Questions

Why start this blog?
I debated whether or not I should start a blog when we first started the adoption process. I couldn't decide if it was worth it. Would anyone really care? I decided to go ahead with it for a few reasons: (1) Even if no one ever reads it, it will be a great way to document this whole process. (2) People have started asking questions and facebook isn't the best place to give long detailed answers. It will also provide a means of keeping friends and family who aren't right next door updated. (3) Finally, I hope that it may possibly connect us to others who are also adopting internationally.

Why Bulgaria?
We've I've been talking about adopting for years. If you know me well you know that I talk a lot so it's not unusual for me to ramble on while others sort of listen. It's been that way all my life; it doesn't bother me. So anyway (got off track there for a minute), I've been talking about adoption since Andrew was about a year old, but we both knew that we weren't ready to start the process yet. Andrew was still too young.

Over the past couple years, I've researched various adoption agencies and different programs. Recently, as in February 13, Patrick and I started talking about adopting again, and we knew that we were finally ready to start the process. We submitted our application with All God's Children International the very next day. We originally expressed interest in Taiwan, mostly due to the fact that it only requires one short trip to pick up your child and the wait time is relatively short. Taiwan is a pilot program with our adoption agency, so we knew there was a chance that it wouldn't work out. While we waited, I looked at other countries. I went back to Bulgaria over and over. The main thing that was stopping us from pursuing Bulgarian adoption was that fact that you must travel to the country twice. The first time you spend 5 days bonding with your child. The second time (2-4 months later) you spend 7-10 days in Bulgaria and you come home with your child. In addition to all the adoption fees, traveling back and forth to Bulgaria is very costly. The other thing that concerned us was the long wait times (20-36 months). However, it ended up that Taiwan was not accepting any new applications and our contact at the agency suggested that we look at Bulgaria. We talked and prayed about it for a couple weeks and decided that Bulgaria was the way to go.

Information overload! If you actually read through all of that, you deserve an award. If you have any questions leave them in the comments or facebook me, and I'll try to answer them. I'll be explaining more about the process in the near future.

A few prayer requests: We are working on paperwork, so pray that we get everything done and done quickly. Pray that our doctors and employers (mine in particular) are cooperative and help us get everything we need finished in a timely manner. Also, pray that our FBI fingerprints come back quickly. Finally, pray that Bulgaria begins processing adoptions more quickly.

Have a great day!