This n That

Can I just say that I absolutely love the adoption community. The support, encouragement, and love that flows from this very special group of people is unexplainable.  We feel soooo blessed to be surrounded by and a part of this community. 

With that being said, I am especially thankful for those that have gone before us and have been so wonderful and holding my hand along the way.  Giving us an idea of what the wait will look like, preparing us for the visit, encouraging us, and keeping us in their prayers. I'm also excited to be meeting new families that we can connect with and offer what little advice we have.  I am happy to say I think the Bulgarian Reunion will be even more memorable this year, can't wait to meet all of the new children, and families I feel like have become my own.

Just for a little update on our process....
We have completed our homestudy addendum and are mailing off our I800a Supplement 3 today.
Our Supplement 3 is a form not every family has to do but because we have a change in characteristic of child we are now requesting as opposed to what we were originally approved for, we must submit this form.
Hopefully once this is sent off we will have our updated USCIS approval back within 4-6 weeks and can mail that to BG. Here is the exciting part. Once it reaches BG we are simply waiting for travel dates!!!

Oh we can't wait to meet, hold, and love this sweet little boy whose picture has been shown off to every single person who is even remotely interested.

We have also started the process of converting his bedroom.  Dustin is a lover of all things baseball, and our little boys medical talks about how he enjoys playing with balls, so of course it would only be fair to make him a vintage baseball room. Oh I'm so excited. 

To go along with it we have purchased a 1000 piece vintage baseball puzzle and are getting ready to start our puzzle fundraiser. We will be selling them for $1 a piece. If you are interested let me know. Your name will go on the back of every piece you purchase and the puzzle will be framed between two pieces of glass to hang in his room.  This way he will know the names of all the wonderful people tyhat were a piece of the puzzle to bring him home.

Tonight we are going to wrap gifts at our local Amazon.com factory which pays 5013c organizations $1 per package wrapped in a 4 hour period.  Our church is allowing us to use their Tax ID number so that we can earn this money. I'm also thankful for a church that is so supportive of adoption.  Seing children from China, Taiwan, and Guatemala in the congregation just blesses my heart.There are 6 of us going, and we are hoping to raise $300. 

Our adoption fund is up to $5300.00 which is so exciting because this means our first trip is almost fully funded.  We only need $2,200 more to go!! The $10,000 needed for our next trip seems to be the biggest mountain we will face, but we have so much faith that God is going to provide our every need, and then some!!

IT'S A BOY!!!

If you can for a moment picture with me a beautiful purple room with pink beding, green curtains, barbie doll houses and butterflies on the walls.  Yep pretty perfect room for a princess.  A bulgarian princess to be exact.  Not so much for a Prince though.  In fact unless we want a dress wearing bulgarian boy we will be changing EVERYTHING we had as we prepared for our "daughter". 

Confused?????

Well let me lay it out.

Last year when Dustin and I started this process, we requested a healty little girl under the age of 4.  We stuck by it and that is what we had a desire to adopt. We began to prepare even though we knew the wait would be long, we painted her room, decorated, and bought clothes (only at yardsales and goodwill though, we aren't crazy)!!  We would see little girls and just adore their beauty and we would talk about the day we would see our little girls picture.  Then one night in September I saw the most beautiful little boy I have ever seen.  I clicked on his picture and marveled at how much he looked like my husband.  I closed his picture and moved on because his gender wasn't according to what we had requested.  We then requested the blind referral on the little girl we were later told went to another family. After that, I was talking to my sister-in-law who said "have you all even considered a little boy?"  I said no, well actually there's this one I just think is gorgeous but I haven't showed him to Dustin.  She asked why I hadn't considered him, and I told her because he was a boy.  I was determined we were getting a girl, it's what we had set out after. 

In that moment God began to change my heart.  I went home and said these words to dustin "IF we were bringing a boy home this little boy would be it" as I showed him the picture I had looked at a month earlier.  Dustin responded well and thought he was just as great as I had.  We both agreed to just request some information on him and see what was going on. I couldn't get him off of my mind.  We requested what we could, fortunately our agency had his file.  We seen some pretty scary unknowns when we first looked at his file. Things that we weren't sure we could handle.  We spent a week in prayer and just begging God to show us if this little boy was our son.  As days went on we couldn't picture our life without him, in fact the medical became less and less scary.  We received more information that entailed more medical information that wasn't easy to handle, but for the first time we felt unwaivered in our desire to bring this child home.  On November 10th at about midnight, sitting in our "daughter's" room on a pink bed and we cried out to Jesus and knew immediately this was our son. 

Monday we let our Agency know our decision and so began more paperwork.  We had a few days to get it submitted because their time with his file was ending soon.  We submitted everything electronically on November 15th and anxiously awaited a decision by the MOJ that we were an appropriate family for this child.  We were given one month to get the original paperwork to Bulgaria so without knowing if we were approved or not we headed back to the Capitol. The dreaded Capitol that we had hoped we were finished visiting...but obviously were not.  November 30th we mailed our apostilled copies to TOL with hopes that everything would work out.  Still no word.  On December 1st I went shopping and bought the cutest baseball houseshoes (pictures later) I've ever seen and told dustin "here's to hoping"!!

December 4th at 3:07 a.m. I received the greatest news ever... YOU'VE BEEN MATCHED...and P**** is on hold for your family!!!  WOOHOO

A year ago we prepared for a girl.Today a little boy has melted our hearts and become a forever piece of our family.  We have a lot of paperwork to change due to our decision to request a girl in the beginning but whatever it takes to get him home we will do. 

Thank you to everyone who has prayed and followed a long with us. Our Journey is just beginning but we are so excited to be at this point!!!  Keep up, it's going to be an exciting ride as we hope to become a family of 3 in 2013!!!!!!!!!!!

Answered Prayers

Well I'll keep this short and sweet.  If you read the last post you know we were persuing a little girl from the SN list in Bulgaria.  After getting all of our paperwork sent over and ready to be reviewed...a few days before her file was to be given to our agency, her current agency referred her to a family in Spain and they accepted.  We have to remember we prayed that God would place her with the family she was supposed to be with and if it wasn't us, we wouldn't even get her file. Well He certainly answered our prayers.

Trip to the Capitol

AHH Yes...the Capitol!  This place is becoming a little too familiar for us. Fortunately it marks movement in our adoption journey. The capitol has been the final stop for us a couple of times now, before sending documents to Bulgaria.  This trip was extra exciting.  We were getting our application to request a child apostilled!  This means our part is done.  We've filled out everything we can and tried to be as convincing as possible.  Now it's out of our hands.  The MOJ will decide if we are fit as a family for this little girl. We've been told we might get "you're too young", "you haven't been married long enough", or maybe even "your income isn't enough to adopt a special needs child".  At this point we are just trusting that God will see everything through!  These are all details we really can't change!!

Now we just sit back do a lot of praying and waiting for a couple of weeks I'm assuming.  It's difficult feeling like this little child is supposed to be yours and we've never even seen her picture.  Isn't adoption a funny thing like that though. When God gives you a peace that truly passes any understanding we have, it just makes you know that this is it.

One of the hardest prayers we've prayed is that if we truly are not the family God has prepared for her that the MOJ just wouldn't approve our request. Because in the end, it's what's best for the children, not about us getting a daughter! Otherwise we are trying to be obedient and stepping out in an almost blind faith, in not knowing everything about this little girl, but I've said it before and I'll say it again...We could wait three years for a "healthy" child and be in the same situation.  That's the funny thing about adoption, the whole process is full of blind faith.  We know God has called us to this, and we just trust that He will take care of everything!!

HAHA don't mind dustin's sungrin.  It was this or he had to wear my sunglass!You see the option he chose!

Hope God is saving her for us!

I know several months ago I had mentioned asking for prayers for something I would hopefully be able to share soon.  Well I still can't share all of the details but I do want to give a little update as to what is going on with our adoption journey. 

Two months ago the MOJ released their monthly list of waiting sn children, and like most months I looked at it without much intent besides just looking.  Much to my amazement there was a file.  A file of a little girl who fit the age we were looking for and after reading her file, it suprised me she was even on the list.  There are things going on, but nothing I would consider "special", in fact a lot of it seemed like typical orphange delays and things that hopefully could be fixed with a little attention and a lot of love!  Dustin and I talked about this little girl, prayed about her file, and even though we had not seen a picture we decided to just ask if it would be possible for our Bulgarian NGO to request her file.  At this point we were unfamiliar with the way these files are dispersed and quickly understood it would be a long shot for them to get her.  Just as we had figured her file was sent to a different NGO to be placed and they would have 2 months to do so before another agency had the opportunity.  Our NGO knew we were interested in this file and asked if we would be interested in placing an official request based only on what we had seen online...no picture...no full medical.  We talked about it, weighed our options and the risks.  The only reason they wanted us to do so, was if by chance she did not get placed, then perhaps the MOJ would review our request and send us a referral after the 2 months were up.  We figured the best option for us would be to just wait the two months, anxiously, and see if she got placed. At that point if she had not we would go ahead and place the request.

The end of August came by and her file was still available.  The end of september hit, and we knew we were closing in on the expiration of the 2 months this other ngo had to place her.  Last week, we didn't know if she had been placed or not, but we wanted to get a heads up and e-mail our agency "just in case" so that if she was still available our ngo could try to get her file.  Once again they asked us if we would go ahead and place an official request.  We wondered if it was pointless b/c at this point she could have already been placed and we'd go through the paperwork for no reason.  Regardless, Dustin and I decided we would go ahead and file the request with MOJ.  Better safe than sorry we thought and perhaps God was saving her for us.  We had said this all along, if she's meant to be ours God will save her for us.  We agreed last thursday that we would file the request, wondered all day friday if she had already been placed, and then the list came out saturday.   There her file number was, still in the same color it was last month....she hadn't been requested by a family.

A number of thoughts went through our heads immediately.  Either there is a lot more going on than the summarized medical is letting on, or just as we had hoped God is definitely saving her for us. We are praying its the latter of the two.  This morning we had our application notarized and it's being sent to Bulgaria for translation.  I'll have to get it apostilled this week and have the official document sent over to be presented before the MOJ. 

They will then decide if our family is a good fit for this little girl, and if so we will receive a referral of her file for us to review and decide on!  We are praying, not only for our family, but for this little girl.  We just can't get her our of our heads or off of our hearts. This is kind of a long shot, and especially not seeing photos or full medicals we know this is a risk. But isn't the whole process of adoption a risk in itself?  We could wait 3 years for a "healthy" child and them be no healthier than this darling little girl.  Please be in prayer that God's will would be done in this situation.  We are praying God has been saving her for us!! We would love to have a little daughter home by summer!

wait wait wait....

It never ceases to amaze me how many people in a day will ask the exact same question..."How much longer till you have a child home?"...and I always have the same answer..."We are waiting for a referral and it could be 3 years."  Oh how I HATE saying that.  3 years seems like an eternity, but if we're realistic we have to be prepared to wait that long.  Dustin and I have weighed the options of extending our parameters already.  Maybe we should take 2, but can we afford it, maybe we should go up in years, but they'll be practically grown by the time they get here.  Then I will hear this still small voice in my head say, "Lindsey, just be patient, you're child is already picked out for you, and it's just going to take some time to get her here." 

So I knew I wasn't good at waiting, I could possibly be the most impatient person ever.  If I had it to do over again we would have selected a child before starting and then proceeded to adopt them instead of doing all the work then waiting.  Ya know I'm finding out we are more and more open to a special needs child than we ever thought. I think when we first started this process, the words Special Needs terrified dustin and I. We just can't take care of a child with special needs and were'nt really sure that we even wanted to.  In our own ignorance,what we pictured as debilitating us is actually life enhancing.  I follow blogs of many moms and dads that have decided to adopt children with the label "special needs" and quite honestly I've learned they should just drop the word "need" from it all together.  They are just flat out SPECIAL!!  What a blessing these children are.

We open the MOJ file monthly looking for the child that could be ours and what used to be a scary medical has suddenly turned into "we can definitely handle that". Most of these children are simply overlooked because of this label and a majority of them, with the proper care, live a perfectly healthy lifestyle.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to downplay the incredible determination and love it takes to raise a child with special needs.   But I am saying that a majority of the families who have opened their hearts and homes to a special need gets blessed more and more each day by the smiling faces of these incredible children and quite frankly can't picture their lives and differently. 

Whatever child God has for us, we are excited about, and expect them to be a blessing every day.  It makes me overjoyed to be able to think, somewhere in Bulgaria there is a small child wondering where their mommy and daddy are and even though they may not know it yet, we are sitting right here just waiting for the words "come get your child".

Yard Sale Success

I know the last time I posted we were gearing up for our yardsale.  Well let me say this, after 3 days of yard saleing and being overly exhausted, it was worth it. While we didnt' exactly reach the goal I was hoping for we were successful in raising $2,100.00!!  I was so pleased and we still have several large items left that I plan on trying to sell on a facebook yardsale site.  With that being said we still have approximately $15,000 to raise.  We have so many fundraisers going on I feel overwhelmed! Between jewelry, pampered chef, our quilt, t-shirts, I think I'm going to let these fundraisers finish up before even attempting another one. 

With all of that being said, I also ask for prayers for Dustin and I and a decision we need to make in regards to our adoption.  It is one that will definitely require a leap of faith and a nearly blind leap at that, but we are turning to God for guidance.Perhaps in a few months I can share the outcome!

Registered!!

After some digging on our agencies part we finally received word yesterday that on June 28th we were approved and we became officially registered with the MOJ on July 6th.  Such exciting news. It may seem like a small victory to some, but we are so grateful.  I had originally set a goal of July 4th, and I thought I had gone waaay past that, but in fact we almost made it!  I told dustin the good news was the first month of our wait was almost already over and we didn't even know it, haha!  Now if the next 2-3 years will go by that fast! 

We are getting geared up for our big yardsale in 1 1/2 weeks!  I should definitely take pictures of all 3 rooms in our house that are packed with donations for our yardsale! We are so excited! We've set a lofty goal of $5000.00!  I've also started working on Grant applications.  1 down and 1 to go, the Show Hope grant is pretty detailed and I'm guessing will take us atleast 2 months to get completed. Good thing we've got so long to wait and  I don't have to rush rush rush on these! I would loooove to have our adoption fully funded by this time next year.  That's around $18,000 including travel and everything!  Good thing we serve a BIG God who is capable of supplying, we certainly couldn't do it on our own!

If anyone is interested in purchasing a block of our quilt you can pay in the paypal donations section and send us what you want it to say and we will write it in for you! If you're lost on what I'm talking about, read the last post.  Basically we are selling single blocks for $10, 3 block lines for $20, and a full 9-block patch for $50.  It is our hope to get all blocks sponsored and written on by the end of the year!  We want our daughter to have it as a keepsake and see all the amazing people that helped to bring her home.  Some people only want to write their name, others are writing scripture, and some are writing personal notes to her, whatever you heart desires we are open to! 

I suppose the updates on things will slow down at this point, except for fundriasing.  I will try my hardest not to abondon this blog during the long wait! 

Covered With Love

Hand Made Quilt to Perfectly Match Our Daughters Room

As time goes on, Dustin and I try and try to come up with fundraisers.  Well this one goes to Jeff (dustins dad)! He had the most incredible idea!!!  Dustin and I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out some fabric that would match the bedroom we have decorated for our daughter. I then took it to one of the seniors who go to the local Senior Center I do a lot of events with and asked her to get creative and handstitch a quilt for us.  I picked it up yesterday and this is the beauty I pulled out of the bag! It has to be one of the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen, or maybe I'm being a little biased.  Anyways, we have decided that we are going to sell each 9-patch block for $50 or a divide a 9-patch into 3 sections of 3 patches each and sell those for $20 each.  When someone pays for their block or patch they willl be the offical sponsor of that section, and on the back they can write with fabric pens whatever they want. Whether it be just their name, a note to our daughter, scripture, or whatever their heart pleases. We are calling it "Covered With Love". Once it's all filled up on the back we will hang it in our daughters room as a keepsake and to remind her daily of how many people truely love her and can't wait to meet her!!!

UPDATE!-

Well I wish I could give one, but surprise surprise, we are as clueless as you.  Our Dossier has been in Bulgaria for 8 weeks and 1 day (of course I'm not counting) and we haven't heard the first thing.  I have asked several times for our agency to check for an update and I'm told they write letters to VESTA, but I never hear anything after that.  We were told translation would take 2-4 weeks and submitted to MOJ, and we should get a log in date approximately 1 month later.  Well we are really not sure if it's been submitted to MOJ or not or even if we've arleady been logged in.  It's hard to be patient when you are given a timeline and it's up but nothings been done! Guess I'm just venting a little!  I kinda feel like I'm in the dark. 

We have been keeping an eye on the MOJ SN list and actually saw 2 children come across this time that we were very interested in.  But of course I haven't heard anything on either of them ..AAAAAAHHHHHHH!  I am just not sure I'm going to make it 2 or 3 more years!!  It's not even been a year since we started this process and I'm soooo impatient that it seems like it's  been 5!  Oh well, I would wait an eternity to bring our daughter home, whoever and wherever she may be!

No News...Is Good News

I love this!!

This totally describes our life right now!  So We've been waiting to hear something from Bulgaria for oh 6 weeks or so now.  We new translation would take a couple so lets knock that down to 3 weeks.  We've been told in Europe NOBODY calls or e-mails just to let you know how things are going, they only talk when they've got something to say.  Well HELLO PEOPLE we're waiting to hear something!!  Ok....the old saying goes No News is Good News and we're hoping that applies to our situation.  I just keep telling myself the MOJ is reviewing it and we haven't heard anything because our Dossier is just PERFECT!!  We were really hoping to get a log-in date by at least July 4th but we're slowly closing in on that date.

The Bulgarian retreat is coming at such a perfect time.  In the midst of waiting, I guess God knew we'd need a great distraction!  Dustin and I along with our parents are going to Ohio this weekend to spend some time with other families who have adopted from Bulgaria, or are also waiting like we are.  We absolutely can not wait!  I can't wait to meet those beautiful children and their incredible families, to learn about our daughters country, and to have a good weekend away from all the craziness at home! 

For a small update we received our FBI clearance in the mail this weekend. This is our updated version since our first clearance will be old news next month.  I'll be sending it off to Hillary Clinton again this week to get it apostilled, then back to TOL and off to Bulgaria to update our Dossier.

This is such a weird transition in the adoption process.  The first 8-10 months we were so busy busy busy every day getting some sort of paperwork together and now just sorta nothing is happening.  I mean it is happening but I'm not in control of it so obviously it's not going as fast as it should be :).  We are continuing to keep an eye on the SN waiting children and at the same time continuing to raise funds for the 2nd half of the adoption. You know, just incase it comes faster than anticipated!!  

Our house is just about packed to the max with yard sale items.  Of course we are fortunate enough to live on HWY 127 so the Longest Yard Sale in the World comes right through our front door!  So many people we know have been amazing enough to let us have everything they don't sell at theirs in order for us to sell in ours!  Our Garage and our guest bedroom are both loaded down and we are so thankful!  We have a lofty goal of $2000 for our yardsale!  That is not including the Jewelry I plan on selling there!

Speaking of Jewelry, I swear this has been the coolest fundraiser. I mean I love selling this jewelry but I REALLY LOVE wearing it haha!  I might wear up all of my profit if I'm not careful!  I've been selling this jewelry for about 1 month now so far and have made 4 orders already. I mean $5 jewelry that is beautiful really does sell itself! I've just booked my first party and am so excited. %100 of profit goes toward our adoption, and I get %45 commission on every sell I make, and it's been one of the funnest Fundraisers I've ever done.  We still have a long way to go to reach our goal of $15,000 for the second half of our adoption, $14,000 left to be exact (yikes) but we know who is in control, and have no doubt He'll make it come together!

UP, UP, and AWAY

Our Dossier has boarded the plane for Bulgaria and landed safely on Tuesday May 15th.  It is currently being translated by VESTA.  It seems so strange to be doing all of this paperwork and to be excited about a log in date when it only marks the beginning of our long wait.  Regardless it's a huge milestone in our process.  We have a personal goal of a log in date by July 4th, my mothers birthday!  Even though it will be her birthday it will be a great present for Dustin and I. 

We have decided to start yet another fundraiser. Amidst the yard sale items we are collecting and t-shirts on adoption bug, I have ordered a starter kit for Paparazzi Accessories.  I will hopefully be able to post a link on here to my Facebook page soon. It's an amazing jewelry party plan organization that sales very fashion forward jewelry and hair accessories for only $5. Talk about a deal! I hope I don't end up buying more than I sell!  If anyone is interested in selling please let me know and you can join our team!  It's a great way to fundraise for the adoption or just to make extra cash on the side! 

Don't forget we have our DONATE button at the top of the page for anyone wanting to donate via paypal!
& most importantly please continue to pray, for our child, our patience, and our paperwork as it makes its way through the MOJ!

Fundraiser T-Shirts

We've officially gotten a store up and running on Adoption Bug!  Go check it out and order some t-shirts to help us with fundraising.

http://www.adoptionbug.com/cmd.php?af=1457411

Updates and Redos

Well after mailing our dossier to TOL they contacted us to let me know we had 2 things to fix.  First I had mistakenly put 2010 as dustins passport expiration date and it should have been 2020. Stupid mistake, but nonetheless I had to fix it so I got it fixed, and sent off to the Secretary of State to get apostilled.  The second thing was our FBI background check.  It was one of the first things we had done, so it was in danger of expiring shortly after the MOJ receives it.  TOL suggested we go ahead and start the update process so it was ready.  We went ahead and got fingerprinted last week and the local pd and sent off our application.  Last time it took about a month to get our approvals back and then we'll have to send off to the Dept. of State to get it apostilled once it's back. 

Currently, if I understand correctly, our dossier is being translated into Bulgarian.  Once it's completely translated, TOL will then send it to the MOJ and we will wait on a registration date.  We're getting closer and closer, but still so long to go!

On an exciting note.....Dustin and I along with our parents have registered to go to the Bulgarian Adoptees Reunion, which we are suuuuper excited about!  We can't wait to meet all of the beautiful families, and dive a little bit farther into the adoption community. It will be so great to get to talk to people who have dealt first hand with adopting bulgarian children, and get advice about their ups and downs throughout the process!

As soon as our dossier gets translated and sent over, which should take a week or two, I'll be sure and post, so we can send out extra prayers to get our Dossier safe and sound into the hands of the MOJ!!

Apostilled

Yesterday my sister-in-law and I made the long treck up to Frankfort to get our Dossier Apostilled.  So glad we are finally at the point where we are getting ready to mail our paperwork to Portland, Oregon, then on to Bulgaria!  I feel like I recheck myself 20 times a day to make sure I have everything. I'm currently working on our photos, and I question every photo, "I wonder if they'll want to see this".  Oh well, I hope all works out and we've gotten everything our Bulgarian judge will want to see.  I suppose our next step will be getting our dossier over and translated, then wait for a registration date.  After that comes the HARD part....waiting, and waiting, and waiting! But isn't it wonderful how God's timing is so perfect.  Even though we already have our little girls room basically ready for her, we are so glad that God is in control of when she'll be here and who she is! 

obviously we need a few more things on the wall, but we're getting there!

I have fulfilled my first etsy order, that is helping to fund this adoption.  I was so excited that my first "customer" was an adoption mom herself!  I feel so blessed to be apart of this adoption community!I'll post some pics below of the neclace charms I made and sent!   If you're interested, find me on etsy!

Extra Steps, Good News, and Paint

Well I had scheduled to go to Frankfort yesterday to get our dossier apostilled. However I ran into a few problems, which thankfully saved me a wasted trip. After looking at my dossier one final time I realized our Homestudy's Agency License wasn't notarized, and they hadn't sent us the proper paper for our Child Abuse Clearance letter. I called them to try to get this figured out so I could pick it up on my way to Frankfort and she informed me I would have to then take it Boyle County Courthouse to get it certified. WHAT?!?! No one told me about this..booooo! I called our placing agency and she says, oooooh yes you live in KY 1 of 3 weird states in this country that requires this extra step. Every document I have notarized has to be certified at the Courthouse to prove my notary is still registered, of course an extra $5 per document. I would live in 1 of 3 weird states, go figure. So I call our courthouse, and low and behold the one person who knows how to do it and how much it costs is out ALL WEEK! Fabulous! I guess frankfort is put off until next week. Atleast I figured it all out before I went up there and had teh secretary of state send me back home.

On a good note....We received our apostilled copy of our FBI clearance back from the Dept. of State today which did not take very long at all! I mailed in on the 6th via Fed Ex ground and got it back on the 19th....I'd say that's pretty good!

Dustin and I painted our Bulgarians beauty's room yesterday. It's soo pretty and purple! I can't wait to start hanging things on the wall and get it ready to be her new home! Hope she likes bright colors!! haha Check out all our hard work in the pictures below!

* Dustin hard at work doing the trim*

*Rollin my heart out and pourin the sweat*
*Us after the first coat was finished*

*Isn't it Beautiful*

APPROVED!! (for real this time)

Only 7 days after getting our fingerprints done we received a letter in the mail this morning. I quote "You have been approved to adopt one child from the following Convention Country: Bulgaria"!! I tell ya, God is sooo good. We really thought the whole USCIS process would take a lot longer but the time was nearly half of what we expected! I only hope the referral process goes by that quickly :)! Now all that is left is to take our paperwork to the Secretary of State to get it apostilled. Unfortunately there is a new step in part of that process which includes mailing our FBI fingerprints off to the Dept. of State because the SOS will no longer apostille that document. Otherwise I'll be hand delivering everything else (assuming they let me do so). We officially have raised enough money to pay for the first half of the adoption. This is the part that includes everything to get us registered. Nothing else is due until we receive a referral. We will definitely be applying for some grants once we get registered. As always continue to keep us in your prayers!

New Goal: to be registered in Bulgaria by May 31st!!

Donations

We have been receiving a ton of donations from family and friends. Yet we are still sooo far away from totaly funding this adoption. We fund the first $10,000 on our own, but the second half which is roughly $15,000 we are raising funds for. We thought we'd try to make it a little easier for anyone wanting to donate. We have posted a paypal donations button at the top of the blog. Anyone wanting to donate is more than welcome. Thank you for all the support and please continue to pray!

Biometrics Date

Yesterday we received our letter for our biometrics date. It's not scheduled until March 28th. Dustin and I had considered trying to go as a walk-in but since it's a nearly 6 hour round trip we've decided not to risk it and just wait until the 28th. Everything continues to go smoothly and we are just continuously praying for guidance and peace!

APPROVED!!!

Well lets get the bad news out of the way...Today is March 1st, my original goal for having our dossier in bulgaria. Well obviously it's not there. Ok that's over!

NOW THE GOOD NEWS! Only two weeks after we sent off our USCIS application. We got our letter in the mail today that it has been sent on to the next step which means they are not requiring any more information and our Homestudy looks good! This is great considering we were told by our Placing agency they really weren't sure if they would accept our homestudy. They almost expected it to get rejected. Well we had a lot of prayer, and not only did God get it through smoothely, He did it in record speed! We will be waiting about 2 weeks for our fingerprinting (biometrics) date, then we will get our official approval letter. After that, our Dossier is COMPLETE! About time. Maybe we can have it in Bulgaria by April 1st instead...that would be no joke!!!We ask everyone to just continue to pray!

We also had our first major fundraiser this past weekend with dinner and a movie and silent auction. Thanks to incredible family and friends, we raised $2,000 dollars and had some incredible fellowship! We are preparing for a puzzle fundraiser next. If anyone knows of some great adoption themed puzzle sites through it out there!!

And it's off!

I mailed our USCIS application off this morning, and will be anxiously awaiting our fingerprinting date for the next 2 months I'm sure. This is the last major form for our Dossier and we are super pumped to be getting it. I think when we can finally get registered with the MOJ in Bulgaria it will seem a little bit more real and in reach. Dustin and I both still have to go have our dr.'s sign off on our medical forms but besides that we are ready to go.

We've started going around to local business to get donations for our Silent auction and benefit next weekend. I am pretty excited about it! Not only to raise the money but to allow so many family and friends to sortof be a huge part of this adoption. We are already being blessed by people who barely know us just writing checks to help fund this whole process. When Dustin and I first started this journey the one thing that I didn't worry about, and still don't, is how we were going to fund this. This is totally in God's hands and we are just fortunate that he chose us to ride along with him in this incredible ministry. He has taken care of us so far, and I'm standing on the promise that the work He started in us He is faithful to complete!

Back on Track

Well, if it hadn't been long enough, we FINALLY got our completed homestudy in the mail. Now to send off our USCIS application and wait for a fingerprinting date. My guess at this point is we definitely won't be making our March 1st goal, but at this point I'm just thankful to have our homestudy finished.

On another exciting note, Dustin and I was able to work with Show Hope yesterday at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, and met some amazing people. We feel so blessed to be getting sweeped into this adoption community. Everyone seems so encouraging and just wonderful to be around. We were able to get around 45 more sponsors for the Show Hope grant program and enjoy some great worship.

We will now be working on applying for several grants to fund the second half of our adoption. Along with our fundraisers we are expecting about 12-18 months to raise enough money for the second part of expenses. I have also ordered some more stuff to make the map adoption neclaces for a fundraisers. As soon as I get the stuff in, I'll post some pictures, and start taking orders! Until then, here' s a pic of us last night at the event!

Papaw's Passport!

I'm not sure if I've shared this before, but Dustins dad will be traveling with us to bulgaria. He will be our babysitter once dustin and I return to work full time, and he is so anxious to meet his granddaughter! We are so thankful to have him coming along. A third set of hands I'm sure will be helpful. The good news is, he finally got his passport in. Now dustin can't bug him about getting on the ball! We are sooo fortunate to have such amazing family and support through this process. It's so awesome to hear them talk about how excited they are for our baby girl to get here!

A lot of progress is being made in her room also..(pictures to come). I'm working on some more possible fundraisers that I will be taking orders for. We are crossing our fingers to get our Homestudy in the mail this week, and our USCIS request sent off by friday!!! Then it will be time to apply for grants, grants, and more grants!!!! If anybody knows of some awesome grants available send them our way! Stay tuned!

FBI Clearance and Fundraising

Well Its been a while, only because it feels like we've been waiting forever. We should have had our homestudy almost a month ago, however we are yet to see it. On the bright side, we got our FBI clearance which was the last american document we need besides our USCIS approval. Unfortunately that requires our Homestudy to be back and completed first. I will continue to update as we get updates, but the next few steps and are going to be a looong waiting game.

We have had awesome support with fundraisers! We gave several family and friends bottles to fill with spare change and it's been wonderful! We also have an upcoming fundraiser with our church where we will be serving food and showing the movie Courageous. We are so excited to have the support of our church family, friends, and family.

There is also a Steven Curtis Chapman concert coming up Feb 7th that Dustin and I have volunteered to work being put on by Shohannas hope in Lexington, KY. While we are only a small way into the adoption we are hoping to be able to share with anybody even considering. We continue to be blessed daily. And hope to share a little piece of our blessing with those around us!