Gathering them from the East

Full circle

2012-01-13T20:01:00.000-05:00

Annikah’s transition into our family has went AMAZINGLY well. It has, by far, been the easiest post-adoption adjustment that our family has ever been through. This little girl has been such a blessing to our family. She is a mama’s girl through and though.

She is my princess and my malko tornado all rolled into one. She is sweet and clever and stubborn to the core. She is all that and then some…and she knows it! I am so very thankful for this little girl.

There is still SO MUCH MORE to Annikah’s story. I have no doubt that my little tornado is going to do BIG things. I’m looking forward to watching her grow.

Since we aren’t dealing with any adoption related issues on a large scale anymore, it’s time to close out this blog one more time. I had no idea when I first started this blog in 2007 that it’d hold FOUR adoption stories by the beginning of 2012. Our family has truly been BLESSED! I hope that all of you will add our family blog to your bookmark, reader or even email (there is a feature in the top right hand corner of our family blog so that you can subscribe to posts and have them emailed to you).

God is not quite finished with our family just yet. There are exciting things in store for 2012 and we'll be sharing that very soon. Make sure you're following along.........

photos from the younger years

2012-01-11T18:27:00.001-05:00

We have been BLESSED to get photos of all of our adopted children from their younger years. We have multiple photos of all 3 of our boys, so I was very excited to receive some photos of Annikah from her time in the baby orphanage too! .

This was the photo that was originally in her file when she was registered for international adoption in October 2008:

I received this photo from that same day with her baby photos. She was a tiny little thing back then!

This one is one of my favorites:
I bought one of those red animals in Bulgaria and brought it home. Annikah LOVES that thing! (as do many of my other children)

Here are some more:

This one caused a big ole reaction from my girls:

”Mommy, is she playing with SCISSORS???”
I assured them that someone took them away from her right after the photo was taken (surely they did, right? lol).

There are several more, but those are my favorites. We also received a beautiful tiny cross necklace that was taped to one of the photos. I’m assuming that she was baptized. I honestly don’t know and the director had no idea either since it came from the baby orphanage.

Just in case some of you have forgotten (or joined us mid-journey), this is the updated referral photo from her file AFTER she was transferred to the institution:

Citizenship

2012-01-04T21:06:00.001-05:00

Today, Annikah’s certificate of citizenship arrived in the mail:

Though we have the visa and the official stamp in the passport, there is always a collective sigh of relief that comes with the arrival of our child’s certificate of citizenship. This is the last piece of “adoption paper work” that will go in her file. It can now join the files of her brothers in our safety deposit box. I’ll go later this week and apply for her social security number and then there will be nothing else to do until it’s time for the first post placement report!

Our malko tornado

2011-12-24T15:44:00.001-05:00

Our malko tornado has begun to swirl!!!!
Her feistiness has been coming out in full force this week.
She does NOT like to be told what to do. Wait, let me correct that. She does not like to be told what she CAN’T do. She and I have had quite a few battle of wills this week. She is now trying to get into EVERYTHING. Being called a little tornado is certainly accurate because there are times when it feels like she’s swirling all over the place! She’s slowly learning the boundaries that are enforced at our house (physical boundaries…where she’s allowed to go and where she’s not allowed to go). Well, again I suppose I need to clarify that. She KNOWS the boundaries and the rules. She chooses to ignore them. One of the current battles is her desire to climb up on the top bunk (Olivia’s bed). She “escapes” down the hall and gets up there. I can’t even go to the bathroom without making sure she’s “secure” somewhere because she is FAST! Needless to say, her daddy has now built a HIGH gate for the bed room door. It’s a safety issue right now, while ~~we’re going through this power struggle~~ she’s learning the rules of the house. Her other place of obsession is our master bathroom…..you know, where the big tub is.

She’s testing our authority for sure. She thinks that her smile should get her out of trouble and her kisses should get us to give in to her every whim. It’s a cute smile and we love the kisses, but ~~much to her dismay,~~ she’s still being made to mind. She is especially stubborn with her daddy. There are times when she won’t even look at him. She won’t eat if he’s sitting beside her.

So far, she’s gotten a clean bill of health from all the doctors that she’s seen. She went to the cardiologist this week, which is the visit that I was the most concerned about. She had heart surgery in Bulgaria when she was a year old. The cardiologist said that her heart looks GREAT! She laid very still during all the tests and through the examination. All of her blood work has come back great too. The only thing left is her eye appointment. Her eyes are bad, so I’m really anxious to hear what they’re going to do at that appointment.

In regards to her siblings, she’s still holding her own. She plays well with them 99% of the time. There have been a couple of times where she’s hit or pushed one of them that was completely unprovoked. But, that’s typical kid/sibling stuff and it’s only happened a very few times. She is jealous when they get my attention at times. She has tried to push them out of the way to get to me. She’s not very good with the whole “wait” thing in any regard, and that is especially true when it’s wait for mommy’s attention or wait your turn for a hug/to sit in mommy’s lap/etc, so that’s something she’s having to learn too. Even though she isn’t talking yet, she CAN tattle on her siblings. She has a certain noise that she makes that lets us know when one of her brothers have stolen a toy from her or done something to her that she didn’t like. We always know when we hear that noise that we better go and check out what is going on ~~like the time one of her brothers put her in the dog’s kennel and was trying to lock her in.~~ She is SLOWLY learning that the drama queen routine doesn’t go far around here. The crying over every little thing and the fake cry to try to get her way are showing up less and less. She still has a genuine cry when something is wrong and that’s appropriate and good. But, the drama queen stuff is slowly disappearing now that it just lands the queen’s rear in time out!
The girls are still LOVING the fact that they have a little sister.
This is Olivia and Annikah playing “horsey”. Olivia was laughing, I promise! The “all fall down” part didn’t work quite like Olivia planned…LOL:

My 2 newest 6 year olds (Annikah’s birthday post is here).

In other areas, Annikah’s made quite a bit of progress this week. Toilet training is going well. I went out and bought a cheap brand of pull-ups (less padding so that she feels it when she goes) to make her more aware. She’ll now come and tell me 99% of the time when she’s wet. She’s actually told me before she’s wet a few times and I’ve been able to get her to the potty in time. She’s going to the bathroom on the potty when we take her. She’s just still having accidents in between those times too. She’s conquered her fear of sitting on the toilet, so we’re no longer having to use the adaptable toilet seat. Once all the other kids are in school after the holidays, I’ll likely start putting her in underwear for time training. Our goal is to get her completely trained before August (for school). She’s doing much better with eating and drinking too. She still doesn’t chew very well at times. But, she’s doing much better. She’s drinking pretty consistently out of a cup with a lid and there is absolutely no problem at all with her ability to drink from a straw anymore. She’s still a messy eater, so we’re working on that. She has decided that she really likes napkins, so we’re going through a lot of those!

She is HIGH ENERGY!
Honestly, she’s a lot like Grifyn was when he first came home. But, that was almost 4 years ago, so I’m out of practice!!! lol
She’s sitting beside me on the bed right now rocking her baby doll. I wish I had the video camera close by to record this. I taught her how to “love the baby” and “rock the baby”. But, I feel sorry for this baby! My malko tornado IS rocking her baby…..but the poor baby probably has whiplash from how fast she’s rocking!!!!

Overall, at 3 weeks home, she really is doing fabulous!
I can’t wait to see what she thinks about CHRISTMAS!

An update on Annikah

2011-12-17T14:30:00.001-05:00

Annikah continues to do amazingly well with her transition into our family. I keep waiting on the switch to flip and her to wake up one day with all the “I was an orphan for almost 6 years and now you want me to be a part of your family” type behaviors/transitional issues that we are used to. So far, it hasn’t happened. She is sweet and stubborn and spunky and every day, showing us more and more how smart she is. This week, she decided that if we wouldn’t open the gate into the kitchen to let her in, she’d just climb over it! It took her a while to master the climb(and a few falls), but now she scales the gate like a pro. She is NOT happy when she gets put right back over it into the living room when she climbs it though. That usually causes the very dramatic fake I can’t believe you just did that to me cry. All our kids can open the gate (except her….purposefully haven’t shown her how yet) and it’s just there as a visual reminder of boundaries. So, climbing the gate is certainly NOT allowed. She’s trying to outsmart quite a few of our “not allowed” rules/boundaries!

This week she also mastered drinking out of a straw. She’s also drinking out of a cup with a lid that doesn’t have the no spill valve in it (so that it’s a little more controlled than an open cup….because she always chokes/coughs when she drinks out of an open cup). She was particularly proud of herself for mastering the straw. She now thinks that she should get every drink that she sees that has a straw in it….which presents a problem since all of MY drinks are the ones with straws, usually!

She’s using several signs very consistently now. She’s quite funny with this too. She only knows 2 food signs from memory right now (fruit and cookie). So, anytime she sees any food that she wants, she signs “more” and then if she’s told no, she tries “fruit”, “cookie” and eventually “cup”. She is not fond of the sign for “wait” and really doesn’t care for the sign for “no”. She’s trying hard to figure out how to make her chubby little fingers form the sign for “I love you”. She can’t quite do it yet, so instead, she takes her index finger and touches inside our hand(on the two fingers that are down when doing the sign) as her response to “I love you”.

She is my snuggle bug and prefers her mama over anyone else. She’ll talk to anyone. Well, she waves and says “hi”. She doesn’t mind the attention. But, if someone tries to pick her up or touch her in any way, 99% of the time she looks for me and will usually run to me to keep the person from touching her/picking her up. I am SO VERY THANKFUL for this! She’s still warming up to her daddy. She likes him and she’ll hang out with him. But, in the moments when she really wants/needs something ~~or when daddy tells her no about something,~~ she comes to find mommy. We’re working on building her trust and understanding of who daddy is in her world by doing things like have daddy tuck her into bed at night. She’s also doing well with her siblings. The boys basically just tolerate her presence ~~and tell on her when she’s doing something she isn’t supposed to do~~. The girls are LOVING having a little sister. They’re doing well with sharing their room (even when she wakes them up earlier than they want to get up on a Saturday morning). She’s playing really well with them and she loves being right in the middle of everything that they are doing.

I continued to be amazed at how God truly orchestrated everything for our family.
On Monday, I’ll share how He’s revealed it all to us in a way that’s brought a peace I’ve been asking Him to share with Robert and I for years.

Language barrier? I doubt it.

2011-12-11T20:41:00.001-05:00

We’re going to pretend that this event happened due to a language barrier.

In reality, I believe that Annikah knew exactly what she was told to do….and told not to do…..and she just chose to do what SHE wanted to do instead.
Here’s what happened………

Xander was in the master bath tub “swimming” (he lays down and goes under the water….it’s a sensory/pressure thing). Annikah heard him in the bathroom, pointed and proceeded to try to go into the bathroom. I told her no and to go play. She poked out her bottom lip, but she turned and walked off toward the play room where the other kids were.

Well, at least I thought she did.

I went into the next room to get something. I returned to my bedroom and heard giggling coming from the bathroom. This is what I found……….

She’d climbed into the bath tub with Xander…….
clothes, diaper and all!!!!! It does appear that she attempted to take her clothes off (the PJs are unzipped). I guess she decided that would take too long!

I DID stop long enough to grab the camera and snap a photo. I tried very hard not to laugh too.

Then, much to Annikah’s dismay, I made her get out of the bath tub. I was not going to reward the disobedience by allowing her to stay and play with Xander. She was ~~screaming mad~~ a little upset that I interrupted her bath time.

This is just one example of the stubborn streak that we’re seeing in our Bulgarian princess. She does not like to be denied whatever it is she wants. She is having to learn that no means no, regardless of how bad she wants whatever it is that she wants in that moment. She has an excellent pout face. She’s mastered the pitiful fake cry too.

Overall, she’s pretty easily redirected and she’s doing very well with following the rules, boundaries and overall routine of our household. But on those occasions when she gets denied her heart’s desire, she is most definitely a drama queen!

More homecoming pictures!

2011-12-10T16:23:00.001-05:00

If you haven’t watched the video of Annikah meeting her daddy for the very first time, that is posted here.
While I was filming that, my sister was taking photos.
Here is the moment from her perspective. Yep, they made me tear up all over again!

This is one of my other favorite photos from the airport. We taught Annikah to knuckle bump while in Bulgaria. Here she is with Jakob. I look at this and think, “Dude, I’m finally home!” :)

and then the dogs came home……

2011-12-09T21:35:00.001-05:00

We always board our dogs for the first couple of days after a new child comes home. Part of it is to give the child time to get used to our house and our routine before introducing the dogs into the new “transitional insanity” that comes right after bringing a new child into the family. But, truthfully, the biggest reason is because when I am jet lagged, the last thing I want to do is deal with animals.

It’s always a concern when we introduce a child to our dogs. Our dogs are VERY good with kids. But still. There are three of them….which in and of itself can be overwhelming. So, we were cautiously optimistic with how Annikah would do when she met the dogs.

There was no need to worry.

Like everything else, Annikah surprised us. She LOVES the dogs!!!! When they were outside, she sat by the window or the door (depending on what part of the yard the dogs were in). She barked at them (and they looked at her like she was crazy…lol). She learned the ASL sign for “dog”. She even worked VERY hard on figuring out the lock system on our back door in her attempts to let them back in the house so that she could play with them.

But, the best moment of all was when the dogs went outside for their last potty break before bed time. Annikah took up her position by the door to wait on them. This is what happened:

She went to sleep!!!!
(and yes, I went and found the camera before I took her to bed!)

Doctors’ appointments

2011-12-07T21:32:00.001-05:00

The first round of doctor “stuff” is done.
Annikah weighs 38 pounds!
Our pediatrician said, “My, she’s a healthy one, huh?” That translates to “she’s almost as big as her brothers and her big sister that are several years older than her”. LOL

We received a very nice booklet with her vaccination schedule in it from the director of the institution. It was in ENGLISH, which was quite helpful! In addition to the vaccination list, it noted things like the fact that she had chicken pox (and the date). So, we were actually able to do a pretty decent medical history thanks to that little booklet. In fact, our pediatrician suggested that we keep the booklet current since it was so nicely organized. So, they added her new info into the booklet for us. She was only missing her “5 year boosters”….just 2 shots. She CRIED during the shots. None of my boys ever cry with shots, so it’s been years since I’ve had a crying child to comfort after shots! She has a really pitiful cry too! Even the nurse said, “Awww, now I feel rotten!”

She also had blood work done…..chromosome analysis(to get Down syndrome officially diagnosed), HIV test, thyroid, CBC (that’s all that I remember). We ended up having to go to the hospital for the blood draw because the lab tech in the pediatrician’s office couldn’t find a vein. She cried during the blood draw too….though only when they put the band on her arm to find a vein, not during the actual blood draw!

She had neck X-rays done and also an upper GI at the hospital too. The neck X-rays were clear. The upper GI showed mild reflux. I’m going to have to research that, though it doesn’t seem to be severe enough to bother her and the pediatrician doesn’t intend to treat it in any way.

We now have referrals to neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology. Her cardiology appointment is already scheduled for December 20th with the cardiologist that also sees Kullen (and he’s going on that same day). She had heart surgery in Bulgaria when she was a baby. So, we are hopeful that the cardiology visit will be a “the repair looks great, nice meeting you!” kind of visit. Her ophthalmology appointment isn’t until January. She had an eye surgery in Bulgaria, though she clearly needs something else done to help her eyes. We’re still waiting on the neurology appointment to be scheduled. She’ll see Xander’s neurologist and I expect to have that appointment date by the end of the week.

A referral has also been put in for speech therapy. She’ll go to the same private therapy center that the boys go to. We’ve opted to not do Occupational Therapy until she starts school next year. Her fine motor skills are pretty good and I’m not overly concerned about them right now. We know she’ll need help with school related OT stuff, so we’ll plan to add that in with school. Right now, we want to focus on speech and communication.

The last appointment to make will be with the dentist. They won’t schedule the appointment until cardiology clears her, so that’ll wait until January too.

The scars

2011-12-05T23:01:00.001-05:00

The more that I get to know our newest daughter, the more and more I am AMAZED at the drastic difference in her and her brothers. She does not have many of the “orphan stuff” that we’ve become accustom to dealing with.
For one, she is a SNUGGLER. More so, her hugs and her affection is completely natural. She lays into hugs and relaxes. She seeks out touch and comfort. She is my little snuggle bug! It was a LONG time before any of the boys gave “natural” hugs.

If she’s unsure of something, she looks to me for reassurance. She CRIES when she’s upset and she WANTS comfort. She is leery of stranger. While all of this is “normal”, none of our boys did any of this. Annikah has clearly been very loved and cared for. If I did not know her history, it’d be easy to believe that she was raised in a loving family.

She also plays with toys appropriately! Again, this is just amazing to us. She doesn’t just play appropriately, she pretend plays too! I am quite sure that this is a direct result of her going to kindergarten (daycare) in the local village. But, Kullen did too (same place, actually) and he did NOT play appropriately when he came home (though looking back, we dealt with so much behavior that he may have known what to do and just chose not to).

Annikah does GREAT with the other kids. She’s right in the middle of all the play time activities and we haven’t seen any aggression, bullying, etc. She’s a mischievous little one though!

It has been really amazing to experience all of this. We’ve walked a lot of journeys with our boys and dealt with a lot of issues that were related to their past experiences. So this is VERY different for us. As we tucked her into bed tonight, I commented to Robert that it’s hard to believe that this is the little girl attached to the social history report that we have.

Yet then there are these reminders………

She has a scar on her arm from the Tuberculosis vaccine. Her immunization records note the location of the scar. It came from the “booster” when she was a year old. I wasn’t there to hold her while she was getting what must have been a painful shot (and she wouldn’t have needed it had she been my daughter then).

Can you see the scar beside her eye?
(the red is from her sinuses. She’s sick right now)

I have no idea where it came from. The director didn’t know. Just one more small reminder of so many missing years.

Then, there is this scar:
Her chest was cracked open and she went through a major heart surgery. I wasn’t there. In fact, I don’t know if anyone was there with her. Did she lay in the recovery room all alone? Was anyone in the waiting room praying and worried if she’d survive? Was she scared when she woke up? Did someone make sure that her pain was managed? Who held her hand and told her what a brave and strong baby she was to go through that and survive? Tonight, I placed my hand over her beating heart and thanked God for His protection over her life. Had anyone done that before me?

This is one of the most vivid reminders of her past life
Shortly after she was transferred to the institution, she had surgery to remove “a lump”. From the medical report, we think it was a lymph node that was removed. Though it’s hard to see in this photo, this is a big and ugly scar on the side of her face. It will be the one that everyone who meets her notices. I’ve already been asked “What happened?” several times. Each time, my brain screams, “I don’t know! I don’t know if it was necessary. I don’t know if they were careful. I don’t know how scared she was. I don’t know if it could have been done better so that it didn’t scar so bad. I wasn’t there with her. I just don’t know.” Instead, I say “she had a lymph node removed” and a small piece of my heart aches for the years she spent without a mommy.

Today, she went to the doctor. She got a couple of shots and had a blood draw (actually, she had two because we ended up at the hospital getting it done because the lab tech at the pediatrician’s office couldn’t get a vein).
She cried during the shots and briefly during the blood draws. None of my boys have ever cried during shots or blood draws. She cried. Then, she turned to me and buried her face in my shoulder.
She wrapped her little arms around my neck and I whispered “Mommy’s here” in her ear.

Mommy’s here.
No more scars or surgeries or shots without having parents who love her there with her for comfort and support. No more unexplained marks or “unknowns” written for medical history from this day forward.

First day home

2011-12-05T06:55:00.001-05:00

Sunday was a low key day. Annikah woke up about 0330 and her daddy heard her playing in the room. He went in to find her sitting in the bathroom floor(the girls’ room has an attached bathroom) wearing a pair of Zoie’s shoes and flipping through a book. It only took a second to SMELL the reason why she was awake. She’d made it to the bathroom and got a book, but with no one awake to help her, the poop explosion happened in the diaper! Daddy cleaned her up and put her in the bed with him (he’d slept in the room across the hall with both doors open so that he could hear her if she woke up). She went back to sleep and I went and woke them up at 0700 (so that she could get on a normal schedule).

She stuck close to mommy the first hour or so. She’s sick….lots and lots of green snot that started the day before we left Bulgaria….so she’s taking some cold medicine to get us through the weekend (her first doctor’s appointment is Monday morning). So, she’s not feeling 100% right now. She and I explored the house, but as soon as the kids started pulling all the toys out in the playroom, her eyes lit up and she was ready to play!

Here are a few moments that I managed to catch with the camera from the day:

She took a bath in the big bathtub with both her sisters(sorry, no bath photos on the blog!). After the bath, I dried her hair and then she had to dry Olivia’s”

She played a lot of jingle bells…..

After lunch, we all went outside. The weather was nice today and all the kids were thrilled to be outside!

She did a good job pushing Xander in the swing. Xander also enjoyed this, since most of his other siblings quickly lose interest in the pushing game!
She had an ulterior motive though…she wanted a turn!

Daddy's first hug

2011-12-05T06:02:00.002-05:00

She stopped briefly to check out the paparazzi taking photos................

The trip home

2011-12-04T07:58:00.001-05:00

We left the hotel at 0500 Saturday morning to start the trip home. Annikah, of course, had NO IDEA what was going on. But, she was her usual happy self on the way to the airport.
Here she is sitting on the first plane of the day. Our first flight was from Sofia to Munich, Germany:

Here’s Meredith explaining to her that it’s going to be a long day and she’s going to sleep most of it (HA!).

Our next flight was from Germany to Charlotte, North Carolina. This flight was almost 10 hours long. It arrived in the US right around 1530 EST, which was 2230 in Bulgaria(past Annikah’s bed time!).
Annikah was GREAT on the long flight to the US! This was the easiest international flight that I’ve ever been on (and I’ve been on close to 20).
Annikah played with toys:

She slept some (Praise the Lord, because that meant that Meredith and I also got some sleep!)
She spent lots of time talking on her phone:
This thing has been her favorite toy of all. I bought it in Sofia and it does the colors, shapes, numbers and says hello in both English and Bulgarian (you push the “hello” button in whichever language you want it to do).
She even watched some cartoons:

FINALLY, we landed in the good ole USA!

I will say that of all the airports that I’ve entered the US through, Charlotte’s immigration process is the WORST. I’ll be advising all future adopting families to avoid it at all cost!

Finally, it was time for the LAST flight. We had to say good-bye to Meredith at this point, since she was flying home to Orlando. I am SO VERY THANKFUL that Meredith was able to go with me on this trip. It was such a blessing to have her there with us for the past week!

Annikah and I boarded the flight to Alabama at 1815 EST Saturday night (which was 0115 Sunday morning in Bulgaria). The nice lady at the ticket counter moved us to the bulk head seats and checked my carry on bag so that all I had to do was gate check the stroller for the final flight. Annikah was still going strong when we boarded the flight, but as soon as the lights went out and it was dark, she CRASHED. She slept the whole hour long flight to Alabama.

We arrived in Alabama at 1815 CST(which was 0215 Sunday morning in Bulgaria). At this point, Annikah looked at me like I’d lost my mind when I woke her up. But, she got right up and as soon as we were off the plane, she was excited to see what was coming next. We got the stroller and I told her that she could walk while I pushed the stroller. I knew that her daddy(and all her brothers and sisters, her Nana, her Aunt Allie and her cousin, Makaila) were waiting at the end of the long hall.

Here she is on the final walk off the last airplane:

Here, she’s walking down the terminal hallway. At this point, I could see Robert and yes, I had to slow down and wipe my eyes because I was crying:

It was FINALLY time for her to meet her daddy and for me to see ALL of my kids standing together for the very first time.

Meeting daddy deserves a blog post of it’s very own, don’t ya think? …………………………………….

Day 6- Last full day in Bulgaria

2011-12-02T14:02:00.001-05:00

This photo is for Meredith:

(no, she did not wear the big flower sticking up on top of her head out in public! She only wore it around the hotel room because Meredith thinks it is so pretty…LOL)

Today, we went back to the market, back to Tanja’s house for lunch and then back to the hotel to get our important paper work and to say good-bye to everyone.

First, the final adoption paper work check list:
passport….check

Proof that the adoption complied with all Hague laws….check (forgot to take a photo of the one from the MOJ. This is the heading of the one from the US Embassy though)

Visa to enter the US….check

The “do not open this” envelope that is given at passport control upon arriving in the US so that Annikah can actually get past passport control and into the US…..check

All of that is safely in the carry on bag, along with all the official adoption paper work (birth certificate, court decree) and the POA from Robert, should someone at the Bulgaria passport control booth want to see it.

After lunch, we met with Toni for a little while and then it was time to say “see you soon, my friend” (not good-bye!)

I say it often and it’s worth repeating today that this lady is a GIFT. She has become such a dear friend to me over the past 2+ years and it is an honor to work alongside her each and every day.

A couple of hours later, we had dinner with the Davis family and the Rhodes family. The Davis family will be traveling home tomorrow too. The Rhodes family just finished their first trip. So, while they are also headed home, they still have several more steps in their process.

Now, all that is left to do is pack.

I’ve already tucked my Bulgarian princess in to sleep her very last night in the country of her birth.

There is so much more to say about the emotions of this week and so many more emotions and new experiences coming in the next few weeks. I look into Annikah’s eyes and I still can’t believe that I get the privilege of being her mom.

If all flights are on time, we will land on US soil around three-thirty Eastern time Saturday afternoon. Annikah should be meeting her daddy AND all of her brothers and sisters around six-thirty pm central time Saturday night. *Annikah will now sign “daddy”, but will only do it when she sees her daddy on skype. So, it’ll be very interesting to see if she makes the connection when she meets her daddy in person tomorrow night*

This is not the end, but only the beginning. SO much more to come. Stay tuned…….

Day 5- yet another busy day in Bulgaria!

2011-12-01T17:01:00.001-05:00

This morning, we met up with Brian Davis, his mom Tamera and his newly adopted son, Jordan. We went to the outdoor market area.
Today was actually the first day that it was cold enough to need our hats and jackets in the morning. Though, it quickly warmed up by lunch! The weather has been BEAUTIFUL this week!

Here’s Meredith’s “proof I was in Bulgaria” photos.
See the red dot? That’s Meredith! lol
(the pink dot is Annikah)

Just a random “isn’t my daughter cute?” photo…..
(we’ve taught her to do knuckle bumps!)

This afternoon, Annikah had her medical exam that’s required by the US Embassy. She weighed 18kg!!!!!
That puts her in the same weight range as 2 of my boys (who are much older than her). She was 101cm(almost 40 inches) tall. She’s HUGE (in comparison to my boys at her age)!!!!

After the medical exam, we went to the US Embassy. No photos from that part of the day, as no photos are allowed anywhere near the embassy.
But, the paper work has been signed and the visa will be ready by 1500 tomorrow afternoon. That is the LAST step in the adoption process.

After all of that, we came back to the hotel and ate dinner with the Davis crew AND the Rist family. Their new Bulgarian daughter will be joining their family on Tuesday (they’re from Canada, so their process is a little bit different).

Random Annikah cuteness:
Smile for the photo, Annikah………
Perfect!

Day Four with Annikah

2011-11-30T17:26:00.001-05:00

Today was another busy day in Sofia! We spent most of the day with Tanja and her family.
This morning, we went to the private therapy center and met Tanja and her son, Jayden, there. Jayden had a therapy session today. Annikah ended up joining in and worked on stringing beads with the therapist. My girl has a pretty darn good pincher grasp and she did VERY good with watching and mimicking what the therapist asked her to do.

After the therapy appointment, we went and visited the private Bulgarian Christian school that Tanja’s oldest 2 kids attend. We met the director and got to see her son’s 2nd grade classroom. The school accepts children with special needs and currently has students with several different disabilities, including Autism.

Next, Tanja’s oldest son had a Spanish lesson. Meredith, Annikah and I spent that hour exploring the HUGE toy store in Sofia, which is accurately named JUMBO.

On Friday, we’re going to IKEA. Yes, they have an IKEA in Sofia!

Tanja cooked a delicious lasagna for dinner. She also had salad and pumpkin pie. Annikah ate like a champ!!

Tomorrow is Annikah’s medical exam and the visa interview. I’m not sure what else we’ll be doing. But, we’re certainly staying busy!

Day 3…all about The Mall, taxis and random photos of Annikah

2011-11-29T17:26:00.001-05:00

Today we went to The Mall (that’s the actual name) in Sofia. We were there for over 3 hours! Annikah did great! We went in A LOT of stores. We found some great places to buy Bulgarian keepsakes and other little gifts for family and friends.

If you’re coming to Bulgaria and want a place to buy things about Bulgaria, this is a one-stop place to go. On the parking level floor (the main floor if you take a taxi to get here), there is a store called Public. You can’t miss it. It’s a huge store, in the back corner on that floor if you go right when you come in the door. It has a big orange sign…pretty easy to spot! They have books about Bulgaria, calendars, post cards, magnets, maps, Bulgaria guides, coasters and several other things along those lines. I got a C-U-T-E 2012 calendar to hang by my desk, amongst several other keepsakes and gifts for people. Depending on the season when you visit, they also have books about relevant holidays. There were tons of Christmas books out right now. This store also has children’s board books in Bulgarian. They had the picture books that have the big photos of items with the words under it. They had number books too.

There is also a book store called Orange. It’s on the same floor. Again, you can find books specific to current holidays (and any other topic).

There is a toy store on this floor too. They have Disney stuff, Fisher Price stuff(MUCH more expensive than in the US) and all kinds of other toys.

There are some REALLY cute children’s clothing stores too. If you like all the children’s tights that the kids wear, there are several places to purchase those, including Carnival Kids.

Level 2 is the “food court”. There is a Burger King, Subway, Dunkin Donuts and KFC, along with several other places. Annikah had her very first “American fast food” today from Burger King

Annikah’s view from where she sat to eat
(notice that the view includes a McDonalds…lol)

If you go down to level –2 there is what is basically Bulgaria’s version of Wal-Mart. That place has anything and everything that you can think of!
We browsed the Christmas section, the book section(yes, again..lol), the candy aisles(I do love chocolate from Eastern Europe) and several other sections. We didn’t get through the entire store because we had to get back to the hotel so that my kids back home could meet their little sister via skype before they left for school this morning (which was 1530 here!).

In the WM type store, I bought LOTS of stuff. I was able to get Christmas gifts for several people, pick up something small for each of the kids, bought Annikah a really cool toy phone that does colors, shapes and numbers in both Bulgarian and English AND I bought an elephant!

If you have somehow missed the significance of the elephant, I collect elephants. I also buy an elephant every time I go anywhere. This one is actually the biggest one that I’ve ever bought. It makes an elephant noise and everything!

FYI: If you’re bringing children who are still in diapers with you to The Mall, there is a baby changing station room on every floor. Yep, Annikah decided to stink it up while we were there! Must.focus.on.potty.training.first.thing.once.home.

We had a great time at The Mall today! If you have some down time or you want a place to buy some Bulgarian keepsakes, this is a good place to go. You can call a cab to take you to The Mall and there are tons of cabs lined up outside The Mall to take you back to your hotel.

A note about taxis in Sofia:
The Mall was too far for us to walk to. Also, it’s very windy here right now, so we’re trying to keep Annikah out of the weather as much as possibly(trying to avoid her getting sick!). So, we’re taking taxis when we venture off the street where our hotel is. Two suggestions about taxis in Sofia for families who are traveling here and may want to use them (to avoid getting ripped off): Our Bulgarian friends suggested that we use taxis from the OK taxi service. This logo (a big “OK” is written on the door of the taxi). They are one of the good taxi services that charge a fair price. One of the receptionists at the front desk of our hotel (LOVE the staff at Hotel Budapest! They’re always very helpful) said to always look at the tariff prices that are required to be posted on the outside window. On the top line, the rate should say 59-70. The top number should NOT be more than 70. As long as you get in a cab with these numbers on the top line, you’re getting the best rate.

OK, now for some random photos from today……

Annikah was putting her feet in this clear bag and putting them next to Meredith so that Meredith would tickle her………

Here she is rocking out to what looked like the Bulgarian version of American Idol. She was dancing and shaking her booty. This girl has a seriously big booty! I had to go buy different diapers today to cover her big ole booty!

This would be a different kind of “rock”. This is the “orphan rock”. She doesn’t do this too often and she’s easily redirected. She was actually rocking in this instance because she’d just gotten in trouble and was having to sit in the chair for a few minutes of “time out”

Here she is after time out when I went to sit with her and love on her. She is quite the good little snuggle bug! I’m still in awe that this precious girl is going home with ME!

She went to sleep quickly tonight! 3+ hours of shopping, lots of play time at the hotel, no nap(though I honestly don’t know if she’s used to a nap or not) and she was out cold in less than 5 minutes!

Tomorrow we have another jam packed day planned! We’re going to keep this high energy Bulgarian princess busy all week so that she’s good and tired by Saturday morning. Likely, it’ll be me and Meredith that are exhausted by Saturday and she’ll still be going strong!

The donation

2011-11-29T14:56:00.001-05:00

Thanks to a couple of last minute givers, I was able to give the director of the institution a donation of $2,100!

Though the donation certificate is in Bulgarian, you can see the amount written on it (and yes, that’s the actual cash that I gave to her in the photo above).

I posted this, not to brag, but to be accountable to those of you who so generously gave for those that will be left behind. The director will send a detailed invoice of how every dollar was spent and I’ll share that as soon as I have it. To say that she was shocked at the amount of the donation is a mild understatement. She said that the money would go very far for building repairs. Each and every person that gave to this effort was a part of what is going to be a HUGE blessing for all the children in this institution.

Here is the director with me and Annikah:

This lady truly has a very special place in my heart. My son’s future could have been DRASTICALLY different had she ran that institution with a “no one is coming for these kids” attitude(because no one ever had until we got there for Kullen!). My daughter is a precious and loving child. Yes, she’s got some “orphan behaviors”, but nothing big that would make people think she had actually lived the last 2+ years in a mental institution. That is all because of the efforts of this director. Before I left, she asked me to not forget to send her photos of the children. She said, “Even though they are your children, they are still our children too.”

This is our last hug, though I hope to see her again some day!

This institution is always in need of pull-ups and larger sized diapers for the children. Meredith brought a HUGE duffle bag full of over 350 adult sized diapers/large children diapers to donate too!

Day 2 w/Annikah…back to Sofia!

2011-11-28T15:17:00.001-05:00

We left the hotel at 0600 this morning. It was still dark outside when we started the long drive back to Sofia. Annikah did very well the entire time in the car.

She played with toys, played on the iPad, watched parts of a movie

She even slept for about 30 minutes.

We drove straight to the passport office in Sofia to apply for her passport. Toni’s mom was already there completing the paper work when we got there. So, we didn’t have to wait very long at all. Toni’s mom is a pro at getting the kids to do exactly what is needed for the passport photo. She had Annikah in and out of the little picture booth in about 10 seconds. It was quite impressive! Sorry, no pics of that part of the day!

We arrived back at the hotel in Sofia at about 1330. We ate lunch in the hotel restaurant.
Back in the room, Annikah was a busy little girl!
She vegged out and charmed us with her cuteness:

She checked out the neighborhood from the 6th floor window (in Meredith’s boots):

More cuteness….

She practiced sitting on the potty.
She’ll tell us AFTER she goes in her diaper, but she screamed when I sat her on the toilet the first time.
So, she’s been working on sitting on the potty without screaming. It took a few tries and soon she was smiling there too:

She even checked out the room service menu to decide what she wanted to eat for dinner (we ordered room service and ate in the room so that we didn’t have to get back out today)

She played in the bath tub (she LOVES the water!):

She had to take a break from getting her hair brushed to answer the ~~TV remote~~ phone:
We spent a lot of time looking at these chunky little feet because this girl is obsessed with shoes (and purses/bags):

Little Miss Busy Bee even spent some time quite literally climbing the walls!

She also spent some time cuddling with mom.
She’s a GREAT cuddle bug!

Right before bed time, she put her jacket on, got her backpack and proceeded to try to walk out the door!
I have no idea where she thought she was going, but my guess is that was as far away from her bed as possible!

It was a long but productive day! Annikah did VERY well over all. It was a long day….lots of time in the car, the passport office, the hotel, the market(where we went to get drinks and snacks)….all new experiences in new places with people who speak an entirely different language. She’s handling it all very well!

Tomorrow is a “down day” and we’re going to venture out to The Mall (that’s the actual name of it) and souvenir shopping. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL so far, which is such an answered prayer!!!!

First night out

2011-11-27T19:00:00.000-05:00

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for the night. Annikah did very well. She played….and played….and played. She follows directions very well, but she is HIGH ENERGY. I was very impressed to see her playing appropriately with most of the toys. She especially enjoys this one:

After several hours of play time, she had her first bath. Well, it was her first bath with me, they have a tub at the institution and she was clearly used to it. She even held up her feet to remind me to wash them!

Next up, warm PJs!

She tried to put her shoes back on once she was in her PJs!

She went to bed with very little protest and was quickly asleep:

Much more to come on Monday!

GOTCHA DAY!!!!

2011-11-27T14:23:00.001-05:00

As soon as we walked into the door at the institution, I heard her voice. Within seconds, she was in my arms again…….

We spent a few minutes getting reacquainted…..

She explored all the goodies that were in the bag that I’d brought and posed for some photos….

She sat and played with toys, explored the director’s office, weighed herself on the scales several times and kept us all laughing while all the final paper work was done…..

We even looked through some baby photos of her while we waited (yes, I got to keep them!)……
Then, it was time to start the process of getting ready to leave…..

The director insisted that she keep her purple tights(she also made me take her entire outfit because she said that it belonged to her and she should have it).
After everything was done, we went to say good bye to her group (sorry, no public photos of the kids, but man are there some adorable little ones there that need adopting!).
We got to spend about 30 minutes with her group, which was such a wonderful bonus to see her with the children that she’s been living with and the care givers who’ve taken care of her for 2+ years.
I will show you a photo of her bed though:

Her entire group walked us out for the final good-bye.
Here we are leaving her group area for the very last time:

This is her last trip down the stairs (she lived on the 2nd floor):

The final good-bye at the door of the institution
(sorry, I had to crop all the other kids out!):

In the car seat, waving good-bye :

We went straight from the institution to a restaurant to eat dinner. She did VERY well sitting and waiting on the food to come AND during the meal.

She ate grilled chicken and french fries.
This girl can EAT like a champ! She insisted on eating the french fries with a fork, which was funny and very cute! She signed “more” several times and she ended up eating almost as much as I did!

Next up, her first night outside the institution and her first bath! We’re spending the night in Bayala tonight and will leave for Sofia at 0600 in the morning so that we are back in time to apply for her passport. I’m setting it to auto-post while we make that 6 hour drive, so make sure to check back later for that post!
I have SO much more to share about the emotions of today. But, I literally have to hang the computer outside the window to get an internet connection, so I’ll write more once we’re back in Sofia!

Her last night as an orphan

2011-11-26T14:08:00.002-05:00

Meredith and I arrived in Sofia at 1300 today.
The flights were uneventful, which is always good.

We've already had a productive time in Sofia. We had a nice late lunch/early dinner with Toni. Then, we went to a meeting with several of the moms from the local Ds parent support group. We were there for 3 hours!

It's now after 9pm and we're packed for tomorrow's trip and about to go to bed! Tomorrow we will make the 6+ drive to the institution. We'll return to Sofia early Monday morning to apply for Annikah's passport. Tuesday and Wednesday will be free days. Thursday will be the medical exam and visa interview at the US Embassy. Friday we will receive Annikah's visa and then leave bright and early Saturday morning for home!

This is it. It's finally time.
Tonight is Annikah's last night living as an orphan.

Tomorrow, she will begin to learn what it means to be
a very cherished DAUGHTER and sister.

Stay tuned for lots of photos............

1 more sleep!

2011-11-24T18:32:00.001-05:00

We are in “very final count down” mode!

Everything is done, everything is packed, all the last minute details have been taken care of.

For as long as we’ve been waiting, it is still hard to believe that it’s FINALLY time.

Nothing left to do now but wait for time to leave for the airport. There probably won’t be too much sleep happening for me tonight!!!!

2 more sleeps!!!

2011-11-23T22:25:00.001-05:00

Today has been a productive day!

I am now officially COMPLETELY packed!!!!
This, for me ~~who always waits until the last minute~~, is an accomplishment!

Our Christmas tree is up, which was one of the things that I’d promised the kids would be done “before Annikah comes home”.

All the school lunches are packed for the week while I’m gone AND for the week after I get back (since I know things will be crazy that week).

Books are loaded on the kindle app.

There is very little left to do tomorrow!

3 more sleeps!

2011-11-23T00:58:00.001-05:00

I SHOULD already be asleep right now!
Oh well, 3 more sleeps to go until boarding the first flight. There is still much to do.

Today, I didn’t get a whole lot done. I did get caught up on some paper work related to other families and waiting children. I also went and bought a Christmas tree. One of the items on my to-do list is “put up Christmas tree”. The only problem with that was that I completely forgot that last year, after Christmas, we threw the tree away because half the lights quit working (we always have a fake pre-lit tree). So, in order to accomplish that item on the to-do list, I had to have a tree to put up! Hence, the unexpected trip to Lowe’s.

I also took my 2 girls for the LAST “girl time” event before we have another girl to join in the festivities.
They wanted to go get their nails done. So, I treated them to manicures and pedicures. They were both SO funny sitting in the big chairs at the nail salon:

Tomorrow, the rest of the to-do list should be accomplished….I hope. For now, I’m off to bed so that we can get one more sleep out of the way!

4 more sleeps!

2011-11-21T16:24:00.001-05:00

4 more sleeps until I board the first plane.
I think the girls are almost as excited as their mommy is at this point.

Today I went to the bank to make sure that they had enough “new” bills to cover the donation to the institution! If you haven’t been following the donation thermometer, we’ve raised TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS for repairs to the institution. I am so incredibly grateful for each and every person that donated. If any last minute donations come in within the next 3 days, I’m happy to go back to the bank…even on the way to the airport on Friday! Even if it doesn’t, $2,000 will be an INCREDIBLE blessing to give on Sunday. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the money that so many of you generously gave!

While at the bank, I also made sure that my passport, the leva left from trip one(food money for this trip) AND the euros I ordered 2 weeks ago(hotel money for this trip) are all in the money belt in our safety deposit box. I also swapped out some USD for “newer” bills so that I have some extra cash and some “in case we’re stuck because of something crazy like a volcano” emergency funds. I hope to not need any of the extra money, especially not any of the “volcano fund”!!!!! All of that is now safely on the top in the safety deposit box and ready for the trip.

Just a completely random side note:
Did you know that people ask banks to put aside newish 100 dollar bills to give as Christmas gifts? The head teller at our bank assured me that I was NOT the only person needing her to put aside new money this time of the year. She said that they have several customers who’ve already put in a request this year. I told her that she could feel free to tell some of those folks to add ME to their Christmas list since they’re giving out 100 dollar bills! Anyway, I thought that was interesting….and I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one bugging our bank about sorting through their money this time!

5 more sleeps until take off!

2011-11-20T19:53:00.001-05:00

FIVE more sleeps until we leave for Bulgaria!!!!

My girls are just a tiny bit excited that their new sister is FINALLY coming home. So, they’ve made a count down to mark off the final week before mommy leaves to bring her home. I’m going to use their count down to also share the last minute things I do to prepare for the trip to Bulgaria.

Today, I ~~repacked for the fifth time~~ packed the duffle bag that will be going with me as the “extra” bag. Robert weighed it and it is actually about 8 pounds under the required weight limit. So, it’s all locked up and ready to travel! All of Annikah’s clothes are in the suitcase. I think that I likely have too many clothes for her packed. But, I’ll reevaluate that once I’m ready to pack the other suitcase.

I also filled the travel size containers of shampoo, soap, baby shampoo(the no tear kind) and packed all the other toiletry items and medicines that I’m taking. Those are all now in ziplock bags and ready to go too.
The carry-on bag has it’s first few items packed too. I’ll be hand delivering several commitment applications, dossiers and 2nd stage documents for families to our agency director in Bulgaria. The ones that have already arrived are already safely in the carry-on bag.

Today I also went to the grocery store (3 different ones!) to stock the cabinets and freezer full of meals, snacks and other needed household items so that Robert has everything he needs while I’m gone. My plan was to buy enough stuff to last this week, next week AND the week after we get home, so that I don’t have to go to the grocery store the first few days after arriving home. We’ll see how well I did once I get back!

Even though there are 4 full days before I leave, Thursday being a holiday messes everything up. It means that I really only have 3 days to get everything done, since nothing will be open on Thursday. So, there is lots on the to-do list for tomorrow too!

This time next week, I’ll have my little girl with us at the hotel!!!!!!

Birth certificate!

2011-11-12T10:25:00.003-05:00

Annikah's new birth certificate has been issued!

She now has a birth certificate complete with her new name AND her parents listed on it!

The birth certificate has already been sent to the authentication office.

Everything that is left to do paper work wise
will be done once I arrive in Bulgaria.

Last document mailed...I think!

2011-11-08T15:44:00.004-05:00

Today I mailed what should be the final notarized and apostilled document that is needed for this adoption. I didn't mail it very far...just to another family that is traveling next week so that they can hand deliver it to Toni (and they only live about 90 minutes from here, so it really isn't having to go very far!).

This document is the POA that will be needed in order for me to apply for the passport and get through passport control at the Sofia airport with Annikah since Robert won't be there. It is just a POA from Robert to me that says that I can get Annikah a passport and leave Bulgaria with her. It's much the same as what I'd have to do in order to get any of my other kids a passport and get them out of the country.

Usually, this document is carried over with the family. That's what I did with Kullen's adoption. However, the authentication office in Sofia is currently working slower than usual and we want to make sure that the document is authenticated on time so that I can use it when I need it. So, it's going over BEFORE me, to allow for an extra week in the event that it takes longer to get through authentication.

Officially Official

2011-11-04T11:45:00.001-05:00

I’m trying to remember to record all this stuff….

The court decree has been picked up from the judge, so the adoption is “officially official” in the eyes of the Bulgarian government…signed, stamped and recorded.

Annikah is legally NO LONGER AN ORPHAN.

The new birth certificate, recording her new name and listing us as her parents, has been filed for. It will be ready for pick-up on November 14th.

23 more nights………

Tickets and travel

2011-10-31T21:08:00.001-05:00

The plane tickets for trip two have actually been on hold for a while now. We obviously couldn’t confirm them until we knew that we’d passed court. Then, there was the issue of all those pesky things called holidays. You know, the ones that cause the US Embassy to close on days that would impact getting a visa issued (without extending our time in country). So, we opted to delay our travel to be “on the safe side”. It also worked out much better with Robert’s work schedule and a few other things we have going on at home. With Kullen’s adoption, I traveled at the absolute earliest time possible after court. It was STRESSFUL because one little thing could have went wrong up until the day that I arrived and delayed us for days. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, you know that we DID end up getting stuck in Bulgaria. However, that was due to a volcano, not an adoption paper work delay! Still, it reaffirmed to me that I do NOT want to be in Bulgaria any longer than absolutely necessary on this trip. Also, it’s already been snowing in Bulgaria. Yep, snow. Yuck! I really don’t want to be stuck in Bulgaria in the cold and snow. So, even though it’s no fun waiting a little bit longer, I feel at peace that waiting an extra week (and waiting is so not my strong suit) was the right thing to do.

With all of that being taken in to consideration, we will be leaving for Bulgaria on Friday, November 25th (the day after Thanksgiving). Notice, I said “we”. No, Robert is not going with me. My friend, Meredith, is though! Meredith and I have traveled to Eastern Europe together before. We went to Ukraine in September of 2010 for a Down syndrome conference. She’s also been to Ukraine several additional times to complete her 2 adoptions (4 kids total) from Ukraine. This will be her first trip to Bulgaria though! She has reminded me more than once that when she left Ukraine last December with her kids, she said she’d never be going back to Eastern Europe when it was cold and snowing. So, ummm…maybe God is going to bless us with some miraculously warm weather that week…lol!

The final flight itineraries (the ones with the official ticket looking receipt) arrived in the mail today. The realization of This child is really coming home always hits me when I get that one way ticket with the child’s name on it in my hand. Today was no different. I held it in my hand and ran my finger over her name. My daughter’s ticket home. If you’ve never experienced it, it’s hard to describe that feeling. I think it’s second only to the moment when I hold the child’s passport in my hand once it’s had the visa stuck inside. That is THE ticket home…the one that grants entry into the US. I’m looking forward to that moment for Annikah in just a few weeks!

I won’t even tell you how many email exchanges and phone calls it took with Eldon to get “the perfect itinerary” booked for this trip. I am so picky about airports and layover times and then we had to coordinate my flight and Meredith’s going over (she’s coming from Orlando) AND plan all of that for a holiday weekend. Needless to say, I was once again left proclaiming that Eldon Wagler at Golden Rule Travel is THE BEST! He didn’t call me crazy not even once….not even after he had to remind me that my name is NOT Shelley in his computer system..LOL. If you look over in the right side bar, you will see that the total cost for 2 round trip tickets and 1 one way ticket was barely more than what I paid for just one round trip ticket this past summer. So, while I detest cold weather and the thought of seeing snow makes me cringe with dread, it is certainly cheaper to travel in the winter!

So, there it is, the official travel dates! We’ll leave the US on November 25th and Lord willing ~~baring the great Bulgarian blizzard of 2011 or some other fluke natural disaster/other insane event~~, land in the US with Annikah on Saturday, December 3rd.

Now, it’s time to get started on that “things to do before leaving for Bulgaria” list!!!!

….and, just because she’s so darn cute and every blog post should have at least one photo.……

Last week-end for t-shirts!!!!

2011-10-27T13:48:00.001-05:00

*If you haven’t seen the fundraiser that we’re doing for the institution in Bulgaria where Annikah lives/Kullen lived for 4 years, you can read all about it here. *

Now that our adoption is final, we’re counting down to bringing our daughter home! That means that we have to finalize all the outstanding funds for our trip and for the donation to the institution. In order to ensure that we have the money in time, we’ll be closing our T-shirt fundraiser on Monday. So, if you’d like to order one of the t-shirts (all profits are going to the institution building fund), you need to do that this weekend!

This one is still my favorite…….

Though this one is a close second……

Or if you want something that has a Bulgarian flair….

or just something cute……

100% of the profits from the t-shirt sales will be given to improve the quality of life for all the orphans left behind. HELP US TO HELP THEM!!!!!

She's Ours!!!

2011-10-24T19:37:00.006-05:00

Allow me to officially introduce
MY DAUGHTER:
ANNIKAH JOY

This morning at 0225, we received word
that the judge in Bulgaria has granted our petition.
This precious little girl is no longer an orphan.
She is a DAUGHTER and a SISTER.She is wanted. She is loved.
She is ours.

Please join us as we praise God for the gift of our 7th child!

We are SO VERY BLESSED!!!!

Update on our fund raising for the institution

2011-10-20T18:15:00.001-05:00

We are continuing to work to raise all the funds needed for the building repairs to the institution in Bulgaria that has been home to both our Bulgarian children for several years. We are very close to the $1,000 mark!

To provide another way for people to help us reach our goal, my friend, Brigitte, has offered to do a Tastefully Simple online party for us and give all of her profits to our building fund (that’s my shortened name for the project!). So, you can order some YUMMY food and also contribute to our efforts at the same time. All orders will be delivered right to your house, regardless of where you live.

Here are the instructions:

1.) Click here for a direct link to my online party
and shop (ensure that the hostess area says my name before check out!)
OR
1.) Go to https://www.tastefullysimple.com/
2.) Shop for products and purchase as little or as much as you want
3.) When you get to the shopping cart, under the total it will say "find host/event". Click on that and type in Shelley Bedford and Alabama is the state. It should then bring up my name, AL as the state and Brigitte Van Nice as the consultant.
4.) Check out following the instructions
5.) Your items will be delivered directly to their house!
6.) Brigitte will send me one check with all the profits at the end of the online event, which is November 5th.

Now, if you go to this link, look around and you just can’t find anything that you want (though I can’t imagine this actually happening), you are more than welcome to click on this product and ship one or two of them to my house.
It is my birthday next week, after all .

Prayer requests with less than a week until court

2011-10-19T20:20:00.002-05:00

Toni went to the courthouse today and checked to ensure that everything is in order for our court hearing. Thankfully, it is. The judge is not requesting any additional documents. With our last Bulgarian adoption, the judge asked for a letter from the social worker stating that adoption was better for Kullen than being raised at the institution. This time, no such documents are being requested. So, that is a praise!

We have 6 more nights to go until court. Our court hearing will take place at a time that is the middle of the night here in Alabama on Monday night (0930 Tuesday morning in Bulgaria).
Our prayer requests at this point are:
1.) Court will happen on schedule, October 25th at 0930
2.) The prosecutor will not have any objections to our adoption
3.) The judge will grant the adoption without delay

Please join us in praying for the judge, the prosecutor and also the attorney who will be representing us in court (it won't be Toni because she'll be with a family on their first trip, but I have met the attorney that will be representing us and know that he'll do an awesome job on our behalf).

Six more nights........

It made me cry

2011-10-12T21:40:00.001-05:00

I ordered Annikah a bag to hold her “stuff” on the plane ride home. It came in the mail last night:

It made me cry.

It’s the first thing that I’ve seen with her name written on it, other than the documents for court where we wrote her new name.

2 weeks

2011-10-11T17:05:00.001-05:00

Court is in two weeks.

Someone asked me today what I want for my birthday. That’s simple….
just my daughter.

Please join us in praying that court happens on schedule on October 25th and that our adoption is granted on that day.

Please also remember the fund raisers that we are doing to raise money for repairs to the institution.
We’ve raised enough money to replace the floors and paint the walls in the room for the children who are bed bound. Now, we need to raise the money to purchase mats and toys for the room so that the children will have a place to play this winter. There’s also a ceiling to repair, more paint to be bought and 4 bed rooms that need new floors. We’ve set a HUGE goal for the money that we’d like to raise. But, as I look at my one, the one I’ll be taking out of that place, I can’t help but think of all the other ones that’ll be left behind.

The institution

2011-10-05T06:47:00.003-05:00

I have said many times how very thankful I am for the director and the staff at the institution where Kullen spent a majority of his life (4 years+ 2 months). It’s also where Annikah is currently living. She’ll have been there 2 years in just a few day.

The director is WONDERFUL! Truly, she is.
She has a difficult job. It is a job that requires her to take a set amount of funds from the government and use it to meet the needs of a large group of children with varying special needs. She has to meet the medical needs and the day to day living needs. She also has to use that money to take care of the building.

She has chosen to focus on the CHILDREN.
Resources are used to provide for the kids.
In order for the children to receive basic dental treatment (and they DO go to the dentist), the director has to drive them in a van for an HOUR one way, just to get to the dentist. She does it, because it’s what the kids need. It is the same for any specialists that the children need to see. All the doctors are an hour away. Gas money has to be paid out of that relatively small budget that she has (along with vehicle maintenance and all the other expenses that come with a day trip to a town that’s an hour away). She advocates for the children in the local community too. Children from that institution attend preschool AND public school with their peers from the same community. Money from the institutions budget is used to transport them and to provide what they need for school (school clothes, supplies, etc).

The time, the money and the resources provided to run that institution goes to THE CHILDREN. That’s how it should be. But, there is another part of reality that comes with that. If the money is going to the children, there isn’t much left over for the maintenance of the building and other basic items needed to keep the BUILDING in proper working order. That makes it harder to do what is best for the children. It’s all a vicious circle.

Let me give you one very real example:
There are children at this institution that are bed ridden. That’s a reality in any institution and it’s the case here too. The director has moved those children to the main floor of the building. Their doors are left open so that people can interact with them. I visited in the summer time and their windows were open so that they could see outside. In between my trip to pick-up Kullen in April 2010 and my visit with Annikah in June 2011, a wheel chair ramp was built. I saw children being placed in a wheel chair and taken outside. That is wonderful!

(In the above photo, you can see one of the children looking out the window of that particular room. His bed is right next to the window so that he can see out. To the left, you can see the white rails that are a part of the wheelchair ramp)

There is a big play room area on this floor that is just perfect for these children to have the opportunity to get out of their beds to play and interact with one another. But, here’s the problem:
That big room that would make a perfect play room…..
the structure of the room is not safe for the kids.
The floors are torn up (and these are kids who would be down on the floor).
The paint is many years old (lead based? possibly) and flaking (hazard to kids who’d be on the floor putting stuff in their mouths).

These children NEED a play room. Otherwise, the alternative is that they stay in their beds most of the day. There is simply nowhere else for them to go, especially in the colder months when they can’t go outside. If you know anything at all about cerebral palsy and other similar conditions, you know that being stuck in a bed all day causes the children ‘s muscles to contract, they get weaker….it makes their condition worse. The director and the staff are more than willing to take the children into the play room. It’s very possible that the staff can even be taught some basic stretching and other things to help the children (like PT). The problem is that it requires MONEY to fix the floors and paint the walls and maybe even buy a few mats for the floors so that the children can sit or lay on them while they play. But, here is the good part:
It is MUCH cheaper to replace floors, paint walls and do other construction projects in this tiny little village in Bulgaria than it would be to do it here in the USA. The entire floor can be replaced for $400. That includes the labor. The walls can be repainted for less than $100. $500 is all that it would take to make that play room SAFE, so that children could actually play there. I’m dreaming big when I envision it furnished with mats and toys. I’d love to see a couple of adaptive chairs in there. Can you imagine what a BLESSING that would be for the children this winter when the months are cold and they can’t go outside?
$1,000 could make that a reality for the bed bound children.

Then, there are the children who live on the top floors, like my Annikah. Way back when the institution was built (I have no idea when that was, but it was a long time ago!), someone had the bright idea that carpet was a good idea in the bed room areas. Well, maybe it was just a cheaper option. Actually, now that I’m typing this, I’d guess that what actually happened is that the floors started tearing up and it was cheaper to put carpet on top than to replace the wood floors. I don’t know. But, what I DO know is that when you have a bedroom that sleeps a minimum of 4 young children who are NOT toilet trained, years and years of carpet that experiences “accidents” and is then cleaned with strong cleaners, in addition to the regular wear and tear on carpet…..well, it produces floors that are VERY hard to keep looking and smelling clean.
The floor on the levels of the institution where both of my Bulgarian children have been housed and cared for is in desperate need of new floors in at least 4 bedrooms. Each bed room has at least 4 children sleeping in it, so that would improve the living conditions for at least 16 children.
It’s a project that could be done for $500.
To give you an example of what it COULD look like, this is the room that was once Kullen’s bedroom. It WAS redone with new floor and new paint:

Finally, there are the “big kids”. These are the older kids, up to age 18. They live on the 3^rd floor. They don’t have a play room either. Their play room is currently used as a storage room.
Why? Let me show you.

Yeah, that’s not exactly a safe ceiling to have a bunch of children playing under. The floors in that room look much the same as the ones from the 1^st floor. But, these kids won’t be on the floor, so the roof is a much more critical need. A replaced roof, new paint and some mats and toys and the big kids would have a place to play when the weather is cold. Again, I’m a dreamer. I’ve actually envisioned this room set up more like an activity room…..maybe a couple of tables where the bigger kids could sit and color or look at books. The director didn’t have a price for the cost to replace the ceiling because it’s not something that she’s had the funds to even consider replacing. But, if a big floor can be redone for $500, surely a new ceiling wouldn’t cost too much more, right? A new ceiling, fresh paint on the walls, some mats or tables and “stuff” for the children to do. $1,000 could turn a storage room into an activity center for the big kids.

$2,500.
That is A LOT of money.

But, I’ve seen the faces of these children.
I’ve looked into the rooms full of children lying in beds.
I’ve waved at a couple of them, who had their faces pressed against the window to get a glimpse of outside.I’ve stood and watched most of them playing out in the play yard area.
As I think of them and the life that they live,
$2,500 doesn’t seem like a whole lot in order to drastically increase the QUALITY of their lives.

This is a couple of very quick videos. This is the extent of what they know as “their world”.

I know this director.
I’ve seen her heart for the children that she is responsible for.
Can you even imagine?
I’ve tried to think about it.
What if I was responsible for the care of 70+ children between the ages of 3-18 with a wide variety of special needs and I had a very small budget with which to work?
I hope that I’d do exactly what she’s done…..I’d allot the majority of that money to the care of the children and pray that the building didn’t fall down around our ears in the process.

I want to help this director and the children that she’s responsible for. I want to do SOMETHING to improve the lives of these children as they live inside the walls of that institution. The reality is that over 98% of them will not get adopted. That place will be the only home that they ever know.

I need your help.
I don’t have $2,500 to pay for the repairs to this building. Oh, how I wish I did. But, I don’t.
So, I need help. I need people who are willing to give….not because you’ll ever get anything in return, but because you know that these children are worth the money.
The good thing about Bulgaria and donating to orphanages is that the director is required to provide a detailed receipt and to document(and report) any monetary donations that are made. So, I will be able to share proof of exactly how much money was given for these projects. This money will NOT just go into someone’s pocket and never be used to help the children.
It won’t.
The director has also promised to send photos of the work once it’s done. I know that she will.
I know of families that are traveling there in 2012 that will be able to see the results in person.
They’ll be able to take photos too.

This is an opportunity to have a real and lasting impact on the lives of countless orphans with special needs that will find themselves living in a remote institution in a tiny little village on the far border of Bulgaria.

Christy, who recently brought home her son, Jonathan, from the same institution (I’ve mentioned him here before. He was Kullen’s best friend at the institution) will be helping us with this effort. Between our 2 families and all of the friends, family and blog readers that we’re going to ~~beg~~ ask to help us, I am praying that we are able to make a huge impact for the children that will be left behind at the institution.

Will you help us to help them?

There is a chip-in at the bottom of this page for donations to be made via pay pal. Both Christy and I will also be collecting donations through cash or check. I'll keep a donation thermometer on the side bar of this blog to update the total progress. In addition to this post, our family has made the decision to direct all funds from 3 of our remaining adoption fundraisers to go toward this donation to the institution. So, the profit from ALL the shirts that were purchased through our t-shirt fundraiser will be donated. You can still purchase a t-shirt by clicking here. We'll keep this open until we get a travel date to return to Bulgaria. The Santor family is also continuing to donate the profit from the sales of their Praise and Worship CDs to us. You can click on their name and purchase a CD through the link on their side bar. You can also order coffee from our fundraiser page and $5 of each bag of coffee purchased will be donated.

*If the chip in does not direct you to paypal to make a donation, you can send donations to me directly through Paypal using the email address: shele337@yahoo.com *

The final amount needed as of November 12th:

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
― Mother Teresa

Finally....

2011-10-04T07:53:00.002-05:00

WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!!!!

I WILL have a new daughter before my birth day :)

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

100 days

2011-10-02T23:53:00.002-05:00

I've put off writing this post all day. Now, there are only about 6 minutes left in the day, so I suppose I need to get this down "in writing".

It's been 100 days since I last held our little girl.
I've hit "the wall" with this adoption process.
The fact that we've been delayed almost 2 months for absolutely no reason is incredibly frustrating. Each day is another day that our little girl will never get back.
As all the fall holidays approach, I find myself in a holding pattern.
My birthday...Halloween....no chance I'll see her for either of those now.
Make plans for Thanksgiving? Nope, because it will all depend on if Annikah is here yet.
Will we be "there" for this Christmas gathering or that one? No idea! I don't even want to think about it, much less talk about it.

I'm trying to stay positive.
I've repeated "God's timing is always perfect" at least 1,000 times today.
Someone made the comment to me in an email this weekend that they forgot we were in the middle of an adoption too. *sigh*
Yeah, we're about to hit the one year mark since I saw her file show up in my inbox.

Praying for some kind of news this week!

To clarify

2011-09-16T21:54:00.002-05:00

...because I've received a couple of emails and comments....

It is the judge that WE were assigned to that won't be assigning court dates until October 3rd. There are 6 judges in Bulgaria that hear adoption cases. I was only talking about 1 of the 6...the one that will hear OUR adoption case :)

Good news/bad news

2011-09-16T09:01:00.002-05:00

The good news is that we got one of the "good" judges!!!!

The bad news is that court dates won't be assigned
until after October 3rd.

That means that the whole month of September
is just lost time.
Another month that our little girl spends

in an institution.

I'm trying to be ok with this.
Truly, I am.

We've done this enough times to know that
there are things that are just out of our control.
This is certainly one of them.

While we can't control what happens with
the courts in Bulgaria,

we CAN control our reaction to this news.

I've learned with previous adoptions
that God's timing is ALWAYS perfect.

So today,
I choose to thank Him for the answered prayer
that our case will be heard by one of the judges
that we'd been praying for.
We continue to pray for our daughter's
health and well being and that
He will continue to watch over her
until we can get her out of
the institution.
and now....

We pray that we're able to get a court date
that is in October.

Some progress...FINALLY

2011-09-13T07:19:00.004-05:00

Our dossier has FINALLY been sent to court!

We hope to find out which of the 6 judges it was assigned to on Thursday.
We are PRAYING that it's one of the nicer judges....one that won't delay us further.
We are also PRAYING that the judge will have compassion and assign us a court date within the next few weeks and not make us wait until late October/November.

There is still a very slim chance that I could have our daughter
in my arms on my birthday.

Please pray with us that it happens!

Over due update!

2011-09-02T20:44:00.002-05:00

The MOJ officials are back to work and will be resuming their weekly meeting next week. Our dossier has been signed off on by the attorney and is now waiting on the Vice Minister's signature so that it can be sent to court.
That's the good news.

The not so good news is that according to the attorney at the MOJ, court dates will not be set until the October-November time frame :(

So, at this point, we're praying that either the courts will actually set dates for late September OR that we'll be scheduled for VERY early October.

I'm still praying that I will be in Bulgaria on my birthday! I am hopeful that the Vice Minister will sign off on our dossier next week, so that we can at least get an idea on what type of time frame we're looking at.

It's been 70 days since I last kissed these chubby little cheeks. I just want her HOME!!!!

Article 5 letter

2011-08-09T08:12:00.003-05:00

I'm behind on my updates!

The visa interview went well and we have the Article 5 letter. It should be through authentication by next Monday and then everything can be submitted to the MOJ. However, the MOJ is not meeting at all in the month of August. We don't technically need them to meet for our next step, since it's just signatures and not anything that the committee has to do. But, I am guessing that if the committee is not meeting, the lawyer and the Vice Minister are likely not going to be around to sign off on dossiers going to court either. So, we're not expecting anything else to happen with our adoption until September.

We're still praying for a Happy Birthday to me travel date though :)

Thursday!

2011-08-01T23:22:00.002-05:00

The Embassy appointment for our Article 5 letter is on Thursday at 2pm(Bulgarian time).

We are praying that it all goes well and that the Article 5 letter will be issued on Friday (*crossing fingers*).

Please join us in praying for an uneventful visa interview for Toni (on our behalf).

I-800 is in Bulgaria

2011-07-30T11:39:00.002-05:00

Our I-800 DID arrive at the Embassy in Bulgaria yesterday. We should find out on Monday when the appointment is for the visa interview! While it seems like these steps after the first trip drag on forever, I know that it's because I'm just anxious to get back to our girl and get her home. Regardless of how many times we do this, I really don't get any better at waiting! But, things ARE moving forward and I'm still hopeful that everything will be at the MOJ by the middle of August.

If you just "joined" us with our Bulgaria adoptions....

2011-07-27T20:27:00.002-05:00

Today is the anniversary of a day I will never forget....the day that started it all.
Please go read this post on our family blog. There is so much more to share as we approach a HUGE milestone in Xander's life that is coming in August.

(You can also read all about Xander's adoption on this blog...all the 2007 entries)

Slowly but surely....

2011-07-26T18:29:00.004-05:00

...the I-800 is making it's way through the necessary steps. It's been logged in at the National Visa Center and will be in Bulgaria by the end of the week. Everything is ready in Sofia (Annikah's visa photos are there!), so as soon as the I-800 arrives at the Embassy, the appointment can be scheduled to get the Article 5 letter. It is our hope (and prayer!) that we'll have the Article 5 letter by the end of next week.

Right now, due to the summer "slow-down", it's taking longer for documents to be authenticated in Sofia. That delays EVERYONE....those who's dossiers were translated for submittal, those of us waiting to submit the 2nd phase of documents to the MOJ(since that Article 5 letter has to be authenticated) and those families who are waiting on their court documents and birth certificates to be translated. It's a frustrating delay, for sure! So, we're not sure at this point how long it will take to get our 2nd stage documents submitted once the Article 5 letter is obtained. I'm still praying that it's all in the hands of the MOJ by mid-August. That is pushing it, but we're still praying for it to happen!

"Shhh! Don't even mention how many days it's been since you held me...."

(32)

I-800 is here

2011-07-24T13:23:00.002-05:00

We received our copy of the I-800 approval yesterday. That doesn't really mean anything except that I can check the spelling of Annikah's birth name and date of birth and make sure that it's right (even though Toni will check it in Bulgaria too). What matters is when the US Embassy in Sofia receives the I-800. I forgot to call the NVC on Friday, so I'll do that Monday. Toni will be calling the embassy too, though an appointment can't be made until the I-800 is there. Annikah's visa photos were due to arrive today too. I can't wait to see what they look like since I know how hard it was to get the little stinker to cooperate for photos!

Her name!

2011-07-21T21:25:00.004-05:00

Naming this child was something that I have spent HOURS thinking about. Nothing was "just right"...and believe me, I looked at hundreds of names! When I originally heard her birth name (which I will share once it's no longer her legal name), my first thought was, "Holy cow, that's a mouthful!".....which was quickly followed by, "No child with Down syndrome would ever have a chance of saying THAT correctly" (and nope, not even Kullen with his excellent articulation can say it). I knew that because it was a long name, chances were pretty good that she was NOT actually called that at the institution. I was right. She goes by a nickname....one which I actually DO like, though it's still somewhat unusual. So, when I finally heard THE name....which actually has a piece of her birth name in it.....I instantly knew that it was perfect.

HI!!! My name is......

ANNIKAH JOY

There was never any question about her middle name.
She shares that piece of her name with my aunt.

Her first name is pronounced Ann-i-kuh
(NOT o-ni-kuh)

I actually heard it pronounced this way in Bulgaria in March and thought it was beautiful.

We, of course, had to play around with the spelling.
I chose to include two "n's" so that it was more obvious that the first part of her name was pronounced "ann". I DID veto Robert's suggestion of the ending being spelled "uh",

though I gave in and let the "h" stay on the end :)

Both Kullen and Grifyn can say "Annikah" clearly, which is an added bonus,
since we were originally concerned about a 3 syllable name.

Having spent 5 days with her, I can honestly say that this name is
PERFECT for her. I am looking very forward to the day when
Miss Annikah Joy walks out of that institution and into our family!

counting down the days, baby girl.......

His will....His bill......

2011-07-20T22:26:00.005-05:00

When we committed to this adoption,

we needed $15,000

in order to pay all the expenses needed to bring our daughter home.

That is a HUGE number....

and last October, it scared me to death!

It is the most that we've ever had to raise for any of our adoption.

Today, 8 months later, we are

FULLY FUNDED!

We've saved money each month from our pay checks,
sold items, done a give-away or two
and been BLESSED by people who simply gave because they believe in what we're doing.

We are incredibly thankful for everyone who has supported our adoption
both financially and with prayer and encouraging words.
We're not anywhere close to done with the process,
but we are DONE with worrying about the money to pay for it!
THANK YOU, LORD!

Oh....but just wait!
There is something BIG that I'll be sharing next week.
I'm going to need help from every single person reading this.
So, stay tuned for that!

and....I do believe it's time to share our little one's NAME..........

Recycle...reuse that money :)

2011-07-20T09:32:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, we did an impromptu adoption fundraiser. It went something like this:

Step One: Finally transfer all the bags of empty soda cans that have been piling up in the storage area into large 39 gallon sized bags.

Step Two: Take those NINE thirty-nine gallon sized bags to the recycling center

Step Three: Dump bags of cans onto the machine that processes them and ensures that they are emptyStep Four: Weigh the cans
Step Five: Empty the weigh basket because you have so many cans that it has to be emptied and filled again
Step Six: Crush all SEVENTY-ONE pounds of cans
Step Seven: Send crushed cans into the truck that will carry them off
Step Eight: Collect $48 for our daughter's adoption fund!

In addition to this $48, we were BLESSED with a $250 donation yesterday. So, I'll be adding $2 to that (because uneven numbers drive me nuts) and depositing $300 into our adoption envelope!!!!

I-800 is APPROVED!!!!

2011-07-19T17:37:00.003-05:00

The day started off with a phone call from our officer at NBC first thing this morning. When she said the words, "I can't approve you I-800 because you are missing paper work", it took all I had to remain calm and polite! I KNEW that I was not missing any paper work. So, I very sweetly asked her what was missing. She and I then proceeded to have a conversation about what is and is not required in order to document that a child is an orphan under Hague AND how Bulgaria's family code relates to that. Oh, and did I mention that our WONDERFUL and FABULOUS Bulgarian agency always includes, as part of the documents for the I-800, the EXACT wording of the above mentioned Bulgarian family code AND where to find the information required under Hague in the referral paper work provided from the MOJ? Yep. So, I also nicely asked our officer to read that document again too. She said she'd "look over everything again and get back to me". I was pretty darn sure that I had just doomed us to at least another day of waiting on the approval since I'd very nicely told her that she was wrong and she needed to issue my approval because we'd met all the requirements. But, I WAS polite....and it really was all there and even simplified in the letter from Toni (the director of the Bulgarian agency).

Thankfully, she called me back right after lunch and said that our approval had been issued!!!! I thanked her for processing it today and she reminded me that it'll take a few days for it to get to my house. That's fine. I don't need it! As long as she sends it on to the NVC, I don't care how long it takes a copy of it to get to my house!

So, we're once again moving forward. It's been 25 days since I watched my daughter wave as we drove away. There are still several steps to go to bring her home.
Here is the rest of the process from here:
1.) NVC will receive our I-800 paper work and "wire" it to the Embassy in Bulgaria. This can take up to 7 business days (or, that was the time frame last year....I will call them later this week and ask about the current time frame)
2.)Toni will call the embassy and let them know that our I-800 approval is on the way. Once it is there, the embassy will issue Toni an appointment date to come to the embassy to apply for our daughter's visa
3.) After the appointment, the Embassy will issue the Article 5 letter within 2-3 business days of the appointment date.
4.) ALL our paper work....the Article 5 letter, our 2nd stage dossier documents, all the "yes, this is the child we want" paper work..... is translated, authenticated and submitted back to the MOJ.
5.) The lawyer for the MOJ reviews all the paper work, ensures that everything is there and signs off on it.
6.) The Vice Minister signs off on everything
7.) Dossier is sent to court, where it is assigned to a judge
8.) Judge issues a court date
9.) Court (we will be able to schedule a travel date after court)
10.) 7 days later, the adoption is final
11.) 7 days after that, the birth certificate is issued
12.) Travel to Bulgaria to bring our daughter home!

Gosh, just typing that seems like A LOT....and it is! It is our prayer that we can move through many of these steps quickly! We're also already praying that we will get a judge that will NOT require a lot of additional paper work!

One step closer baby girl!

Online yard sale!

2011-07-18T16:54:00.003-05:00

We are SO CLOSE to having this adoption fully funded. In an effort to raise the final funds, I'll be taking lots of stuff to a local consignment shop, putting other items on Craig's List and also listing things on my online yard sale! Currently, I have things listed like Signing Time DVDs, Abeka preschool and kindergarten curriculum, Preschool Prep DVDs and materials, Handwriting Without Tears stuff...and the list goes on (those links will take you to the blog posts).

All payments will be made through our tax deductible FSP. If you are interested in any of the items, please leave a comment with your email address on that post, so that I can let you know if the item is still available (comments won't be published).

I'll be posting more items in the coming days as we work to raise the final money that we need to bring our little girl home (and finally share her NAME!!!!!)

STILL no I-800 approval

2011-07-14T12:42:00.002-05:00

I called today.

Why do I even bother?

Our I-800 is on our officer's desk.
It's just sitting there.

She has no idea when she will "get to it".

*sigh*

Promise kept- Part 1

2011-07-12T09:47:00.002-05:00

In December 2009, I made a promise to two children that somehow, someway, they would NOT be forgotten and left to spend their lives in a mental institution....that we'd (because I could not have done any of it without my wonderful friend, Toni) find out if they were available for international adoption and then I'd scream from the mountaintops until they had families of their very own. Honestly, for the entire 10 months that I waited on their files to be located by the MOJ, I thought about adopting one of those kids....the older boy. But, as I've shared before, that was not God's plan. When the files came, He clearly told us that the GIRL was the child that we were meant to bring into our family. He quickly revealed the rest of His plan......that the boy too would quickly have a family of his own.....and a family that lives less than 2 hours from us at that!

As you all know, we're working very hard to fulfill the promise made to the little girl. But yesterday.....on July 11, 2011......the little boy, who was Kullen's closest friend, became a son and a brother. Though he doesn't yet know it, he now has a mama and a papa and his days at that institution are numbered. I saw him again just a couple of weeks ago and I can not even begin to put into words how very thrilled I am for this little boy and his family!

Please take a moment and go and congratulate Teddy's family and rejoice that there is ONE LESS orphan in the world today!!!!

They got it!

2011-07-09T18:59:00.002-05:00

Our I-800 WAS delivered to the lock box in Texas!!!!

Thank you, Lord!

It was received on June 29th, which is the date that I received the notice that it couldn't be delivered. Maybe the post man hit the wrong button on the tracker? No idea! Regardless, it was delivered on June 29th and processed in Texas on July 5th. So, it SHOULD me at the NBC office in MO by now. I will be calling on Monday morning to find out if they have it yet and when it might be processed.

I'm praying that we can get our I-800 approval by the end of next week!

Where oh where is our I-800?

2011-07-06T16:53:00.003-05:00

That's a very good question! The answer right now is that nobody knows!!!!!!

The folks at the Hague office said that it can take up to 10 business days for it to show up in their computer as received. So, they can't confirm that it was received until next Wednesday....IF it was received. So at this point, we can't do anything but wait. Hopefully, it was received and we just didn't get delivery confirmation. If not, then surely it will come back to us, right? (though I don't know why it couldn't be delivered since it was sent through the US postal service to a US PO Box).

If it doesn't show up here, then I won't know anything for sure until NEXT Wednesday...which is the 10th business day from when it should have been delivered in TX.

So, we wait!

In the mean time, I need to mail the next set of documents to Bulgaria. The only reason that I haven't done it yet is because I'm still wavering on the whole name thing. I know....I know.....I'm crazy and indecisive!

Slightly impressed!

2011-07-03T16:36:00.002-05:00

On Thursday afternoon, around 3pm, I put our second stage dossier documents in the mail to be authenticated. I received an email notice that the documents had been delivered fir st thing Friday morning. Those documents were BACK AT MY HOUSE with authentication on Saturday!!!!
I did NOT send overnight envelopes, nor did I pay extra/do anything for expedited service. Our Secretary of State's office is just on top of things!!!! So, I wanted to send out a public THANK YOU to the ladies in the Sec of State's office that have always been super nice each time I've been there....and provided the fastest turn around time that I've ever received when dealing with a government office!!!!

Just to prove that even this step of our process was not "normal": Despite the sticky note that was on the envelope which said "don't forget to include the check"......I forgot to include the check to pay for the authentication fee! The nice lady at the Sec of State's office called Friday around lunch and asked me if I had a debit card that I could use to pay over the phone. She laughed about the sticky note.......

STILL no word on the I-800 documents. I have no idea if they were delivered in TX or not. On Tuesday, when the post office reopens, I'm going to go and see if they can track the package. I really hope that it WAS delivered and I just wasn't notified.

Second stage dossier documents

2011-07-01T09:41:00.002-05:00

All of our second stage dossier documents were safely delivered to the State Dept for authentication. The turn around time is about a week, so I will call and check on them next Friday.

They are not "urgent" (meaning that they are not holding up our process at this point), so I chose to mail them instead of making the 3 hour round trip to have them authenticated in person.

Still no news on the I-800 packet. It is still not showing that it was delivered. So, I have no way to know where it is at this point :( If it doesn't show up as received today, I will go to the post office on Tuesday and see if they can track it's location for me.

Not a savior

2011-06-30T12:10:00.001-05:00

*This is a cross post from our family blog*

One of the things that makes me cringe the most in the adoption community is the phrase “save a child”. I did not “save” my boys. I am not “saving” our little girl.

Yes, I went to Ukraine, Serbia and Bulgaria and adopted children. Yes, the future for those children was very bleak. I have no doubt that Xander was on the edge health/medical wise and likely would not have survived the first winter in the institution where he was scheduled to be sent the week after we adopted him. I know that none of my children had any future in

the situations that they were in except to live in institutions until the day that they died.

But, I did not save them.

The Bible says:

look after widows and orphans in their distress (James 1:27)

take up the cause of the fatherless (Isaiah 1:17)

speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and defend the rights of the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Whenever you did it for the least of these, you did it for Me (Matthew 25:40)

All commandments from God that we’ve chosen to obey. As we strive to live our lives in a more Christ-like manner, these are the commandments and the burdens that He’s placed on our hearts. This is what we strive for: Let us not love with words or speech, but in action and in truth.

But more importantly, is this fact:

GOD places the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6)

Did we answer commands that are clearly defined in the Bible? Yes, we did.

Did we travel to Eastern Europe and bring our children out of situations in which they had no future? Yes, we did.

Are we now able to give them a better life and more opportunities than what they had as orphans? Certainly.

But, we did not save them.

God issued His command to Christians long before we were ever born. He very clearly spoke to us that this…..adoption….these particular children…..this particular way…..was how He wanted us to live out His commandments. God said, “GO!” and we went.

His command. His plan. His provisions.

HE is the one who saves.

We simply obeyed.

"We care for orphans, not because we are rescuers. We care for orphans because WE ARE THE RESCUED."

-David Platt

We have the WORST luck with I-800s!!!!

2011-06-29T15:45:00.003-05:00

I received a notice on our I-800 package today. It says that it was "unable to be delivered" due to "unauthorized recipient". No idea exactly what that means! I also don't know if they will attempt to deliver it again tomorrow (it's going to the PO Box in Dallas for USCIS) or if they are sending it back to us. I didn't do anything fancy with the envelope...no signature request or anything like that. So, there should not have been any problem with sticking it in a PO Box! All that I know is that our last I-800 got LOST in Texas and now I am super paranoid that this one is going to disappear too!!!!!

*sigh*

I-800

2011-06-27T11:24:00.004-05:00

The I-800 is DONE and in the mail! I've got the tracking information coming to my email so that I will be alerted as soon as it's delivered.

It should arrive at the processing center in TX on Wednesday.

I just have to say that the I-800 is a big ole headache! The questions are so wordy and I'm always paranoid that I'm going to check the wrong box! I am very thankful for Toni's "summary letter" that she includes with the Article 16 report because that allows me to double check everything as I'm checking boxes. I am just so paranoid about this particular packet of forms. After what happened with Kullen's I-800 (them losing all the documents), I did make sure that I copied the whole big packet of documents before putting it in the envelope. It's all now on it's way to TX and I am praying that our officer at NBC will not leave it sitting on her desk for weeks before processing it for us.

Our next step....and the last thing that we have to do on our end.....is the 2nd stage dossier documents. We'll get all those complete on Wednesday when Robert is off work and mail them off to be apostilled ASAP.

We're praying that our I-800 is approved and all the information is at the Embassy in Bulgaria by the end of July. That will take a small miracle, but that's what we're praying for!!!!

Day 5: The tornado...and good-bye

2011-06-26T16:25:00.005-05:00

My last visit with our little one was quite interesting. It started off like the other visits and all was well.....until 2 strangers walked into the room (strangers to her). It was quite an interesting transformation. The director brought a couple of people in to meet us and we witnessed what would NOT be described as a malko tornado....oh no, it was more like a F5!!!! She went nuts....and that's putting it mildly. She was running around the room, hitting at people, grabbing on to the people and wrapping herself on their legs, throwing things, etc. It was ALL attention seeking behaviors. We've seen it before...with Grifyn when he first came home. So, it's not anything new. But, it does explain the malko tornado that people saw in March....because that's exactly how she acted then. Once the people left, it took about 5 minutes to calm her down. She DID calm down and she was not the least bit aggressive. She was smiling and laughing the whole time....clearly attention seeking behavior. I was glad I got to see it though. Now, I know a little more about what to expect when I take her out of the institution. A stroller will for sure be on my list of things that will be a necessity on trip 2! We won't use a stroller at home because she will be taught how to act in public and around people who are not familiar to her. But, to survive for 5 days in Sofia and in airports, it will be much easier to have a stroller, I do believe.

All too soon, it was time to say good-bye. It is, by far, the hardest part of this entire process. The director walked out with us with her and they stood there waving to us as we drove away. There are just no words for that moment. I pray that God keeps her safe until I am able to go back for her. She is taken care of and she is loved at the institution. That knowledge makes the wait bearable. But, I do hope that the next steps in this process move quickly! I take comfort in the fact that she doesn't have any real concept of what is going on. She doesn't know about this process or that we're desperately working to get her out of there and home in a family. She has no concept of what any of that means or how long 4-5 months truly lasts. She will go on with her days....going to day care, playing with her friends and being spoiled rotten by the staff that clearly loves her. As strange as it sounds, I'm thankful for all of that.....that she won't be waiting and wondering where I am. I, on the other hand, will be counting each and every day until I hold her in my arms again! (notice the timer on the side bar..lol)

Day 4

2011-06-23T12:34:00.004-05:00

This morning, I was able to go and visit the day care where our little one goes each day. We are VERY thankful that the director of this particular institution truly has the best interests of the children at heart. The younger children who are sent here (remember, the baby house that sends kids here often transfers children VERY early...as soon as they turn 3) have the opportunity to go to day care in the community with their typically developing peers. It's a great opportunity for our daughter and the other children! The day care was very nice and all of the staff and the other children were so happy to see ___'s mom. I learned something very valuable at the day care.....our little ones knows that I belong to HER. She was happy to see her friends when we first arrived and she was ok with me taking photos and talking to the children. But, as soon as I knelt down and let some of the children give me hugs, my little girl quickly staked her claim to her mama!!!! It was so funny and in my heart, I was so thrilled to see her be possessive. Though she doesn't yet understand what "mama" truly means, she does know that this particular mama is there for her!

Later in the day, I was able to see parts of the institution and to take some photos of the conditions in the building. That will be an entirely separate post once I am home. We are going to work with at least one other family to raise money for some much needed projects inside the institution. This director cares about the children....it is evident in her interactions with them and in their genuine responses when she walks by any of their rooms. But, the reality is that she has to take a very small budget and stretch it very far to meet the needs of the children. More to come on that later!

When we arrived for the afternoon visit, little one was walking outside with a care giver. As soon as she saw me, her face lit up and she started running to me. What a precious moment that was! I'll be leaving a piece of my heart here tomorrow and it's going to be so incredibly hard. I've already started praying that God will guide each piece of our paper work and each step in the process that has to be complete to get me back here for Gotcha Day.

I took a lot of videos today and not as many photos. But, here are a few:

Looking at pictures of her family:

Signing "cracker"
(this child LOVES cheese crackers...lol)

This is what I've started calling her "fish face".
She makes this face whenever she is concentrating on something.
She does NOT grind her teeth....thank you, Lord!
But, the fish face is quite funny :)

I hid the bag of snacks in the bottom of the bag today.
This is her moment of triumph when she found them :)

She shakes all the containers until she finds the one with the cheese crackers.
She'll eat the other snacks occasionally.
But, she always goes back to the cheese crackers!

Tomorrow morning will be my final visit with our little one. It is going to be so incredibly hard to say "see you soon" to her. I know that she is well taken care of here and that helps. But oh, how I wish she was leaving with me tomorrow!

After the visit, we will make the long drive back to Sofia. Tomorrow night, I'll be meeting with some of the parents who are raising their children with Down syndrome here in Bulgaria. I'm excited to see some of them again and to make plans for my next trip to Sofia.

It will be a long day tomorrow, so most likely, I will not be blogging about my final visit with little one until I get home on Saturday. I have lots more to share about the institution and will, of course, also share about the meeting with the families too. Oh, and I DO have lots of photos of this beautiful resort community and the gorgeous ocean. I need to share those too!

Day 3-Visit Two

2011-06-22T12:43:00.004-05:00

This afternoon, the little stinker decided that every time I got the camera out, she was going to kiss it. That led to many photos that look something like this:

Did I mention that she's a climber? She used Toni's wheelchair as her step stool and climbed up on this desk to sit for a while! I wonder how long it'll take her to try to climb the bunk beds in the girls' room?????

This afternoon was another great visit with our girl. She is just so sweet and so precious. She's starting to show a little bit of her spunk though! She seriously believes that her cute little smile (and when that doesn't work, her kisses) will get her whatever she wants (or get her out of whatever she doesn't want to do)! It is quite possible that the real tornado is going to hit once she's home...LOL!

I got some news today about a scar that she has....and what was, apparently, another surgery. It makes me more anxious to see her complete medical records, which are coming very soon. This little one has apparently went through some stuff in her short little life with various procedures! I am still the most concerned about her eyes at this point though. I've taken a lot of photos of them and will be seeking out information once I get home. They look much worse in the afternoons with all the movement and I do wonder how much she can actually see (and how clearly).

Day 3- Visit One

2011-06-22T05:20:00.003-05:00

I didn't take very many photos this morning (shocking, I know..lol). Little One was content to sit and snuggle and eat snacks for most of the visit. Since it will be the memories of those moments of holding her close that I will cling to in the coming months, I soaked it all up and left the camera in my pocket for most of the visit.

This little one is quite the little stinker!!! She reminds me so much of Grifyn and his personality when we met him. She puts on the charm in order to get what she wants (ok, so Grifyn STILL does that...lol). I do believe that this little girl is going to give our wild man (Grifyn) a run for his money! It's going to be quite interesting to see.

She is very observant and just takes everything in.....and then copies it all exactly. She is determined to master opening the Ziploc bag that holds all the snacks and I am equally determined that she won't learn how from me! She has mastered the signs that we've been using and today, she even took the snack bag to one of the caregivers and signed "cracker" :) It was so cute! I heard "ma-ma-ma" several times today. I look forward to the day when she truly knows what that word means.

Several people have commented about the various outfits that she's wearing in the photos. The ONLY one that I brought from home is the green long sleeve set from yesterday's post. The rest of the outfits are what she's wearing on each visit. She's in something different for the afternoon visit, so we've seen 2 different outfits every day. She is always so cute, but I assure you all that she is NOT the least bit girly!!!

She is so adorable when we arrive in the mornings! The kids are outside playing and she's sitting on the bench with the care givers waiting for us. This morning, she got excited when she saw the van pull in. She tries very hard to convince us all to let her push Toni's wheel chair. That's not happening, but it does make me think that bringing a stroller for her on the 2nd trip might be a good idea just so that she can push it around and burn off some energy at the hotel!

I am so very thankful that she is in an institution where the staff truly cares about the children. It is obvious that she's loved here and it shows in all her interactions with the various care givers. It is still amazing to me that God brought me back to this place....and for a DAUGHTER. She is so much more than I ever dared to hope for and I can not wait to get her HOME to our family.
It's going to be so incredibly hard to leave her here for several more months :(
I'm already praying that the rest of this process moves quickly.

Day 2

2011-06-21T13:03:00.005-05:00

Today, I took measurements of our little one to determine her actual size. I also tried on an outfit from home on her. I'd brought a winter outfit in a size 5, thinking that this would be the size that she would need when I come to pick her up in the winter. Well.....the shirt was tight in the arms and the pants fit.....but just barely with her diaper! So, I took some exact measurements so that I can find better clothes to fit her. She will certainly need a size 5 pants....though not the slim version...lol! I think that a size 5 shirt, made out of a different material, she'll be ok too. Even though she's smaller in height than Zoie, she is a little chunky monkey, hence the need for the bigger size (the diaper also plays a part in that).
Other than playing dress up, we played with toys and worked on several signs. This little one is eager to communicate and she is so funny with the signs! She is figuring out that they all mean something different and she's beginning to use them appropriately. Today, she used the following signs: more, fruit, cracker, listen, thank you and cup. She is SO funny choosing if she wants a fruit snack or a cracker. She prefers the crackers, for sure. But, she does know the difference and now can select the correct one out of a container when they're mixed in together. She is a little stinker though! If she forgets a sign or just doesn't want to do it, she will grin real big and then give me a kiss. She thinks that she can con me with a kiss....silly girl!!!
We spent our time together playing and snuggling together and just getting to know each other. This little one is going to quickly have every single person in our family wrapped around her crooked little pinky!!! She is an absolute DOLL...and she knows it!!!! She was wearing a shirt today that said, "Gorgeous and loving it"...it's quite fitting for her!

The outfit from home...size 5

Saying, "shhh"

If you're on my face book page, I posted earlier today about hiding the snacks to see how long it'd take her to find them. Here's what happened:

"Do you see what's in here" (after she'd pulled ALL the toys out)

"Ha! I found it!"

"A little help here?"
(she's trying VERY hard to figure out how to open Ziploc bags and I will NOT show her...lol)

SUCCESS!

"cracker"

I've taken several very cute videos. But, those will have to wait until I get home and have a better internet connection.

Our daughter!!!!

2011-06-20T13:34:00.008-05:00

The director said,
“She is sweet and she is spoiled. You always come for the ones that we spoil.”

Today, I met my daughter.
It was simply amazing.

The trip to the institution was a familiar one. Knowing exactly where we were going kept me from being so nervous today. This day was very different from the times in the past when I’ve met the children that we were adopting. Today, I was completely calm and at peace about everything. I think that comes from everything that led up to today….meeting my tiny little one back in December 2009, finally seeing her file in October 2010 and that moment when I knew that God was once again saying, “GO!”.

We arrived at the institution and saw that a group of children were playing outside. I’ll talk more about the other children later…so many precious ones are waiting here for a family of their own. The director met us at the car and it was nice to see her again. I gave her several photos of Kullen that I’d brought for her.
As we stood there while Marty unloaded the van, I looked over toward the other kids and there she was….our malko tornado.
She walked over with one of the care givers and instantly came right to me.
She had to check everything out….the bags we’d brought, the van, Toni’s wheel chair….and then we all went inside. She held my hand and walked nicely into the building. Gosh, talk about a whirlwind of emotions!
We got inside the room where we’ll do all the visits (the same place where I spent time with Kullen) and she immediately took her shoes off and gave them to me. She has the little toe gap and the crooked pinky that are both very common in children with Down syndrome. My first impression of her was that she’s not quite as big as I was expecting. She’ll certainly be our little one.

As the visit went on, we were all pleasantly surprises to see that she’s also not quite the tornado that we were expecting her to be! She is busy….there is no doubt about that. She moves quickly from one activity to the next. But, she will sit and play with toys. She watches closely when she’s being shown how to do something and she readily mimics the actions of others to get what she wants. She was fascinated with the toys that play music and those are certainly her favorites. She does play with toys appropriately. Together, we played with a shape sorter (and she was pretty good at it without my help!), looked at book, took pictures (me with the real camera and her with the toy camera), took things out of containers and put things in (several toys that did this), played with linking rings, played with a beach ball….did I mention that she does like to move from one activity to the next?

She also quickly figured out where the snacks were! Thankfully (good for me!), she doesn’t yet know how to open a Ziploc bag or a rubber maid lid, so she had to ask for help in order to get to the snacks. This led to an EXCELLENT opportunity to work on communication…..food is such an easy natural motivator J It took showing her twice to get her to sign “more” and she had it mastered. She also signed “fruit” and “listen” during the first hour of our visit. During the second visit, she learned to sign “cracker” and soon, she was doing it without being prompted! She is not talking, but she’s making approximations and trying to mimic sounds. So, I don’t think it will take her long. She is certainly motivated to communicate, which was very evident in her rapid acceptance of using signs to get what she wanted!

One of the funniest moments today was the first time that I gave her a snack. I so wish that I’d have had the video recording that moment! She’d been looking through my back pack and pulling out toys to get me to show her how they all worked. The snacks were on the very bottom of the bag. So, she gave me the container to open. I didn’t even think about asking Toni to tell her that it was food. I took out one of the crackers and held it up by her mouth. She opened her mouth and I stuck it in there. Her face was PRICELESS! Her eyes got big and she just sat there and held it in her mouth. It was so funny. She quickly figured out that it was food and started chewing. After the first one, she was eagerly ready for more. So, it wasn’t that she didn’t like it. I think it just caught her off guard that I put it in her mouth, because she didn’t realize that it was food!

Medically speaking:
I am almost certain that she’s going to need surgery on her eyes and she does also need glasses (this was in her medical report, though she doesn’t have any to wear). One of her eyes is a lot worse than the other (moves around a lot when she tries to focus on something). She did have some type of eye surgery when she was a baby. I’m not sure what it was, but I’ll be getting her medical records so that we can find out how bad her vision was at her last exam.
Her heart will also need to be checked once she’s home. She has a pretty extensive heart surgery, from what I can tell by reading her report, and it does indicate that she needs follow-up care. I’m not sure when her last cardio check-up was, but again, I’ll be getting her medical records soon, so we will hopefully have more answers about that too. A "heart baby" is something new for us!
Her initial medical report also had a diagnosis of epilepsy. This was based on an observation when she was living in the baby orphanage. She was placed on a certain medication at the time, though there has never been any follow-up care nor has she ever had any other indication that she’s had any seizures. The medication is one that is not even sold in the US, so I’m not real sure what we will have to do about that. That is another specialist that we’ll be visiting as soon as we are home though! I am hopeful that we will be able to just take her off of the medication. But, I’m going to have to ask our pediatrician about it once I get the exact dosage and such from her records.
So far, that means that when she gets home, she’ll be seeing our regular pediatrician for a check-up and blood work, a cardiologist, an ophthalmologist and possibly a neurologist. We’ll also immediately get the referrals for speech therapy and occupational therapy. Still, that being said, she really is a pretty healthy little girl!

Overall, today was a very good day! There were no major surprises with our little one, other than maybe the fact that she IS little. Well, she’s smaller than our other kids….even with the chunky little legs, the cutest chubby cheeks and fat little feet and hands. She’s very sweet and actually, she was pretty darn calm! Our malko tornado has been downgraded to just a small wind ;) She doesn’t like to sit still for long though. For that reason, I will be considering the possibility of bringing a stroller with me on the pick-up trip. Mainly, I’m thinking about the time at the US Embassy and then the layovers at the airports. Having her strapped in a seat might just be a good thing!!!

I took over 300 photos today (no, that’s not an exaggeration). So, it was hard to pick just a few to share! So, here she is!!!!

headed to the Black Sea!

2011-06-19T00:47:00.003-05:00

I was sound asleep before 7pm last night! I've been up since about 0430, but that's ok. That means that I will have my sleep on track tonight now, so all is well. I slept like a rock...which is always nice!

We'll be leaving in about an hour for the cross country road trip that will get me closer to our little girl! We're headed to the same hotel where I was on both of my previous trips to that area and I'm excited to finally get to see the Black Sea in the summer time! It is only 0800 here and it's already H-O-T. So, I will certainly be walking down and putting my toes in the water this week :)

Until I can share those photos, here are a few that I quickly snapped yesterday.

This was the only view I saw of Amsterdam:

These are 2 of the views from my hotel room in Sofia:

I'm staying on a higher floor this time, otherwise, it all looks the same as 2009 and 2010. I must admit, there is something to be said for familiarity! It's so wonderful to be back in Bulgaria!!!!

Since I don't have anything really "earth shattering" to blog about today (hey, it's only 0800!), I thought I'd share an interesting tidbit for those who may be coming to Bulgaria one day:
There is one sure fire way to peg yourself as an American as soon as you get off the plane....it's all in how you say the name of the city, Sofia. It is NOT the way that we, in America, say the popular girl's name, Sophia (so-fee-ah). At least not to those who live here (and I've heard people from other countries say it and they don't say it like that either). It is pronounced the way that we say the word "sofa". It is Sof-i-ah. The accent is on the "sof", not on the "fee". I hope that makes sense! Anyway, that's just one of those little things that I've been purposefully making an effort to say correctly for the past year! So, I thought I'd pass it along.
It's also why, even though I LOVE the name "Sophia", I couldn't even consider it for our malko tornado....because my brain always thinks "Sophia or Sofia?" lol

I'm Here

2011-06-18T09:01:00.002-05:00

I'm at the hotel in Sofia. Getting dinner and then crashing for the night. I am having trouble with internet (again) and am unable to check any of my emails. Tomorrow will be a long day, since we have a 7 hr cross-country drive. Hopefully I will be able to share pics soon. I'll write more when my brain is not fried or my husband can figure out why my computer won't let me on anything but skype. (I'm dictating this to him right now..lol). Ciao from Sofia!

airports, time zones and luggage

2011-06-17T13:31:00.002-05:00

2 airports, 1 time zone change.....so far.....

It's been an interesting day already! Right off the bat, I encountered a problem at the airport. Seriously, I was right inside the door....not even past the ticket counter yet! The agent who was checking my bags put the stickers on them (I had done the pre-boarding last night) and handed me the receipts for them. Thankfully, I looked at them quickly......and noticed that they were NOT routed to my destination! I immediately said, "This is not right!" and she grabbed the bags off the conveyor belt quickly. Upon further examination, she determined that the problem was that my flight itinerary was NOT showing that I was going to Bulgaria. I had to laugh. I have the craziest luck with airlines. Seriously! I showed her MY itinerary (e-ticket) and she STILL couldn't find me listed for the flight to Bulgaria. But, since I had my e-ticket, she did go ahead and fix the baggage label and sent my bags on their way to Sofia. She told me to check in with an agent at my next stop. So, I did. Nope, still not showing up on the flight to Bulgaria! Strangely though, they ARE showing me coming home from Bulgaria....just not how I'm getting there. I've already talked to Eldon at Golden Rule, who has assured me that I AM on a flight to Sofia. So, for now, I'm not worried about it....other than that it'll be one more thing to do while navigating an unfamiliar airport.

It's not long now until the international flight boards. I am TIRED...so I hope that means that I'll be able to sleep on the plane! If not, the iPad is fully charged and the Kindle app is loaded with books! For now, I'm listening to some guy play the piano and sing show tunes. He's pretty good too!

The next post should be from Sofia.......unless I get stuck in Holland.......

Less than 12 hours to go!

2011-06-16T19:38:00.002-05:00

The to-do list is done.

I am packed!

The bags have been weighed and thankfully, they did not require any rearranging!
The suitcase weighs 42 pounds and the duffel bag weighs 20 pounds (it's full of diapers for the institution). My carry-on bag weighs as much as the duffel bag!

Tomorrow will be a long day. I change planes 3 different times before arriving in Sofia. I am excited that I'll be seeing a different international airport on this trip! Hopefully, they won't lose my luggage! Other than the "excitement" of seeing a new airport, I'm praying for an uneventful day of on time flights that give me lots of time to read my books and sleep!

The next post should be from Sofia!

YAY!!!!!

To my husband

2011-06-15T16:50:00.002-05:00

Dear My wonderful husband who will say I-told-you-so,

I admit it...I have procrastinated....again. My first flight leaves in 40 hours, which means that I leave my house in oh...about 35 hours.....

1.)I have NO clothes packed. They aren't even washed yet.

2.) My passport is still in the safety deposit box at the bank.

3.) The photo albums are still not put together

4.) My flight itinerary is still on the computer and not printed out and placed in my carry-on bag (though I DID email you a copy of it, so give me a little credit!)

At least I'm consistent with my procrastination, right?

Love,

Your wife who has a habit of last minute packing for trips to Eastern Europe

NOT waiting until the last minute!

2011-06-12T19:27:00.003-05:00

My wonderful husband has made a request: "Please don't wait until the very last minute to get everything together and pack. I do not want you running around like crazy on Thursday night."

Hmmm......you'd think that I have a track record for waiting until the last minute to get everything ready for my trip or something :) :) :)

So, in an effort to prove that I CAN be all ready to go before the last possible second, I have set a goal to have EVERYTHING done that needs to be done by Tuesday. As my wonderful husband pointed out.....that is just 2 days from now. So, I'm attempting to be productive!
Here is what I accomplished tonight: All the electronic "stuff"!
That means that I:
1.) took all the photos and videos off the camera
2.) wiped out the mini me (my net book) and transferred everything to an external drive
3.) transferred all "work" related stuff to the external drive that's going with me so that I can keep up while in Bulgaria
4.) located all the appropriate chords, chargers, headphones w/mic, and adapters. I also put them all in one gallon size Ziploc bag that will go in my carry-on
5.) loaded the Kindle ap with enough books to get through 2 long layovers, 2 international flights and 5 nights at a hotel
6.) created an online file of photos for the photo album that will stay with our daughter in Bulgaria (will print them out tomorrow)
7.) finished the online photo album of photos of Kullen that I am taking to give to the director of the institution (will print those tomorrow too)
8.) Found the case for the mini me, the camera and the external drive. Also put all of those with the bag of chords so that it would all stay together.

To be accomplished in the next 2 days:
1.) Print photos off computer and put them in the appropriate albums
2.) Pack carry-on bag (clothes, electronics and paper work)
3.) Print itinerary for flights (I always forget this until the last minute!)
4.) Go to bank and get passport out of the safety deposit box (I almost completely forgot to put this on the to-do list!)

Hmmm.....I think that's it! See? I'm doing good! Robert still says that he won't believe it until he sees the last thing packed...LOL.

The "official" written refferal

2011-06-11T19:16:00.002-05:00

Today we received the official written referral for our malko tornado!

We already knew most of the information that is in the report. It did include a more recent height/weight for her. From the measurements, we're guessing she's wearing the equivalent of size 4T clothes. That's not "big" for her age, but it IS "big" compared to my other children with Down syndrome and what size they were at her age! I'm going to take a 4T and a 5T outfit and see how they fit her. She looks a lot more "stocky" in the photos than my boys, so I don't want to just go by her weight when thinking about sizes. I'm also taking a tape measure so that we'll have a better idea on shoe size and things like that.

The report also included some basic information about her birth parents. In Bulgaria, adoptions are "private", so the names of the birth parents are not given to the adopting family. This is different than other countries in Eastern Europe. It really doesn't matter to us because we don't have any reason to need their names. But, it is always interesting to read their reason for signing away their parental rights. As expected, our daughter was abandoned at the hospital because she has Down syndrome, though of course it's worded a little more "PC" than that.

Anyway, there were no surprises in the report, not that we were expecting any. Quite honestly, from hearing others describe her and reading this report, she reminds me a lot of Grifyn and his personality when we first met him. Her development is about where he was at her age too.

I can't wait to hold her in my arms again. One more week, baby girl!

A bear for sister

2011-06-08T23:52:00.000-05:00

The girls went with me to Build A Bear to make a bear for their new little sister. Of course, as soon as we got there, THEY wanted bears too. I was prepared for this....and even knew that one of them would bring up the fact that during previous adoptions, I made them each a Build-A-Bear before I traveled. So yes, they got bears too! My mom and my niece, Makaila, were also with us. Nana came to the rescue of all 3 girls because I only agreed to buy 3 BEARS for the 3 "helpers". It was Nana that agreed to clothe the other bears :)

The bear for little sister has a recording in it that says "We love you" that was done by Olivia and Zoie. I picked our a very "American" outfit for the bear that will be staying in Bulgaria with our daughter.

The other 3 girls picked out the outfits for their own bears. Note to self: Never....ever....ever...take these 3 girls shopping for real clothes together......ever!

Zoie named her bear "Sally", while Olivia named her bear "Emma" and Makaila named her bear "Emily". The bear for our Bulgarian daughter is named "Mechka", which is the phonetic spelling of the word "bear" in Bulgarian :)

Mechka is now happily living in the big red suitcase that will transport her to Bulgaria!

The rest of the euros are ordered!

2011-06-03T15:16:00.003-05:00

Today, I went and ordered the euros from my bank to pay for my hotels while in Bulgaria. I could have taken US dollars with me and done all the money converting in Bulgaria, but after my blown budget with the plane ticket, I really wanted to make sure that there were no more unpleasant budget busting surprises with this trip. I am pleased to report that I budgeted $500 to cover hotel expenses and after the conversion, the cost was $497! Whoo-hoo! Once again, the summer travel cost me a little extra because the town where I will be spending the week is literally on the Black Sea and it IS vacation season. So, the prices are a little more expensive on this trip. Still, it's MUCH cheaper than what a hotel on the beach in the US would cost, so I'm not complaining!

The euros will arrive next week and they will be the last envelope that I add to the money belt! Right now, I have the money to cover the visa (for Bulgaria, you pay it on the first trip because it has to be applied for before court, which is in between the trips), food money and the empty envelope that will hold the hotel money. The hotel money will be added to that and I'll be ready to go! Well, I'll be ready to go as far as money is concerned. I still have to get my stuff packed, pack the toys for the orphanage in Sofia, figure out what I'm going to take to keep our malko tornado occupied for 5 days and then make sure it all fits in 1 suitcase, 1 duffel bag and 1 carry on. Oh, and I almost forgot, I need to get a photo album of pictures of Kullen together too!!! I want to take that and leave it with the director. That's on my to-do list for this weekend, so that it gets here in time!

14 more days!!!!!

It's June!!

2011-06-01T14:26:00.002-05:00

THIS month, I will get to hold our little girl in my arms once again!

Looking at the calendar, I realized today that I need to start planning some things for the trip....like what I'm going to pack. The wonderful thing about Bulgaria is that I really don't have to take that much because it's a short trip. Wait, let me rephrase that....I don't HAVE to take that much stuff, but I always end up paying the extra luggage fee anyway! This time will not be any different. I'll be taking an extra duffel bag full of "stuff". Some of it will be toys for the baby orphanage that we visited in March with CTR. I won't be going there, but I'll be leaving the toys with one of our Bulgarian friends, who will drop off the toys at the orphanage. Some friends have helped with donating toys, but I still have room for more, so I'll be going to the store to buy a few more. If I'm going to pay the extra luggage fee, I might as well take advantage of all 50 pounds :) I'll also be leaving the duffel bag in Bulgaria. I'm taking a duffel bag that has some significance....it's all beat up and worn and covered in markings from it's trips to Iraq. It's going to stay in Bulgaria with Toni's wonderful brother, Marty, who loves old Army stuff. I'm also going to try to sneak some other "old Army stuff" in the bag too.....just don't tell Robert :) I was so thrilled to learn that Marty likes Army stuff. That makes gift buying so much easier since the men are always the hardest to buy for!

I won't take gifts for the institution until I go back to Bulgaria on the 2nd trip. I prefer to ask the director what is needed for the children instead of just showing up with stuff. It's particularly challenging in a place like where our girl is because it's an institution....which means the children are older and the sizes and needs vary greatly! So, I will find out from "the boss" what is needed for the institution and bring that back on trip 2.

Other than the duffel bag of "stuff" that will be left in Bulgaria, packing should be pretty easy. I love traveling in the summer time because it doesn't require 20 layers of clothes and jackets!
Only staying a week, I don't need that many clothes, so that's a plus. The only thing that I have to figure out now is what I'm going to take for our malko tornado............

Hotels

2011-05-25T17:25:00.002-05:00

In just a little over 3 weeks, this will once again be my view:

The hotels are now booked for my stay in Bulgaria. I'll spend 5 nights looking out at the Black Sea. I'm VERY excited to get to see it during the summer time this year!!! For those who didn't follow Kullen's adoption in 2009-2010, the location of the institution is on the opposite side of Sofia. So, I will spend one night in Sofia, 5 nights in Byala(the institution is in a very tiny village and this is the closest place to stay) and then one more night in Sofia before leaving for home. I'm staying in the exact same 2 hotels where I have stayed twice before.

I am VERY thankful to be able to say that the hotels will cost LESS than what I had budgeted for this trip. I was concerned that the hotel in Byala would be a lot more expensive since it's "tourist season" at the beach. But, it's really not a bad price at all! I will be going to the bank tomorrow to order the euros to pay for the hotels, so I will have an exact number then. But, based on the current exchange rate, I should save a little over $100 from what I had budgeted for the hotel. Spending less than the budget is always a good thing!!!!

I"m starting to not like Iceland

2011-05-23T12:24:00.002-05:00

What are the chances that 2 years in a row, a volcano in Iceland would erupt right at the time that it will affect my adoption trip in Bulgaria?

Apparently, that answer is....VERY GOOD!

Yet another volcano is causing concern that flights will be canceled all over Europe (and that would mean flights going TO Europe are canceled too). At this moment, those who are wise on all things weather and flight plans (that would NOT be me!) are saying that it should not be anywhere close to the huge disaster last year.
Still, it makes me nervous!

Please join us in praying that this volcano will not effect ANY flights going to/from Europe in the coming weeks. Also pray that all the rest of the volcanoes in Iceland (and everywhere else in the world) stay calm...NO MORE ERUPTIONS!!!

Of all the crazy things that can impact an adoption, I never thought that it'd be a volcano...AGAIN!!!!

the cost of a ticket, the cost of her life

2011-05-20T17:45:00.006-05:00

My plane ticket to Bulgaria is booked!
Robert's boss has him scheduled "on vacation" for the dates I'll be gone.
Now, all that's left is the count down!!!!
(and the packing!)

We are fortunate enough to live within 3 hours of 3 different airports, so we are always able to look at several different options when traveling. Right now, we have to take gas prices into consideration when looking at airports that are further away though. I even explored the option of renting a car to drive myself to one of the airports that are further away. In the end, it was a lot of math and logistical planning....and my poor husband finally saying, "Just make a decision!".

I must once again give a huge recommendation to Eldon at Golden Rule travel. I have made travel arrangements with his assistance to countries all over Eastern Europe with all kinds of weird stipulations....meeting up with people at destinations along the way, needing to leave around a certain time of day, wanting to avoid particular international airports, etc. Now, I've traveled so much that I have the whole "time between flights" thing down to a science. I KNOW how much time I need in between flights and how much time I need to get through customs (especially customs in Atlanta!). So, poor Eldon also had to put up with me asking him to change just certain portions of my flight this time to get the layovers within a time frame that I was more comfortable with (I wanted MORE time, not less). But, as usual, Eldon was able to get absolutely everything that I asked for in my itinerary. Best of all, when he went to lock in the ticket, the price DROPPED $7. Hey, when you see the price of this ticket, you'll realize that every $7 counts!!!! Anyway, after sending the first email to Eldon at 0930 this morning and us exchanging emails and changing flights 3 different times (including changing airports once), he had everything booked less than 8 hours later. Again, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend that if you are doing any international traveling, you contact Eldon to help you with your travel arrangements!

So, here's where we are:
one more thing to check off the to do list and one more expense moved to the "paid" column.

It was A LOT more for this ticket than what we had budgeted!

I had $1,200 budgeted for the plane ticket,

which was a HIGH estimate based on what I paid for tickets during Kullen's adoption.

The ticket for trip one ended up costing $1,999.58!!!!

She's worth every penny of it though!

Oh, and just as a reminder,
"she" is going to continue to be our malko tornado
under her adoption is FULLY FUNDED!
I really hope that I can share her name while I'm in Bulgaria :)

We're still $1,730 away from our goal,

which is the money to cover the in country travel expenses on trip 2.

Tax deductible donations can be made through the
donation box on the right side bar or by clicking here.

We're still selling t-shirts and Praise and Worship CDs
and we're working on a couple of other fundraisers that we'll announce soon.

We've had to raise A LOT of money for this adoption and we're so thankful to everyone that has donated so far.

We were BLESSED to find out just moments after the ticket today was paid for about a donation that will cover the difference in the cost of the plane ticket.

That is a HUGE PRAISE!!!
So, our original need remains the same....
$1,730 to be fully funded.
(and we need to hope that plane tickets go DOWN before trip 2!!!!)

Since this post has talked a lot about money and the high costs involved in this process,

I feel like I need to say this again:
SHE IS WORTH EVERY PENNY!
All the paper work,
all the delays,
all the travel,

all the fundraising,

all the rising costs.....

they all lead down a path that will bring one little girl OUT of a mental institution.
Her life is priceless!

We are so very blessed that God chose us to walk this journey.

Verbal referral!!!!!

2011-05-20T13:16:00.003-05:00

I'm going to Bulgaria in JUNE!!!!

The verbal referral was issued today by the MOJ.
My travel dates for trip one have already been scheduled and I have a flight on hold.

4 weeks from today, I will be on my way!!!!

Praise the Lord!!!!

Our little girl will be in my arms once again on
JUNE 20th
(the date of the meeting with the director/first visit).

Only, this time, when I hold her in my arms,
I will telling her that
she's mine!!!!

Praying for tomorrow!

2011-05-19T11:19:00.005-05:00

Our dossier IS on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting!!!!!

That means that we should receive our verbal referral tomorrow, as long as the officials don't have any questions about our paper work. Please join us in praying that they are happy with all of our paper work and that they DO issue the verbal referral tomorrow.

If that happens, we should know our travel dates this weekend.
We're still several hundred dollars short on the money to cover the plane ticket according to recent prices, so we're still praying about funding too!

measuring a tornado

2011-05-16T21:42:00.005-05:00

Christy sent me the measurements for our malko tornado yesterday. Christy said that these are close to accurate.....well, you know, as accurate as you can be when you're measuring a moving tornado ;) The measurements proved what I suspected from the photos....she is BIG! Wait, let me clarify that, compared to all my other kids, she is big! It appears that she's going to be in the same size clothes as her siblings.....you know, the ones who are 3 years older than her.

I will take some clothes in 2 different sizes with me on the first trip to get an idea of her build. I'll also take a measuring tape with me to get more measurements that I'll need for shoes, jackets, etc (since I'm praying that I will be picking her up in the winter!) The good thing about taking clothes and having her try them on is that I will also get an idea of her motor skills and her level of self-help skills (dressing herself). I'd love to say that I'm going to take some frilly dress to make her all girlie......but I'm just not getting the impression from those who've spent time with her that she's the "girlie" type :)

It is such a blessing to get even small pieces of information about our girl! We are praying that the verbal referral will be issued soon (this Friday would be wonderful!) so that we can get an exact travel date for trip one!!!!

SUBMITTED!!!!!!

2011-05-16T07:17:00.002-05:00

Our dossier was submitted to the MOJ today!!!!!!

Now, we wait on them to issue the verbal referral so that we can schedule a travel date.

We are praying that they meet this Friday and that they issue our verbal referral at that meeting.

We're one step closer to our malko tornado :)

Praying for news this Friday!

Authentication: Done!

2011-05-14T08:37:00.002-05:00

Our dossier is through authentication and back with Toni. It's being copied and organized today so that it can be submitted on Monday!!!

We are continuing to pray that it will be submitted on Monday and that the MOJ will review it and issue the verbal approval quickly.

Our goal/hope/prayer is still to have our daughter home by her 6th birthday. If that's going to be even remotely possible, we need the verbal approval to come quickly so that we can get this process moving forward.

Let's modify that nickname, shall we?

2011-05-09T10:09:00.001-05:00

The new photos of our girl make it very evident that "little one" is a gross understatement and not such a fitting nickname anymore. So, while in my mind, I can still see the tiny little one that toddled over to me and threw her arms up in the air to be picked up and start this whole journey back in December 2009, the reality is that the toddler that I met is now a very big....and very active....5 year old. After meeting her, Toni's description of our "little one" has had me chuckling every time that I think about it. As strange as it seems, I'm thankful that she's not some dainty little girl that is timid and shy. She's going to need to be tough as nails to fit in around here and I always love a good challenge that comes with "reigning in the behavior without breaking the spirit"(which is what we always say about our Zoie!). So, in the past couple of weeks, I've found myself thinking of our "little one" more by the nickname that Toni offhandedly gave her in her emails. So, we'll now refer to her by the newest term of endearment that makes me smile and look forward to meeting her even more........ malko tornado.

Here's a quick Bulgarian lesson for all of you (this is from Toni, not me!):

In both of these words, the "a" is pronounced "ahhh". The "o" in malko is pronounced with a short o sound, like the word "pot". It's a 2 syllable word: "mal" "ko". "tornado" is pronounced the same as it is in English, other than the "a" sound.

"malko" means little. Tornado means the same thing that it does in English ;)

So, we've went from "little one" to "little tornado"....which I've been assured is a much more fitting nickname for our girl :)

Progress....finally.

2011-05-07T16:48:00.002-05:00

After a month long delay that did nothing other than delay us a month and cost us money that could have been used to cover the ever rising cost of airline tickets, we are FINALLY able to move forward with our adoption again!

On Wednesday, I was able to email Toni and tell her that she could start translating our dossier (it's been sitting there since March, remember). Today, she emailed and said that she's done with translation! *Disclaimer: This is our 2nd Bulgarian dossier and just an "update" on the home study since we were previously approved for 2 children from Bulgaria. 98% of our dossier was already translated from our previous adoption since none of that paper work had changed except for the date by the signature. That is why the translation did not take that long.*

On Monday, our dossier will go to the authentication office. That takes a week, so it will hang out there until Friday. Next Saturday, it will all be copied and organized and on Monday, May 16th, it should be submitted to the MOJ! (baring anything crazy...and we are known for crazy things happening to us, so this is all a TENTATIVE plan.)

Our prayer is that everything goes according to plan and that our dossier is in the hands of the MOJ officials on May 16th!

One step closer, little one!!!!

Adoption Budget Killer

2011-05-04T20:55:00.004-05:00

Much to the dismay of my finely tuned adoption budget,

The cost here:

is greatly affecting the cost of tickets for this:

Pricing plane tickets to Bulgaria makes me want to cry. According to the current prices for mid-summer, we are WAY OFF from what we budgeted to cover the plane ticket for the first trip. That means that we're going to have to come up with even MORE money for the first trip than what we had budgeted. I just thought that I had budgeted high with the original estimates. *sigh*

We're going to need $500-800 more to cover the difference :(

New photos and an update!

2011-04-26T19:32:00.004-05:00

Christy was at the institution last week meeting her new son and she was able to see our little girl while she was there. I do believe, from looking at these photos, that I need to change her nick name. "Little One" is not quite accurate any more.....she is BIG!

Seriously, she looks really big too me. Even Robert commented that she looks like she's gained quite a bit of weight. I guess it's better than the alternative, I just hope there isn't a not-so-good health reason for the weight gain.

I also had to laugh at my dear friend, Toni's, description of our girl. Toni has known for years about Robert's "aversion" to adopting girls. She was just as surprised as everyone else (me included!) that we were committing to a girl. So, I had to giggle when I read what Toni wrote about her impression of our soon-to-be daughter. She said: "Tell Robert not to worry. ___ will hold her own with your boys!" She followed that with a suggestion that I might want to "bring a leash" (you know, the child harness things) on the 2nd trip for the airport and such. Yes, it appears that our not-so-little girl is full of energy and quite stubborn....when she is determined to do something, she's going to try her best to do it! Oh, this will be fun..lol!

I'm actually glad to hear that. Honestly, I expected as much. We have lived with Kullen for the past year, after all. Knowing that our not-so-little girl is living in the exact same environment has us already prepared for many of the same behaviors. Good thing we'll be pros at handling it by then, huh? Ha!

Still, to survive around here, our not-so-little one is going to have to have some spunk....and being able to hold her own will be just fine. We'll "reign her in" and teach her appropriate behaviors. No worries there! It's good to know now that she's going to be "high energy". That will help me prepare for what to take to occupy her on the first trip.

OK, so now for what you all REALLY want to see. She was not at all interested in having her photo taken. I was told that she was trying her best to get to Christy's camera case :)
Here she is:

Aleksa's 5K!

2011-04-21T08:33:00.000-05:00

On April 30th, there will be a 5K walk/run in Florida to benefit our dear friends, the Cornish family. The proceeds from the race will go to benefit medical bills associated with the 2 newest additions to the Cornish family, Aleksa and Wesley. The organizers of the race also wanted to bless a family currently raising funds for an adoption and they've decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to our adoption! You can read all about Aleksa's 5K by clicking here.

We're so thankful for the generosity of the Cornish family and the Holland family! If you're anywhere near the Orlando area, you should check it out!

Battle weary

2011-04-20T20:16:00.002-05:00

I need to make a confession.

There are times in this journey of mine that I get SO.VERY.TIRED. of the fight.
The paper work.
The delays that are out of my control.
The money.
Did I mention the delays?

The fact that EVERY.SINGLE.STEP
is a fight.
It makes my soul weary.

I spend day after day staring at face after face...

MILLIONS of orphans....
waiting on a family to call their own.
Delays.
Paper work.
Money.
All cost valuable time and an emotional roller coaster.
Some days, it's just so very frustrating.

We're still in a holding pattern waiting on a step in the process that we can not control.
We wait.
There is really nothing else that we can do.

It's why I haven't written anything on this blog in a while.

It hurts my heart to even come here and say
that I have nothing new to share :(
My heart aches for the little girl that is waiting.
But right now, there is nothing that we can do but wait.

Thankfully, there are those moments when God gently reminds me that there is a purpose in this battle. I KNOW that there is. Of course I do. But sometimes, it just all gets overwhelming...and the JOY and the PURPOSE get lost in the

endless delays

and waiting.

I invite you to go and read Christy's blog.
They are at the institution right now spending time with their new son....
the little boy who's file we requested after meeting him during Kullen's adoption.
He is the child that we had intended to adopt when the files were requested...
until God threw us a curve ball with our little girl.
Oh, how it did my heart good to see that little boy with his MOM!
This is why....
THIS IS WHY WE DO THIS.

It's so easy to get caught up in the paper work

the delays

the money

Did I mention the delays?

And ya know, that's exactly what Satan wants. he wants us to lose sight of the
TRUE PURPOSE.

Each and every time that a family wraps their arms around a child and says,
"You are MINE",

it is all worth it.

In my work, I'm often consumed in the PROCESS.
With our own adoption, we're currently consumed with the PROCESS.

I need to spend a little more time focusing on

THE PURPOSE....and THE VICTORIES
so that I can remember to be thankful....

even when the process wants to make me bang my head against a wall.

Funding update

2011-04-09T17:43:00.003-05:00

If you look over there on the right side bar in the section titled, "Money needed to go on the first trip", you will see a huge PRAISE THE LORD. The first part of our adoption is fully funded!!! So, now we're just waiting on all the paper work stuff to be completed so that our dossier can be submitted to the MOJ. As strange as it sounds, I actually have absolute peace about this stall in our process and the delay it's going to put us in. I don't like it...not at all. But, I'm not stressing about it. There is absolutely nothing that I can do at this point but wait....so, we wait. I believe with all my heart that our little girl IS coming home to our family and I'm trusting that God's timing is better than mine....even if He's running late by my standards ;)

So, now we shift our focus to the remaining funds that we need for this adoption.

We're still selling t-shirts and my favorite is still this one:

If you look at the right side bar, you'll also notice a couple of other new additions.

One is the tax deductible donation link that has the total amount in our FSP account through Reece's Rainbow. If you'd like to make a donation toward our adoption, you can use that donate button to make the donation.
The donation will automatically update the total here and the box on this blog will update each hour to reflect any new donations.

When that donation box gets to $7,500, I'll share our little girl's new name :)

oops! Where have I been?

2011-04-05T19:49:00.002-05:00

I didn't mean to take an adoption blog hiatus...especially not after the last post!

But, I've been in a bit of an "adoption funk" this past week....paper work issues, the wait, crunching numbers to try to figure out how much more money we need to make this happen, stupid stuff that's causing us to be delayed that is entirely my fault because I was being "honest" and "ethical" and caused myself a whole bunch of headaches that have done nothing but add a couple of extra weeks to our process (and oh, about $700).

Anyway........

All that is sorted out and done now.

Lesson learned.
Honesty costs money and time.
*sigh*

Our dossier IS in Bulgaria.
It's almost done with translation.
Right now, it's just waiting on me to say, "GO",
so that it can be sent through the rest of the process
and submitted to the MOJ.

I am hopeful that this will happen before the end of this week.

In the mean time,
I am LONGING to be here.....

and, while right now, the answer is "wait" and our hope is still
to be there "this summer", I AM happy to say that a family will be there
in TWO WEEKS and they should get to peek in on our little one and say hello.
They are going on their first trip to visit the older boy that was Kullen's closest friend....
the 2nd of the 2 children that I promised to find a family for if we could only get the files.
I actually had nothing to do with this family finding him,
it was quite simply Divine intervention that they live so close to us in Alabama.
(and a huge answer to my prayers!)

Still, I am THRILLED for them and for the son that they are going to meet!

OK, I promised to write more later in the week about that name,

what our specific financial needs still are and what specific prayer needs

we have in regards to this adoption and our little girl.

For now, please pray for the family that is traveling to Rudnik in 2 weeks!

THE name

2011-03-25T09:49:00.000-05:00

We have chosen a name for our new daughter!!!

We discussed it last week
and God confirmed it for me while I was....

well, where else.....

in Bulgaria!

We've spent several days walking around saying it.
We've had the kids say it.
(yes, Kullen and Grifyn can both say it)

None of you should be surprised to know that
we've also played around with the spelling to make sure that
it's not "too common".

It turns out that it was

EXACTLY

what I was looking for in a name.
I just didn't realize it.

When I shared it with my husband,
the first thing he said was....

Well, it doesn't start with a "C"........

meeting the Vice Minister

2011-03-23T18:58:00.004-05:00

*I hand delivered my dossier to Toni last Thursday.
I'd like to think that I will be in Bulgaria again for the first adoption trip in June.
That's probably a long shot, but it's my prayer!*

It was wonderful to be in Bulgaria again this past weekend, even if it didn't have anything to do with my personal adoption. It was a WONDERFUL weekend full of various events, meetings and time spent with friends and families. If you haven't already, please do visit the Connecting The Rainbow blog for updates on the trip and our ongoing work in Bulgaria.

One thing that I got to do while in Bulgaria that I had not previously mentioned anywhere was a meeting that I had with the Vice Minister who is over international adoptions in Bulgaria. The meeting had actually been scheduled for well over a month and was something that I'd been praying about for quite a while. The blessing and the curse of being on both sides of the adoption "world"....as an adoptive/adopting parent but also as someone who assists other families that are adopting....is that often times I hear not only the joys and triumphs that come when children are placed in families, but also the not so good and the politics that come when adoption and the lives of orphans starts being viewed as a business or a competition. It is a part of all of this that I struggle with.....finding the balance.

I am so very pleased to be able to say that the people in charge of international adoptions in Bulgaria truly DO have the best interest of the children at the very front of every decision that they make. I have been thrilled time and time again as new laws and policies are put in place in Bulgaria over the past few years because each and every one BENEFITS THE CHILDREN. I can't always say that about other country programs, and that is probably why I am extra thankful for the work being done in Bulgaria.

But, like anything else in life, their efforts are not always appreciated like they should be. There are still those people who view adoption strictly as a business and they can, at times, cause problems and discontent in an adoption program. I can not even begin to imagine the PRESSURE that the Vice Minister and the entire international adoption committee at the MOJ in Bulgaria face. I know that despite their best efforts there are still those that think that they aren't doing enough.

What I didn't know when the meeting was scheduled months ago was that it would be timed to be right before the Vice Minister met with the committee for a very important meeting about EXACTLY what I came to talk to her about. I'd love to tell you everything that I said during the meeting with the Vice Minister. But quite honestly, my prayer for so long had been that God would speak through me to say exactly what needed to be said in that moment and He certainly did that. I just started talking and the words flowed right from my heart.

It was an honor to get to meet with the Vice Minister and it was a privilege to be able to share the "after" stories of so many Bulgarian special needs children who are now thriving in families in the USA with her. I continue to be encouraged by all the positive changes that are happening in Bulgaria and all of the children that are coming HOME in 2011!

2011-03-16T09:49:00.000-05:00

I am going to Bulgaria TODAY!

It has absolutely nothing to do with OUR adoption, though.

Still, I wanted to share the information here because it's VERY exciting
and I'm very much looking forward to this trip!
Monday, March 21st, is World Down Syndrome Day.
I'll be celebrating in Sofia!

An outreach of Reece's Rainbow is
Connecting The Rainbow.
The purpose of Connecting The Rainbow (CTR)

is to provide support and information for families in Eastern Europe
who have chosen to keep and raise their children with Down syndrome.
The mission is simple:
The ultimate goal of Reece's Rainbow is to eliminate the need for the organization to exist.
This goal can only be accomplished by educating and supporting families all over the world who have children with Down syndrome; giving them the knowledge and resources needed to keep and raise their children with Down syndrome in a loving family environment.

Those who know me well know that THIS is my hearts desire.
I love my children and I'm very much looking forward
to adding another daughter to our family through adoption.
But, I don't want to have to go to Eastern Europe and adopt
children with Down syndrome.
I don't want to advocate for orphans with Down syndrome
and share about what happens to them when they are left in institutions
or what their future looks like in those places.
I want every child with Down syndrome
(and other special needs)
to be raised by their families and not placed in orphanages
because of their diagnosis
(and statistically, most children w/Ds are NOT
true orphans, they are there because of their diagnosis).
THAT is my dream.
THAT is my heart's desire.
THAT is the mission of CTR.

The conference is scheduled for Sunday, March 20th
in Sofia, Bulgaria.
I will be arriving in Bulgaria on Thursday

and will attend several meetings and events leading up to Sunday.
There is a team of 9 people coming from various parts
of the US and the UK
to present at this conference.
It is a wonderful group of people
and I'll be so excited to finally have them all in one place this week!

I invite you all to follow the
Connecting The Rainbow blog
as we spend this weekend in Bulgaria!

The authenticated dossier!

2011-03-14T11:46:00.003-05:00

There it is.
One completed Bulgarian adoption dossier.
$2,468 for the documents
plus
$85 worth of apostilles to authenticate it all
and
a whole lot of stress, tears and prayers
are represented in that one photo.

It will be hand delivered on Thursday.