Has it been 9 months already?

If I were pregnant with our son I would have had him about now! It has been about 9 months since we started the adoption process. We made the decision to adopt at the end of March (Easter) and signed our agency agreement and began our dossier.

A number of ladies in our church have announced that they are pregnant and due in May and June. I am happy for them but at the same time it saddens me to think that we still won't have our son home by this summer.

I have been thinking about our son alot these days,more than usual, maybe it is because it is Christmas. Our youngest, Cathryn, wanted to buy him a Christmas stocking because they have their stockings hanging. So we did buy him a stocking and it is waiting for him to come home. Our girls keep asking me when he will be with us, it is so hard trying to explain that we are working on it and don't really know when he will be with us. I hope it will be next Christmas, but we aren't even registered yet! We pray for him daily.

This song "lullaby" by Dixie Chicks is dedicated to our son in Bulgaria. I will and do love him forever!

Great radio/internet/ipod site to visit

For those of you who are in the process of adopting or have adopted already, I found creatingafamily.com. Dawn is the host and she has some great guests on the phone and interviews them. Today she interviewed Dr. Grey who wrote the book Attatching in Adoption. The topic today was "attatchement for 2-6 year olds" and she was interviewed last November (so check the archives). If you have an hour to sit and listen on the internet I would highly suggest you do so, if not down load from Itunes.

For our education we had to read her book, and this book is a must buy for adoptive parents. So helpful on what to expect, warning signs etc. Dawn also has some great info on her website for parents investigating the adoption route and she has a blog. I believe she is an adoptive parent of a child from S.Korea. She also addresses topics on infertility and foster care. She also wrote a book titled 'the complete handbook on international adoption'. Take a peek, it was great listening, while my kids had nap time.

No News from Bulgaria but...

I figured out how to put music on my blog. So exciting! We haven't heard from our lawyer in Bulgaria yet, I know they received our letter but they are waiting to communicate with us until they hear we are registered I guess!

I uploaded a few songs and the first one is called 'One step at a time' which describes adoption to a tee. I like the words, "it will happen when it is supposed to happen" and "faith makes you stronger". These words are so true. We experience frustration (with government officials) and impatience but the Lord is working on me in this area of my life. Somethings are out of my control but in His control and time. His time is perfect!

The last song by Third Day is giving praise to God, because he deserves our praises and we are to glorify HIM. We are to praise him in the good and bad, ups and downs. I praise God for the 2 beautiful children we do have and for this Christmas season! Merry Christmas everyone as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour.

Recommended book for family members to read

I recently finished reading a great book that I recommend giving to family members that need to be educated about adoption as a whole. This book is written by a grandmother who has adopted grandchildren. It is titled "Adoption: A family Affair, What Relatives and Friends Must know". It covers topics such as: Your Personal, private fears,How Adoption Works: Facts vs Myth, Getting Ready, Home at Last, Parenting in Adoption, Adoption Issues, What to say and what not to say.

I am presently looking into Lifebooks and wondering where to start. On FRUA they have many recommendations and mention that a Lifebook is different to their Adoption Story (our blog). A lifebook should be a book only for them to see and should be about their life BEFORE they were adopted. Hmm. Well tomorrow our dossier should be in Bulgaria. Praying we will be registered this year. I believe in Europe they take a long vacation between Christmas and the New Year (kind of like South Africa).

Some good news, my friend Sarah will be travelling to meet her little girl in Russia the second week of January. They accepted the referral of a 3 year old girl. I am so happy for them. And Abigail is adjusting well, we will be visiting her and her family next week.

This picture was taken by my friend Sarah. This is one of our Christmas pictures! I just ordered our Christmas cards last night so hopefully will have them out by next Monday. Sarah, is adopting from Russia and will hopefully be travelling soon. She does such a great job, this is a business for her. Another family recently returned from China with their daughter, Abigail. We got to meet her this past Sunday at church. She is 9 years old and already speaking some English. Can't believe it. She said hello Caroline to our daughter and then asked for her bible. Her mom is homeschooling her, and is starting by teaching her body parts in English, reading to her in English and mainly working on the English language. I can't imagine! I think bringing a toddler home to another culture, language and other post institutional issues would be hard enough. Did anyone see 20/20 on Friday about disrupted adoptions? What did you think? I have been reading a blog titles smilesandtrials and the family has 11 children. 6 are biological and 5 are adopted. 4 of the adopted children were adopted through disruptions and Christine, the author/mom, is such an encouragement to me. They are christian and she is such a great mom! Adoption takes Faith and relying on God, knowing He is sovereign and resting on Him. Have a good week.

NO OBJECTION LETTER IN THE MAIL

Well the snow has been falling all day! The girls are excited, they made a snow man with daddy at lunch time and last night he was pulling them around on the sled. I on the other hand think it is beautiful with the trees looking white, but it is soo cold. I had to run errands today and it was freezing.

So our news, we did get our letter apostilled, notarized and mailed off to Tree of Life. They should receive it by Wednesday the latest and then they will probably mail it Thursday to Bulgaria. Mail takes 8 days to get to Bulgaria so I am guesstimating that it should be there Dec 12.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and finally finished the leftovers on Sunday. Hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family, thanking God for all our blessings.

We Got the Letter Today!!

As you can tell by the title we received our letter from the UK today! So happy! It came in a brown envelope with the words DO NOT BEND on the outide. What does our mail man do, he BENDS it to put in our mail box. He could have put it in the screen door, like he does with Chris' books. Oh well!

Anyway, Monday will be the big day, we will have it apostilled and mail it to our agency in Oregon. So Bulgaria should receive it the following Monday after that. What a great Christmas present.

I read today the book ' Adoption Parenting, Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections'. Recommend to all parents adopting. It has so much info on sleep issues, food, attachment, school, language, special needs issues, FAS, discipline, grief and loss, siblings, life books, transitions, challenges, support etc. A must get!
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Children's Books/Reading for families

For those of you who are in the process of adoption or have adopted what are some recommendations you have for books?

For our son we have bought 3 books thus far: A Mother for Choco, Just Waiting for my Family, and Forever Fingerprints. I would highly recommend A Mother for Choco it is about a baby bird looking for his mom. He asks different animals if they are his mom, and they say no I am not like you. Then he comes to a bear and she asks what a mom does..hug, cook you meals etc and she says he can go home with her. When they get to her home she has 'adopted' other animals too and they all look different but are a family.
The 2nd book is actually written by a mom who adopted her son from Bulgaria and it talks about his experience, which I think is good to help our son talk about his experience in an orphanage.
Do you have any recommendations for children's books for adopted children as well as biological children to help them understand adoption?

My second question is do any of you have any recommendations for books for family members to read?

For our 'education' part of the adoption we read many books: Weaver's Craft (excellent), Attaching in Adoption - Deb Gray (excellent), Helping children cope with seperation and loss, Raising adopted Children, Eyes Wide Open, and I just ordered Parenting with Love and Logic.

Any recommendations would be appreciated thanks!
We are still waiting patiently for our letter from the UK and enjoying the white snow falling outside, and drinking hotchocolate in a cosy warm house. God is so good, we have so many blessings.

Got an email today about our letter

We received an email responding to our email Nov5. We were told that they (UK) sent our letter of "no objection" today, which means we should receive it in 10days time. I will let you know when we mail it off to our agency in Oregon. Then I will give a sigh of relief. Thank you to all of you who are following our journey and praying for us, we appreciate it.

Still No News

Nothing to report yet...it has been 8 business days thus far. Anyway just thought I would point out that the weather in Bulgaria is the same as Michigan. If you haven't scrolled down to the bottom of our blog you will find that there is a weather forecast for Bulgaria. I thought our friends and family would appreciate it this when we are actually in Bulgaria visiting our son.

Maybe this time next year? Chris doesn't think so. I believe so:) Whenever it is it will be God's perfect time and plan.
Psalm 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect, and the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

Update on "letter of no objection"

England should have received our notarized letter last Wednesday, so I called them today to see when we could expect to receive our letter from them. The switchboard informed me that they have 15 days from the time they receive our letter to respond. So far it has been 3 workdays. We have 12 days to hear back (if something is wrong) and then 10 days on top of that for our letter to be mailed to us. If you look at that time line we will hopefully have our letter in 22 days, which takes us to the first week of December.

Keep praying please that we did everything correctly and won't have to redo anything and that we will get our letter promptly (God't timing of course). Thank you.

Progress? Wait and See.

Update: Our agency and lawyer found a name and website for us to request a letter from the UK authorities. I emailed the contact Monday and never heard back. This morning I called and had to talk to 2 people telling me to check the website (which I had already done, but was hoping for a contact person who could help me with the letter I need).

Mailed off the letter they need stating I am not a habitual resident of England and have it notarized. It should be in England in 3-5 days (express mail, costing $25). The lady at the post office said it will take 10 days to get a letter regular post from England. So this matter will probably be resolved by the end of November.

I am hoping MOJ of Bulgaria is patient and doesn't take us out of the dossier line, if they do we will be waiting another month to be registered! I have to keep reminding myself God is sovereign and maybe my son isn't availabe to be adopted yet. It is so frustrating working with government agencies, no accountability or customer service. If Obama wins this election, this is what we will get with government healthcare (the runaround).

Will update when we have the important letter in our hands and off to our agency. Probably need to apostile this too I am guessing. Adoption is not for the weary hearted.

Please Pray for us

The good news, the MOJ in Bulgaria is looking at our dossier. The bad news is they want more info because I am a British Citizen. Please pray that God would resolve this and that the info they have is sufficient. Thank you. We will keep you posted when we are registered.

1Thes5:18 Give thanks in ALL circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I want my son home. Please pray for him as we wait for him to join us...

2 Referrals Received from Bulgaria

Good News from our agency, TOL. Two families received referrals and are leaving for Bulgaria to see their children in 3 weeks. The one family is adopting a 4 year old girl with correctable eye issues and another family is adopting a sibling group of 2 boys ages 7 and 8 years old. As you can see from this information children who are older than 4 are being adopted quickly and if they have "special needs". This is very exciting to see some referrals coming through, especially through our agency.

Attachment and Bonding

Yesterday we attended an attachment and bonding meeting with other waiting families at AAI. I was very impressed with the psychologist that talked, he gave a good presentation. He himself has adopted a little girl from China 2 years ago. So he spoke from experience as an adoptive parent as well from the aspect of a professional who helps families with attachment issues.

Some good points he made were:
1. It takes time to form an attachment because if these children have been in an orphanage for 6 months or more think about what they have missed out on. They haven't had their emotional needs met most probably because of the limited amount of caregivers in an orphanage taking care of many children. If our son wakes up in the middle of the night he wont have someone there to sooth him or comfort him, because most probably if he is awake other children are awake crying, or in stress. So he will have to learn to sooth himself, and ultimately he learns he can't trust anyone to help him so he learns to mistrust others and to rely on himself.
2. We need to spend time with him and be engaging, touching, reciprocating,nurturing to him. When he cries in the night we need to be there to comfort him so he knows he can trust us to provide for him. When he falls only the parents are to comfort him (not grandparents or friends), the parents need to provide for his every need (at least for 6 months until he has bonded). He needs to be clear who his parents are and that we will be there for him in need.
3. He stressed that we shouldn't have huge amounts of people at the airport to meet us because this can be stressful for the child, who is grieving the loss of his friends, only caregivers he knows in the orphanage, his language and culture (smells and sounds). If family want to see him they need to do it at our home in the beginning (his turf) and not many at one time so he is overwhelmed. The psychologist also said we shouldn't put him in the nursery at church or have babysitters for at least 6 months. So I will probably go to night church and Chris will stay home with him then.
4. For our biological children he stressed that we should explain the situation of bonding with the child and treat them to special time with mom and dad so they don't feel left out.
5. The most important point he made I think is that this isn't the child's problem but a family issue. We need to learn how to relate to him and bond with him. If he has a difficult time with touch we need to go at it slowly- patting him on the back (instead of hugging) etc. We need to treat him like a newborn...respond when he is in need, cuddle, eye contact,etc because he has missed out on this and needs to make up for lost time. We need to spend time with him, not put him in daycare but try and stay home (thankfully we are able to do this).
6. Children from orphanages with attachment issues have feelings of shame and self hate. This breaks my heart. I can't wait to tell him that God made him, loves him and placed him in our family for a reason. And that we loved him before we met him because he is a child of God!
I thank God for adopting me.

No news

I guess no news is good news. So our agency tells us. If there were something wrong then we would hear from Bulgaria. I still plan to call our agency at the end of the month to see if we are registered with the Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria.
We do have a "waiting families" meeting at AAI on Thursday night, so something to look forward to. We will be learning about attachment issues and bonding. I will post something after our meeting. We continue to pray for our son and other families who are in the adoption process.
A friend of ours got a referral but had to turn it down due to medical issues (another country other than Bulgaria). The wait is hard but getting a referral only to have to turn it down would be even harder I think.

Questions about Bulgaria

An answer to your question about what agencies I would recommend? I am in the middle of adopting so can't necessarily recommend any agency based on experience. However, I would suggest you visit the FRUA chat page and take a look for yourself what others have said about different agencies. I only checked out 4 agencies myself for Bulgaria and they were St.Mary International in N.Carolina, Adoption Ark, All God's Children International and Tree of Life. I decided to go with TOL because a number of people recommended this agency for Bulgaria. The coordinator has adopted 2 children from Bulgaria herself and they continued adoptions in this country when others stopped because of the slow down. So I personally felt that they had good connections. Now having said this, All God's Children International works with the same in country agency as TOL and I think they have an excellent agency overall. It will have to be a personal decision and you will have to just research what other's are saying.

The dossier is pretty easy to compile compared to other countries, and the timeline to bringing your child home is shorter than China but a bit longer than Russia and Ukraine. We are being told most likely 18 months. I am hoping though, because we want a boy, it will be 12 months to get our referrel. Hope this answered your questions.

Not much to report on the adoption front. This week the agency in Bulgaria should be done with translating all our paperwork and submitting it to the Ministry of Justice. Once MOJ gets our paperwork it can take them up to 30 days to register it, which puts us in line for consideration.

So we aren't even in line yet, until the end of the month, for consideration. I will let you know the first week of November where we stand when I contact our agency. We are going to a "waiting families" meeting at AAI on October 16th to learn about bonding and adjustment issues. A psychologist will be meeting with us and answering any questions we have. I am looking foward to that.

I will end off with my favorite verse: Prov 3:5-6 "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your path."
I memorized this verse when I was living in Switzerland and I turn to it often. Have a blessed week.

6 months Today

Not sure if you noticed at the top of our page but it has been six months since we sent in our application to our first agency to start the adoption process (to bring our son home). It wouldn't have taken us that long to gather all our paperwork if we hadn't switched countries and agencies. So techincally the count down to bringing our son home starts from when we submitt our paperwork to the Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria which hasn't happened yet.

I am praying that our dossier is in the process of translation and will be submitted to MOJ in Bulgaria next week some time. Please pray for us that we won't have anymore set backs (such as paperwork they need) and that things will move along. Please pray for our son's safety and emotional well being. We really should pray for all the orphans, that the Holy Spirit will move in the hearts of people to adopt an orphan. We have so much and they have so little. We should use the blessings God has blessed us with for his Kingdom and glory.

If adoption is not something you are able to do, then please consider looking at the site in my previous blog. You can help these children, until they find a home, by providing for there medical needs, physical needs, and educational needs.

Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where theives do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

How You Can Help A Child in Bulgaria

http://www.oneheart-bg.org/orphanages/gabrovo.php

Matthew 25:40 "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."

Good website to get information about Bulgaria

http://www.allgodschildren.org/adoption/bulgaria/

Dossier on the way to Bulgaria

I just heard from our agency that they did mail our dossier off to Bulgaria Friday afternoon via Fed Ex. It should be there in 8 days. Please pray that everything is in order and that we will have a referrel within 12 months. It would be wonderful to be able to bring our son home next Christmas.

I will be following other blog's of families who are adopting from Bulgaria and post their blogs when I see some referrels coming in. So far nothing is happening I believe because Bulgaria is still catching up from previous dossiers submitted in 2007 (not many submitted in 2007 thankfully for those of us waiting).

A lot of families are going the Bulgaria route because of Guatemala being closed, China's wait is 3 years for a child and Kazakstan is having issues as well right now. Russia seems to be a good program if you have over $40,000 (which we don't) and Korea (but they only have a certain number of children available each year assigned to each agency so it closes quickly). Ethiopia is another country that many people are starting to adopt from because of the travel time, cost and age of children. For those of you adopting check out Adoption Forums there is quite a bit of chatter on there if you need info about different countries and agencies.

Ephesians 3:20 "Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."

Embassy Letter to TOL

Yes we got our letter notarized, apostiled and off in the mail this afternoon. Pray that there are no more set backs and that our dossier will be off soon to Bulgaria. If it is off this weekend we will be most probably registered with the Ministry of Justice by the end of October, which means we could be on our first visit to Bulgaria next Sept or October to see our son! Can't wait.

We bought him a "car" toddler bed this past Saturday at a garage sale. It is so cute. The girls want to play in it. It takes a crib mattress and is in the guest bedroom right now. I am thinking depending on his age, he will probably be in a bed and this would work for him to start with to sleep in our bedroom. From what we have read, children adopted have night/sleep issues in the beginning (having to do with grief and fear). So we will have him in our room to start off with, but in his own bed.

It is exciting to buy stuff for him already. We have some clothes (donated from my friend Sarah) and garage sales. We probably won't buy anymore until we meet him because we don't know for sure what age he will be when he comes home. Thank you for your prayers and support!

Letter arrived today

Yes, for those of you who are following our blog, we did receive our letter today from the British Embassy. It looks very plain (grey paper) for such an important letter. Kind of like the I171 h we had to get from the US government (very informal looking).

I would love to say we will have it apostilled today and in the mail to our agency, but one thing I have learned from this experience is nothing goes as we plan. This is definitely something I have a difficult time with as I love to have control over my circumstance and this is something that God is making we work on in my life. Patience is another area I am working on. I can only do what I can do other than that I have to be patient and rely on God.

By the way, change of topic, did you see the Republican convention last night? You have got to love the Republican party now. I was not 100% for McCain but now am excited because of his choice of V.P. Palin is awesome she did such a good job last night. Just my opinion as this is my blog. :) Also did you know that McCain adopted a daughter from Bangladesh 16 years ago? Pretty awesome.

A New Look For Three Bathrooms

Here are some photos of our bathrooms after a makeover.

British Embassy Letter "in the mail"

Finally, today at 5:03 we received an email from the British Embassy stating that they will be mailing the letter we need tomorrow. I had pretty much given up hope that we would have it this week. Looks like we might have it next week after Labor Day.

I am done predicting when we are going to get stuff etc. So will just let you know when our agency sends off our dossier to Bulgaria.

Haven't heard back

Well I was supposed to receive the letter Monday via email to look over and now it is Tuesday. I am still waiting for the "letter"from the British Embassy. Please keep us in your prayers, it would be good to have this week. Once again, I am learning to be patient and trust on the Lord.

I haven't had time yet to post pics of the bathrooms so will try do that by the end of this week. I am still wanting to get curtains for the girl's bathroom and Chris' bathroom. But at least they are painted and look much better.

We are enjoying our last week of summer vacation. We will go swimming at the beach tomorrow for the last time this season. So sad. School starts Sept 2nd here, we have a meeting tonight at the school and then Caroline has a drop in day to meet her teacher on Thursday morning.

I added another Bulgarian blog I found, under my "favorite blogs". Staci and Damon are in the Ukraine to pick up their son. I haven't heard anything yet. They should be home by next week,hopefully.

British Embassy

Yeh. The British Embassy returned my call today and said it won't be a problem, they do this all the time. So I am hoping we will have the letter by the beginning of next week.

I can only give God the glory for this. It is his doing, I was so frustrated today because I hadn't been able to talk to a live person. I had faxed, emailed and left voice mails. Thank you to those of you that were lifting us up in prayer.

I will keep you posted as to when our dossier actually leaves the USA.

Dossier still in USA

I heard from TOL yesterday stating that I have to get a letter from the British Consulate stating that I am not violating any UK laws by adopting in the USA because I am a UK citizen. Can't believe it as I have been living in America for over 15 years. But I just never have gotten my citizenship here, because I have residency status and just have never gotten around to it.

So today I have sent a fax to the B.Consulate in Chicago asking them what I should do and if they can write a letter stating I am not violating any laws of the UK by adopting in the USA. Bulgaria also wants to make sure if I were to move back to the UK (never lived there, except for 5 months when Chris was doing a semester of law school there in 2000) that my adopted child would be granted residency in the UK as well.

Can't believe I have to go through this. Nothing is as easy as it looks. I will keep you posted on what happens next. I understand Bulgaria's concern but I would think a copy of my green card would be proof enough that I plan to continue to live here and have no plans to go to the UK.

Please keep us in your prayers that this would be resolved soon so we can get our paperwork to Bulgaria. My main concern is that our dossier paperwork will be expiring before we get a referral.

Prov 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path."

1Thes 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Dossier off to Bulgaria

I am assuming our dossier has been mailed to Bulgaria either yesterday or today. We did get a long email from TOL saying that MOJ is assigning 80 children at one meeting (every other Tuesday) to families. 50 of them are healthy children and 30 of them are special needs/sibling groups. This is very good. However, they do take off the month of August as it is hot there and the building don't have ac.

We are also being told that worst case scenerio is 18 mths to bring our children home from Bulgaria from dossier submission. I am hoping because we are wanting a boy it will be sooner. Families requesting girls are being told it takes longer. I will let you know when we hear anything else.

Enjoy watching the Olympics, and keep us in your prayers (especially our son).
By the way, I will probably post pics of the bathrooms tomorrow.

Non adoption related entry

Well seeing nothing is happening on the adoption front I thought I would blog about Chris' bathroom. I painted it "Moroccan brown" and the trim is "polite white". When we have completed the bathroom I will post a pic for family that have never seen our home (in South Africa).

Chris still has to put molding around the ceiling (long story) and do something to the ceiling (long story). He also bought doors when we moved in the first year (3 years ago) and hasn't put them all up yet. It is a big job, as he has to shave them etc. Our house is old and not very symmetrical. So he has 4 doors left to put up out of the 2o something he bought. Yes I did say 20. Cost a small fortune for doors, but he wanted solid doors....We also replaced all the handles, now they are bronze.

I bought bronze handles for the cupboards in his bathroom and am still looking for lights to match. I looked at Lowe's and Menard's, our next stop is Home depot. So the painting part was easy now we just have to buy the cosmetic stuff so it will probably be a month before we post the picture.

I did paint the girl's bathroom last month. It looks much better. It is a "rose" color and white trim, white mirror and white vanity. I am still looking for pictures to put up on the wall. We also did the down stairs half bath last month (it really needed it). The wall paper came off and we painted it and put a new medicine cabinet and lights in that one. It looks so much better. It is a mustard color with accent of blue (we had to match the tile in the bathroom, the colors actually look really good together).

The only room that hasn't been updated/painted is the kitchen. I just don't know where to begin. It is fine, and functional but drab compared to the rest of the house. That might be my project next year (After redoing Caroline's room for our son and redoing the guest bedroom for Caroline). Next summer we will also be working on our landscaping a bit, especially in the front of our yard. I am thinking of planting some daisies and yellow and pink cone flowers. That's it for my rattling on.

What Next?

I talked with our coordinator and they received our dossier and will be mailing it off to Bulgaria probably by Friday. Then it will take 8 days to get to Bulgaria. Once the agency in Bulgaria gets it they will translate it and that should take 2 weeks is what we are being told.

Our lawyer there then adds her paperwork and submits it to MOJ (ministry of justice). They will then get to our dossier and register it within 4-6 weeks. So with that time line we are actually looking at October, not September, for our dossier to be put in line with other adoptive families. Remember also that most adoptive families are not American, they are European. So we have Americans, Canadians and Europeans now adopting from Bulgaria. It was mainly Europeans before. Only something like 100 families have adopted from Bulgaria these past couple of years.

The director of MOJ is new since last year and things are moving better with children being adopted so now American agencies are accepting applications for Bulgaria again. TOL, whom we are going through, never stopped working with Bulgaria so they know the ins and outs of Bulgaria, which is reassuring. We will let you know for sure when our dossier leaves for Bulgaria.
Keep us in your prayers, our son is probably born now. Pray for his safety and that he is receiving the hugs we can't give him. Thank you.

No news to report yet about our dossier submission so I thought I would leave you with the meanings of the words I had typed in Bulgarian down below in a previous blog.
Dobre, bravo= good, good job
momche= boy
momiche=girl
baba=grandmother
diado= grandfather
mama/tate=mom/dad
merci=thankyou
lecha nosch=good night
spri=stop

The girls are visiting thier grandparents so I will be paiting a bathroom today. So I better get off to work. Thanks for reading our blog, hopefully it will be quiet with nothing to report until we bring our son home.

James 1:27 "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

Dossier mailed today

So we finally mailed off everything to Tree of Life. They should get everything on Monday. The plan is for them to look over our dossier then mail it to Bulgaria. It takes 8 days for mail to get to Bulgaria via Fed Ex. Once Bulgaria gets it the agency over there translates it for us, which can take 2-4 weeks. Then they submit it to MOJ (ministry of justice). Then we are submitted once they read it and give us a number in line with other adopted families. I am guessing we will probably be submitted to MOJ middle of September. Once submitted we can wait up to 18 mths probably to be given a referrel of a boy. We were told we will probably find our in 12 months but I am not holding my breath. Will let you know when we know something. Keep us in your prayers that everything goes according to plan!

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see that I have added the weather in Bulgaria. Kinda cool! Chris had to help me a bit as I was getting frustrated, as I am not very good at computer stuff. Did you also notice the countdown to getting our son on the top of the page?
Thanks Staci I got that idea from your blog!

Well today I did go to the secretary of State to get our 42 pages apostilled. I sat there for 20 minutes then they called me by name and said that they were understaffed today so I would have to come back tomorrow to get my stuff apostilled. Couldn't believe it. So tomorrow morning the girls and I will go down there again and hopefully get it all done and in the mail to TOL. I will jump for joy when it is in the mail.

Once we go to court (after trip 1) we will most likely have to do this again with our home study, FBI clearance, and medicals. All these things will most likely expire before we can bring our son home. Oh goody, can't wait to go through all of this again. NOT.

Can it be True?

Okay, have a seat. Can it be true? The doctor's office actually called us to say the papers are ready to pickup!! Chris is on his way to pick them up. Lets pray that everything is good and later today I will go and get everything apostilled and put in the mail to TOL. Finally starting tomorrow the count down begins to getting our son home from Bulgaria.

We have been told it could take 12-18 mths to get a referral from when we submit our dossier so lets begin the countdown:) I will keep you posted but don't be surprised if we are quiet for awhile. We are thinking maybe in January to fix Caroline's new room and our son's room.
Thanks for those of you who have been praying, God does answer prayer.

Medicals

We are still waiting on Chris' doctor's office to get the paper work together. I don't understand what is taking them soo long to get the results and have the doctor sign the papers. I picked up my results today. The doctor was out of town until today and he signed it and they had it notorized. If my doctor's office can do all this in one day what is taking the other office so long to do?? Chris called them last week Friday, Monday and today and still we don't have anything from them.

As soon as we get his medical we can send everything off to TOL. Please pray that it happens this week.

I have been practicing my Bulgarian this week. I bought a CD. So far I know "dobre", baba, diabo, momche, mama, tate, da, ne, aka. Guess what they mean and leave a comment....
Take care, Celeste

Good News

Hi today we got our fingerprint background check from the FBI. What a blessing. It took them 2 weeks instead of 4. I will be working on gathering photos of our family and friends for our dossier this weekend. Monday I am hoping that my doctor will sign the medical and I can get our paper work notarized and apostilled, and off to TOL on Tuesday am.

Pray that we can get this done. Update on Staci in the Ukraine: they have decided to adopt a 17 month old boy who needs surgery on his esophagus. I am soo happy that they are coming back with a little guy.

We have a number of families in our church who are also in the process of adopting. I know of 2 families adopting from Russia and another family is adopting an older child from China ( I think she is 9 yrs old and should be home in October). God is soo good. If you are interested in adopting AAI has 2 boys who need adopting now who are 4 yrs old. Have a blessed weekend.

YouTube - Children in orphanage in Bulgaria

YouTube - Children in orphanage in Bulgaria: ""

Update on doctor appt

I had to check in with the doctor's office 48 hrs after getting my TB prick and everything looks good. The doctor's office had received all my results except for the HIV. My cholesterol was very good, happy about that. Chris didn't get to talk to the nurse about his results when he went back to get checked for his TB.

I did receive some bad news though. My doctor is on vacation this week and next. So he can't sign the paperwork until he gets back the first week of August. So much for "my" plan to get everything done and off by the end of July. God has a different plan!

I do have the social worker's license and child abuse background check in my hands so that is taken care of. We also sent a letter this week to AAI to cancel our services and Ukraine program with them. We will still use them though for our post adoption reports and any updates we need done on our home study.

Today I read of another family returning from the Ukraine without a child. It makes me so angry. They were wanting a girl, and did visit one in the orphanage after their second interview. They sent the medical info to their doctor here in the USA and decided not to adopt her. So very sad. I wish other families were seeing this and boycotting Ukraine so they would change their program to give referrals so families aren't paying thousands to go there and return home with no child. It seems very hard for me to believe there are no healthy children in the orphanages. But I also feel terrible for these children who are being left behind...I have noticed some agency's now stating under their Ukraine program guidelines that Ukraine is a good program if you are willing to be flexible in the age and health of a child or want a sibling group. So keep that in mind.

Staci and Damon are still waiting for their 2nd appt in the Ukraine. They are wanting a little boy and are open to siblings, I believe. Pray that they will find their little boy soon. This will be the beginning of their family. Until the next update,

Tuesday July 22

Chris had his doctor's appt today to get his blood drawn and tb prick. I am so proud of him because when we first met he did not like the sight of a needle or blood. Since we have been married he goes to the blood donation center and gives blood when ever they call him, which is often because he is type O.

Today our social worker emailed to say that by the end of the week we should have her notarized license and the other document we need. Great! Our blood work takes a week to get the results so then the only thing we are waiting for will be the FBI background check.

As you might have noticed I have added the Ukrainian blog that I have been following. Staci and her husband are there right now to get their first child, a son. I am praying for them that they do return home soon with him. There is another blog I am following, they are with the same agency we were with, but they haven't received their appt date yet so are still waiting. When they do I will add them to my favorite blog spot. I have looked for Bulgarian blogs but haven't found any,except one, they are adopting a down syndrome child from Bulgaria. Their blog is called Kenofamily adopting from Bulgaria.

When I read about families adopting special needs children it just brings tears to my eyes. Thank God for people like them to take the "really" needy children home with them, the ones that will probably never find families, and give them the love that they so need.

Dr. Appt Today

Not much news as we try get all our dossier stuff together. I did have my doctor's appt this morning. I had to have blood drawn for HIV, HepB, Syphilis testing and a tb test. The office staff was so nice and understanding. They had our forms for the Ukraine so I had to give them new ones for Bulgaria. I didn't have to get tb tested for Ukraine but do for Bulgaria. They said the results of the blood work will be ready by the end of the week. Chris has his appt tomorrow at his doctor.

I am still waiting to hear back from our social worker about her license and child abuse background check she did on us for our home study. Please pray that we will have our FBI fingerprints back by July 31st so I can send our dossier off to our agency and then they send it to Bulgaria to be translated and admitted to the Ministry of Justice so we can be put "in line" to receive a referral.

The time line looks something like this:
1. Send dossier to TOL in OR
2. The send it to Bulgaria (8days to get there Fed Express)
3. The agency there translates it for us (2-4 weeks)
4. They send it to the MOJ who then approve it and put in "in line"
5. Then we wait for 9-12 mths to receive a referral.

Until next time, God bless

Friday July 18, 2008

Good morning friends and family! Yesterday we had our fingerprints redone and sent them to the FBI in Virginia. USCIS should have received our request to change countries from Ukraine to Bulgaria.

Last night AAI had a doctor talk to "waiting families" about immunizations and screening test adopted children need to have when they come to the USA. He gave us suggestions on what to take with us when we travel (meds for our children). There were a lot of families adopting from Ethiopia there, one couple was adopting from Liberia and two families were adopting from Russia/Ukraine.

The doctor has 6 children and 3 of them are adopted. We might use his office/partners as our doctor for our son when he comes home. He mentioned how orphans are a blessing from God and made in His image.

We are still waiting on our social worker from AAI to send us her license. This is pretty much what we need for Bulgaria's dossier:
1. Power of Attorney for agency in Bulgaria
2. Power of Attorney for TOL American agency
3. Letter to Ministry of Justice stating why we want to adopt, age, gender, description of our family, home, employment,etc.
4. Home study
5. Social worker's license (who did the home study)
6. Agency license (that did the home study)
7. Photo's of our family and home
8. Finger prints by FBI (background check) for both of us
9. I171 H adoption approval letter from USCIS
10. copy of our taxes
11. Medicals for both of us (blood work for HIV etc.)
12. Doctor's license
13. Marriage certificate
14. Photocopy of passports
15. Child abuse clearance for both of us (Social worker to give to us as she got it for our home study)

Will write more once we have something to report. Please keep us in your prayers as we wait to bring our son home. Pray for his safety, that he is being cared for and loved on when needed and that we will continue to seek God's will and be obedient to Him.

Bulgarian Dossier

TOL received our signed paperwork today and emailed us what we need to gather for our dossier. For the Ukraine we had to get fingerprinted and send it to the State of Michigan to do a background check. For Bulgaria we have to redo our fingerprints at the police station and send it to the FBI to have our background checked. This is on our to do list tomorrow!
Also for Bulgaria we have to get our social worker's license, which we didn't need for the Ukraine. So I just emailed her for this. Chris and I also have to have blood work done for HIV, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis. Hopefully we can get appt. for next week.

My hope is still to have everything done by the end of July so please pray for us so we can get our dossier together quickly. The FBI check supposedly takes 3-4 weeks, and I am requesting they do it in 2 :)

After doing all the above, we are told that we will most likely have to redo our homestudy, fingerprints and medical because they expire after 12 months and have to be updated for court. We are being told we could receive a referrel of a child in 12 months and court is about 12-16 weeks after that. Then we travel a second time to bring our son home. I am so glad that this program is a bit less expensive than Ukraine because after we redo all this stuff it will probably cost us the same amount as the Ukraine.

I am following a couple in the Ukraine who are wanting to adopt a son, they haven't blogged since they have been there (this week). I am praying that they do bring a child home.
Thank you for reading our blog and for your support.


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Homestudy for Bulgaria

We received a call from AAI to say our homestudy is ready to be picked up. YEAH. So tomorrow morning I will pick it up. We will mail one to USCIS and TOL (our new agency). We have to sign some contracts for TOL and hopefully will be completed with our dossier by the end of the month. I have to get all our paperwork appostiled and notarized. Once everything is mailed to Bulgaria I will give a sigh of relief.

We returned from Alabama this past Saturday, and the girls had so much fun camping with my mom (even though it did rain at night). They got to swim at the beach, collect pinecones, play on the swings and make toasted marshmellows. Now back to reality of cleaning house, grocery shopping and doing laundry:)

Leave a comment if you want we would love to read them.

I171H Received

We got back today from celebrating the 4th of July with our family, to find a letter from Homeland Security. I ripped that thing open and was thrilled to see we finally got our I171H approval letter to adopt.

We turned in our I600A April 18th, then our homestudy (the first one) the first week of June. They originally sent us a letter in the mail saying it was taking 3 months to get and it was one week shy of 3 months.

Now all we have to do is get our medical and send in our dossier to Bulgaria. I am thinking it will be by the end of this month, which means July of next year we should have a referrel of our son.
Have a great 4th of July weekend:)

New Homestudy for Bulgaria

Well our social worker should be done with our new homestudy today, but then it has to be notarized. So we wont have it until after our vacation! Once we get our new homestudy we will sent a copy to USCIS so we can get our I171H. This is the only document left that we need for our dossier (other than medicals for us).

We had to redo our homestudy because it said "Ukraine" and "18-24 mth old". We were told that no children were available under 18 mths in the Ukraine. In Bulgaria the children are put on the registry for 6 months and then can be adopted. Like Ukraine, the citizens are able to adopt the children first and most families want the young, healthy children. So we are asking for a 12-24 month old.

I have been researching Roma and Gypsy because 80% of the children in the orphanages are Roma the other 20% are Bulgarian. The Roma children are olive, brown hair and brown eyes. They are looked down upon in Eastern Europe and most of them are unemployed and living in ghetto's. So I am sure most of these children have living parents who love them but can't afford to take care of them. Terrible really! We are being told it could take 12 months AFTER we submit our dossier to receive a referrel, which means I am sure we will have to redo our dossier as it is only good for 12 months and we had a few things notarized in April/May. The fingerprints and I171H are good for 18 months. Please pray that as soon as USCIS get our new homestudy we will receive our I171H so we can get this going.

Our adoption Journedy Thus Far

Welcome to our adoption blog. We thought this would be a good idea to start so friend and family can keep up with what is happening (or not happening) along our journey to bring our son home.



For those of you who don't know, we are not adopting from Ukraine anymore. Rather we are in the process of adopting from Bulgaria through Tree of Life (TOL). We started our journey in March by applying to Adoption Associates, Inc. (AAI) and then started our homestudy in April. We have most of our documents ready for our dossier but are still waiting on our I171 H from USCIS. Since we changed the country we are adopting from we had to send a letter to USCIS this past week to have them change that on our I600A. Another hiccup with changing countries at this point is that we are uncertain as to whether we have to fill out the I800 instead because Bulgaria is Hague certified. I emailed USCIS and they told me we are grandfathered in, so we do not have to fill out the I800.



You might be asking yourselves, why we are not adopting from Ukraine anymore? Well I have been reading other blogs of families who are were in Ukraine wanting to adopt toddler age children, and they were having 2 appointments with the SDA and coming home without a child. This was after being in the country for 5weeks. Well we just cannot afford to be in the Ukraine for that long financially and also we would miss our children back home. So, through God's providence I received an email from another adoption agency saying their Bulgaria program was open again because the USA and Bulgaria were Hague certified. So I looked into Bulgaria and talked with my husband about it and we felt that this would be the best place to adopt our son. With Bulgaria you receive a referral (like Russia) and medical info then you travel to visit your child ( you have to be in the country for 5 days) then return home for 12-16 weeks (while paperwork is being done to adopt your child) then you return again for another 5 days to get your child. That is a total of 10 days which is much doable. Also the children look a lot like me, olive, brown eyes and brown hair.



So that is the latest on our adoption. We are in the process of redoing our homestudy, which our social worker said should be done when we get back from vacation and then hopefully so will our I171h then we can ship everything off to Bulgaria. The wait is between 12-18 months for a boy age 2 yrs old is what we are being told. So please pray that everything will go smoothly so we can be in the waiting process for our referral. Will write when we have something to tell.