Pick Up Trip: Day 8

Today was such a chill day!  The boys woke up early again, and Ry slept on the couch since Jack practically kicked him out of bed!  But, once I brought the boys out, Ry & my mom let me go take a 2 hour nap to recover from Jack's constant nighttime "cuddles".  The kids all played this morning, Niko got a bath and didn't hate it (big step from the first one!), Gramm & Grandad took Ana & Jack for a walk so that we could feed Niko lunch without much interruption.  He takes so long to eat - I think it's because this is the first time he has the opportunity to!  At the orphanage, I believe he had 10-15min to eat, so now he can just relax and eat as much as he wants!  He seems to really love the soup blend purees, probably because he ate mainly soups for the past 2+ years.  We put everyone down for a nap - Jack's was full of lots of tears, and Niko just played in his crib, but the girl slept and everyone woke up from their nap much better than before.

After the kids played, some of them pooped, we put everyone's shoes on, and let Jack gnaw on some cucumbers, we went walking.  Jacky loves the stroller, so I'm super thankful that we decided to bring the small one with us.  We found a really cute Bulgarian souvenir shop and bought a St. Nicholas icon.  I felt like we had to have an authentic icon from BG to show Niko who he was named after!

After that, we meandered back down to the Spaghetti Company, but everyone had to eat something different than they got yesterday. Well, except for Ana.  Niko ate some of his soup blend, and then ate a can of pureed peaches for dessert - he seemed to like them so that's great!  Once he's ready to eat solids, I think he's really going to love fruit.  We saw 3 (THREE) wedding parties come to take pictures in the courtyard right outside of the restaurant - each bride was dressed so differently, but each one had 1 bridesmaid and 1 groomsman.  No more, no less.  The restaurant and streets were pretty bare - I guess we figured out that on a Saturday night in Sofia, everyone goes to weddings!

We headed back and both boys were sound asleep by 8:15.  Niko actually fell asleep with Ry's hand touching his belly - he is trusting us more and more with each passing day.  It's an amazing feeling to know that you are creating a safe space for someone who hasn't experienced that feeling before.  I'm so devastated by what I know he went through for the past 3 years, but I am so excited that we get to provide for and love him how he deserves to be loved, as a child of the great I AM, who made him, knows him, and chose him.  This little boy is so loved and even though he is only learning what love is through food and hugs, it is amazing that we have the opportunity to do that.  When the Lord called us to adopt and gave us a heart and passion for orphan care, I didn't realize how much that would impact my walk along the way.

  This girl keeps finding the airplane candy snacks.

Well, as we sit with Ana and have her say "night night sunset, night night cars, night night buildings, night night sofia", we also wish you a good night.  Thank you for being our village and continuing to keep our family in your prayers.