A Better Day

Today was sooooo much better! I told Rose that I was worried that Gracie thought that she was her mother, and she assured us that it is normal for the child to bond with the interpreter. I think she realized why I was concerned though, when Gracie called her mom several times and did not want to come to us at all this morning. So, she told Gracie that she was going to the bathroom and gave us about an hour while she waited around the corner and out of Gracie's view. After a little while, Gracie played with Mark in the sand, played "Kade Mama?" which is our version of "Where's mommy?" She unwrapped and played with the stacking/nesting boxes and looked at the photo album with us. She loved dumping out all of the boxes and trying to get them all back into the box. She was not interested at all in making a tower. She didn't seem to recognize herself in the photo album, but she kissed the little girl and smiled everytime she saw her. She kept pointing out "botko" which is the Bulgarian word for "big brother" and grandpa will be happy to know that she called him "botko" too! She was also thrilled with the "salt sticks." She kept saying that she wanted them on previous days, but the translator told us "sour sticks" and we thought they were Twizzlers from her description. By accident we brought the right thing and Gracie was very happy. We took our orphanage gifts today, but the director and assistant director were both gone, so we will take theirs on Friday. Right before we left at noon, Gracie said that she loved Rose and mama! That is improvement. When we walked her back in to the orphanage, the workers stripped her down and immediately put her into a huge sink for a bath before lunch. You may have noticed that she has on two different outfits everyday. She loves dirt and sand...a true gardener/farmer at heart.

Between 12 and 3:30, we took a taxi to the historic district with map in hand and saw St. Alexander Nevski's Memorial Church, the National Library, St. Sofia Church and Bulgaria's Parliament. We ate a great gyro that had cucumbers and french fries in it, bought flowers from the "flower lady" outside of Nevski Church and browsed the crafts and artisan displays. Our taxi driver for the return trip apparently is not the government taxi with a special tag, so the taxi ride downtown cost 4 lev and the ride home cost 20 lev. Yes, we really got ripped off. The driver kept saying he didn't know where we wanted to go and we had to show him on the map. We were just glad to get home.

This afternoon, Rose also gave us more space. When Rose was there, Gracie hugged and kissed her and wanted to sit on her lap, but as soon as she left, Gracie was fine. She spent more time with Mark, playing in the sand and retrieving digging toys from the shelter roof. She looked at the book again and called herself by name, as well as bratko, mama, tate (daddy), baba (grandma) and diado (grandpa). Everybody else is just family since she doesn't have the vocabulary to understand aunt, uncle, or cousin. We also helped her decorate a foam picture frame with sparkly foam stickers which holds a picture of the 3 of us. The workers said they will post this by her bed.

While we were playing with the nesting boxes, she pointed out katca (cat) and kuche (dog). When I told her monkey and turtle, she repeated them in English, too. She also sang a little bit today, but we couldn't tell the song, so we sang "The Wheels on the Bus" while she was swinging (lula) and she tried to sing a few words, too.

When we were leaving she told one of her "aunties" that she had a mommy and daddy. The "auntie" said that she used to ask her all the time when she was going to get a mommy and daddy. She told Gracie that she was a lucky girl. I think we are the lucky ones.

We walked back to the mall for more water and "salt sticks," ate at the Bulgarian restaurant and changed some money. I feel so much better after today. I thanked Rose several times for giving us more private time today. We made progress.



My boxes are great!

Alexander Nevski Church

Inside the church...I took it after watching someone else take a picture and didn't know it was against the rules, so we bought a book of photos, too.

St. Synod

Yummy salt sticks.