Wednesday June 23, 2021

The day has finally come to leave for Bulgaria and bring Meagan home! A lot of planning went into the trip and today is the day we depart. A Bible verse popped up in one of my social media feeds this morning that was what I needed to see:

Wait for The Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for The Lord.

Psalm 27:14

It had indeed been a long frustrating wait for this day to come. But it was finally here. In His time.

Both Germany (even though it was just a layover) and Bulgaria have requirements to be met regarding COVID. Sonya and I were tested on Tuesday to meet these requirements. A little under $300 and 6 hours later, we found out what we already knew – we were COVID-negative and ready to go!

After spending the quiet kid-less Wednesday morning packing and trying to get over the feeling that we were forgetting something, Sonya and I got a ride from my dad to the airport at around noon. At check-in the lady asked why we were traveling to Bulgaria and she almost immediately teared up when we told her it was to being our adopted daughter home.

After one more lunch at Indianapolis International’s Chick-Fil-A, it was about time to board our flight for Washington DC’s Dulles International.

We touched down in DC after about a one and a half hour flight. The stop was a quick one, mostly spent getting from the arriving gate to the departing gate. Check-in for the flight to Munich was interesting. COVID paperwork had to be rechecked which caused quite a bit of chaos at the gate. We were boarded, delayed about a half hour and we were off.

Sonya and I sat down in a row of 3 seats, Sonya in the aisle and me in the middle,, hopeful that the window seat would remain empty for the 8-hour flight so we could stretch out a bit. But we didn’t get so lucky. Occupying the third seat at the last minute was someone’s gassy little kid who could not sit still to save his life and had no issues at all invading my personal space. It made for a memorable flight. We were both able to catch a little sleep, but not much. We both got pasta for the in-flight meal – some kind of ravioli dish, which was questionable. All three wheels touched down, so it was a successful flight.

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Thursday June 24, 2021

Another fairly quick stop in Munich. Certainly not enough time for a much needed nap. A quick shuttle ride to our plane and we were off for Sofia. We landed in Sofia about 2 hours later. We got our rental car and we were on our way.

The plan was to check into our AirBnB, grab some groceries for the stay and get a little sleep. Figuring out parking in Sofia took a little bit of time and some patience (which for me was wearing thin at this point). Our AirBnB host Georgi was helpful in explaining the system of text messaging your license plate number to be charged for parking but it didn’t work with our international phones so we had to find a 24-hour parking lot to park the car in. Victor was the lot owner and very helpful (since we probably overpaid for parking). Georgi was also helpful carrying our luggage up the five flight of stairs, conveniently not mentioned on the AirBnB listing. I’ve been meaning to lose a little COVID weight anyway.

Tired and hungry at about 2:30pm, we headed to a local grocery chain known as Lidl. We decided to make it quick, just buy a few things and head back and sleep. Fine with me!

After about an hour and a half of napping, we both woke up feeling kind of like walking dead. Neither of us really felt like doing much past making sandwiches. But we did venture out into Sofia for about an hour and enjoyed some of the nearby sites before heading back.

Tomorrow is what we’ve been waiting for for about 2 years now. Going to see our daughter again, this time not just to visit, but to take her into her forever family. There will be many reasons I won’t be able to get to sleep tonight, but this will be the primary one.

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