Our I-800 Is approved!!

We just our approval from Homeland Security.  Now that needs to be sent to Bulgaria, and for some reason, that can take a while.  But yippee.

Just to clarify, our I-800A was approved a few months ago.  This is not to be confused with I-800....which is when you have the specifics on who will adopt and final approval.

The officer who handled our case wrote a little note wishing us well, and commenting how precious our girls are.  Wow!  That is nice to have the extra personal touch from our government.

From what I understand, and now I could be mistaken, but this is what is needed to establish a court date in Bulgaria.  We are on the home stretch.

I think all the work we have to do keeps me "OK" with this waiting period.  But looking forward to some fun holidays.

When do we get to bring them home?

That is the question everyone asks.

We have to get our immigration approved, and that has been sent off while we were on our recent trip, and some other paperwork together, including visit to the doctor and tests done, signed off on and notarized.   We had our FBI fingerprints done and background check ordered and that should get here in about 6 weeks.

Immigration approval is actually done in 2 weeks, but it isn't sent to the country for a longer amount of time.  But I think Immigration is what gets the ball rolling in Bulgaria and meanwhile we get the other pieces together (FBI clearance and medical letters).  So, this is relatively easy compared to Russia.

We also have to round up the additional money.  I'm in the process of setting up a Lifesong account.

A court date is assigned to us, and we do not have to show up in court.  We will get word that the girls are officially ours! Then we can make a travel date.  The time range for all this is 3 to 5 months.  So, we hope for September as a realistic time.  Bulgarians often take vacation in August, so that could be a set back.  There was also elections and I'm not sure what will happen with change of government.  It won't threaten the adoption but just slow down the process.

Meanwhile we have a lot of things to do here, like clean out the study and make it a bedroom and make our bedroom a combination Bedroom/Study.  And we also have to figure out a new car situation.  Clean out garage and have a garage sale or 2.  So, we have plenty of things to keep us busy

But I know our girls can feel secure that we love them and are coming for them.    I'm sure there is a little anxiety of coming to a new country.  We left them with tools to begin language learning process, but still, you know there has to be a little joyful excitement mixed with anxiety.  I wish we could skype with them but that hasn't worked out yet, for some reason.

Look how far we've come

This past weekend, I completed the I-800.  We already did the I-800A twice, which is pre-approval to immigrate an orphan into the U.S.  The I-800 is to finalize that. I had to do 2 copies, one for each child.

One of the thing it asks is itemization of all the expenses paid. Wow. This has cost a lot!  With having to renew our immigration, and home studies, it adds up.

But instead of grieving over the money it costs, I had a feeling of satisfaction, that so many things are paid for.  We are at the finish line, even though there is still some more to go. So, that was an encouragement to see how far we've come.

We have a travel date!

Lord willing, we will be traveling May 12 - 18.  So, we're excited, but a little nervous.  A lot needs to come together in this time frame.  So, please pray for God to direct everything.   It is about these girls getting a loving home, and not us, I'm so thankful He is in control.

Psalm 82: 3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;

maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

4 Rescue the weak and the needy;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

We got more pictures today...

...and they look like so much fun, and you can see their personalities.  They are drawing pictures, jumping, laughing, major cuteness. I wasn't expecting more information this quickly.  They are so beautiful.

I'm still waiting get more information and then we'll have a phone call with our pediatrician and make a decision. We are so excited, but still cautioning ourselves because like I've mentioned before, things have looked fine to us in the past, but then to find an expert say that they are actually high risk within the parameters we have set forth for our family. But the thing about older children, the more they grow, the more doctors can see their trajectory.  So, we're optimistic.  Just waiting and trying to be patient.  It is good to keep busy.

We won't have a travel date, of course, until we officially accept the referral, but we are still checking fares.  We got word that should we accept the referral, the team in Bulgaria is filling up fast, so, I am hoping that we can travel before June (that seems so far away).

On a side note, my heart breaks for those children with severe needs.  There are not enough parents to adopt them.  My hearts breaks for these precious ones trapped in bodies that don't work right.  It causes me to think of Romans 8:

18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Pray whoever reads my blog will find this Friday "good" as we remember what Christ did for us on the Cross; God Himself in human flesh died for our sins.  Would not our world be snuffed out if not for His grace?

Referral Time!

We got a call today, that the Ministry of Justice has matched us up with 2 precious little girls, ages 7 and 5.  We are very excited but from our recent experience, we have been trained to be sober about this, but nevertheless, all this is sinking in.  But we don't see any problems at this point..  They look very healthy and by all reports they are.

We have contacted our international pediatrician and hope to hear back soon.  Once we talk to them and have any of their concerns cleared up we hope to visit as soon as possible.

We just might be a 3-kid family this year!

I-800A approved!

Just got in the mail approval to adopt up to 2 orphans from Bulgaria.  So excited.  This was the last step in updating our paperwork.

This took way longer than expected, but honestly, I don't expect things to go smoothly anymore with things like this because you get disappointed.

Random things...

I realized my last blog was a while back   The Olympics have come and gone, and we've been plodding along with our paperwork (since it is all expiring soon).

It seems like with the paperwork, there is always something that causes the appointment to be canceled or the letter was done incorrectly.  What should be easy takes longer.  So, this is where we are.  But it is no big deal.

Meanwhile, Anton got glasses.   He is farsighted as all kids are (or is it nearsighted...his glasses make his eyes look bigger but the doc said all kids need to "grow into their eyes").  Most kids grow into their eyes and they have normal vision as they mature.  The Ophthalmologist wants to correct a very slight lazy eye and says if you correct the farsightedness (that he could leave alone) you correct the lazy eye.   No one has noticed the lazy eye except for me, it is so slight.  Glad we are getting it corrected.

A few other miscellaneous things:  we just found out that Chris can not "cash out" a trip he won from his company.  We were hoping to use the money toward adoption expenses.  So, I guess we have to go on a cruise to the Caribbean.  (Oh, these trials we face :O)  But I think it will be really good for us 3 before our lives change.  We were able to take Anton to Alaska last year.  We are so thankful that we can get these opportunities and we can allow Anton to see different places around the world.  And I have something to think about while we wait for a referral.

I have to say I'm really excited about this upcoming presidential election.  I think we can turn this country can be turned round with Romney and VP Ryan.  Mostly thankful that they are both pro life and biblical definition of marriage.  I just hope they win.

Anton and I are enjoying reading a book called, Redwall.  They are really good, well written, good morality.  The characters are not ambiguous, like with the Harry Potter series.  It is medieval setting, with animals that live in a monastery.  There is a whole series of them, fairly new.  Anton calls me "Cornflower" and I'm supposed to call him "Mattimeo," her son.   We picked up a few of the books at this great used book store near us.

He's been on a creative kick lately, making police badges for this friends and Redwall swords and shields (depending on which world he is in).  

Anton came in from outside today, asked me, amazed, "Mom have you ever seen a yellow spider?"  "No, I don't think so."  "Well I have."  It just thanked God for this precious boy who loves life and loves to explore the creation.  Jesus said we must become like one of these if we are to see the Kingdom of God.  

All our adoption paperwork needs to be redone

but its OK.  We knew this was coming.  Adoption paperwork has an expiration date.  Don't ask why.  I mean, there is a good reason.  But just do it.  I just got a long list of things we need to get together.  Letters of employment, personal references, doctors reports, 2 sets of fingerprints, homestudy, immigration application, I know there is something else (this is just the top of my head).  I'm glad my agency reminded me because I didn't have these expiration dates on my calendar.

Ancient Proverb:  Nothing's easy.

Getting on the phone again tomorrow to set all this up.  If I try to set it all up in one day, I'll stress out.  Baby steps.  Thank the Lord that Chris has had some good sales at work.  We'll be shelling out some tin.  We've done this before.  We'll look back one day and will have forgotten all about it.  So, we're OK.