It Is Time!

First, I am sorry for the delay in updating our blog.  We have been waiting for final approvals and confirmations.  Now, Amy, myself and the boys can say..."It is time!"

On March 28th, Amy and I received the Bulgarian court's approval to adopt Z (Soon, we will be able to use her name).  After approval, we only had to wait a week for the approval to be officially filed into the system.  The next steps have been to prepare our trip to Sofia to finalize the adoption.  With Easter and other Bulgarian holidays, we had to wait until May to travel.  

I am so happy to say we have bought our airline tickets to leave the States on May 6th, and get to Sofia on May 7th.  We then will go get Z from the orphanage and she will be with us the rest of our lives!!!!!!  That is just so amazing to say!!

We must be in Sofia for ten days to complete all the necessary steps to finalize the adoption and the steps to allow her into the US.  While I am not sure of all we have to do, we are confident our agency in Bulgaria will guide us all the way.  We have also rented a two bedroom apartment in Sofia for our time there.  We cannot wait to start bonding and being the loving and caring parents Z has always deserved!  

God has brought us together, and while Z had to start life and live in an orphanage for her first 10 years, He has always planned on Amy and I being her parents!  We are so proud to be her parents and cannot wait to provide her a home!  Her brothers are so excited to meet her!  To hear them say "sister" is so heart warming!  Coen gave up his large room and took a much smaller room so Z could have his old room.  We have started to prepare her room so any 10 year old girl would be happy (Stephen helped paint).  We have painted it her favorite color, yellow.  Amy had bought a nice comforter for the bed, and she painted her dresser pink.  We have started to buy her clothes to fill her closet and drawers.  We have appreciated all the support in getting her wardrobe all set!  I now get to hear Amy say "Oh this is adorable, or this is so cute" all the time now.  With a house full of boys, those words were rarely used!  I also came to realize, I may have to learn how to brush a little girl's hair......

The adoption journey can be a trying time and can pull on the emotions, but it has been such a blessing!  Every step has proved to be in God's hands!!  Even when we get Z home, the journey will not end, but will start a new chapter.  A chapter we are ready to start!  Thank you all again for your support!  The financial support and most importantly, your prayer support has helped bring us to Z and we will have her home soon.  We will be home with Z on May 17th!  What a glorious homecoming that will be!

God bless you all and I cannot wait for you all to meet our precious Z!!

Loving and Missing our Z

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!!

Adoption Update

Well it has been quite some time since I last posted to the blog.  For the most part, it is because Amy and I have been in wait mode.  However, the process has been in motion since we returned from Bulgaria back in November.


As soon as we returned from Bulgaria, Amy and I completed the I-800 application.  This process was estimated to take 30 days, and almost to the date, we received the I-800 approval in the mail around Christmas time.  Then the National Visa Center (NVC) letter came in the mail about 10 days later.  We now had all the information necessary to complete the visa application (DS-260).  The DS-260 was then submitted and within a week we received notification from Children of All Nations, our adoption agency, that the US Embassy in Bulgaria received all our documents.  The next step was for our Bulgarian representative, AMOR, to make an appointment with the embassy for an interview on our behalf.  AMOR was successful at scheduling an interview quickly and afterwards, heard the interview went well.  The very next day, the embassy provided to AMOR our article 5 letter.  The AMOR then took our file, including the article 5 letter and had it translated and legalized.  On January 30th or 31st, the AMOR submitted our documentation to the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice.


That brings us to today....


As of now, we are waiting for the judge to make a final ruling on our adoption!  This process generally takes one month, but it is dependent on the judge and his/her schedule.  So it could be sooner, or it could be longer.  The most important thing is that it is in God's hands and we are nearing the end of our wait!


We sure miss "Z"!!  We cannot wait to hold her again and bring her home to her forever family!!  I look at her picture(s) daily and am so excited to squeeze her in my arms and hold her tight!!  Obicham Te "Z"!!!


Amy and I sure need to get her room ready!  We are going to paint it her favorite color, yellow.  Amy bought her a beautiful comforter for her bed!  Between Amy and her mom, Cindi, "Z" will have a complete wardrobe!  Plus we have received several bags of clothes from friends and we appreciate the love and gifts!!


Please continue to pray that our journey follows God's plan and we will have "Z" home soon!!  I also ask everyone to pray for all the orphans and adoptive families!!  The need is great and I pray that all the orphans will find the necessary love of a forever family!!


Love you all!!

The Little Things......

Amy and I were so glad to get home and see Stephen and Coen as we missed them so much and they are our pride and joys and we LOVE them with our whole heart!  It was nice to walk in and get giant hugs from both of them!  Again, we thank our parents for watching them while we were gone.

It has now been a week since we last saw "Z" and it has been tough without her.    Since being home, we have shared additional stories with our family about our time in Bulgaria.  I can tell you...Amy and I keep remembering our time with "Z" and it is the little things that we miss.

We miss....................

• when she would reach out to hold our hands
• when she would roll her eyes, tilt her head and then shake her head with a sassy attitude
• when she would kiss our cheek
• soup......her favorite food was soup.  Now every time we see a bowl of soup or a can of soup, I can hear her say "soupa"
• Orange juice......she would drink a bottle of Cappy orange juice with every meal (Cappy, is Minute Maid).
• Her infectious smile!
• Her contagious laugh!
• Her hugs!
• Her never ending jabber box.......And remember, we were told she did not speak much at all, but when we showed up, she could not stop.  God Is Good!!
• going through the photo album multiple times
• "Ahhhhh Shest!"  Shest is Six in Bulgarian.  We would play Sorry and every time someone rolled a six, she would say "Ahhhh Shest!"  Half the time, she would cheat to get a six.
• Her politeness!!!!  No matter how small the help, she would say Merci, Daddy or Merci Mommo!
• Obicham Te, Daddy and Mommo!!!!!!
• of course, I miss so dearly every time she would ask me to pick her up and hold her!  I still wish I could squeeze on to her!  Why did I have to put her down? Why did we have to say good bye?

I guess what I am trying to say is, WE MISS "Z" SO MUCH!! 

Now that we are home, we have started the paperwork to complete the adoption.  We have only been approved to adopt internationally.  We must now get processed to adopt "Z."  I have spent the entire week getting the paperwork completed.  Because of the time difference between Bulgaria and Carlsbad, there are delays when additional information is needed or questions need answered.  The paperwork is complete now and as soon as we get two letters from the adoption agency, we will get it mailed off for processing.  I can tell you the devil has raised his head a couple times, but I can assure you God conquered and has reminded us that "Z" is our daughter and he will guide us through the process and bring us back together soon!!

Please continue to pray for us!  Please pray that "Z" knows and understands we will be back to get her and bring her home!  I gave her my promise that Mommo and Daddy will be back!

Obichan Te "Z"!!!!!

Time to come home.

We have had a wonderful trip! God truely blessed us with a beautiful daughter!  It is now time to head home. We miss Stephen and Coen so much and can't wait to see them!

On our trip we met and gained a daughter.  We also gained friends. Ivan (pronounced Eevon) was such a great guide and Bulgarian host! He was and is instrumental in our adoption process. Ivan has become family. Below is a picture of Ivan and his girl friend at dinner last night.

Please pray for smooth and safe travels. We have a very fast connection in London and we just found out one ticket is standby (girl at counter acted like it should be no big deal). We should be home Monday afternoon.

God Bless you all!

Day 5 with "Z"

I decided to post about our last visit with "Z."

We arrived at the orphanage around 10 am and we did our usual go through the photo album.  I love how she opens to the first page and gives the picture of Amy and I a kiss.  She says Mommo, and gives Amy's picture a kiss, then says Daddy, and then kisses my picture.  It is so cute!  We are also glad that each page is protected with a plastic sleeve as some of the pictures would have kiss marks all over them.  She also likes to pull out the origami heart Stephen made for her that says he loves her.  She holds it to her cheek and says "Aaahhh!"

We then played our usual games, Sorry and Memory.  

There were two different counselors at the orphanage today and they were very nice.  They gave us their blessings and one said they will pray that our process will be swift and that we will be re-united with Z fast.

Then 11:20am arrived and it was time to start saying goodbye.  You could tell "Z" was more somber, but as I mentioned yesterday, she has been in the orphanage all her life (9 years) and she knows the routine.  She grabbed our hands as we walked to the door.  I then picked her up and held her.  She gave Amy and I our kisses, we told each other we loved each other, and we gave her our promise we will return as soon as we could to take her home!  I held Z as long as I could.....until they said it was time to go!  We walked towards the car, turned back and gave our final waves goodbye.........and drove off towards Sofia.  Amy and I stayed strong, but I can tell you we were missing her before we got a block away!  Sure wish we could hold her for a little longer!!

The trek to Sofia is about 130 kilometers (about 81 miles for us silly Americans).  Amy and I dosed off for most of the trip.  We arrived in Sofia and made our way to the AMOR adoption agency.  Once there, we ate a snack and then gathered our contract to adopt "Z."  Then it was off to the notary to make it official.  A notary in Bulgaria is much more prestigious here and in fact, a notary is just shy of being a lawyer.  The notary read the six separate documents to make our adoption application for "Z" official.  Then he read the name we have given "Z."  Amy and I are keeping her first name, removing her middle name which was her biological mother's name.  Then we are keeping her original surname and moving it to the middle.  Her last name is no secret...Hollis.  The AMOR and the notary were so honored and gracious that we are keeping Z's heritage surname.  They said that was just so nice we are keeping her heritage.  It was so cool to here the notary read her name.  The six documents have been signed and now the process is back in our hands.  We now start the process again with the US Homeland Security/Immigration services to officially apply to adopt "Z."  We have already done this once, but it was only to get our aproval to adopt internationally, not adopt "Z" specifically.  According to AMOR, this could take until as late as June to complete.  But one thing we have learned is that Bulgarians tell you the worse case scenario and Americans tell you the best case scenario.  So this means, it could be anywhere between 4 and 6 months.  I sure pray it is closer to the 4 months.  Another reason, it would be nice to be completed in 4 months is because, if the process goes beyond March 6, "Z" will turn 10 then.  At age 10, adopted children are required to go to court and be interviewed and this could be difficult for her.  But it is all in God's hands and all will goes accordingly to his plan!

We have many pictures of "Z" and will look at them everyday until we are re-united!  We will also start preparing her room.  Painting it yellow, her favorite color.

We cannot wait until our second trip to this beautiful country, to bring home our most beautiful daughter........Obicham Te "Z"

Day 4 with "Z"

Today was our fourth with "Z" and as with our previous days, we are gaining more insight with her.  We went to another monastery today, the Klisurski Monastery of St. Cyril and St. Methodius.  On the way to the monastery we had to pass through Berkovitsa, the birthplace for "Z."  When asked if "Z" was ok with going through her birthplace, she was somewhat reluctant as she pretty much stated she does not care about Berkovitsa because that is where her biological mother lives.  But she agreed to go since Mommo and Daddy were with her.  "Z" asked if I could pick her up and hold her and I did so the entire time before leaving for the monastery.  I may have pinched a nerve in my neck sleeping last night, but there is no way I am going to deny my precious daughter!  I held her tight!.  We all jumped in the vehicle and headed towards Berkovitsa and the monastery.  The entire way, she held our hands.

At the monastery, we toured the courtyard and made our way to the temple.  As with all the monasteries we visited, they sell items to raise funds.  We asked Ivan what we should get "Z" as we felt like we should get her something from the monastery near her birthplace.  So Ivan asked the nun what she felt would be a nice gift.  She asked her name and we told her and she stated that her name means "To Live," in which she said...."like the resurrection."  That sent chills down my spine.  "Z" was not inclined to be near the place she was born as she was abandoned (death) but now God has brought her with Amy and I to give her a new life.  How cool is that!!  God Is Good!!

After leaving the monastery we went to a nearby restaraunt and enjoyed another great meal (I really like the Bulgarian cuisine)!  After eating we just sat and chatted. Amy found a pen and gave it to "Z" to write with on a tablet.  We wrote and drew different things.  It is so cool for her to draw a house, representing our house in Carlsbad, and she wants to draw the window where her room will be.  Every time she looks at the photo album she turns to the page with our house and points at the window of her bedroom.  She is very proud of it and shows it to everyone.  Amy took a picture of her hand writing with me (see below).

After lunch we headed back to the orphanage (about a 30 plus kilometer drive) so we had more time with "Z" holding our hands.  "Z" was fairly tired and leaned on me laid on my lap for most of the drive.  It was very precious!  On the drive, we were also reminded that tomorrow (Friday) will be our last day to see "Z" and it will only be a short, short visit.  I stated I did not want to talk about that as I almost break down each time I think of that.  We changed the conversation and Sonia started to discuss in Bulgarian to Ivan and Dimo about "Z" since we started seeing her this week  After getting it interpreted back, Dimo and Ivan were pleased to translate back that "Z" has surprised the orphanage staff immensely this week.  I guess, the staff would be so frustrated with her because she never speaks and only points at what she wants.  Since we have been here, she has not stopped talking and she is like a different person.  She has come to life and has made them all so happy with her progress in a short time.  What a blessing this was to hear!!

We made it back to the orphanage and we played games and had some fun!  Then it was time to leave and I must say, Amy and I are getting fairly sad to think about the time without her!  We will miss all the little things.  Like her holding our hand, her smiles, her silly faces, her contagious laugh, her most respectful demeanor (after you help her with anything, you get a "Merci Mommo" or "Merci Daddy!") and listening to her jabber!  She is so awesome and precious and it is really starting to break our heart that tomorrow will be our last day on this trip.  But it will be the start of the rest of our journey.  The journey to get "Z" home!!  To get "Z" in the home she is so happy to brag about and to let her sleep in the room she points at in the picture!!  It is the new chapter to our lives and most importantly the new chapter for "Z!"  

I do ask for prayer for Amy and I, but please pray hard for "Z" after we leave and start the process of bringing her home!  Pray that she understands we will be back soon to get her!  She has witnessed this before with other children being adopted, so she understands the process, but it must be hard waiting for her "going home" date.  One cool thing from the other children that are learning English in school told Amy and I they will help teach "Z" English while we are gone.  How awesome all these kids are!  It always makes me think of the song, "Jesus loves all the Children of the World!"

I may or may not post tomorrow.  Tomorrow after our short visit with "Z" we will head back to Sofia and start the paperwork to make "Z" our daughter.  We even must give "Z" her official name (tonight we have to provide it).

I so appreciate all the support and encouraging messages we have received while on this journey.  It is because of all the prayer and support, this trip has been such a blessing!  We appreciate all our family for all their help and support.  We also appreciate all our friends for all they have done to support us and we so appreciate our employers for allowing us the time to take off during this time!!  Thank you all!!  God Bless you all!!