In 2011, we brought our son Jordan home from his orphanage in Eastern Europe. It’s been five years since Jordan entered our family and this year, we are preparing to bring home a new son or daughter from Bulgaria.
Jordan in his orphanage – June 2011
The process to adopt from this country is, in brief:
-Complete a homestudy (1-3 months process)
-Get immigration/USCIS approval to adopt (2ish months)
-Send our pile of paperwork (dossier) to Bulgaria and have that processed (don’t remember how long)
-Travel on trip 1 to accept child’s referral (we will know the child by photo and medical history before we travel)
-Roughly 4-6 months for Bulgarian adoption process to complete before we bring our child home.
Our family posing for our adoption paperwork over five years ago…
There are many other details… with the dossier preparation, with training requirements and with the process of connecting with and sharing our hearts with our closest family and friends. We covet your prayers as we walk this road. International adoption is never a completely smooth process and unlike our first adoption, the parameters for the child we will adopt are not completely set (age, special needs, etc.). We are a few steps along in the decision process, but are waiting on the Lord a bit on this one right now.
You may also see some fundraising from us this time around. The total cost, including legal fees, agency fees and all the plane tickets is somewhere around $30K. We WILL complete this adoption even without fundraising. However, that’s a lot of money and it’s not easy to come up with it (particularly the second $15K) despite saving towards this adoption for some time. I don’t have a special fund set up yet, but at some point I probably will have one to make it easier for some friends to join in with us.
One of my favorite parts of adoption is the miracle of an orphan becoming a son or daughter. I want to share this with you. There is nothing like the hope of redemption. The lifelong process of parenting is harder to share… so I hope you hop on to witness the miracle that is adoption. One of the main drives behind our family pursuing special needs adoption again is the acute need of these children. They didn’t ask to be born with their bodies and/or minds different or broken, they didn’t ask to be left in an orphanage. We cannot leave them when we have the capacity to help. Even imperfectly. Even just one.
Well, pray for us! Here we go!
European city from when we picked up Jordan
Hope all goes well and quickly!! Thinking about you during this waiting time!
Exciting news! We also adopted from Bulgaria – Varna and Vetren. We adopted again in 2016, but this time from China. I think your Jordan is from the same orphanage as our Sophia. Hope all goes smoothly . I can’t wait to see a picture of him or her.
Oh, Rachel. This brings tears to my eyes. I am so happy for you and your family as you embark on the roller coaster of the adoption process once again. May God give you much peace and joy as you look forward to welcoming a new child and entering the much bigger adventure of being family together forever.
Cheering you on!