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.