Day # 5

All I can say is wow! We just can't stop praising the lord for the favour He is giving to us!  We are bonding with our children like we never thought possible in 3 days!  

We met the children on the side walk in front of the hotel and went into the lobby to sit down.  The lobby area has many "living room" areas set up that we have used each day to play games and visit.  This morning we gave them the watches that Grandma and Grandpa Bill sent along for them and they were a hit!  They really loved them and have been checking the time all day.  Geero really likes the indiglo and the stop watch.  He is a 'by the clock and rules' type of person so he will enjoy having his first watch.  

Then we played a game of neeshto at Geero's request.  The first day that we met them the social worker and psychologist told us that the children requested to have new names given to them.  So we have been thinking about names for the past 2 days and it was not easy to pick names for children who have such developed personality and opinions.  None of our other kids had a say or cared much about their name when we first met them.😉. Sevy gave us 1 idea about a name she really liked but Geero didn't really care what name it was.  So we presented Geero with 2 names and without hesitation he picked his favourite.  That was done.  Then we presented Sevy with 3 names for her to choose from and her favourite was not on the list.  She also within 2 seconds picked her new name, with her million dollar smile shining, and that was that!  They are both very proud to have a new name. 

Enough with sitting inside on a beautiful summer day!  We took off to a local hotel pool to go swimming which Geero was very excited about but Sevy said she did not know how to swim.  Travis told them that I was a swimming teacher and so they were anticipating me teaching them how to swim.

So they had their fist swimming lessons!  Sevy just throws herself into trying anything and gives 100% in everything.  Her squeal of delight when she accomplishes a task is one of the things we will miss like crazy in the next few months! She is so, so sweet!  She learned to float and started swimming somewhat of a front crawl and back crawl.  She was so pumped that she was swimming!  Geero was scared of the water but he let me hold him at the hips and he worked at his front crawl.  He swam so hard and back and forth so many times that I was exhausted!  He is a bit of an energizer bunny!

We spent the entire afternoon at the pool and it was a very good bonding and learning to trust time for the children.  We walk everywhere here.  Bulgarians just walk everywhere which is nice because we get to see much more of the town that way. Plus we will be in good shape when we get home!

Once we walked the 2 miles home from the pool the was only time to get an ice cream and then they had to go home to their foster father.  Geero, when asked what kind of ice cream he wanted he said "nay nay" Bulgarian and low German have some similarities 😉 he wanted a cup of corn from the corn stand instead.  They sell warmed up frozen corn with salt in a cup!  There are tons of corn stands around.  Corn instead icecream😳 maybe he will come around!  

That was our day.  It was so much fun and the attachment strides that we made today were amazing.  For the adoption people this may be interesting.  Sevy is using continuous eye contact and initiating physical contact.  Geero is much more hurt than Sevy and will have a harder time because of circumstances that are not ours to talk about but today we were getting 2 second eye contact and he, out of fear of the cold water wrapped his arms around my neck and wrapped his legs around me to brace from the cold water.  The allowed Travis to take his hand to cross the street and let himself be piggy backed in the pool.   These are huge when it comes to attachment and we thank the lord over and over for these things.  They are not taken for granted!