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