Set backs

We have experienced some set backs with bringing Anna home. Nothing earth shattering just very time consuming and frustrating. Alex has turned 18 so now he has to be finger printed and cleared on the state and federal levels. What it means is more paper work and time and money. We were hoping to travel in May but at this point in time that would take a miracle. Not that God couldn't do that it's really more frustrating than anything. We would love to get her home and start on the next phase of this which is atatchment and bonding. We will persevere.

Pictures from Bulgaria

Catching Up

So we made it to Bulgaria and back. WHEW!! We have actually been home for almost a month. We did not post publicly that we were leaving because we didn't want people to know we would be out of town. Everything went so great. My daughter Sara and her family came and stayed at the house with the other kids and we were off on January 19th. Bulgaria was a great place to go to. We never once felt un-safe ,the food was great and the people that we met were so friendly. We flew into Sofia and then drove down to Razlog the town where are daughter is. We visited 5 days with her in the morning and afternoon. She is in a very good family/group home. The ladies that take care of them do a great job. They put a lot of time and energy into the kids in the home. Svetla is more delayed then we thought, but after spending 3 days with her we knew that we needed to focus on what she could do and not on what she couldn't do. We had to do some serious praying and soul searching while we were there. But she is so full of life and her laugh is so contagious, and when we got her to smile at us,well, we knew we would not leave her. She will need lots of support so I have spent some time trying to figure out the best way to help her when we bring her home. I am really not sure what the best way to proceed with her, do we keep her home in the fall and homeschool or get her right in because she needs speech therapy and possibly some OT. I have lots to think about. We have filed the immigration paperwork and are waiting on getting the approval,once that comes the US embassy will be notified and then the in country staff will try to get us a court date and then we travel to bring her home a few weeks after court, in all it can take 15 weeks between visits. UGH!! We would love to bring her home in May, or before. We have just learned that the Bulgarian government has resigned so not sure how that will affect us in getting through the process. We are praying that the process will stay on track or hey maybe even speed up,:) I wanted to post some pictures of the trip but ummmmm, well I can't find the camera so as soon as I locate that I will post some. Like I said Bulgaria was a great trip and we swa some very beautiful places and our girl is too cute.

Super Hero Ava

Just wanted everyone to see our super hero. She loves spiderman and all things hero related. She wore this when we did her 6th birthday in December.

It came

We have finally received the official referral. We are able to make travel plans for our first trip. Things have been very crazy here so we will post more later, when I have definate plans but for now we are rejoicing that we are one step closer to meeting her.

Merry Christmas

WE would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. God has completely blessed us. This week has been so amazing. On Tuesday we learned our son, who has been deployed, is back on American soil. My joy and releif has been so great, we have prayed and trusted God to bring him back and now it has happened. Then on Friday we got the call, it's official we will travel in January for our first trip. We are beyond excited. We have waited 2 months for the "official" refrral to be signed. We will work on travel stuff a little after Christmas but probably not till after New Years because of holiday break no one is going to be in the office. Also our 2 college kids have done awesome one with a 4.0 gpa and the other with 3.6 gpa. So congratulations to them on all their hard work. (side note our sons' wife does not know he is in the states he wants to surprise her on Christmas eve when he actually gets back in our area. So shhh!!! And no she does not read my blog, I don't even think she knows it exists.:))

So we are still waiting on an official approval. UGH!! We are trying to be patient.....not happy but trying to be patient.