigation

2007-03-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

So we set out to find ourselves some mold. At least we were preparing ourselves for it. The one corner of the house where things are a little 'shifted' had a hint of mold in one small space on the wall under the wall paper. So we starting chipping away so that if it was dry rot, we could fix it. We chipped, and chipped, and chipped...and found concrete. The house is cinder block, sandwiched by stucco and plaster. Interesting ...

On to the bathroom. A small section of wall under the closet and adjacent to the tub was molded too. So we starting tearing out the plaster and thankfully it was only surface mold, the plaster wasn't wet on the inside. Hurrah! So all in all, demo was a success and a relief! I couldn't get Myra to stop puching holes in the wall -- too much stress I guess.

Thank God for friends (i.e suckers who help us work!)

2007-03-08T08:30:00.000-08:00

First Jeremy and Carri, now John and Sarah, we'll have this done in no time! John & Sarah (& Linus!!) came down for a day of fun this weekend. John was mostly stuck ripping off the last remaining pieces of wallpaper in the small bedroom and Sarah was taking off cabinets for HOURS! Our realtor (Melanie Marshall) also stopped by to drop off a nice housewarming gift! Things are really coming along.

Linus got a little bored, guess next time we'll have to put him to work.

Here's some more pics...
March 3

What lies beneath ....

2007-03-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

So on Friday we started our demolition. Our friends Jeremy and Carri (our first guests!) came over to see the house and got stuck ripping down wallpaper for hours! Thanks guys!

They started on the bathroom and it wasn't long until they had the place paper, fixture, and lighting free! They also stumbled upon quite a find. The wall behind the toilet looked like it was the bathroom stall in a middle school, just covered in graffiti. The comments on the wall even dated back to Nixon. Myra's favorite saying though was "Never graffiti with your feeti!"

Don't worry Myra and I did some of the work too. By the end of the night the four of us got most of the way through the three rooms that had wallpaper (actually multiple layers of wallpaper and paint overtop)

We worked the rest of the weekend too so stay tuned!

FULL ALBUM OF PICS FROM THAT NIGHT

We're Homeowners!

2007-03-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

So we closed on our FIRST HOUSE last Wednesday! We were very excited but for those of you who didn't know it's a definite fixer-upper but that's what we were looking for in the first place. It was built in 1948 and structurally things are good but boy it's in need of some updating. Myra put it well when she said "When I'm 70, if I'm structurally sound and my pipes still work I'll be happy". It was a rental for 17 years so what can you expect. Anyway the seller just finished putting a new roof on it and we didn't waste anytime starting the demolition. Hopefully we'll have time to keep updating the blog as we progress over the next couple months but with working nights and weekend, time might be scarce. We're hoping to move in at the end of April!

Here's a picture with the old roof and before the tenants moved out!

NY Visit and Winter Fun

2007-03-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Myra took at red eye flight out the night of Feb. 15th to spend an extended weekend with her parents back in NY. Unfortunately, it was at the tail end of the crazy winter storm so after thinking that she might not get there at a decent hour on Friday, she was rerouted to Rochester and her parents drove out to get her. Saturday morning Myra, her dad and Rugger (the dog) went out on snowshoes around her parents property - it was beautiful!

As you can see there are CRAZY amounts of snow there! See more pics HERE.

Sunday morning her dad, brother and her went out snowmobiling. They met her mom for lunch (she drove there) and then headed back to the house. Some of the trails were very bumpy and there were sore backs all around.

Myra enjoyed lots and LOTS of time visiting with her mom. She (her mom) is doing amazing - only one more chemo treatment left!!

Monday before heading to the airport her mom and her went to Utica and took her grandma out to lunch. Then they went back to her grandma's house and played Rummikub for a couple hours - then back to the airport and reality!!

Yee Haw!!

2007-02-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago we went to a Boot Scootin Boogie that a group from our church was putting on. We learned a little two-step and Joe tried to rope a fake bull with little success...

So we ate, we danced, listened to country music and got to put on some country attire!

Thats right, Cooper finally did it ...

2007-01-23T20:53:00.003-08:00

We just got back (barely) from Denver this past weekend where wedding bells were ringing for Cooper and Katherine. By now they are on their way to sunny Maui for their honeymoon. Unfortunately it was a short trip (Friday - Sunday) but it was good to see everyone. Denver is a beautiful area surrounded by the Rockies. Unfortunately we were waiting until Sunday to take some pictures but we woke up Sunday to a snowstorm so our traveling around the area was cancelled because we didn't have any tire chains!

The rehersal dinner was at the Old Spaghetti Factory (yum) and then we went for a few drinks and to catch up with everyone.

The wedding was great, no cold feet from what we could tell and the reception was definitly fun. A few of the old Clarkson crew - many with their signficant others were able to make it out:

Although we really tried to stay out even later after the wedding, we realized that we were just getting too old!

The snow on Sunday forced us to leave a little early for the aiport but by the time our plane was supposed to leave everything was getting delayed or cancelled! They switched us from Delta to United in the hopes of getting back in time but we didn't leave until 9 hours of sitting in the airport! It was a late night but well worth it, even though I told Cooper they should have gotten married in the summer!

To view all of our pictures, click HERE.

Home for the Holidays

2007-01-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

We made our whirlwind tour back to the East coast for the holidays this year. Thankfully we made it back in time for the Franz Christmas party which we haven't been to since we got married! It was great to see everyone (and meet Shelleys boyfriend Chad!) -Myra says: `Aren't they so darn cute together`?!

There are a bunch of great pictures from the family Christmas party

HERE.

We were also able to have a 'Hat Party' for Mary the same day! It was fun to see all the great hat's everyone found for her - she said it felt great to get that wig off for a little while!! :-) Here's all the ladies wearing hats - to see a picture of John, Johnny and Joe, click HERE...

Christmas day in Syracuse was a blast and I have to admit we were pretty spoiled again this year thanks to Dad & Mom Franz. We shared dinner with Lin, Bill, Shelley, Chad and Grandma and then took the ATVs for a spin...Myra and Shelley are maniacs! Joe had a blast tooling around on the ATVs with Dad the whole time we were there, blazing new trails, and getting muddy. Although it was brief it was good to have breakfast with Dave/Jen and Rob/Nicole, of course we were the only childless ones there!

We headed down to PA after Christmas for a few days to see everyone and got spoiled again. Christmas dinner #2 didn't help the waistline any either. We were there for the Longs Christmas party which we haven't been to in years either.

It was great to see all Joes high school buddies too.

There haven't been that many of us together in a long time!

Thanks to Jody and Matt for providing the feast!

We got bumped on the way back and left on New Years Day (a day later than planned) so we spent New Years Eve playing games and keeping Dad and Mom up till midnight! Even better...they flew us back First Class since we gave up our seats! Wish we could afford that all the time!