Last February we had a little scare when the whole Bulgarian government resigned on the same day in the midst of the people (of the poorest country in the European Union) protesting high heating costs. Because the head of the Ministry of Justice (that houses international adoptions) was also one of the people who resigned, this caused mass panic in the Bulgarian adoption world where people expected this would set adoptions back by at least eight months (us included).
I have conflicting messaging on what has resulted since the interim person has taken over. One thing we know is that international adoptions did not STOP totally, so that is good. If you ask our agency, they would say that things have definitely slowed (hard to imagine they could move sloooooooower). However, if you go by the traffic and activity on our Bulgarian community board, you would think things were speeding up a little. So we do what we always do...pray for the best, but be prepared for the worst. Bulgarian elections were a couple of weeks ago and the new deputy minister has yet to be appointed so the regular referral meetings have not started back up yet. We pray that the new person has a passion and places a priority on uniting orphans with their families.
We also found out recently that Bulgaria is moving more towards foster care vs. orphanage care. In fact, word is that one of the orphanages actually shut down because all the children were being housed locally. This is very good for the children of Bulgaria.
Many people have asked us about the Russia adoption shut-down and if this affects us. The good news is that we have no reason to believe that Bulgaria will have the same fate as Russia. Please continue to pray that Russia stops using their most vulnerable children as collateral.
Many people also ask us about our next steps. So the good news is that after we receive our referral, things will move very quickly. We will likely travel on our first trip less than a month after we accept our referral. After our first trip it will be another 4-6 months before we can go back to pick her up and bring her home forever. Friends, the hardest part is yet to come. We are preparing our hearts already.
So that's what's happening here. We are not staring at our phones yet, but by Christmas I'm guessing that will change. Christmas is the low end of the estimate on the timeline they gave us.
What we need now more than anything is for people to pray. Pray for our daughters who are waiting to be matched with us. Pray for the government. Pray for the families (many in Bismarck) who are in limbo like we are.
No comments:
Post a Comment