Wow!

This has been an amazing day. Very emotional, very tiring, and very exciting all at once.

I don't really know where to start!

We left Sofia this morning to drive to the city that the orphanage is in (about an hour away). When we got to the city there were very few street signs and my driver couldn't find the orphanage. We stopped and asked close to 15 people and finally found one who knew where it was. When we got there the kids were all in a center courtyard playground area and one of the workers took us over to the window to show us A.J. He immediately started blowing kisses to us! My heart melted right then.

We met briefly with the director, who is a doctor and very sweet. She shared the medical information she had for A.J. and then asked me some questions about our family. I showed her the scrapbook I made to give to A.J. and she was amazed that we have cats living in the house with us, and that our kids do karate.
:-)

We finally got to go out into the play area with all of the kids and I mostly watched A.J. play. I tried to engage him a few times, but he quickly went on to another activity. He definitely seems to bounce from one thing to another pretty quickly. The staff at the orphanage obviously adore him and they have some sweet nicknames for him that I will share when I can tell you what his birth name is. I think we will end up using at least one of these pet names, since he responds well to them. They were very excited to hear that he was going to have a family and kept telling me "He just needs love!" The one down side to him being a favorite is that it seems like he doesn't have a lot of boundaries or rules. My interpreter said "I can't think of the word. What do you call it when they let him do whatever he wants?" I said "Spoiled?" and he replied "Yes! He is spoiled!" :-) I guess given the alternatives that he could have experienced being spoiled is not necessarily a bad thing, but we will definitely be working on setting some boundaries once we are home.

We left when the kids went in for lunch and returned at about 3:30pm. (Did you know that they use military time in Bulgaria? I felt right at home when they told us to come back at 1530!). We got to take A.J. into a therapy room in the back and play with him and his Baba. (Remember a few weeks back when I was so upset that our little guy didn't have a Baba? I shouldn't have worried because God had it covered.) Toward the end of the visit he was starting to bring me toys and let me hold him for a short time. He is NOT a cuddle bug, that much was obvious! We got to help him eat his snack of noodles with butter, cheese and egg. That kid can eat! He will fit in just fine at our house. ;-) He is independant in feeding himself and can drink from a regular cup with just a little help. 

Some general impressions:
He is teeny tiny. I didn't get his measurements today, but I think he is probably about the size of an 18 month old.
We thought that his 4th birthday was April 24, but it turns out it is actually August 24. So guess who will get to spend his birthday with him!
His development is probably in line with a two year old. He says a handful of Bulgarian words that I can recognize after spending a few hours with him, and he does a very good job communicating in gestures like all pre-verbal kids do. He knows his body parts, and plays appropriately with toys (more or less). He can walk and run very well, but he still goes up the stairs using all four limbs. He is definitely developmentally delayed but I think with one on one attention and a family environment he will catch up pretty quickly.

They wouldn't let me take any pictures today, so I will have to wait and share those later. :-( I did post some pictures of the city on my facebook page, so go check those out in the meantime.

Keep the prayers coming! I have a feeling that leaving him on Friday is going to be very, very hard.