Adoption Update

Well I think there was some problems made today by a recent Facebook post lol We had several people calling us to ask if the picture we posted with the baby girl was our daughter and the answer is no.  That picture was a follow up to a previous post which explained that for the last five years we've been praying for a taxi driver we met our first year in Bulgaria. Our struggle with miscarriage helped him open up to us and share their struggle with infertility and desire to have a baby.  We shared about how God was beside us during our pregnancy journeys and though he stated that his beliefs were different, he allowed us to pray for him and kept us up to date.  Yesterday we got a phone call from him stating that he and his wife wanted to drive to our city so that we could meet his precious baby girl, an answered prayer.  So the picture posted today was our moment of meeting her.  So sorry for any confusion.  So here is what is happening right now.

When we do find the little girl God is leading to, we will first notify our family (so again moms and dads rest assured you will not find out on Facebook! We love and respect you too much to do that)

Right now we are receiving letters from orphanages around Bulgaria: Plovdiv, Sofia, Lukovit, and so on.  Directors of these orphanages are writing us to confirm they have our file and are working on matching us.  Literally any day we could receive a letter for a match.
When we receive a letter of a match we will only know the name and age of the baby, nothing more.  No picture, no family history, nothing more.  We will schedule a meeting at that time to go and meet her. Micah and Ben will not go with us and we will not tell anyone when this happens.  The reason being is that we want to follow God and not emotion.  The last thing we want to do is tell everyone that we've been matched and then have to tell everyone that we've said no for whatever reason to that match. Our whole life has been calling family and sharing good news of pregnancy, only to follow up with having to tell everyone we've lost the pregnancy.  When we are sure the match is the little girl God has for us then we will notify our family and set up another meeting to introduce her to Micah and Ben.
When we meet her we will have up to one month to decide if she is the baby we are adopting.  I can't foresee needing a month to decide that but it is the given timeline.  If we say "yes" then the court proceedings will begin and we can set up more visits with her via the director of her orphanage until we gain full custody. Our social worker has stated that the more we can visit the easier it will be on her so if her orphanage is close enough it would be our desire to be with her as much as possible. If it is far away (we have stated that we are willing to adopt anywhere in Bulgaria so her orphanage could be very far away) then we will get a hotel and visit as much as possible.
If we say "no" for whatever reason then we will have to wait for the next letter to arrive stating another match then another meeting is scheduled.
If two or more letters arrive on the same day or week then we will need to choose which one to visit first and go from there but we can not see multiple babies.  We have to make a decision on one before we are allowed to visit another.  Our prayer is that the first letter we receive is her and "yes" is the only thing we ever have to say.

Once we have said yes and have notified our family then you will see the biggest, loudest Facebook post ever made :) And if there is a picture, it will be a picture of a baby in my arms!  :) She's been outside of my arms long enough and it'll be clear that she is our baby because no one else will be holding her in a picture :)

So any day now we can receive a match and every monday through friday we hope the mailman is walking towards our door with a letter!  As for right now the mailman has brought six letters from different orphanages around bulgaria so we know there are currently six directors holding our paperwork and looking to match us.  In the meantime please pray that God will lead us straight to our sweet baby, wherever she is waiting.