The Blevinses Go to Bulgaria

“Specialized Children’s Hospital” in Buzovgrad

Photo by Teri and Mark Atkinson

    The BBAS itinerary that the family received was inadequate. It did not explain the process and what was required of them in Bulgaria. It surely didn’t explain the things that were expected of them during the first meeting with Mr. Dobrev and the notary. Things that they were totally unprepared for when they occured.

    But one thing that it had on it was Mr. Kamenov’s mobile telephone number and email address.

    The Blevins traveled to Bulgaria WITHOUT A COMPLETED HOMESTUDY. The homestudy’s completion was delayed by this trip and was not finished until November.  

    Of course, they weren’t the only family who were told to travel immediately without a homestudy. Some clients were hit with the story “You must travel right now or else you will lose the referral.” Many believed this and made the trip. One family we know of didn’t even have valid passports!

    Dorothy was extremely afraid to fly. She told her husband that if they made a return trip to pick Maria up, he would have two babies on his hands — her and Maria. But nothing, even her aversion to flying, was going to stop Dorothy Blevins from boarding the plane bound for Sofia to see her daughter.

    The flight went well and Mr. Kamenov and Vladimir met them like they met all BBAS clients.  They were very impressed by Valeri Kamenov’s demeanor and his very professional attitude and were swiftly taken to a hotel for the night.

     As soon as the Kamenovs had checked them in, they were ushered to their hotel room. As soon as they had put the baggage down, Valeri informed them that the attorney — Georgi Dobrev — would be coming up and speaking with them.

     They had not known about this impromptu visit prior to traveling but did not question what was happening.  They were not prepared for what Mr. Dobrev would also tell them they would have to do.

     When he arrived, he got down to business, as lawyers anywhere are wont to do. He asked them to name Maria for her Bulgarian adoption paperwork.  This question came out of left field. Neither Denise or any BBAS staff person had told them that Maria would have to be “named” on this trip.

     Gary and Dorothy looked at one another and gave him the name “Hannah” as Maria’s first name and “Maria” as her middle name.

     Mr. Dobrev then insisted that Gary’s name had to be Maria’s middle name. 

     This was perplexing. Gary and Dorothy wanted to keep her birth name in some form. They felt that since Maria’s birthmother had given the name to the girl, it should remain and not be excluded.

     They compromised, and right there came up with the name Hanna-Maria Gary Blevins. Dorothy decided to drop the last “H” in “Hannah” because she did not like the way “Hannah-Maria” looked in writing.

     For the record, Maria’s legal first name is Hanna-Maria.

     As soon as the naming issue was resolved, Mr. Dobrev left and Valeri informed them they could eat in the hotel’s restaurant downstairs. He then told them to be ready to go the next morning for the trip to Buzovgrad.

     The next day promptly at 7 a.m. Valeri and Vladimir were there and they traveled to Buzovgrad to meet Maria.

    It was a nice day, and upon their arrival, they noticed children playing outside, but that did not lessen the shock of the orphanage/hospital itself and its run-down buildings.  Some of the grounds appeared run down — a broken fence and tumbled down walls in the garden made Dorothy wonder if some of the young charges had ever attempted an escape.

    They thought Maria was housed in the orphanage in Buzovgrad. When they got there, they realized that Maria was in the “Specialized Children’s Hospital for Cerebral Palsy” in Buzovgrad.  There were three buildings that made up the Orphanage in Buzovgrad. 

     One building housed healthy children  who came from the particular area surrounding Buzovgrad. Another building housed what were considered in Bulgaria as “terminally ill children”, but in America, would have been considered correctable problems.

     To this day, they are unclear as to exactly what Maria was housed in — an orphanage or a hospital?

    They were to later learn the last building — Maria’s — was for children who were labeled as “special needs” but was not necessarily limited to special needs. Some of the children just needed a bit more attention paid to them. This is the building where Dr. Panova’s office was.

   Before they were introduced to Maria they met privately with Dr. Panova in her office and spoke with her about Maria. 

     “Dr. Panova,” Dorothy states, “was clear in making it known that we had the option of walking away from her because of her special needs status. We totally understood this before we were taken to see Maria.”

     From Dr. Panova’s offices, the Blevinses, with growing excitement were led to a brightly painted room, which, unbeknownst to them at the time, was “Hannah’s Hope,” a program sponsored by the agency All God’s Children International (AGCI).

    Hannah’s Hope was not only for the children represented by AGCI, but was set up to work with a group of eight children that were in more dire need of attention and services. The leyalas hired to work for the program were allegedly of a higher caliber than some of the other caregivers. 

    When asked about this room, the Blevinses were merely told it was set up by “another agency” and no other details were given. They later learned that Maria was indeed one of “Hannah’s Hope” kids.

    Nowhere did they see the walker that Maria had been pictured with in her photos.

     They immediately saw the tiny, curly black head of a small Maria who was being held by a leyala. Dr. Panova confidently took the little girl from the arms of the leyala and gave her right to Dorothy to hold.

     Maria promptly threw herself into a “full blown tantrum” as Dorothy later described it. Undaunted, Dr. Panova deftly took Maria back from Dorothy and put Maria in a chair so she could calm herself. Dr. Panova explained to Gary and Dorothy this is how they usually calmed Maria down when she threw a tantrum.

     There was another glitch to Maria’s behavior. She was out of sorts because she had foregone her morning nap — had literally flat out refused to go down for her needed slumber — contributing to her sour mood.

     Since their arrival coincided with lunchtime, Dr. Panova took some more time and spoke more about Maria. Maria continued to sit in the chair, collecting herself.  Because of their excitement at having Maria so close to them and seeing her with their own eyes, Dorothy says she could barely remember what Dr. Panova told them.

     At long last, a leyala arrived with lunch and began to feed the hungry Maria.  Dr. Panova then suggested to Dorothy that she feed Maria — after all, she would soon be their daughter!

     Dorothy was thrilled to feed the tiny girl. As Dorothy spooned the heavily puréed food into Maria’s hungry mouth, Dr. Panova shared more information about Maria’s background. Both of the Blevinses had questions about her origins, and even though they had written them down, the sheer joy at having Maria living and breathing beside them pushed the questions right out of their mind.

     Dr. Panova told them Maria “did not know right from wrong.”  What did that mean? Did it mean that she would behave compulsively when she grew up?

     After Maria had finished eating, they were allowed to take her back down the hallway to Dr. Panova’s office so they could spend more time with her.

     During this one on one session, Maria let them touch her. They gave her toys to play with, and a book filled with photos of their biodaughters and other family members. Dorothy commented that Maria was “very fascinated and curious about the faces, especially the ones that looked the same.”

     Maria was calm and looked happy. Dorothy reached out to hold this little 18-pound wonder and placed her warm body on her lap.  

    It was while sitting in her new mother’s lap Maria dropped her head into Dorothy’s chest and sobbed. It was as if Dorothy, by picking her up and holding her, had just crushed her world.  “It was a cry” Dorothy said, “that I will never forget.”

    Dorothy said later of the visit: “Instead of a mentally retarded child that we expected to see, we found a very bright and funny little girl. We saw a great manipulator [who] learned how to wrap daddy around her finger from the get go! After what we had expected, what we saw was greater than anyone could have imagined.”

    Before they traveled, they were told in no uncertain terms to bring only new items as donations. But they didn’t. 

    They brought slightly used things and Dr. Panova was grateful. They were not slammed for bringing slightly used clothing and toys.  Where had that rule come from? 

     As a matter of fact, Dr. Panova was grateful about some of the items — she said she was thinking of a good use for one of the baby baths that the Blevinses had brought over. She told Dorothy that she was going to use them for the children who had overly large heads so that they would be able to be bathed in a more secure, upright position.

    An unusual thing happened before they left Buzovgrad. Dorothy had to use the lavatory. After she came back, Dr. Panova went up to Dorothy and gave her a hug.  Dorothy reports that she was “shaken by it.”  That one hug from Dr. Panova meant to Dorothy Dr. Panova truly appreciated the baby baths and the other gifts they had brought with them for the children. Dorothy felt Dr. Panova’s sincerity and humanity by that one kind gesture of appreciation.

     With hope in their hearts and visions of a Maria who would be coming home to them soon, the Blevinses left Buzograd and returned back to Sofia. They couldn’t wait to tell their girls waiting for them at home about their new sister.

     The next day was a Saturday and Valeri Kamenov arrived early to take them to the notary’s office and to again meet with Mr. Dobrev the attorney. They had been briefed by BBAS that this meeting would take place to go over their documents for adoption and to pay Mr. Kamenov’s fees.

     I want to state clearly Gary and Dorothy felt that Valeri Kamenov gave the impression he thought they had been fully prepared by Denise and BBAS prior to this trip. The Blevinses did not think to ask him pertinent questions regarding their true timeline, the dossier process or if they would be getting regular medical updates on Maria.  

    Then again, they had been led on to believe by Denise that Maria’s timeline would be a “expedited” one. Maria, they thought, would be home by January or February at the latest.

     After these important documents were signed and notarized (with Maria’s new name on them — Hanna-Maria), it was time to pay Mr. Kamenov his fee of $4,000. 

     The BBAS preparation documents had stated that this part of their trip would be handled in a bank. Owing to the fact it was a Saturday and the banks were closed, it seemed an odd thing to do to hand over such a large amount of cash to a man they had just met. 

     They accepted that as part of Maria’s adoption process, for they felt that as in any adoption — international or domestic — valid fees had to be paid to those who were doing the service of providing a child with a forever family. Nobody works for free, and Dorothy and Gary instinctively knew that most of the grunt work was going to be done by Mr. Kamenov and Mr. Dobrev.

     During this time, Valeri made statements regarding the fact that he needed their documents so he could submit them in a timely fashion to get Maria’s adoption underway.

They should have questioned Valeri right then about the timeline, but they blindly went by what Denise had said about the six months.  They though six months meant six months — beginning from the first visit.  They neglected to ask Valeri straight out about Maria’s timeline or even how long an “average” adoption took.

    Afterwards, Mr. Kamenov escorted them around Sofia for a tour of the Bulgarian capital.  During this time together, Dorothy and Gary learned from Mr. Kamenov of his sincerity in helping the children of his native country.  He seemed to impart to them that it was sad to the Bulgarians that their government could only afford so much for the country’s orphanage population.  He was grateful to the American families who were coming forward to adopt these children in such great need of homes. 

     Dorothy would like us to state here that she and Gary felt Valeri’s sincerity at saying these things. They feel that Mr. Kamenov cared about the children he places with Americans and that he wanted to make a difference in the lives of his fellow countrymen. They felt he was kind, considerate, and above all, respectfully professional.

     They were to leave the next day. However, due to an airline foulup, they had to spend an extra day at the hotel. They offered to pay Mr. Kamenov for the extra day, but they did not pay one red cent.

     That Monday morning, before they were driven to the airport (the Kamenovs were also picking up a Burgas client for their pickup trip), while they were checking out of the hotel, Valeri fixed a problem that had occurred about a beverage missing from their hotel room’s refrigerator.  

    There had been a communication error about the missing beverage, and when the man at the hotel checked their room, he found to everyone’s delight the bottle had fallen behind another food item in the refrigerator.

     Valeri also cleared up a confusion regarding a few telephone calls the Blevinses had made and they had wanted to pay in dollars. 

     Before leaving, however, he gave the Blevinses a videotape to be sent to Denise in Medina.

    Both Gary and Dorothy felt that Mr. Kamenov, Dr. Panova and the interpreters earned their pay ten times over.

     Dorothy survived the airplane trip home and had joyous news to share with their girls about Maria.  They began to look forward to her homecoming in earnest and to prepare her new room.

    When Dorothy told Denise how wonderful the work she thought the Kamenovs were doing was, Denise seemed perturbed. 

    “What about me?” Denise asked. She felt that she was doing as much for the kids in Bulgaria as the Kamenovs were, no matter that she was in Ohio most of the time. She was, after all, doing an adoption gratis for a very sick child who was housed with Maria in Buzovgrad.

     Denise revealed to the Blevinses not too long after they arrived home that she had received an email from Dr. Panova. Dr. Panova’s email allegedly stated that it was like “a miracle” with Maria. After the Blevins had left, Maria perked right up and her physical condition began improving.

     Although this was wonderful news to hear their new daughter’s sprits were buoyed, there was still the issue of Maria’s eating and her frail physical health.  While in Bulgaria, Dorothy and Gary had discussed how they were going to fortify Maria’s diet with nutritional drinks.

    Denise suggested to them that they send formula with directions on how to mix the formula as per their pediatrician’s instructions.  She also suggested sending bottles along for the formula. A valid suggestion on Denise’s part and Dorothy was happy to concur with this request.

     Denise told Dorothy and Gary that she had asked Dr. Panova if it would be acceptable for the them to send these bottles and formula along, and Dr. Panova thought it was a great idea.

    Although she seemed to be suggesting a good thing, Denise just could not tell the truth about a child’s health. 

    One sticking point with the Blevinses was something Denise told Dorothy once the Blevins had come back. Dorothy described what they were feeding to Maria to Denise. Denise called it “malabsorption” as to why Maria was getting nothing but puréed foods. 

    Dorothy strongly disagreed with this. One of her three biological daughters had been born prematurely and had not been able to suck on a bottle for sustenance at first. 

    It was an “oral issue” that didn’t allow her to suck on a bottle. Once the sucking issue was resolved with their daughter, “she had no clue what hungry felt like” Dorothy said. So she knew a little bit about this.

    “Malabsorption problems make no sense at all,” Dorothy wrote us on Feb. 24, 2001. “If there was a malabsorption problem it would deal with the body’s ability to absorb the food, not the mouth’s ability to chew the food.”

    For another BBAS Buzovgrad client, Denise had said it would be okay for the family’s American doctors to provide letters about the child’s health. The family was to send these letters to the Ministries to prove that the child was very ill and that his adoption should be rushed through.

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