Dey and Dee's Updates

Thanks for your patience!

Okay, sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. It has taken awhile to settle back down into life here in Winnipeg. And there just aren't as many exciting stories to tell from back here! :)

So, for those of you wondering what happened those last days in BG...here it is. On August 31st, our expected day of departure, we loaded up our stuff very early in the morning, said an emotional goodbye to Dey's grandparents, and drove with his uncle to the airport in Sofia. He stayed to help us check in our bags and then left us to visit a bit with Deyan's dad who had met us there. So we chatted with him for awhile and then joined the masses (literally) trying to go through security. We finally made it through (we had 2 carry-on bags, a laptop, and Simeon's backpack carrier) and lined up to go through passport control. I started hearing them calling our flight for boarding. Simeon was on my back and starting to get tired since he'd been up so early. Deyan handed the police our 3 Canadian passports. The guy looked at them, smiled, and began a conversation with Deyan in Bulgarian. Now let me backtrack a bit...

When we arrived in the country at the beginning of the month, Deyan also had given the police our 3 Canadian passports. But the police, recognizing he was Bulgarian, asked for his BG passport as well. The problem was, it was expired, but they still wanted it. They gave Deyan heck for awhile about "you can travel anywhere in the world on your Canadian passport but when you come back to your own country you need to travel with your BG passport...blah,blah,blah" and issued him a warning that he needed to renew it while we were there. This was in Deyan's plan anyways so we weren't concerned, considering we had a whole month. What I didn't realize at the time was that they didn't stamp his Canadian passport upon entry, only his invalid BG passport! So, Deyan tried diligently over the course of our month there to renew his passport. It was a beauracratic nightmare! He kept hitting wall after wall and needing to fill out this paperwork and that paperwork and waiting each time. By the time he finally had finished all the prep work and had everything he needed to apply for a new passport, we only had a few days left in the country. We knew we wouldn't get it in time and decided it was best to renew it from Canada. Of course we expected that since the police had issued us a warning at the beginning of the month, we may need to pay a fine, but I (being a Canadian) just assumed that we could talk our way out of this since we really had tried our hardest! So, back to the 31st...

I couldn't understand the conversation Dey was having with the police, but I could tell we were going to have trouble. By now I was hearing "final boarding call, all passengers should now be on board" over the loud speaker for our flight to Vienna. I was just coming down with the flu and feeling pretty miserable physically. After several minutes of intensity, (I had previously told Deyan to bring out the drama if anyone gave us a hard time about his passport) I noticed the guy separate our passports and tickets. Deyan, exasperated, said to me,"you and Simeon fly today I guess and I don't until we get this figured out." My eyes filled up with tears immediately and I just kept saying, "No, I can't! It's impossible!" I knew that being 7 months pregnant and sick to boot, I couldn't handle Simeon and all our luggage by myself on 3 flights with layovers and everything. Dey knew it too, but we were stuck. We were now hearing our names being called over the loudspeaker to board the plane! They called the airline rep over and she told us she would postpone all our flights. So they removed our checked luggage from the plane and that was that! I still didn't realize all that was happening still and was feeling pretty emotional. I just sat down with Simeon and tried to keep him happy. Thankfully, Deyan's dad hadn't left the airport yet and had seen all the commotion. So we got a couple of taxis and headed back to his place. The airline told us that the earliest they could fly us out was the 3rd. They reserved our seats from TO to Wpg, and encouraged us that seats would open up for our other 2 flights. Deyan and his dad spent that day figuring out his BG passport. We had to spend some extra money, but we were able to get it done within 2 days. Oh, ya, so the deal was that because he had entered the country on a BG passport, he couldn't leave on a CDN one. Period. Deyan had tried hard to get the guy to sympathize with him considering his pregnant wife and toddler, but the guy said his hands were tied.

Anyways, we spent the next several days at his dad's house. I got very sick and by that first night ended up in the hospital with some respiratory difficulties. But that's another story for another day! Let's just say that for someone who doesn't like going to hospitals in my own country, it was a big step for me to decide I need to go to one there! And alot of my fears about it came true! But whatever, it's all good now. I did end up on a bunch of meds and in retrospect I was really thankful that I wasn't on the plane flying over the ocean by myself and unable to breathe!

So, the 3rd came and went with no flights available. We were then told that they probably couldn't fly us out until the 13th! They said that every day the flights were overbooked by at least 30 seats! It was very frustrating, but we totally appreciated all the prayers! We phoned again on the 4th at noon, and they told us they could get us as far as Vienna. By then, I was ready to just go and sit in the airport until a seat opened up! Dey of course was nervous about this because Vienna is expensive and if we didn't get on a flight, what would we do? The flight was leaving Sofia at 3:30pm so we decided to at least go to the airport here and see if anything opened up last minute. Sure enough, just before we left at 1pm, we phoned again and they had found us seats all the way home! Yay! I was so relieved! We actually ended up with the same police officer at passport control and he smiled as he checked everything over. I didn't care anymore, I just wanted out! And God's favour must have been with us because we not only got seats together, but we even got the bulkhead on the long flight! This was crucial for my comfort with a big belly and all! It also meant they gave us a bed for Simeon to sleep in on this flight which was great.

Well, there you have it. I wish I could say the flights were uneventful, but the adventure continued as our layovers were extremely short and we were constantly running to catch the next flight in time. I was exhausted by the time we got home and hoping all the stress wouldn't put me into premature labour! Anyways, we made it and we're all recovered! I can't remember how to post pictures, but I will figure it out and post some soon...I promise! :)

posted by Deanna Momtchilov @ 4:37 PM