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!!
Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
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!!!!!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, October 29, 2012
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.
Friday, October 5, 2012
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!!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
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!
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!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
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".
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".
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
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!
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!
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