Expanding Our Family

One year ago today...

2012-01-17T14:49:00.003-05:00

I checked my e-mail after work and saw this adorable little face along with his referral information. The MOJ had given us a referral for a sweet little boy.

One year later I'm lucky enough to be able to snuggle with my happy little guy every single day. He's such a blessing and we love him so much!!

Five Months Home

2012-01-02T15:11:00.007-05:00

We had a wonderful holiday season this year. I'm pretty sure Nikolas enjoyed his first Christmas as part of our family. We had Christmas celebrations three weekends in a row, and by the last one, he had it all figured out. As of Friday (12/30), Nikolas has been home with his family for five months. What a blessing!!
Nikolas got his new braces in mid-December and he's doing so well with them. He's moving faster and better then he ever did before. We have a follow-up appointment at Riley tomorrow morning.

I was watching videos this morning that we took on our first trip last February and it was amazing how much he has changed. It's almost hard to believe that he's the same child. He struggled with his walking, didn't talk at all and showed little interest in toys. He would let us hold him, but it was only for a very short time.

Although he's still not saying many words, his constant babbling is starting to sound more like real syllables. With the help of our pediatrician, we are going to have him evaluated soon to see if he qualifies for speech therapy. His understanding of English impresses us daily. He follows commands very well. He knows most of his body parts and quite a few of his animals

He continues to be a good eater. This morning he weighed in at 26 pounds, which is up 1.5 pounds from his last visit to the doctor. He lost quite a bit of muscle while he was in his casts, and he's starting to build it back up again. He sleeps a lot, and we've never had to get up in the middle of the night with him. He sleeps 12-13 hours at night and naps for at least two hours every afternoon.

He's getting much better at playing on his own and is expressing more interest in a variety of toys. He looks at books more and will even let us read a few pages to him before he loses interest. He still likes cars, blocks and toys that make noise. He also enjoys playing with his little zoo and farm. He doesn't throw his toys as much as he did in the past.

Attachment is continuing to go very well. He is an affectionate little guy and loves to give us hugs and kisses. He makes wonderful eye contact and likes to snuggle. He takes time to warm up to new people and acts appropriately around them.

Overall things are going very well and we are excited to watch him continue to grow and learn. He is an amazing little boy and we're so lucky to be his parents.

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-12T16:47:00.003-05:00

Nikolas had his first encounter with Santa last night at the zoo. I loved the look on his face when Santa told him to be a good boy. My little guy understands exactly what that means. :)

Four Months Home

2011-12-05T20:40:00.005-05:00

We've been home for a little over four months and Nikolas continues to thrive in his new environment. He acts a little more like a two-year-old every week. It's been almost two weeks since he had his casts removed. He can stand on his own and walk with assistance, but his muscles aren't quite strong enough for him to walk alone. He's very determined, so it's only a matter of time. He has such a fun personality and it's great to see him becoming the little boy he is supposed to be.

At his checkup with the pediatrician today we learned that he's grown another two inches, bringing him to 35 inches. That's a total of four inches in four months. Very impressive!! He's still weighing in at 24 pounds, but we know he had some muscle loss in his legs over the six weeks he was in casts. He's still eating and drinking very well. He likes most foods and definitely has his favorites.

He's starting to express more of an interest in television. He still has his two favorite shows (Jack's Big Music Show and Yo Gabba Gabba!). We usually watch an episode of one show before bed. He'll stop what he's doing when one of them comes on and turns his attention to the show. He really likes the TV screen with the swirls that comes on a couple of times during Jack's, and he squeals every time he sees it. It's wonderful to see him get excited about things.

He plays so much more than he did before. He likes cars, musical toys and blocks the most. He plays on his own now, but he always checks back to make sure I'm still in the room. His motor skills have improved so much since he's been home. It's so amazing to watch him learn.

His understanding of English is impressive. We're pretty sure he understands most of what we say to him. He follows basic commands with ease. He hasn't been speaking much since we started the casting for his feet, but the doctor says it's normal for kids to regress a little while going through something like that. We're working with our pediatrician to get him started in First Steps after the first of the year to work on some speech therapy.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parents' house last month and we're looking forward to celebrating Nikolas' first "real" Christmas. He enjoyed putting up the tree and we're sure he'll have fun visiting with the family and opening gifts.

No More Casts

2011-11-22T20:52:00.008-05:00

Nikolas got his casts off this morning. I'm sure everyone in the building heard him screaming. His doctor was very happy with the results of the surgery. She said his feet are looking great. To keep his feet from turning back in, he has to wear special shoes that are connected with a bar. Right now he needs to wear the shoes/bar combo most of the time. He was also fitted for braces, and we will get those on December 14th. Once we get the braces, he'll be able to wear those with his tennis shoes during the day and only need the shoes/bar combo at night.

He is not a big fan of the new contraption. He hasn't figured out how to get around with it on yet, and it's not very comfortable for sleeping. He also gets upset that he can't stand up right now. His leg muscles are so weak that they can't support his weight yet. There were lots of tears at our house today. He's a smart little guy, so I'm sure he'll figure it out in a couple of days.

We go back to Riley next Tuesday for a follow-up appointment with the doctor, and then we go back again on 12/14 to get his custom-made braces.

Three Months Home + Surgery Update

2011-10-30T13:22:00.002-04:00

Three months ago we arrived home as a family. Nikolas continues to do a wonderful job of adjusting to his surroundings. He's a happy little guy and we are so lucky to be his parents. He continues to be a good eater. He likes almost everything and is easy to please. At his last height/weight check appointment he had gained four pounds and grown two inches. He's still tiny, but he's getting there.

We have seen many improvements in his ability to play and to focus on activities. He loves to push his toy cars around on the floor. Blocks and musical toys are also a big hit. He still doesn't have much interest in books. He will watch Yo Gabba Gabba! or Jack's Big Music Show while he eats his snack before bed, but other than that, he has shown little interest in television.

He understands English very well, but he doesn't use a lot of words to communicate. He says about 12-15 different words when he wants to. Since he is only two and has only been exposed to the English language for three months, his doctors are not concerned about this. They all say that he'll start speaking more when he's ready.

He continues to sleep nicely. He goes to bed at 8:30pm and wakes up around 9:00am. He also naps for a couple of hours each afternoon. He usually goes to sleep without any problems. He loves his lullaby CD and knows the routine at both bedtime and nap time.

He enjoys getting out of the house and interacting with others. He likes going to church, going for walks and shopping for just about anything. He enjoys playing on his swing outside and watching the ducks by the pond. He is a very helpful little guy. He likes to help daddy unload the dishwasher every evening and is learning to pick up his own toys.

We've been keeping ourselves very busy this fall. We enjoyed Zoo Boo at the Indianapolis Zoo last weekend and have taken a trip to the apple orchard. We've also made several trips to Riley Hospital for Children, the most recent being for his club foot surgery on Friday.

His surgery went very well, and he did such a great job. The doctor was able to release his heel cords on both sides with just a small incision instead of having to make a larger incision and doing a more complex procedure. We'll go back to Riley on 11/22 to have the casts removed for good. He'll be fitted for braces at that time, and he'll wear those for as long as they are needed. Everyone at Riley does such a great job of making both the parents and children feel comfortable. Nikolas is currently on painkillers, although we aren't sure if he is experiencing much pain. He's in the small percentage of children who don't get drowsy with the codine. He gets very hyper, happy and loud after he takes his meds. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for Nikolas during this time.

We are looking forward to lots of fun things throughout the rest of the year. Next weekend Jason's cousin Lori will be visiting while they are in town for the marathon. Nikolas' casts come off on 11/22. We'll be spending Thanksgiving in Dana this year. Our 11th anniversary is in early December, and then we'll be celebrating our first Christmas together as a family of three. We have been so blessed this year. We have also reserved a cabin for the Bulgaria Adoptive Families Reunion in June, and are so excited to meet everyone in person!!

Surgery Scheduled

2011-10-18T20:58:00.004-04:00

We went to Riley today to have Nikolas' casts changed, and the doctor was very pleased with the way his feet are responding to the casting. After replacing his blue casts with green ones, she scheduled the surgery on his tendons for next Friday, October 28th. After the surgery, he will be in casts for three more weeks. He should get them off right before Thanksgiving. We'll have one more thing to be thankful for!!

Nikolas is doing very well with the casts. He gets frustrated sometimes, but he's handling it much better than I would be. He's learned that although he cannot walk, he can crawl just fine. He gets around the house well, but we still have to carry him up and down the stairs. He's been watching a little more television. He likes Jack's Big Music Show and Yo Gabba Gabba. He plays with his blocks and cars more instead of running around the house. He's had some interest in the Play-Doh, but he still has issues with getting his fingers dirty. He eats the crayons instead of using them to color with, but we'll keep working on that one. He enjoys cuddling more and is learning to be more dependant on us. We're all learning to be more patient. Thanks to all of you who sent us ideas!!

Orthopedic Update

2011-10-13T21:04:00.006-04:00

Nikolas was born with both of his feet clubbed. He had casts in Bulgaria for three weeks when he was three months old followed by several months of braces. The work that was done in Bulgaria greatly improved his feet, but the IA doctor that we saw in August thought we might be able to correct them even more. We met with an Orthopedic Specialist at Riley Children's Hospital today. After examining Nikolas' feet and taking lots of x-rays, she decided that further correction was necessary. The x-rays showed that the bones in both of his heels curved upwards and the bones on the top of his right foot are very close together. Because of these issues, she thought it would be best to start over and redo the entire casting procedure. We will go back to Riley every Tuesday morning for new casts until his feet are in the best possible position. We do not know how long this will take, but 3-4 weeks seems to be the average time frame. It depends on how well his bones react to the casts. Once we are finished with the casting, he will have surgery to lengthen the tendons. This will be followed up with braces and physical therapy. The doctor is optimistic that we will have good results in the end.

Nikolas is a very active two-year-old, so not being able to walk is tough for him (and us). Because he can't go anywhere, he has to be completely dependent on us to do everything for him. Today was a struggle, and I really hope he learns to tolerate the casts soon. If anyone has any ideas of how to entertain a toddler who has to stay in one place, please send them my way. If only he'd watch television...

Photo Card

2011-09-21T21:20:00.001-04:00

Mod Block Boy Baby Announcements

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Family Pictures

2011-09-15T14:49:00.007-04:00

Last week our friend Emily Reel took some family pictures for us. They turned out great and we had so much fun at the park that evening. Nikolas loved the big slide and the swing.

Here are a few of the pictures from the photo shoot:

Our Little Zoo Baby

2011-09-09T14:38:00.010-04:00

We've made a few trips to the zoo recently and Nikolas loves it there. We ended up purchasing an annual pass so we can go whenever we want. The zoo is a quick 20 minute car ride away and a great place to spend a couple of hours when we need to get out of the house. His favorite area is the Oceans area. He loves the penguins and sea lions. He also likes trying to pet the sharks in the shark touch tank. Yesterday we fed the giraffe and he was okay with it being so close to him. When there aren't a lot of people around, he'll sit and stare at the animals for a long time (as long as they're not sleeping). He really enjoys being outside, so even walking through the zoo paths is great fun for him. I love being able to take him during the week when it's slow and hope I can continue to do that sometimes after I go back to work. (Luckily I work from home and will have some flexibility with my schedule, so that should help.) Here are a few pictures from our recent zoo adventures.

One Month Home

2011-09-01T14:29:00.008-04:00

Our first month home as a family has been wonderful. Nikolas has made so much progress in such a short period of time. He's typically a very happy boy who enjoys getting out of the house. He likes going to church, shopping, eating out, playing outside, and going to the zoo. He is starting to understand more of what we say and his vocabulary is quickly expanding. He enjoys playing with his toys and is starting to play more on his own. He likes any toys that are really loud and/or play music. He is a very helpful little guy. He helps us unload the dishwasher every day and stocks the fridge with soda. He also likes to put the laundry in the hamper, even if it's not dirty. He tells himself "good job" after he does a task and sometimes praises us if we do good work, too.

He loves his cats and is doing a good job of being gentle. The cats seem to like him, too. They sit with him while he's playing. Cody rubs against Nikolas and rolls over in front of him. They nap in the sun together every afternoon.

He is still sleeping in our room, but we're working on moving him upstairs to his own room. Today is the first day that he is successfully napping in his own room (and he's been up there for two hours now). For the first two weeks home, bed time and nap time were very easy. We have our night time routine that hasn't changed since we've been home, but he's been fighting us a little bit at bedtime over the past couple of weeks. The Fisher Price Lullaby Baby Bedtime music that I found on You Tube has helped a lot. It tends to put the cat to sleep, too. I'd like to find a nice lullaby CD for him. He wants one of us in the room with him until he falls asleep. If we leave before he's completely asleep, he starts screaming and throwing blankets. Hopefully this is just a phase that will end soon. He does sleep straight through the night for about 11 hours.

He is doing a great job of adjusting and seems to be attaching to both of us. He's still doing a good job of eating and likes most foods. He's starting to do a much better job with meat and is starting to accept milk. He doesn't like corn or lettuce, but almost everything else works for him. He's gained a couple of pounds since we've been home.

We have another appointment at Riley in October with an Orthopedic Surgeon. The doctors did a great job in Bulgaria with correcting his club feet, but we'd like to see if there is anything we can do now that will help him as he grows. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful hospital with a great team of doctors so close to home.

We love Nikolas and are so blessed to be his parents. He's an amazing little boy who makes us laugh every single day. It's so fun to watch his personality come out and to see him grow and learn new things. We are so lucky to have him!!

Post-Adoption Appointment

2011-08-24T20:20:00.003-04:00

We had our post adoption appointment at Riley Hospital for Children today. We are so lucky to live close to one of the best children's hospitals in the country. Riley has a great International Adoption clinic with a wonderful team of doctors. Nikolas was evaluated by a doctor who specializes in Developmental Pediatrics in internationally adopted children as well as a feeding specialist and speech therapist. He was quite charming and did a great job. He did well with the doctor and let her check him out without making too much noise.

They were very impressed with how well he was doing for being home for such a short period of time. We do need to see another doctor for his club feet, but other than that, they are happy with how he has been progressing. He's gained two pounds in the past three weeks and is getting close to being on the growth chart for weight. If he keeps it up, he'll make it in no time. He's still eating and drinking very well, but he's not eating as much and he stops when he's full. He likes most things, but there are a few foods that he'll push away every time. He is the same height as he was in Bulgaria, and his head circumference is perfect for his age. He's continuing to add more words to his vocabulary, and the doctor said he's doing great in that area. We'll continue to do what we've been doing.

He had nine tubes of blood taken for all of the necessary tests. We also need to stop by our regular pediatrican's office next week for a TB test. We'll have the results of everything in a couple of weeks. He did great with the bloodwork and even left the bandage on until we got home. He was distracted with his new toy from the toy chest, and he was so tired by this point that he even slept a little on the way home.

We'll be setting up an appointment for his feet soon, and we'll be heading back to Riley in six months for a follow-up appointment. We are so happy with how he is growing and learning every single day!!

One Week Home

2011-08-08T13:05:00.004-04:00

We've been together as a family for two weeks and have been home for a little over a week. We are doing great!! Nikolas seems to be adjusting to his new life just fine. He's a good eater and a good sleeper, and he's learning how to play with his toys. He likes his Mega Blocks and his toy cars the best. He's enjoying bath time each night. He likes dumping water on his head and splashing around. Quite a difference from bath time just two weeks ago. He enjoys music and likes to sing. He speaks mostly "Bulgarian Baby Babble", but he's starting to pick up some English words. He says daddy, kitty and yum yum. Today he said bye bye when we left the house to go for a walk. I've been trying to teach him more new words, but he doesn't seem too interested. He loves going places and being outside. Yesterday he went to church for the first time followed by lunch with friends and a quick trip to Target.

He's been eating three good meals and two snacks each day. He loves meatballs!! He eats most foods and is starting to prefer certain foods over others. He has started to push away his plate when he is full. He currently weighs about 20 pounds and is wearing mostly 6-9 months clothing. He should start gaining weight soon now that he is getting good nutritious meals.

We stick to the same routine each day and haven't went out too much. We'll start adding more trips out as time goes on, but we don't want to do too much too fast. He knows that we are his parents and shows that he trusts us. He takes quite a while to warm up to new people. Overall he is a very happy boy who seems to be adjusting very nicely.

Home At Last

2011-08-01T06:31:00.002-04:00

We left Sofia on Saturday morning at 6:00am BG time and arrived home in Indianpolis at 9:35pm ET. We were awake for over 24 hours, but Nikolas did amazing. He was a little squirmy on the flight from Sofia to Frankfurt, but he did well. We got some breakfast and walked around the airport in Frankfurt. We met a lady while waiting at our gate who was bringing home her new son from Ukraine. He's 12 and quite a charming young man. We all sat fairly close together on the plane. Because the flight was full and our travel agent (Sheldon at Golden Rule Travel) had just booked us any seats to get us on the plane, we got moved to seats in Economy Plus so we could all be together. The extra leg room was great! Nikolas had a couple of small meltdowns, but he did so well. We had the most amazing flight attendants who made sure Nikolas and the little guy from Ukraine had everything that they needed. Our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, so we ended up getting in to Washington DC a little late. We made it through customs and rechecked our bags. Becky, Wayne and Audra (my aunt, uncle and cousin) had driven over to the airport for a quick visit, so it was great to see them for a few minutes. We rushed back to our gate only to find that our flight had been delayed. We didn't have a flight crew so they had to find one for us. We were scheduled to leave at 4:53pm and ented up leaving around 7:40. We were back in Indianapolis around 9:35pm. It was a small commuter plane with two seats on one side and one on the other. I sat with Nikolas and Jason sat in the single seat across the aisle. As soon as we got seated and I buckled Nikolas' seatbelt, he handed me his shoes and snuggled up next to me. He was asleep before the plane left the ground. He usually takes off his shoes when he wants to go to sleep. So cute! My parents were at the airport waiting to bring us home. Nikolas went right to sleep and we were in bed soon after.

Our first day at home went very well. Jason and I woke up and had breakfast before Nikolas woke up. He got up around 10:00am and had breakfast and fell back asleep on the floor at 11:45pm. He slept for a few hours. We played for the rest of the afternoon. He did have a couple of small meltdowns after being told that he couldn't do something, but we are using the "time-in" method and it seems to be working great. Mark, Cindy, Hannah and Grace stopped by for a quick visit and dropped off dinner. We are so blessed to have great friends to help us out and support us during this time of transition. After dinner we played some more until bath time. Bath time tonight was a huge success. Nikolas loved playing with his bath toys and actually sat down in the water and laughed. He stayed in there playing for quite a while. He even laughed when we poured water on his head to wash his hair. Less than a week ago he screamed for the entire five minutes that he was in the tub. Tonight he didn't want to get out. He has come so far in such a short period of time. We got ready for bed and had some vanilla pudding that was made with Pediasure instead of milk, a recipe sent to me by Viviane, a fellow adoptive mom. He went right to sleep around 8:30pm and is still asleep this morning.

Day Five in Sofia

2011-07-29T12:24:00.004-04:00

We all woke up around 8:00am and got ready to head out for a bit. We were hoping to find some souvenirs, but we didn't have any luck. We walked to the outdoor market area and then past some shops. No one could tell us where to buy souvenirs. We stopped at the big park next to the Grand Hotel Sofia. Nikolas played for a bit and then we watched the fountains and listed to a group of people who were playing instruments. It started thundering, so we headed back to the hotel. We were gone for about 2 hours and Nikolas rode in the stroller the entire time. He loves being outside.

We stopped by the hotel to check the website for the Sofia Mall. It listed a souvenir shop as one of the stores, so we decided to take the metro over there to see what we could find. We had a quick lunch at McDonald's in the metro station. Nikolas had three chicken nuggets and some fries. He loved it! We took the metro to the mall for the second time this week. It started raining pretty hard, but we managed to get over there. What they listed as a souvenir shop was a shop with lots of expensive things that were not souvenirs. Nikolas was getting a little cranky, so we left the mall and came back to the hotel. There's a souvenir shop at the airport, so hopefully it's open when we get there at 5:00am tomorrow morning.

After getting caught in some more rain we made it to the hotel. We put some dry clothes on Nikolas and turned down the lights for quiet time. He stood in his crib and sang for a couple of hours. He sings a lot. At least he was relaxing. At 4:00pm he had a snack and we played for a little while. He had dinner at 6:30pm followed by a bath and an early bedtime. We have to leave the hotel at 4:15am, so we wanted to get him down as early as possible. He was snoring about ten minutes later.

Now we're about to order our nightly room service and have a quiet dinner. We've had burgers, fish and pizza so far, so I'm not sure what we'll order tonight. Then it's time to pack and get everything ready to go. I can't believe our week here has come to an end. Nikolas is a different kid than he was on Monday. He's changed so much in just a few days, and we're so excited to watch him grow and learn when we get home. We'll be travelling for about 20 hours, so please pray that we have a safe trip and that Nikolas doesn't scream the entire time. Next post will be from Indiana. :)

Day Four in Sofia

2011-07-28T13:34:00.002-04:00

Each day keeps getting better with Nikolas. He slept for 13.5 hours last night and woke up happy again. He had some oatmeal, fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and then we got ready for our day. We were scheduled to meet with Violeta around 11:00am to go to the medical clinic, but Nikolas' passport wasn't ready on time, so she had to go work some magic and get it taken care of. She picked up the passport and arrived at the hotel around 12:30pm. At the medical clinic we were in and out in record speed. Nikolas saw three different doctors. The first two basically looked at him and the third did a quick exam. He didn't care for it much, but he did a great job. He weighs 9 kilograms and is 87 centimeters tall. Such a little guy!! Our embassy appointment was a 1:30pm. We arrived right on time and had to wait until 3:00pm. Nikolas was a little restless, but he behaved very well. Luckily we had brought a jar of food with us and were able to feed him a little bit while we waited. The interview was very short, and he'll receive his visa tomorrow afternoon.

We arrived back at the hotel around 4:00pm. Since we had missed his nap time and lunch time, he was getting a little cranky. I fed him some yogurt and bread and he played nicely for a while, but then we could tell that he was starting to get tired. He gets mean when he needs to sleep. He had his dinner at 6:30pm and then we gave him a quick bath. He still hated it, but he only cried when we washed his hair. Much better tonight! He was in bed by 7:30pm and asleep in less than 10 minutes. He wimpered a little bit at first, but there was no screaming tonight. We're making progress.

I ran to the grocery store at the metro station next door to pick up another bottle of Coke and then Jason ordered us some pizza for room service. It was so good! We love being able to have dinner brought to our room and being able to enjoy nice food on real plates with cloth napkins and silverware. Our lunches have consisted mostly of McDonald's because it's so close to the hotel.

Tomorrow is a free day until Violeta drops off our final paperwork. That won't be until after 4:00pm. We're hoping to find a souvenir shop tomorrow morning to pick up some nice things from the country, and we may try to have lunch at a real restaurant that doesn't serve Big Macs. One more full day and then we're coming home!

Day Three Update

2011-07-27T13:58:00.010-04:00

Nikolas woke up at 8:30am today. I got him dressed and gave him some fruit and yogurt for breakfast. We had purchased some new clothes for him yesterday since everything we brought was way too big. The new clothes were 6-9 months, and we still had to use a safety pin to keep his shorts from falling down. He's so tiny. We can't wait to get him home and feed him some protein.

We met with Violeta from our agency around 9:00am to go to a small cafe for some amazing European coffee. I had a cafe mocha and Jason had a chocolate cappucino. Both were very tasty and very beautiful. Nikolas had some juice and cheesecake which he enjoyed very much. After visiting for a while we walked back to the hotel. I ran to the grocery store to pick up some more food for Nikolas and a few other items. I also made the daily trip to McDonald's for some quick lunch. I've eaten at McDonald's more this week than I have in the past six months at home. Nikolas loves the french fries and had a little bit of fish today, too.

Since he hasn't had a nap for the past two days and was getting very grumpy, we put him in his crib and turned out the lights. He screamed loudly for about 35 minutes before finally giving up and going to sleep. He napped for about 90 minutes and woke up happy. After his snack we decided to go to the park. He did ride in the stroller a little today, so we're getting somewhere. He loved the park, but he has a hard time going by stores. He gets mad when we won't let him go in.

We came back from the park and played for a bit before dinner. I fed Nikolas and by then, he was starting to get fairly grumpy. He was whining a lot and throwing his toys. We gave him a quick bath. He still screamed, but it didn't seem quite as bad tonight. After getting into his pajamas, we turned off the lights and put him in the crib. He only screamed for about five minutes this time.
Once we knew he was asleep, Jason called and ordered room service so we could have something nice to eat. We both had fish, and it was so nice to be able to enjoy a quiet meal. It's now a little after 9:30pm. Nikolas has been sleeping for at least an hour, we've had a good dinner, and we're taking some time to relax.

Tomorrow we will take Nikolas to the doctor for his exam and then we have an appointment at the US Embassy. His visa will be issued on Friday. We're making progress with him one day at a time, and we're both ready to be home and get into a normal routine.

Day Two in Sofia

2011-07-26T15:29:00.007-04:00

Nikolas woke up around 7:00am this morning. We got him changed into the only pair of jeans that would fit him. They're 18 months, but they have an adjustable waist. We do have to roll them up a bit. He had oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast and then played in the hotel room while Jason and I took turns getting ready. We took the subway to the mall to buy him some smaller shorts. He did great on the subway and loved the mall. His favorite store was the Reebok store because they were playing loud music. We spent about an hour walking around and then headed back to the hotel for lunch. Unfortunately he screams whenever we put him in the stoller, but hopefully we'll make some progress this week. It seemed like he wanted to eat constantly today. He had oatmeal, yogurt, fruit puree, lots of Gerber puffs, pretzels, meat and veggie toddler food and a couple of french fries from McDonald's. He really doesn't like to drink much, but we have been able to get him to take some water and juice.
We went to the park this afternoon and he had fun chasing the birds and watching the people. We came back at naptime, but he refused to take a nap. We played and had a snack before meeting with Violeta.

We gave him a bath this evening after dinner and he screamed the entire time. We got him clean in less than five minutes. We hope that he'll learn that baths are fun when we get home. He was very grumpy all evening due to the lack of a nap and all of the stress that he must be going through. Finally around 10:00pm we turned off the lights and got in bed with him between us. He screamed very loudly for about 10-15 minutes and didn't want anything to do with either of us. It's hard to watch him experience so much grief. He finally stopped screaming and fell asleep after thrashing around for a few minutes. The worst part is that we're in a hotel and I'm sure our neighbors are not enjoying our company. I can't wait to get home and get ourselves into a real routine and be able to help him work through this grief.

Tomorrow morning we are meeting Violeta for some good European coffee. Hopefully Nikolas will learn to trust us more and we'll have a better day tomorrow. Here are a few pictures from today:

We Have Nikolas!!

2011-07-25T14:44:00.003-04:00

We made it to Sofia safely and Nikolas has been with us from the beginning. Our flight arrived around 4:00pm local time on Monday. Mariana from our agency had brought Nikolas to Sofia from Dobrich, and they were already here when we arrived. They took care of everything at the passport office for us, and the passport should be issued on Wednesday afternoon. We came right to the hotel and dropped off our bags before going downstairs to take Nikolas from Mariana and Violeta. He did well on the trip, but he did get carsick. Hopefully the plane ride won't be as bad. We changed his clothes when we got to the room since he didn't have any shorts on. He's very good at letting us take care of him and even tries to help. We brought all 18 month clothing, and it's way too big. We had one pair of adjustable waist jeans, so we pulled those as tight as we could and rolled up the cuffs. They worked just fine, but we're going to have to pick up a couple of 12 months pairs of shorts at the mall tomorrow. The others just fall right off of him.

He's been a very happy boy for most of the evening. We played a lot and he's done great. He's talking some now, but we don't know what he says. He laughs a lot and seems to be a very happy little boy. He had some fruit puree and gerber puffs to eat and seemed to like both. We are very happy that he chews food and seems to be a good eater. I ran to McDonald's in the rain to get some dinner for us since we hadn't eaten much all day, and Nikolas enjoyed a couple of fries. During our visit to the orphanage in February he was only eating soft foods, so the ease of feeding today was a welcome surprise.

A little before his bed time we put on his pajamas and he played some more. They told us that he goes to bed around 8:00pm, but he didn't want to sleep tonight. He let me rock him to sleep, but then he woke up when we tried to put him down. He snuggled quite a bit. Jason went to bed and Nikolas was next to him babbling for a while. I don't hear any more noise, so I think he's finally asleep. Now I only hope there's room for me in the bed!!

It's been storming here all day today, so we weren't able to get out this evening. If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we plan to take the subway to the mall in the morning to pick up some shorts for Nikolas and then stop for a few groceries. He naps from 1:00-3:30pm, and then we have a meeting with Violeta from our agency at 4:00pm to go over some paperwork.

Things have been going great so far. He's been very relaxed and we haven't observed any disturbing orphanage behaviors. Will update tomorrow when I get a chance.

Almost Ready

2011-07-21T14:13:00.002-04:00

We are getting closer to our trip and are very excited to finally be bringing our son home. We've been waiting for this day for almost four years, and it's hard to believe that we'll have him in our arms forever in just a few days. Nikolas is packed and ready to go. I've spent the day cleaning the house and running errands and have finished doing almost everything on my list. Tomorrow will be spent finishing the laundry and packing. At least if I forget anything, there's a drugstore and grocery store very close to our hotel and the mall is only two subway stops away.

The weather is Sofia looks good. Highs are in the low 80's and our only chance of rain is on Monday and Tuesday. We're hoping that Nikolas likes going outside so we can get out and explore a little.

We'll be posting updates throughout the week!!

Travel Arrangements Made

2011-07-10T07:59:00.006-04:00

We leave for Bulgaria in two weeks!! We booked our flights with the help of Sheldon from Golden Rule Travel. He was able to get us great flights for a great price. I highly recommend Golden Rule Travel to other adoptive families. We will arrive in Sofia around 4:00pm on Monday, July 25th, and Nikolas should be arriving from Dobrich that same afternoon. He is being brought to Sofia by a representative from our agency, so we'll have our little guy as soon as we arrive. We're scheduled to fly home on Saturday, July 30th if everything goes as planned.

We'll be staying at the Radisson Blu Grand Hotel in Sofia. We stayed at this same hotel for a couple of nights during our first trip, so we decided it would be a good choice for this trip. The rooms are nice and we already know the area. They have a nice restaurant, and there are a lot of restaurants, monuments, cathedrals and shopping areas nearby.

Now that all of our travel plans have been made, it's time to start packing and getting things together around the house!!

We Have A Son!!

2011-06-27T20:33:00.003-04:00

Our court hearing went well today and we are now the proud parents of Nikolas Ali VanRoekel. We will be able to go to Bulgaria to bring him home in about four weeks. We should have our official travel dates later this week so we can start planning our trip. We are very blessed and are so excited to begin the next chapter of this journey.

Court Date!!

2011-06-25T12:33:00.003-04:00

We found out this week that our court date is scheduled for Monday, June 27th. We could be reunited with our sweet little boy in as little as 4-5 weeks!! Praying for a favorable decision on Monday. :)

No Court Date Yet

2011-06-18T12:45:00.005-04:00

I thought I'd post a quick update since it's been a while. We know that our paperwork has left the MOJ and was signed off to the courts earlier this month. We are currently waiting for the court system to provide us with a court date. We hope to hear something within the next week or two. We've watched other families pass court and travel to Bulgaria to bring their children home, and we can't wait until it's our turn.

We put up his wall stickers last weekend and are very happy with the way they look. We also picked up another dresser at IKEA last month. I still want to paint some wooden letters to spell out his name over his crib. I have his clothes and shoes in a pile ready to pack, so we'll be ready to go when it's time. Everything is coming together. We've been keeping ourselves plenty busy while we wait. Although the waiting is hard, it will be here before we know it.

Happy Birthday Nikolas!!

2011-05-07T19:47:00.002-04:00

Today is our son's 2nd birthday. It's sad that we are not able to be with him, but we're happy that our case is moving along in Bulgaria and that he'll be home soon.

We received our updated I800A and I800 provisional approval on 4/16. Our Article 5 letter was issued earlier this week and was translated and submitted to the MOJ on Thursday. We hope to hear about a court date by the end of the month. Every form/signature is one huge step closer to bringing Nikolas home.

Before and After

2011-04-10T17:56:00.027-04:00

We've been working on Nikolas' play room and bedroom over the past few months and are very excited with how they are both turning out. We still need to print and frame some pictures of Bulgaria for the play room. We're having so much fun getting ready for our little one to arrive. We're very thankful for our family and friends who have given Nikolas so many wonderful things. It feels great to have the support of so many loved ones.

Play Room - Before

Play Room - After

His bedroom has a World Traveler theme with planes, trains, boats and cars. We have some cute wall stickers to put up to match his bedding.

As far as paperwork goes, we're still waiting on our I800 provisional approval and expect it to arrive any day now. We should be able to send everything to Bulgaria very soon. We're still on track to bring our son home sometime this summer.

Lots of Paperwork

2011-03-20T15:26:00.003-04:00

After gathering all of the necessary forms and filling out a lot of paperwork, we were able to submit our USCIS paperwork about a week and a half ago and are hoping that it moves through the system quickly. Since our I797C form expires in May and we need to update our approval to reflect our son's medical needs, we had to file the I800A Supplement 3 along with the I800 form. Before the I800 form will make it to our officer's desk, we have to wait for our USCIS fingerprint appointment and have that form updated/approved first. We are grateful that our agency in Bulgaria was able to get us a deadline extension from the MOJ to allow us time to get everything updated and approved.

Once our I800 form is approved, the USCIS will inform the US Embassy in Sofia. They will issue the Article 5 letter and will send a copy to both our agency in Bulgaria and the MOJ. We will then receive a court date. After court our agency in Bulgaria will take care of getting the new birth certificate for us. We will be able to travel to Bulgaria 4-5 weeks after court to bring Nikolas home. While in Bulgaria we will need to take him to a medical appointment, take care of his passport, and visit the US Embassy for a visa interview. We should be in Bulgaria for about a week before returning home.

While we wait for our USCIS paperwork to be processed, we are gathering our documents for court. Once everything is received, notarized and apostilled, we will FedEx it to our agency in Bulgaria. We're hoping to receive our FBI background checks this week and still need to update both of our employment letters, but it looks like we're almost finished with the paperwork stage. Every form is one step closer to bringing Nikolas home. If things go as planned, we hope to travel to Bulgaria sometime this summer.

Overview/Photos - Trip #1

2011-02-20T16:03:00.023-05:00

We've been home from Bulgaria for about a week and we are already looking forward to our next trip. We enjoyed our trip so much and loved everything about the country. Our visits with our son, who we will be naming Nikolas, went very well. He's a great little boy and we can't wait until he is officially part of our family.

The staff at the orphanage is very friendly and it's obvious that they really care about the children. The facility is clean and organized. The orphanage houses 90 children, most of them being under the age of 5. There is a larger orphanage for older children across the street.

We stayed at the Park Hotel Izida in Dobrich. It was very comfortable and was located in a very nice area with a park and tennis courts. We enjoyed all of our meals at the hotel restaurant. The food was wonderful and the staff was very patient with our limited language skills. Dobrich is a small city with a population of about 100,000. During our free time we felt safe exploring the area. Here are a few photos of Dobrich:

We left Dobrich a little after noon on Friday and headed back to Sofia. We spent two nights at the Radisson Blu right on Naradno Sabranie Square with a wonderful view of the Bulgarian Parliament, a monument of the Russian Tsar Alexander II, and the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral. We took care of some adoption paperwork on Saturday and enjoyed some sight-seeing. Sofia is full of beautiful cathedrals and magnificent monuments. Here are a few photos of Sofia:

We had a very successful and enjoyable trip. We love the country and are lucky to have been able to see so much of it. The staff members who assisted with our adoption were very helpful and we never felt uncomfortable at any time. We are now spending our time preparing our home for a toddler and having fun shopping for him and getting his room ready. We're enjoying our last few months of being a family of two and are getting very excited about becoming a family of three.

Here's a link to more photos:

http://http://www.facebook.com//album.php?aid=282702&id=588579889&l=c372449752

Update From Dobrich

2011-02-10T14:14:00.003-05:00

Our time in Dobrich is coming to an end. We've had an amazing week and love being here. We've had many great visits with our little boy and signed his adoption papers this afternoon. He is absolutely adorable. He has the biggest brown eyes and the cutest little giggle. I can't wait to come back to Dobrich to bring him home.

We've been enjoying the gorgeous weather by taking walks each afternoon. We visited some monuments and walked to the city center to do some shopping. We feel so safe here and love the atmosphere. I'll post some pictures of the area when we get home.

We have one last visit with Ali tomorrow morning and then we'll be driving back to Sofia. We're spending two nights there to do some sightseeing before heading back to Indianapolis. I can't believe our time here is coming to an end so quickly. We love everything about Bulgaria and are so excited to come back in a few months.

First Post From Bulgaria

2011-02-07T14:38:00.002-05:00

The last few days have been very busy. On Saturday/Sunday we flew from Indianapolis to Sofia with stops in Minneapolis and Paris. We arrived in Sofia at 2:00pm local time on Sunday afternoon. Violeta met us at the airport and introduced us to our translator, Sveta. We then had about a 6-7 hour drive through the Balkan Mountains to get to Dobrich. We checked in to our hotel just after 10:00pm.

We haven't done much sightseeing in Dobrich, but we plan on taking a walk through the park to the city center tomorrow afternoon. There are also a couple of museums that we plan to visit. We are staying at the Park Hotel Izida. It's a nice hotel with a great restaurant where we've had all of our meals so far. We had Bulgaria pizza for dinner this evening. The food is very inexpensive and tasty.

We met our little boy today and enjoyed two visits with him. He's quite the character and is always on the move. He likes to laugh and is a very curious little boy. We will be visiting the orphanage from 10:00am to noon and 4:00-6:00pm each day this week. We were able to feed him lunch today after our morning visit. The orphanage is only about a 5-10 minute taxi ride from our hotel. It is very clean and the staff members are all very nice. We can tell that they love our little boy and that he loves them in return.

We're enjoying our trip so far and are looking forward to the rest of the week. The weather has been great. Today it was fairly warm with lots of sunshine. There is a little snow on the ground, but it has mostly melted. We don't have any photos of Dobrich yet, but we'll certainly add some later.

Thanks to all of you who have been following our journey and praying for us along the way!!

Almost Time...

2011-02-01T17:20:00.003-05:00

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments. We ended up pushing our trip back by a week and are now planning to leave for Bulgaria on Saturday the 5th. Our plane tickets have been purchased and our partner agency in Bulgaria has made our hotel reservations for us. We're working on gathering everything together this week and are very excited about our trip. It looks like we should have internet access while we are there, so we'll update when we can.

It's a Boy!!

2011-01-23T13:44:00.002-05:00

We received a referral this week for a beautiful little boy, and we'll soon be travelling to Bulgaria to meet him. We will have our official travel dates tomorrow, but it looks like we will most likely be leaving on Saturday. We should have internet access while in Bulgaria and hope to update our blog while we're there. We can't post his picture here, but he is so adorable!! We have a lot to do this week to prepare for this leg of our journey and are very excited to meet our son.

Not much of an update...

2010-12-26T19:44:00.005-05:00

I haven't posted an adoption update for a long time, mostly because I haven't had any positive updates to post. The past several months have been a little tough on the adoption front, but we're hoping that the new year will bring better news.

Back in August we were made aware of two siblings that were available for adoption. We submitted a formal referral request to the MOJ, but they were no longer available at the time of our request. Another family had already committed to adopting them. Although it wouldn't be with us, we were both happy that these beautiful children would be getting a new home soon.

We are currently working through some difficulties to get our home study updated and are hoping to have everything taken care of in a couple of months.

We received word a couple of weeks ago that the siblings from several months ago may be available again, but after doing a little research, I'm not sure that they are. We should hear back from our agency after the first of the year. Even if they are available, our home study update isn't. We are praying that our wonderful placement agency is able to work things out for us.

Our agency did receive it's first referral in December, so that seems to be positive news. We're hoping to see some more positive movement in Bulgaria and would love to have our children home with us by next Christmas.

Right now we're taking things one day at a time knowing that God has the perfect children picked out for us. Our pastor said this morning that God is with us every step of the way in our lives, and looking back, it's easy to see how He has been working in this process from the very beginning.

Adoption Tax Credit Extended and Increased

2010-03-24T21:04:00.005-04:00

http://chrisitianallianceblog.org/

March 24, 2010

Amidst the intense controversy of the health care bill signed into law by President Obama yesterday, there’s at least one provision every orphan advocate can cheer. The adoption tax credit was preserved for another year…and increased in value!

To encourage and support adoption, the adoption tax credit was expanded by President Bush and Congress in 2001. This increased the value of the credit from $5,000 to $10,000, and indexed it for inflation (meaning the credit would increase each year to keep up with inflation.) For 2010, its value had risen to $12,170. However, the 2001 increase was scheduled to “sunset” at the end of 2010. This would mean that any adoptions finalized after December 31, 2010 would be eligible for—at most—a credit of only $5,000.

This sunset has now been extended one year. That means that it will need to be extended again before the end of 2011. For the present, however, this extension comes as very welcome news for families considering adoption or in the adoption process.

Specifically, the provisions contained in the health care bill include:

The current adoption tax credit has been extended until the end of 2011;
The value of the adoption tax credit has been increased from $12,170 to $13,170.
The increase is “retroactive,” meaning that any adoption occurring after January 1, 2010 is eligible for this higher credit.

The credit is now refundable. This means that even families that owe zero taxes can receive the full tax credit in the form of a tax refund to help with their adoption-related expenses.

Two Year Anniversary

2009-08-20T10:36:00.002-04:00

Two years ago today we went to our first information meeting at Bethany Christian Services in Indianapolis. That night over dinner we decided that we were ready to move forward. We had been researching adoption for several months and had attended another agency’s meeting a few weeks earlier. We were happy with Bethany and knew right away that we wanted to work with them.

We’ve prepared dossiers for two different countries, worked with two different agencies, been fingerprinted 5-6 times, been tested multiple times for infectious diseases, been to many education classes at the Bethany office, read lots of books about parenting adopted children, started learning Bulgarian and studying the culture, and networked with other families in the process. We are now preparing to meet with our social worker to our second home study update since ours expires in mid-October. This also includes another round of fingerprints, CPS checks in three states, updated financial forms, and visits to our doctor.

We’ve had a lot of challenges over the past two years, and we’ve learned a lot. Not only have we learned about adoption and the challenges that come with it, we’ve also learned so much more about ourselves. There have been many ups and downs along the way, and everything is out of our hands at this point. We only hope that the process goes smoothly and that we are able to bring our children home soon. We don’t have any new news to share. From what we have heard lately, the approximate wait time can be two years or more. We’ve been registered for almost five months. Waiting is hard, but we know it will be worth it in the end.

Changes to Family Code in Bulgaria

2009-06-14T17:24:00.001-04:00

Bulgarian Parliament Adopted New Family Code

Published on June 12, 2009 at 12:30 PM BG
Updated on June 13, 2009 at 5:07 PM BG

The new family code is a fact after Parliament adopted the texts of the new Family code on second reading. An amendment is the introduction of pre-nuptial contracts that regulate which of the spouses will have to pay alimony in case of divorce. The pre-nuptial contracts however do not regulate matters in case of death of one of the spouses. Parliament also adopted changes to the process of adoption. The amendment gives the authorities the right to put a child up for adoption in case biological parents have withheld contact for six months. The biggest disagreements were on the subject of cohabitation. Cohabitation will not have the same legal footing as marriage. Its recognition as the legal equivalent of marriage was backed by one of the ruling coalition partners, but lacked support of other parties.

Making the Adoption Tax Credit Permanent

2009-04-30T14:15:00.010-04:00

Making the Adoption Tax Credit Permanent

Adoption Action Alert

April 1, 2009/Martha Osborne

The federal adoption tax credit has helped thousands of families say yes to adopting a child. It's vital that this financial support stay in place to help families offest the costs and fees associated with adopting a child. Unfortunately, the tax credit is set to expire in December 2010 unless Congress votes to continue it. It's time to take action!

The Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, H.R. 213, will keep the adoption tax credit from being repealed, and may make the tax relief measure permanent. It only takes a few minutes to e-mail or call your senators and congressmen. It's important for them to hear from families impacted by the tax credit.

Currently, there are 76 State Senator and Representatives cosponsoring H.R. 213. However, there are 16 states that currently have no sponsors of this bill, including eight on the East Coast (one of the largest areas of the US with internationally adopted children). H.R. 213 is currently in committee, where most bills die. It is imperative that adoptive families, and all friends of children waiting for families, act now.

It only takes a few minutes to write, call or e-mail your representatives. Please do so today!

E-mail Representative: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

E-mail Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Currently, the following states have no cosponsors or commitments of support for H.R. 213:

West Virginia

Delaware

Connecticut

Rhode Island

New Hampshire

Vermont

Massachusetts

Maine

Idaho

Oregon

Montana

South Dakota

New Mexico

Arkansas

Hawaii

The two states offering the greatest support are Texas and Georgia with 6 cosponsors each, closely followed by Pennsylvania with 5. Honorable mentions: Florida, Indiana, Illinois each with 4 sponsorships each.

Pass this on to friends and family, and ask for their help in writing, calling, and posting on blogs and Facebook. To gain momentum, we must have an absolute ground swell of families lifting their voices together for the well-being of children throughout the world.

We Are Registered!!

2009-04-06T19:01:00.002-04:00

I got an e-mail from our caseworker that our dossier was registered with the MOJ (Ministry of Justice) on March 30th. We have our registration number and we're "officially" waiting now. It only took 20 days for the dossier to get translated and registered. That's fast!!

Dossier in Bulgaria

2009-03-13T21:36:00.008-04:00

Our dossier was delivered to its destination in Bulgaria via Fed Ex on Tuesday morning. It took less than a week to get there. It's nice to know that our paperwork is at least in the right country now.

Our dossier is currently being translated. It usually takes three to four weeks for this to be completed. After the dossier has been translated, the translation will be authenticated by the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). This process can take up to four weeks. Once this has been done, it will be sent to the MOJ (Ministry of Justice) where we will be officially registered. And then we wait...

Finished!!

2009-02-19T16:02:00.007-05:00

After spending a few weeks gathering the remaining documents and making three trips to the Secretary of State's office, our dossier is officially finished and is ready to be submitted to our agency. They will look it over, and if everything is done correctly, it will be on its way to Bulgaria. The timing worked out perfectly since we were planning to use our tax refund to cover the payment that gets submitted with our dossier. That money will come tomorrow, just in time to mail everything to our caseworker. Once the dossier is in Bulgaria, it will be translated and then sent to the MOJ (Ministry of Justice). The MOJ meets regularly to match children with their new parents. We will probably wait about a year from the time we are registered, although it could be more or less time. I'll post an update once we are registered.

One Step Closer

2009-01-27T13:57:00.000-05:00

We received our I-797C (I-171H) last Thursday. This form is issued by the USCIS and allows us to adopt two children from Bulgaria and to bring them back to the United States. We weren’t expecting the form to arrive until mid-February, so it was a huge surprise to see it so soon. Now that we have that form, we’ve been working extra hard to finish the rest of our dossier. We’ve done most of the work and are just waiting on everything to come back to us so we can head to the Secretary of State’s office to have it all apostilled. We’re still waiting on some paperwork from our home study agency, both of our employment letters, and our updated FBI clearances. It seems to be going okay so far, and we’re hoping to send our completed dossier to our caseworker in California sometime next month.

A Quick Update

2009-01-10T13:35:00.002-05:00

It's been a couple of months since I've updated this blog, mostly because not much has been happening. We did get fingerprinted again at the Indianapolis USCIS office in early December. We expect our I-171H form to arrive sometime in February. We have officially started working on our dossier so everything will be ready when the last form arrives. It should not take too long to put everything together since we're getting really good at adoption paperwork. So for now, we're filling out forms, requesting employment letters, verifying bank files, and being checked for infectious diseases. If all goes as planned, our dossier should be ready to go in six to eight weeks.

Our I-800 Form

2008-11-14T19:45:00.004-05:00

I picked up an updated copy of our home study earlier this week and was able to send our I-800 form into the USCIS office. I've heard it's been taking about three months to receive the I-171H form. (This is the form that will allow us to bring our children into the country as US citizens.) Since we already have fingerprints on file with the USCIS and a favorable decision for another country, we're hoping that our application will move through the system quickly. We plan to start gathering our dossier documents at the beginning of the year. Hopefully everything will go smoothly this time and we'll be able to send out paperwork to Bulgaria in February or March. It's a good thing that I can be very organized when I need to be.

More Fingerprints...

2008-10-06T11:00:00.000-04:00

Since we had to start from the beginning with the USCIS, we had to redo our background checks and CPS checks. We went downtown on Friday before leaving for Iowa to get fingerprinted for another local criminal background check. We decided to get another set of fingerprint cards made while we were there since our FBI clearance will most likely expire before we complete our dossier. The results of the background checks should arrive sometime this week, so we should be able to submit our I-800 form to Immigrations within the next couple of weeks. We're not sure how long it will take to get approval, but we're hoping that it won't take too long this time. The path to our children has been rocky and we've had many obstacles along the way. This process definitely requires a lot of patience!! That's all for now...

Home Study Update

2008-08-19T18:00:00.001-04:00

We met with our social worker last night to update our home study. We had to make some changes since it was originally written for Kazakhstan. The meeting was quick and we should be able to send our new home study and letter to request a country change to the USCIS before we leave for vacation. I don't know how long it will take to get a new I-171H, but we're hoping it will be fast. That will be the last document to complete our new dossier, so the sooner it arrives, the sooner we can send off the paperwork to Bulgaria.

The dossier for Bulgaria is much easier than the dossier for Kazakhstan. I posted a picture of our completed Kazakhstan dossier in a previous post. This dossier is much shorter and includes the following documents:

* Copy of passport of both parents
* Financial Statement
* Description of our Home
* Medical Forms for both parents
* FBI Clearances for both parents
* I-171H form from USCIS
* Home Study
* Social Worker License
* Home Study Agency License
* Home Study Agency Letter of Recommendation
* Marriage Certificate
* Authorization of Representation form
* Partner Agency Agreement
* Proof of Residency
* Employment Letters for both parents
* 10-12 Photos

Fortunately we already have a lot of these documents completed from our Kazakhstan dossier, and since they were done earlier this year, it's not a problem to use them. That makes things so much easier. Everything has to be notarized and apostilled, and it has to be absolutely perfect.

Things seem to be moving along just fine. We're still educating ourselves by reading books and by attending the monthly classes at Bethany. This Saturday we'll be attending a class where we are able to meet with the International Adoption doctors from Riley Children's Hospital to talk about health conditions that we may encounter with our new children. It should be interesting. Thats all for now!!

A Decision

2008-07-22T01:00:00.000-04:00

If you remember in my last update I mentioned that we had three options for our adoption:

1. Wait for Kazakhstan to deal with the issues
2. Choose a new Bethany country
3. Switch to domestic adoption

Well, we chose option number 4. We have decided to go with a new placement agency. We've been researching new agencies for several weeks, and we have decided to go with Adoption Ark in Illinois. We are currently working on our contract with them, and should be able to get started very soon. We will be joining their Bulgaria program where we will be adopting a sibling group of two between the ages of 2 and 5. This program was closed for about four years, but it has reopened and is very promising. We're very excited and feel more confident about this choice than we have any of our other adoption choices up to this point. We will still be working with Bethany for our home study and post-placement reports. They will also be doing our adoption education. Adoption Ark will help us prepare our dossier and find our children. They'll also prepare us to travel and will be with us during our trips to Bulgaria. We have not received the dossier instructions yet, but we're hoping that it won't be as challenging as the last dossier.

A Change in Plans

2008-05-24T00:15:00.000-04:00

I received a call from my social worker yesterday afternoon saying that Kazakhstan had decided to work with only a few agencies, and Bethany was not one of those agencies. We were told that we would most likely need to choose a new country or choose a new program, because it didn't look like Kazakhstan was going to happen. I was told that there was a small chance that we may be able to proceed with our adoption from Kazakhstan, but we won't know anything until July. By then most of our documents will expire, so we will have to redo them if we choose to continue. With Guatemala being closed and the wait for China being 2+ years, many people are switching to the Kazahkstan program, and this is causing delays. We have to make a choice, and we have three options:

1. We can choose to stay in the Kazakhstan program and hope for the best, knowing that there is a possibility that we won't be able to contine or that our dossier will be rejected.

2. We can remain in the international program and choose a new country to work with. The Central/South America programs are mostly closed right now. The Ukraine and South Korea programs only allow a certain number of adoptions per year, so we would have to wait until 2009 for those countries, Russia has a lot of issues, and China and the Philippines both have a really long wait. Our only real options would be Haiti and Ethiopia.

3. We can switch to the domestic program, create a profile, and wait to be chosen by a birthmother here in Indiana. This program can vary in the time it takes to be chosen and there is the risk that we may go through several failed placements before we have our son or daughter.

If we choose domestic, we wouldn't be spending seven weeks in a foreign country, and we would be able to spend more time at home with the baby before going back to work. We keep going back and forth with our decision, and we're just not sure what to do right now. We will continue to research out options and will hopefully make the best choice.

It's Done!!

2008-05-21T19:00:00.001-04:00

Our dossier has been submitted. It's such a relief to have all of those forms out of my hands. I spent the day having the last few documents notarized by Lisa before making a stop by the Secretary of State's office to have them apostilled. I then made four copies of the entire dossier before meeting with LuAnn at the Bethany office to review everything. It all looks good and is on its way to the Grand Rapids office for a final review. If everything is fine, it will be on its way to the Kazakhstan Embassy shortly. We should be traveling to meet our son in early 2009.

Almost Finished

2008-05-07T22:30:00.000-04:00

After some delays, we finally received our I-171H. This is the form from CIS that allows us to bring an orphan into the country as an American citizen. I've been getting all of the other forms organized and ready to go this week. I dropped the medical forms off with our doctor yesterday, and he is supposed to have them ready for me by tomorrow. I'm meeting Jason after work to get the last two documents notarized, and I should also be able to pick up a few documents from Bethany later this week to complete the dossier. Once I have everything in my possession I'll be taking it all to the Secretary of State so he can apostille each document. Thankfully this is free in Indiana, because we have about 20 documents that were notarized in this state. We also had documents from Illinois, Minnesota, and West Virginia, and those states charge between $2.00 and $10.00 per document. If everything is completed, signed, notarized, and apostilled correctly, then we'll be able to send the dossier to the Bethany office in Grand Rapids for a final review. Once it's approved at the corporate level, it will be sent to Kazakhstan for translation. After that it will come back to the US and go to the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington DC. There have been some delays at the embassy, but hopefully everything will be worked out before our paperwork arrives. After it is approved by the Ambassador at the embassy, it will be sent back to Kazakhstan. After going through several offices there, it will be sent to the region where our son is waiting, and they will send us a Letter of Invitation to travel. If everything goes smoothly, we could travel as early as the beginning of the year. For now, I'm just trying to be as organized as possible!!

A Brief Review

2008-03-01T23:00:00.001-05:00

I decided to move our blog because the FreeWebs site was taking way too long to download. For those or you who are just starting to follow our journey, here's a recap of the past six months. We began our adoption journey on August 20, 2007 by attending a meeting at Bethany Christian Services. We had been talking about adoption and researching agencies for a few months, and we finally decided that we were ready. We decided to adopt an infant boy from the country of Kazakhstan. We filled out the necessary forms, got fingerprinted a few times, had lots of medical tests and met with our social worker to complete our home study. We filed our I-600A form with the USCIS and started gathering the necessary documents for our dossier. We have finished everything that we can do right now and are only waiting for our I-171H form to arrive from the USCIS. This is the form that allows us to bring our child into the United States as a citizen of our country. We expect it to arrive in about six weeks. Once it arrives we can have everything notarized and apostilled before it goes to Kazakhstan.