what happens next?

It's been a while since I wrote a "what happens next post" and I've had a few questions, so I thought it would be easiest to just answer them here all at once!

We have a court date on April 9.  Lucky for us our attorney in "B" gets to go in our place.  After court we will wait seven days for the adoption to be finalized.  At that point our attorney gets to apply for some (more) paper work and we get our travel dates.  Usually travel dates are anywhere from 3-5 weeks from then.  Plane tickets can't be purchased until that point, so we fully expect to pay a premium price for this trip.  Spring and summer is the most expensive time to travel to Europe!  We are praying that we will get to leave sometime at the very beginning of May to bring our boy home.

Wes and I will both be traveling to pick our son up.  Typically families arrive into country on Saturday, and then on Sunday drive to the village where the orphanage is.  Monday is "gotcha" day and we will race back to the capital city to apply for his passport.  It's important we get this done as quickly as possible so that it's ready for us to leave the following Saturday.  Other things we will complete the week in "B" include a trip to the US Embassy and a doctor's appointment so he is medically cleared to enter the US.  We will leave very early Saturday morning to fly roughly 24 hours back home.  With a 4 year old.  Who has probably never seen an airplane, much less been on one....or three.

Wonder what happens in the next few weeks?  We spend pretty much all of our free time finishing getting ready for a 4 year old to live with us.  Doing laundry, packing, take a bunch out, and then repacking.  We will both be taking a little time off from work after we get home, so we will also be scheduling some doctor's appointments for our boy, as well as getting something set up with the local school district so he can begin to receive therapy as soon as possible.

The other things that we are working on include collecting a few more toys for the orphanage, and raising funds to donate for the roof.  As of right now we are over $600 in donations (including the case donations and chipin totals)!  Thank you!

We appreciate the continued prayers on our behalf, we feel like we are finally in the home stretch!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

We got our court date!  Our case will be heard on April 9, at 3pm.  Thank you all for your prayers, we are in awe of God's timing in all of this.  Hopefully we will be home with Colton by mother's day!  What an amazing gift that will be.

The judge did request some paperwork from the orphanage, so please pray it arrives in time.

Thank you for continuing to pray!

Dear Danny

Dear Danny,

There is so much I want to tell you right now, but the biggest thing is how much we miss you!  It's been almost forever since we left you in Bulgaria and we honestly don't know when we will see you again.  Your dad and I have been working very hard at getting ready for you.  I've been shopping like a good mom, but your dad has built you a bed!  It's beautiful and I can't wait to see you sleeping in it.  Just so you know it's a "big boy bed" so it's pretty different that the crib you've slept in for the past four years, but we just feel that you are ready for a big bed since you aren't a baby.

You have many friends and family members who eagerly await your arrival.  They are all praying for you and us while we wait for news of our court date and finalization of the adoption.  I hope you are spending lots of time with Baba Mila and soaking up her love!  We are still hoping and praying to bring you home in May, so start getting ready!

Love,

Momma

Sunday Prayers

First I want to thank everyone who has donated and committed to donate to the orphanage roof repair fund.  As I said in my previous blog post if the roof is not repaired soon the orphanage may have to close the kitchen, and I honestly don't know how they will feed the children. Heartbreaking for Dr. A to have to possibly make this decision, so we are very thankful for the support of our family and friends.

Here are this week's prayer requests

1. Danny: he is constantly in our hearts, we pray that he is as ready to come home with us as we are to have him here!
2. Court Dates: I'm going to be real here for a minute: I'M GETTING VERY IMPATIENT AND IRRITATED.  :)  So many of our friends who are at the same place we are have their dates yet, and we have heard nothing.  Please pray that we receive our dates soon, and that they are within two weeks.  We are still praying to bring our boy home in May, and it's getting harder to believe that will happen.
3. Donating: please pray about donating.  We know times are tough, but I can promise your money will go to the best cause I can currently think of: leaving a legacy behind for our son.

Thank you for continuing to pray with us.  It's wonderfully appreciated!

Leaving a Legacy

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!  This is not the first day recognized as Down Syndrome Day, but I understand it to be the first that the UN has recognized.  Just goes to show, that people like Danny are a huge part of the world and should be honored just like all other groups!

Today I received an email response from our facilitator in Danny's country.  Unfortunately it did not contain court dates, but we are still hopeful that we will receive these dates at some point this week.  What sweet Toni did tell me is that the orphanage Danny has lived in for four years is in need of repairs to the roof.  This was not a surprise, as Wes and I spoke directly with the orphanage director about this when we met her in January.  What was a surprise is how much worse the situation became during the winter.  In January we were told only one room was effected, and it wasn't a room that was used often.  Today I learned that now they are in danger of having to close the kitchen!  Here is the news directly from our facilitator:

I just talked to Dr.A (the director of the orphanage) and she was so glad to hear from me and especially that you are still planning to help them with the repair of their roof. She said they are facing a threat to have their kitchen closed because of that roof. They did a lot of research and although most of the companies are giving them outrageous sums, they had found one which gave them a reasonable amount. It will be 3 160 Bulgarian leva (2 150 US$) for full repair with warranty for 10 years or 2 536 Bulgarian leva (1 725 US$) for full repair with warranty for 5 years. Dr.Alexieva said that whatever amount you are able to donate would be hugely appreciated and even if it is partial, they at least would have something to start with. If you need any further info or help, please let me know.


Now I don't know about you, but I find this to be appalling!  How could an orphanage, where 30 children live every day of their lives operate without a kitchen? 


So I am here to ask you to help us out.  I will admit that when we committed to help with this I didn't expect the price to be quite as high as it is.  $2,150 to one of us might just break the bank, but if I can respectfully ask that you help us with this it would be greatly appreciated.  I have set up a chip-in on the right side of this blog to accept donations.  These donations will not be tax deductible, but I can guarantee they will go to a good cause.  We will receive a receipt, as well as an update from Dr. A when the repairs are completed.  I'm scheduling the chipin to end on April 20, as we genuinely hope to be traveling soon after that to pick Danny up.  

This would be his legacy for the children who will continue to reside in the orphanage.  Wes and I genuinely hope you will consider helping us leave this gift to the orphanage.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you!

Sunday Prayers "are we there yet" edition!

To simply answer my own question: no.  We are not "there" yet.  I haven't heard any updates from our facilitator in a few weeks, which means there is nothing new to tell.  I promise that if there was she would let us know.  The next steps are as follows: 1. MOJ signs our final documents; 2. A judge is assigned to our case and court is scheduled; 3. We wait 3-5 weeks after court to pick our boy up!!!  Now, I'm honestly hoping that we get to skip straight to step 2 in this process. This happened recently to a friend of ours, so I have hope!  Here are this week's prayers:

1. Danny: we hope that Baba Mila is still seeing him as often as she can, and that he is being prepared for life in a family.
2. The Dean Family: Autumn is traveling on March 24th to pick her kids up!  She is still short around $1,000 to complete the process.  Will you please click HERE and support her? Even $10 will help!
3. Court Date!  Please pray this is the week we get our next does of news.  We are all getting antsy over here to have him home!

Thank you for continuing to pray!

Sunday Prayers

Wow, I am beginning to think that a "Spring Break" should be compulsory for adults as well as children! This week has been tough, nothing adoption related, just life in general.  Without any further ado here are this week's prayer requests!

1. Danny: continued prayers for his safety, health, and happiness while we are waiting for word that he will be home with us!
2. The Adoption Process: please pray this is the week that the MOJ signs off on our final paperwork so we can have judge and court date assigned.
3. Our family & friends: we are all in need of prayers, as Satan tends to attack when you least expect it.  We are all waiting eagerly for word on the adoption, but we also have to live "normal" lives and could use all the encouragement we can get!

Thank you friends!

I did it!

Well, unfortunately we still don't have an update on the adoption process, but we KNOW God is in charge and His timing is perfect.  So we will continue to wait patiently.  In the wait-time we continue to get ready for our son to come home to us.  The past few weeks we have been working on his room, specifically his bed, which my awesome husband built and stained himself!  I'm so proud of him, and the bed.  I've also been working on filling his closet with cute little clothes and shoes.  So much fun shopping for him!  Here are this week's prayer requests:

1. Danny: please continue to pray that Baba Mila is showing him our pictures and telling him about life in a family.
2. Autumn Dean's adoption: please consider donating to her.  She only needs about $2400 to be fully funded to pick her kids up!  Dean Family FSP
3. Adoption Process: pray that our facilitator is feeling better this week, and that we get news that the MOJ is moving quickly again!


That's it.  I'm trying to keep our list pointed for now, as we have very specific things to pray for.