A Happy Move

Every Friday we get an update from our agency listing how many families they have in each stage. We've celebrated with each line we've moved to. This week we got to move down to the MOJ Registration line with all the other families who are waiting. 

Bulgaria 06/28/12 June Update PAPERWORK: 17 Families TRANSLATION - WAITING ON NBC APPROVAL: 8 Families MOJ REGISTRATION: 41 Families SPECIAL TREASURE (waiting on official match by MOJ): 1 Family WAITING ON 1ST TRIP: 1 Family ARTICLE 5 APPROVAL: 1 Family IN MOJ: 3 Families IN COURT: 3 Families WAITING ON 2ND TRIP: 2 Families

Bulgarian Registered

Wahoo! We got the email from our agency today that includes our official registration number for our adoption. This means that we are officially registered in the Bulgarian system and have now taken our place in "line". 

This is the largest adoption happening since we signed our agency application back in November. It feels great to have made it this far, but we know that our adoption gets progressively tougher from here on out. 

Our social worker said the wait right now is 24 months. This will require patience that I don't have. I'm hoping to grow some as the months go by.

We know that it is very likely that our daughter(s) has been born and as we watch Evan every day...watch him fall repeatedly, giggle, play, snuggle on our laps, scrape his knee, it's nearly impossible to imagine that somewhere our daughter is living a very different life. Not necessarily a life where no one cares, but a life where there are too many children and too little time. Too many butts, not enough laps and too much work to be done. 

We know that God's timing is perfect. So until he calls us forward again, we'll be waiting (probably some days better than others.)   

Please let the prayers and patience be plenty…

Rob Gets Riled

Don't mess with Rob. 

Have you ever been so upset, so frustrated, that you threatened to "march right down there."  Rob did that. I don't want to cause a scene, but I just want to point out that as obnoxious and passionate and feisty and all-out-annoying I can get when dealing with adoption stuff (just ask our home study agency, bismarck division), even I was uncomfortable by the events that were unfolding on Friday morning.

It all started at the beginning of last week.

After Rob and I received our NBC approval, all we needed...as in the ONLY piece of papers that were standing between our completed dossier and us, were the letters from our Drs stating that we were disease free (glamorous, i know).

I got my letter last Monday, which then started increasingly persistent calls to his Dr. After not even receiving a returned phone call, Rob called again on Thursday and learned that they were only in a half day the day before, but they would be in again on Friday.

Our whole goal in this week was to get our letters (which had to be notarized) and get them up to the Capitol to be authenticated by Thursday afternoon because we were leaving town on Friday morning and the Secretary of States office is closed on Mondays.

This was looking bleak.

Rob called at 8am on Friday morning and learned that the Dr WAS in, but there was not a notary in the building.

This is where it gets interesting.

So, I'm at work finishing some things up before we leave on vacation and Rob calls me and tells me that when he finally got someone on the phone he told them that I was going to come down there with a notary and the letter all typed out only needing their letterhead and a signature.

Um...what? Where am I going to find a notary at 8:30am who can just drop everything and come with me? I sat at my desk paralyzed...so desperately wanting to make this happen and yet not knowing how it was possible.

Well, as we learned in SKY vacation bible school last week, everything is possible with GOD. (Also, where I learned that "no matter what happens...trust god." I love it when I have more take-aways than the kids.)

I walked to the offices next door. stood at the office door of one of two people there I know reasonably well and said all nonchalantly, "so, do you guys happen to have a notary?" to which she replies, "Yes, me." To which I replied, "you're never going to believe my story..." to which she responded by driving with me down to the clinic and waiting for the Dr. to be free enough to provide us with his signature. Seriously selfless and amazing.

After that I drove up to the Secretary of State's office. Their authentication department is amazing. As I mentioned, they are so busy because of the oil boom that they are actually closed to the public on Mondays and have shortened hours the rest of the week. AND yet, they somehow authenticated the first set of our paperwork in under 24 hours. People!?! That is amazing. I know adoptive parents from states NOT dealing with oil, who wait weeks and weeks for their papers to be authenticated. I know they don't have to be as speedy as they are and I am so grateful.

So the day before, I had emailed up their and explained our situation and she said that if we brought our last two documents up, they would authenticate them on the spot. What a blessing.

So at 10:30am after safely tucking our remaining documents away with the the USPS, tracked package, of course, we were on the road...only 1 1/2 hours after we had planned to leave.

And...as icing on the cake of that great day...our social worker emailed us to let us know that we would be registered with Bulgaria within the next week.

Stand by for more celebrating.

NBC Approved

We were shocked to get our precious NBC approval letter in the mail yesterday, only one week after we had our fingerprints done in Fargo. Thank you U.S. government! This document gives us permission to bring our child back into the U.S.

So this is our final step that is in our control. Will this cause me to be out of control? Probably. Thank the good Lord I have a husband who is not a worrier and grounds me (like not in the grounds-me-and-sends-me-to-my-room sense). We'll send our paperwork to our agency and they'll send it on to meet up with the rest of our paperwork that is already in Bulgaria and translated.

Seems so final. And yet the tough part is still to come. So what will we do while we wait for our daughter(s)? We will, of course, continue to raise two hilarious and amazing boys. We will probably hold our breath every time our social worker calls.  We'll hopefully remember to blog.

We're also excited about an orphan advocacy ministry that we're helping start up at our church. I so desperately want God to take our one or two and turn it into 20...or 50 (but we'll start with 20)...
I want to talk to more people about adoption. I want to be transparent and share our story.

Several people in the last six months have shared with me that they may be feeling the nudge from God to step forward to adopt. I want to talk to you for a second.

I want you to know that this really can be for you. That money is undoubtedly an obstacle, but it is not a deal-breaker. That I know you may already have one child in each room available, but that there is room for more. I want you to know that God has your back in this. He will never leave you (even if you say no to what he asks of you). He has a plan for you. All he asks is that you step out in faith.

I want you to know that I want to help you. I want to walk with you in your process and I want to help you raise the money you need to make this happen. You are not alone. Let's chat or go to coffee.