It has been 16 weeks since we last saw "Z" and we sure miss her! The adoption can seem like an endless process, but we know the adoption is in God's hands and He has His perfect plan. In our last blog post, I shared that our file was given to the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice on January 31st to review our adoption. This process takes approximately 30 days. What we did not realize at the time is that after the Judge reviews the file and turns it to the court, it may take a couple of weeks to set a court date and that date may be 4 to 6 weeks later than that. Again though, the adoption is in God's hand and He knew Amy is completing her Masters in Education and completing her dossier. Therefore, God is allowing her to focus on her studies before our next trip. Amy should have her dossier submitted and Masters completed by the end of March. She will be so relieved to have this behind her!! Based on time lines, there is the possibility our court date will be set around Easter. While, we do not have a court date, nor know if Easter will be the approximate date, but I received chills when I looked at the calendar and saw Easter. If you remember, or have read past blogs, our fourth day with Z, we toured the Klisurski Monastery of St. Cyril and St. Methodius. While there, we wanted to get a small present for Z as this monastery was near her birth place of Berkovitsa. When we asked what would be a nice gift from the monastery, the nun stated that Z's name represented "To Live," like the resurrection. How cool is that!
Our precious Z turned 10 on March 6. We hope she had a blessed birthday!! On her birthday, the Judge turned our file (Agreement to adopt Z) over to the courts. Now we just wait the week or two to get a court date. Once we have the date, we can plan our travel!! YAYYYYYYYYY!!
Not only do adoptions take a long time, they are very expensive as well. While God has blessed Amy and I financially, we have depleted most of our savings during the process. We have some close friends also adopting and they did a fundraiser that not only helped raise money, but it created adoption awareness. We loved the idea!! So we contacted Fund the Nations and designed a t-shirt (pictured above). About 2 weeks into selling our shirts, we have been blessed with many t-shirt sales and donations!! We will continue to sell throughout March. We are overwhelmed with joy on how our friends and family have supported us through our adoption! We thank all those that have supported us! We hope the t-shirts create awareness on the importance of adopting the world's orphans (domestically and internationally). The t-shirt reads: "Adopt Bulgaria (Bulgaria written in Bulgarian). Love Makes a Family."
Please continue to support us and all those adopting by keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! We love you all and cannot wait for everyone to meet our precious Z!!
Obicham Te Z!!
