Some Bulgarian Facts

The Plight of the Bulgarian Orphan

Here is a great, current article on the status of orphans in Bulgaria.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g1oa_rCuxc7DwuXNWb05u9eY-X0g

It's a girl!

This will be a long post as it contains the juicy details and circumstances of getting a referral.

Bill had a couple days off from work. We went to work out at the gym on Wednesday afternoon together. I was just saying to Bill..."how is this ever going to work?" I was speaking of the adoption process and how it was not going as we anticipated. My phone rang and it was my agency. I thought nothing of it. I had just gone through the process to change the age of the child we could adopt. I thought she was calling to ask about that process. We had updated our homestudy to reflect an age change. I had new FBI fingerprints to mail in since ours were almost a year old and new paperwork to send to immigrations (USCIS I800a supplement). I had put it off until after our workout. Kay began by asking me to refresh her memory...was Bulgaria waiting for anything from us? Was our dossier complete? I must admit I started to get worried, like, "what now??"
I said yes, everything was complete and we were registered. She then told me that she had a referral for us!!!! I was completely stunned, surprised, shocked. I felt a little reserved also. I knew our child would have special needs and this was the moment I would find out what kind of need they would have. It seemed especially worrisome to have been given a referral as opposed to requesting a referral and knowing full-well, up-front what the need would be. She told us she had a referral for the most beautiful little girl and she would send her information to us by email. I asked if she was sure it was a referral for us--not another couple?? She assured me that it was a referral for us. The problem at the time was that none of the documents had been translated.
We went home to pull up the email. It's true, she is a cutie. And it's true, the referral was for us. I couldn't read anything else, but our names were written in plain English. But what was her special need??
I tried google translate, but it wouldn't translate any of the documents--not even words of it.
It was Wednesday night dinner at mom's and most of the family were there. We were able to share our news with them all. We were a bit tentative not knowing her SN, but we were excited. On Thursday, we were told briefly what her need was, but that she was doing well. On Friday, we received her document translated. I wish I could say more about her, but we must wait until we meet her and we know for sure that we are meant to be her parents.
We do feel that God totally has a hand in this. Of course He does in all things, but it is very evident to us in this referral.

We will travel in July to meet her. We are excited, but scared at the same time. We can't even contemplate how our family will change. We are trying to go into this with our eyes wide open...except we can't see what the future really holds. We just believe she is meant to be a part of ours.
By the way, our travel dates were absolutely perfect for us. We had a week of family vacation planned. We were going to do a week in Chicago. All along we said if we would get a referral, that would be our week to travel. We would skip Chicago for Bulgaria! Bill has very little flexibility to change any of his summer schedule. It would have caused much hardship and probably hard feelings at his work to have to change the schedule. We are so thankful it worked out so perfectly. Is God trying to show us something??

Our adoption anthem...

Bill has the newest Mercy Me album on his ipod. He called me in the other night to listen to this song. It's special to me on so many levels, especially now that we know a little girl waits for us. It's our new favorite song and I could listen to it over and over. I wanted to share it here.

The Most Amazing Day...We have a referral!!

We are completely stunned and surprised. I will share more later...

It's confirmed, we are registered!

It's been a long time coming, but we have confirmation that we are officially registered. I had heard many times, that no news was good news. I sent a stomping and screaming type of letter to my agency...I was feeling so desperate to find out something, anything. I had been to a picnic of other adoptive families. One question that always comes up is, "when were you registered or how long have you been waiting?" All we knew is that we sent our dossier to our agency the beginning of December. It seemed like simple information that we should be able to easily find out. We were told it was translated and at the MOJ in early January. In early February they asked for us to update our medicals. Those were sent in late February. After that, all was quiet??!! Anyway, at the point I couldn't take the lack of information any longer, we got information that we were registered in March. Almost a year exactly to the date that we started walking down this road.
It was a great feeling to actually see our name with our number. It gives a sense of confidence that all is as it should be. Now we are in the "pile" and our wait officially begins.

God be with them

Something "new" is heavy on my heart. We are adopting a special needs child. They will have a physical need/birth defect/medical disease. The list is long of what their need could be. Because of the type of child that we have described in our homestudy, we would expect that the child would be as mentally and emotionally healthy as possible. But recently my mind has been wrapped around the fact that almost all of these children are simply damaged. I don't know what the Lord has in store for us, or what our child will really be like, but from what I have been reading, there seems little chance that they will be "normal" in every way. You see, most Bulgarian children are placed for adoption in infancy. There is much research on the damaging effects of being raised in an institution. Their little minds simply cannot develop properly without the constant care, love, contact that a parent could give them. God made children to be cared for by a mother and a father. The situatation in most Eastern European countries is that they are placed in orphanages and cared for there. In other countries it is more common for a child to be placed in a foster home, or cared for by a parent until they are relinquished to an orphanage due to exteme poverty or the child becoming an orphan. These situations have there own problems and risks, but not quite as severe as complete institutionalization. I am making generalizations. From some message boards that I have been on lately, I am hearing that almost 100% of these children have some form of ADD/ADHD or other learning/behavior problems. It's hard to assume that our child will not suffer with the same. Every family loves them and believes they are wonderful and loving children, but there are issues and the road to raise them is not easy.
I believe the orphanages are doing the best they can, but these children need mommies from the very start that will hold them and talk to them and look them in the eyes. I am sad for the life that these children are handed. It's this fallen world that we live in. I am not trying to put the cart before the horse...but I am sad and disappointed that our child may suffer from these problems...that we (the child and us) will have this burden to carry. No one would want their child to suffer from these problems. It doesn't make me not want to have one of these children. They need a family as much as my own children need our family. Our child needs us and we need to see what Jesus will do in their lives. The damage is done, so to speak. Their best hope is Jesus and the love of a family. That's what we want to give them.
My prayer is that God will give us a special measure of grace to handle whatever their physical and emotional needs may be. I know it will be difficult. I pray that our child is an exception to the norm, but regardless, I trust that God will give us what we can handle, and that He will hold us up to meet the challenge.
I pray that even now their caregivers pat their backs, smile at them, sing them a song, and look them in the eyes. I pray that they are given the best care to give them the best chance in life until we can have them home.