Next Step

Not much new is happening. 

We're currently stalled until all, as in

Every. Single. One.

of our nine references turns in their letters. After talking with each of our references, I think we're only waiting on two. Seriously, could there have been a worse time of the year to ask someone to do this?!? Doubt it.

After all nine are in, we can schedule our interviews with our social worker. During our last routine call with our agency, they ran down how the interviews will work:

We each have to do a two hour interview alone, we'll do another two hour interview together in our home and the fourth interview will be with our son. She then went on talking about time frames and I had to stop her and clarify with some shock that she meant Ben. "As in our four year old Ben?!? Really?" She laughed and said that they want to talk to any children who are able to carry on a conversation. She said they would ask him general questions about getting a new sister and how he feels about adoption.

Boy, wouldn't you just love to be a fly on the wall? I can't wait to hear what he says. This is a kid who, when asked if he was excited about getting sisters, said with a bit of a frown, "yea. But they're girls."

Bulgarian Cuisine

We have recently worked our way through 10+ hours of a workbook that is meant to prepare us for bringing our daughter home. In the chapter on local foods, we were asked to go to a local Bulgarian restaurant and report what we had, how it smelled, tasted & looked and how it differed from our food.

I'll just let that sink in a minute.

Shopka

So obviously that wasn't an option (and obviously that book was made for people living in large cities). We decided to Google Bulgarian recipes and found we had quite a few to choose from. Rob choose Moussaka, a fairly bland meat and potato dish, and I picked Shopka, a veggie salad I had heard rave reviews about from the family blogs of people who have been to Bulgaria.


It was not bad. Not bad at all.

Moussaka

We invited our friends the Herolds and Weixels over and made a Digiornos for the kids. Everyone was a good sport and enjoyed it, but we had a fun discussion on how we could Americanize the main dish. Here is our short list:

• Add BBQ
• Add ketchup
• Pour some Coke over the top (because what is more American than Coke? Except maybe Toby Keith)
• Deep fat fry it
• Add cheese...like A LOT of cheese

For the record, Rob googled Bulgarian resturantes and the closest one is in Vegas. Maybe someone could go there for us and report back.

Be the Difference

A video our adoption agency developed.

Bountiful Blessings

When we said yes to this adoption, we said yes knowing that we don't have the money for it. That's a giant leap of faith for two people who are very careful with their money. We know it will work out, we know that God has an always perfect plan...but it would be a lot easier to have our daughter in our arms and talk in the past tense about the goodness of God and how he fulfilled his promise and completed our story than it is to be in the middle, looking at the deadlines and all the zeros and wondering if the money will be there.

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your children from the East and gather you from the West." ~ Isaiah 43:5

But what kind of a faith would that be? To only trust when it comes to the easy stuff. It's really easy to walk the walk when it doesn't really matter.

I get my courage up and say yes and then doubt creeps into my mind and I wonder what the heck we're doing. I read your kind words on Facebook and in the comments section of the blog and I feel reaffirmed and then I go online to pay bills and I see the balance of our savings and I wonder how.

But friends! (there I am being all dramatic again) GOD is so much bigger. He is teaching me so many things through this process and he is showing me little by little that He really does have it covered. That that statement is more than just a cliche, it's the truth.

A couple of examples just from this week:

• Our agency made a couple of minor errors on their cost estimate sheet, causing the price to drop by about $1500.
• The company I work for, a NONPROFIT, is for the first time in my eight years of working here granting a $500 bonus to employees.
• Rob has been super busy the past several weekends with Christmas gigs which means an extra several hundred dollars.

These are not coincidences and we feel totally blessed.

So last night we were watching TV and we heard the storm door open and something hit the door. I got up  and opened the door and found a remote and car key on the floor. I looked out and there, in front of our house was a blue Dodge Ram. I turned around and asked Rob why someone was dropping off a truck and he said that he didn't know...to which I jokingly laughed and replied, "Praise the LORD! Someone gave us a truck to include in our silent auction!! Thank you Jesus." OK - so it ended up being our neighbors. Someone thought our house was theirs. Oh well!
Speaking of silent auctions - someone has generously agreed to host a fundraiser for us in February. We'll share more details as we have them!

Making a List, Checking it Twice

Dare I say...we've crossed a lot of our list this week! Seriously, about four times Rob has had to tell me to save my energy for the things that matter. It's the little things that drive me the most crazy. What can I say? I get a little worked up. Combine that with my dramatic nature and the fluidity of adoption and ladies and gentlemen...you have the makings of a hot mess.

Most of the time we try to just laugh it off...like yesterday, when we went in to get our FBI fingerprints. We park downtown, go in, go through security and find the office only to have her tell us we needed a large envelope to put the cards into so they can seal them and sign over the seal. So there we go...back out the door to find an envelope and repeat the whole process about 10 minutes later. It's the little things...

So this week we can check off:

• Medical clearances (the photo was taken in the waiting area - what a cute little guy! I'm talking about Evan, not Bradly.)
• Taylor Johnson assessment (personality profiling)
• ND Background Checks
• FBI fingerprints
• 1/2 of the workbook our agency requires to prepare us for what lies ahead

So for now we plug away at collecting our dossier documents and we wait for our references to send in their recommendations and our background checks to come back so we can finish up our home study.

If all goes smoothly, we should be able to ship our completed packet off to Bulgaria sometime next spring. What an amazing feeling that will be.

On a totally separate and way more fun note...

Please pray for:

* Michelle and Scott Zajac and family - Michelle is a high school classmate of mine. Her family recently accepted the referral of a 3 year old named Kya from Uganda.

* Christina and Terry Parkman - I connected with them through mutual friends in Bismarck. They just got word that their request for a specific child was accepted by the Chinese government.  They should be traveling to pick up their one year old daughter, Avalie Jiayin, in the next six months. Follow their journey on their Facebook page.