December Adoption Update

Hello all... I know most of you are aware that we have been going through some tough decisions lately about the adoption so I wanted to get you all caught up on where we are. It's hard to tell everyone every thing that happens because things are dormant for so long and then in one week significant changes can happen.

We hit our 16 month of waiting two days ago on December 20th with still no word of a timeline or what's happening at the MOJ with the adoption of healthy children under 3 years of age. I am very proactive and try to stay on top of things going on within the adoption community. Through forums, blogs and resource groups I follow and particiapte in I started to see a pattern of frustrating information coming out of Bulgaria. Things that indicated our wait could be another 1 to 2 years. Of course, no one will confirm or deny that information - but numbers are numbers. And the numbers coming out of Bulgaria indicate that families who have just hit their 24 month of waiting could get a referral for a child sometime in the next twelve months which would put us getting a referral sometime in late 2012. Needless to say Josh and I felt it was important to pray and talk with our agency about where things stand and what are option were.

While waiting to talk with our agency and on our way to an event in Houston, I receieved an email from a good source that China had recently made some changes to their "Waiting Child" Program. To sum up this program - it consists of children, any age, with minor/correctable needs to significant special needs.This program would allow us to choose which needs we would be willing to accept so we began to pray about and discuss some of the special needs these children have and decide what we thought we could handle as a family. Some of the issues could be as mild as a scar or birth mark to a cleft lip and so on... even things like a droopy eye lid or extra digit on the hand are on this list. Children on the list have issues that here in the US can be fixed with outpatient surgeries or less... things that we would never consider "special needs". We met with our pediatrician, spoke with our agency, began working with a new faciliator who works with China and this program and decided that this could be a good move for us.

Money of course became a question - would we have to start over or could we stay in Bulgaria while transferring some of our funds to China? After three weeks of discussion and waiting... all agencies involved have agreed to allow us to transfer our funds. Without this happening tyring to adopt from China may not have happened.

So to sum up... We will continue to keep our paperwork in Bulgaria until it comes up for renewal in August 2011 but also try to be matched with a child in China on the waiting program list. And yes that does mean doing all of our paperwork over again, getting an updated home study and getting all of this to China asap. We are already working on everything and hope to have it all in China within 45 days.

I apologize if this is all confusing... but it's a good summary of where we are. It has been an emotional time trying to decide if changing countries was the right thing to do... we had so much time, money and emotion invested in Bulgaria and didn't just want to up and switch. But with all of that said we feel this is the right move for our family. We feel that God has a plan for our family and feel that maybe our wait was meant to open our hearts to a child that is less than perfect and less likely to be adopted by another family. All we can do is push forward and stay committed to our goals. We are still committed to bringing a child into our home and giving her a life that she could never have in another country.

We hope this brings everyone up to speed. We know everyone will not understand and unless you have been in our shoes over the last two years experiencing what we have experienced we would never expect everyone to understand. Just keep praying and supporitng us like you all already do. We know Laidyn will be here soon! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!!!

Kelly

Adoption Update...

Hey everyone... there has been so little to report these past few months. When you are waiting, you really are just waiting. There have been a few families who have received referrals of younger, healthy children but I believe they were in Switzerland. I know that our agency is expecting a referral soon for a family who has requested an older child. I have heard that August is a very slow month in Bulgaria and the MOJ will be on vacation, but that there are many referral requests and matches in process right now that just need to completed and sent to agencies and then of course to families. Maybe we are one of those families!!!!!!

We are still in the process of renewing our Immigration papers. We had to reschedule our biometrics screening but with the help of our wonderful social worker, I think we will get our new date next week. We will have to file for an extension to get our papers updated and to Bulgaria but they should be in the MOJ's hands sometime in September or October.

I have been a tad bit emotional lately about the process... August 20th will mark 1 year that we were accepted by the MOJ in Bulgaria and 1 year & 7 months since we filled out our application. News and feedback on blogs and forums out there really do not show that people are getting referrals for kids under 3. But that doesn't mean it is not happening. I read enough to keep me educated, but try not to dwell on the negative... and there is plenty of negative out there!

Josh, the boys and I are continuing to pray daily for our daughter to be with us before Christmas - maybe even more than once a day with our 1 year Anniversary approaching :). Please, please every prayer helps!!! Our outlook has not changed, we are still positive that God has a plan and will have Laidyn here in His time. In my heart I know she is born and God is watching over her in an orphanage somewhere in Bulgaria. We are still pushing forward with our renewal and the waiting process. We still feel in our hearts that we will see her face in 2010.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts... i know many of you have been wondering lately what's been happening... God Bless all of our family and friends!
Kel

March Info...

Just heard from some other family blogs who are adopting from Bulgaria that the January meeting that was postponed to Feb 23rd was again pushed back and will be held on March 23rd. This meeting is suppossed to provide agencies a number of children currently on the register in Bulgaria. Things have really come to a halt with the MOJ since before Christmas and it has been very dicouraging. I am praying and have faith that it will all happen in God's time. I know that. I just hate thinking of one more day that a child is forced to stay in an orphanage. There are so many families ready to give these kids forever homes right now.

I am hoping that our agency will send out the March Country update soon. Keep you posted.

Love to all...

Hello family & friends...
It has been a while since i have posted any news on the adoption. I mentioned before we are really in the "waiting" part of the process right now. We are receiving country updates from our wonderful adoption agency, but in regards to out personal case - not much news. We have learned the following:

Bulgaria currently has 800 waiting families who have applied for a child. (this is all children - infants, special needs, older children, etc.)

We officially know that we are 414th on the list of 2009 applicants. But not sure of where we fall exactly in the 800 pool. We are hoping to get that information in the next few months.

We do know that in 2009 308 children were placed with their forever families. This is a great figure considering 2009 was the first year MOJ in Bulgaria started the process again and with new policies, a new administration... only about 6 months were actually spent matching families.

The hope expressed by all involved that once the process gets ironed out in 2009 and the MOJ gets things rolling... the matching will continue to progress and become more consistent.

Well, that's all for now. Please keep Josh and me, Bren & Noah in your prayers. Pray that our faith will continue to sustain us during this waiting period - as time goes it does get more difficult but we know when the time is right it will happen. And please pray for Laidyn Claire. We know that God is watching over her, protecting her and keeping her safe until we are called to bring her home. We are faithful that it will be this year, but are prepared for a longer wait.

Love to all and thanks for your emails, thoughts and prayers!
Kelly