Meeting Our Children for the First Time

Words... There are none to describe the first day we met our children in Bulgaria.

We met our translator, Miglena ("Maggie") first thing in the morning and jumped headfirst into rush hour Sofia traffic where I dodged electric buses and trolley cars. We made our way to the 4-lane motorway for the one hour drive to the village where the children lived.

Our future son was waiting when we pulled into the orphanage. He jumped into our arms and said he had been watching for a van all morning.

Within a minute, his brother appeared and the embraces began. Then from around the corner, our future daughter.

Hugs and tears abounded. My first words to our daughter were, "I told you we would come!"

She later said, "When they first gave me your letter and I read that you wanted to adopt us, I couldn't stop crying..."

The orphanage reeks of old communism and institutionalized care. "Care" is not a good word. "Survival" would be better. Somehow (providence?) they have survived.

They are amazing kids with hundreds of questions:

"Do you have an American dollar we could see?" "Our friends tell us not to go to America because tornados will kill us..." "When can we go to America?" "What do you eat?" "Can we pray before we eat our meal?" "What time will you make us go to bed?"

The boys insisted on helping with the luggage as we checked into the hotel. They had never seen a hotel room before and it wasn't long before the boys made sure I knew where everything was -lights, TV, closet, etc.

We played UNO - the universal card game that transcends language.

Much laughter. Much happiness. Many high fives.

We asked "Maggie" how she thought things went.

She smiled, "We had our Wednesday already on Monday!" Translation: It went GREAT!

It was dark when we took them back to the orphanage. Many more hugs.

They just want to be loved. Today, they found what they have been longing to receive. Our family is together at last, and we have experience a wonderful first day.

Learn more about adopting from Bulgaria

World Links Association, Inc.

Every day we work hard to find families for children, and everyone who opens their heart, who shares their love, who welcomes a child into their family is both a hero, and a parent.

Being a parent doesn’t get enough credit lately, but it should. Being a good parent is hard work, but that eternal bond that you build with your child, that sparkle in her eyes when she talks to you, that feeling of being a family is what makes it all worth it.

That is what our families tell us, and that is what makes us work even harder every day. We know that there are more children waiting, and there are more parents anxious to fill that void in their heart, and they trust us to help them find each other.