Day 3 with Miroslav

 

The clock tower in старя Добрич. 

 

A boy from Miroslav's orphanage gave this to Tyler today. It was so sweet. So many children here who need families. It is hard on them to see us coming to visit Miroslav when they so desperately want it to be their turn. 

Today was a good day! It started off with the social worker telling us that Miroslav told her that he was 99% certain that he wanted to be adopted by our family. That's the best news I have heard today, for certain! We played games, had target practice with the light switch, and talked about his new name. 

 

French comedy. Interesting cover art. 

Next we went to eat lunch at the restaurant by our hotel. Miroslav said it was his favorite of the three restaurants that we have visited. 

 

Pitka bread that we had for lunch. It was awesome!

 

Spices that you sprinkle on the bread. 

 

Patatnik. We didn't think there was another way to prepare potatoes, but this is a new one! Potatoes that are baked, grated, and then pan-fried in puff pastry. 

 

All the chicken nuggets look like this. They are tasty!

After we ate lunch, we said that we had a surprise for him. The waitress brought out a chocolate cake - that we had purchased for him - with candles on and we sang Happy Birthday to him for all of the birthdays that we have missed. Next we gave him some balloons and an MP3 player with English music on it. He loved it all and was very appreciative. He said "Thank you" many times. 

We went to a target shooting range and shot some pellet guns. Then we went to an arcade and played some ice hockey. Finally, we played some more pool. Miroslav said he didn't want for it to end. We had a great time, and laughed a lot - especially while playing pool. 

We dropped Miro off at the orphanage and then we called Temenuzhka for the last time on the phone. We mailed her a thumb drive with all of the music that we had originally put on her MP3 player - which she had accidentally erased, somehow - and some lev (Bulgarian currency) to purchase some more strawberry jam - which we had bought her when we were there, but they ran out of soon after we left. It was lovely to hear her sweet voice again. 

In a couple of weeks, we will begin Skype sessions with the triplets and each of them will begin taking English lessons by a local English tutor. 

Once we return home, we will begin the paperwork process to help bring the kids home. 

This evening, we ate dinner with Maggie and went over paperwork for the notary tomorrow. We still need Miroslav's new name. He said he didn't want to keep "Miroslav" as a middle name, so he is thinking over some potential names tonight and will have his answer in the morning. 

During dinner, a deaf man came around trying to sell items. He had a card identifying himself as deaf and was doing some sign language with us, which was fun. Maggie was able to also sign with him from learning the signs from the sign language flash cards that we have gone over with each of the triplets. We bought something for each of the five kids back home. It was nice to support someone who needed it and to get some souvenirs. 

Tomorrow we will say goodbye to Miroslav and head over to the notary with Maggie, before going out separate ways. Tyler and I are exhausted after two weeks of being "on" all the time. We are going to take a few days to rest up before heading back to the states. This has been such an amazing journey, thus far, and we cannot wait to bring home these three kiddos!