A Hard Goodbye

Oh little Dido--

We had a great last visit--We spent some time in the director's office when we arrived.  There was a paper that our facilitator needed to say we had been visiting every day-- they asked if we wanted to see Derrik again today---Ummmmm YES (they actually seemed a little surprised--) they brought him in and he reached his arms right out to me.

Before the visit, we stopped at the store (a smallish baby store on the way to the orphanage) and bought 100 tubs of a pudding like nutritional supplement. At the orphanage, they have agreed to give him one everyday until we return.-- The folks at the store thought we were nuts-- no Bulgarian from us-- no English from them-- finally they called a friend who spoke a bit of English to make sure we REALLY wanted 100 packs of pudding--- YES-- we do! 400 calories per tub and Dido needs every last one!

Our facilitation team left heading back to Sofia after we got all the paperwork completed--- we stayed with Derrik until the last possible second, we did the walk and walk around the grounds--- Some swing time, then up to the meeting room to feed him lunch--- by about 12:10---40 minutes past our meeting time was supposed to end-- we could put it off no longer. Bye Bye little Dido--- we will be back as soon as we can---

Earlier we asked our facilitator to tell Derrik what was going to happen..."Mama and Papa love you, but they can't take you home right now--- they will need to leave you for a little while but they will come back to get you and rub your tiny legs and arms and give you hugs and be with you forever."  I'm sure our facilitator thought she was just humoring us-- but I really think that Dido understood on some level. While he was getting the news he buried his head harder than he ever has into my chest and seemed quite sad.

After our meeting we grabbed a cab to the train station for the trip to Shumen. ---- 2 hours to kill---- let's go to the beach!  Mary did not want sand_ I did, so we had to find a beach cafe for her so I could take one last plunge in the warm waters of the Black Sea. -- a 2 km walk and we are there! Ahhh salad, coke/fanta mix and the beach! About an hour there and up to get a cab back to the station (feet too tired to walk again) We got a nice guy who used to be a mate of a commercial fishing ship driving the cab--- he gave us literature (in Russian) about his house on the beach that he rents out--- and gave us travel tips for Shumen-- You hear a lot about the scamming cab drivers in Bulgaria. This guys was a prince. Our cab was 3.40 leva and I was just going to round up to 5. He refused and said 4 was enough--- My cynical self melted.

We had a nice 3 1/2 hour train ride to Shumen. Thanks to Andre, our driver/guide/IT guru at Hotel Shumen for getting us settled in with great WiFi. We took a stroll to get some Beer and Pop and came back to enjoy the best meal we have had thus far in Bulgaria-- I had Grilled Veggies and Pork Kabobs. Mary had a Chicken in cream sauce type dish

tomorrow we will stop for flowers and hunt for Jordan's grave---

I'll update when I can


Papa