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!