"O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
You will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more."
Such a powerful and meaningful verse. I can't help but think about the time spent in Bulgaria this past November, with the 3 kids who had just come out of an orphanage. It was much different to see the kids, and watch them be brought out of the orphanage doors, than to just hear the stories and see the pictures. Matthew, Jonathan, and Charity are such sweet kids, and it's truly heart breaking knowing that they have been tucked away their entire lives.
They all have so much personality, likes, dislikes, and also got to try so man new things once they were busted out of the orphanage. It was something special, being able to watch them grow and learn so much in such a small amount of time. They truly blossomed. Jonathan, had never seen outside of the orphanage, and man did he love it! The wonder in his eyes, as we pushed them through the city of Sofia , was one of the most beautiful things. He would swing his feet, as he sang till his heart was content, he would shriek with pure joy when he saw birds, he thought they were the best thing. Oh that boys laugh, and his smile, he loved to be tickled! If you stopped tickling him he would give you the most precious, precious, precious, puppy dog face until you tickled him again. I very quickly fell in love with Jonathan.
I had never talked to, or been around someone who had Autism before. I hear about autism all the time, and I have friends over the internet, who have kiddos with autism, so I'm slightly familiar with it. Kids with autism have to have structure, and schedules, they like everything to be a certain way. Well Miss Charity has Autism, along with a few other needs, and her world was completely flipped upside down. I can only imagine how she felt, without things being the same day in and day out, as they had before. She needed to get into some type of schedule. But these "strangers" (her new wonderful mama, and papa!) came and got her, and took her to the other-side of the world, on an airplane with more and more people. Charity's world got way too, big way too fast! She had never been around large mounts of people before, so it was a little overwhelming for sweet girl. But over all she did wonderfully and little does she know that her life is going to be 1000x better than it was before! It was beautiful to watch Charity, smile and giggle, she is very ticklish, and is cuter than ever!
Matthew, oh sweet, handsome, beautiful, cherished, loved, little Matthew. This little boy, has had such a hard life, but he has managed to fight his way through and survive, it's like he knew that a family would come for him one day. He has truly shown me that sometimes all we need is love, with in the few days that I spent with him, he flourished so much. Seeing him start to talk, and react to us when we stroked his hair, or touched his face, it was beautiful.
Bulgaria, in and of it's self was interesting. Very different from the US ( I didn't expect it to be like the US) they don't put ice in their drinks, and they don't usually eat food hot. We walked all around Sofia, up and down the streets, in and out of stores, we even got to be 20 ft away from a protest (It was honestly awesome.) while at a convenient store. We ate pizza while we were there, it was quite different, it had chicken, pickles, and corn on it...strange, but good! Car rides were an adventure, I road in a taxi for the first time while in Bulgaria. We went to a mall while we were there, before we picked the kids up, and compared to the "Large Hallway" that we have in Sierra Vista, it was huge. 4 or 5 floors high, SO many stores, we had Gelato at the mall, and it was fabulous!
Airports....Oh Airports. Until this big adventure, I had never flown before, I had never stepped foot on a plane. Well that quickly changed, at first I enjoyed flying (once I got past the nerves!), but after so many flights, I was just ready to be done with it! I think that if I was able to sleep in seats like that, it would have been better, but I can't even sleep in the car. I did love take off and landing, I thought it was fun! ;)
Over all the trip was eye opening, and brought lots of different emotions. Being away from my family for over a weak was extremely hard, jet lag, and time change were difficult, but I'm thankful that I was asked to go on this trip with the Unroe family. I can now know, and understand a little more of what adoption is like, and that to me is just absolutely amazing. I have seen a little more of the Fathers heart, my heart grew a size or two while in Bulgaria, I cannot wait to go back to Bulgaria, and see what God has in store for me. :)
I apologize if this post seems rather scrambled. I've been writing it over the past month, many times I had to stop because I couldn't see through the tears of joy. But I hope I was able to get the basic idea across. I loved my trip to Bulgaria, and am so blessed to know the Unroe family, as well as meeting Jackie. Such beautiful people that will forever have a place in my life. :)
With Love,
Alyssa
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