It's THAT Post About THAT Call

The way I figure it, we've waited about 900 days to be able to share...

We got our REFERRAL!!

You guys,  she is beautiful and she is ours. Lots of adoptive parents told me that we would know when we found our daughter and they were right. From the second I laid eyes on her, I knew that she was a Peske. Even when we weren't sure what our international pediatrician was going to say about her medical information, we knew she was ours.

Her name is Anche (ann-ch-ae), but we'll call her Emily Anche Peske. She turned two on April 2 and she has the biggest brown eyes. We have a video of her and Rob swears she doesn't blink the entire length of the video. AND she has dark curly hair. If there was ever a "sign" that she was ours, that would be it. Imagine that...a little Bulgarian with naturally curly hair.

Unfortunately, we can show her photo to people in person all we want, but we cannot post them online (blog, facebook, etc.) until after we pass court, which is several months away.

On May 11 we'll travel to Bulgaria for a week for our first trip. After we accept our referral in person, we come home and wait 4-6 months to go through the steps we need to be able to go on our pick up trip (U.S. approval, visa, court, etc.). So it's looking like we'll head back to Bulgaria sometime in October to take our daughter out of the orphanage FOREVER. With a little luck, we should have our little Emily home for her first Christmas. God is so good. He has been faithful and his timing is perfect.

Little Emily is in Burgas, Bulgaria on the Black Sea. 

Waiting Patiently

It's June! That means we are officially one year into our two year wait for our referral.

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.

One More, One Less

 

"I will not leave you as orphans,

I will come to you."

- John 14:18

 

 

It's amazing to look back with 20/20 vision and see the work God does. He is amazing. The seeds he plants, the connections he makes, the stories he allows us to witness all become a part of the story, future and plan he has for us.

 

Two summers ago when we were praying over our own adoption, I kept feeling like God was laying it on my heart that this was bigger than us. He kept placing Charity (our church) on my heart.

Well, you want to freak people right out? You tell them that God is telling you that the church you (and they) attend needs to be more involved with orphan care and adoption. Seriously. Watch people go running for the (Killdeer) mountains.

 

As it turns out there was a lot of "sleeper" adoption interest. After I posted this post about God calling us to adoption, I had four (count them 1. 2. 3. 4.) people admit to me that they had felt a nudge to adopt. Yes, God. We are listening.

 

That same summer we were doing the research, the precious Kindel family was coming home from India with their daughter, Rupa. God was laying it on their hearts as well that there needs to be a place for people to go for support and financial assistance (the #1 reason people don't pursue adoption).

 

They approached me and two other wonderful women who have a big heart for the fatherless with their vision and One More, One Less (OMOL) was created.

 

More about OMOL next time, but for now follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/onemoreonelessministry and on our website at www.onemoreonelessministry.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now Don't Go Getting All Excited

I basically have nothing new to report, but wanted to give you a little update.  We are currently in month six of an up-to-24-month wait.

Most days are good days, but about once a month I get freaked out by the Internet (what do you mean files aren't moving? What?!? Your agency told you it's now a five year wait?!?) and then need assurance from our agency (they have never had a family wait longer than three years).

That is the roller-coaster that is adoption.

And yes, why we are thankful that we do not have the extra test of patience that comes with having their photos or knowing their names, we do know that they are living and the thought of them not being home with us, some days is too much.

Thank you for your prayers and for asking how we are doing. It means more than anything else. Until then, we'll continue to love on and chuckle at these two:

We'll also be working on a new project. We can talk about that more next time.

Bring our Children Home

Sweet, sweet video.