We have our travel dates!

We will be going to bring Christy home in the first part of May.

We will be gone for over two weeks once you count in travel time.

Pray for us as we continue to prepare for our trip!  I am working on putting together some gifts for Christy's care providers, and I am considering getting some ladies together to make some rag quilts for the children in her group home - email me if you are interested in helping with the quilts (purchasing flannel/donating money for flannel or sewing a quilt and shipping it to me if you aren't local, or even cutting the squares if you are local!).

I have booked our flights and we are pleased with the layovers and such.  I was also able to book our rooms for our time in Sofia.  Our agency will have to book the hotel near Christy's group home as hotel.com did not have any rooms available at the hotels they work with there.  Something about a holiday that day.

So I won't be posting much of anything for a while since we are basically now waiting to go, but have over 7 weeks of waiting!

I am working on a blanket for Christy, and have made a hat and a sweater, so when I complete that I might post photos - they are turning out so cute!

Blessings to all!

She is Officially Our Daughter Now!

In a courtroom in Bulgaria, Preslava was pronounced to be our child!

She is now legally Christiana Preslava Einfeld!

She is an orphan no more!

For the first time in her life, Priscilla has a family, parents, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and cousins!!!  She doesn't know it yet, but her life will changes forever soon!

We started the process 13 months ago, officially committed to her on Jan 28.  We hope to be taking her our of her group home by the end of March, or the first part of April!  Pray for speedy processing in getting her birth certificate, as that is what is needed before we can get travel dates!

We will be going to bring her home in the next month or so - I'll keep you posted on the progress of course!

Here's the announcement and her new name!

We Have a Court Date!!!!!!!

From slow as molasses and no news from afar, we are now on the fast track!

If all goes well, Christy will be declared ours forever on February 28!  Just one week from today!

The judge has requested additional documents from our adoption agency over there, and they must be provided before the court date, so PLEASE PRAY THAT THE AGENCY CAN GET THIS DONE IN TIME!  The is not much time to "get 'er done" but with Go, all things are possible!

Did you know that our US based adoption agency is a non-profit filled with believers?  Our contact with them is wonderful too and prays for the families she works with (she has also adopted children from Christy's country!).  Also, our adoption lawyer in Christy's country is also a believer!  I just found out yesterday that of all the adoptions that were completed in Christy's country, our agency was involve in over half of them!  They are committed to getting children out of the orphanages/group homes/foster care and into loving, lifetime families of their own!  Isn't that wonderful!

Oh - and I know you are asking.....if we are granted our petition to adopt Christy next week, we could be flying out to bring her home before the end of March!  It is usually 4 - 5 weeks from court date to travel!

Our Dossier Has Moved To Court!!!

Hurray!  Praise God!  Our dossier is right now with a judge!  We have no idea yet which judge (like I really care), and it will be reviewed, and if needed, the judge might ask for further documentation from our adoption agency (pray that this will not be the case!), and once the judge feels that all documents are in proper order, then we will be assigned a court date!

New Photos from Christmas Time, and an update

Just after Christmas we got some updated photos of Christy!

This is the toy we sent to her through another Washington State adoptive family,
whose little girl lived with Christy.  They were able to drop off some toys for us
when they went to take their daughter home forever!

We hope to hear that our dossier has gone to court any day now.  There was a problem between the powers that be, but they finally got it worked out today and are sending dossiers to court again!

Here is Christy's suitcase (you can barely see it beneath the pile) piled high with items that have been donates recently - pajamas, shoes, a coat, tights and more!  The top item, the sweater, I finished crocheting yesterday.  I'm working on a hat, and after that some slippers and a blanket!  I fell in love with the variegated yarn, and it is called "Giggles"!  So fun to work with as it is bright and cheery!

Also, a little background on the sweater/blanket thing - for all of my children I have crocheted a set - for most it was an layette and for some it was a sweater/hat/blanket set.  I realized last month that I needed to do this for Christy and set about to get busy!

So, I am hoping and praying that my next blog post will come VERY soon and share that our dossier has gone to court...then we'll get assigned a judge, then get a court date, then she'll be ours, and then we'll get travel dates!  The list of steps in this adoption is now getting short enough that I can remember them!

Awesome Fundraiser to Bless Many Families!

I LOVE these products! 

Sevenly is doing a fundraiser again this year for Reece's Rainbow, but this year the proceeds are benefitting families who are waiting to travel to bring their child home! 

That includes us! I haven't said much, but with the new regulations, we are no longer fully funded (we will be needing around $1,500 or more in addition to what we have already raised). But so many other families are far short of what they need to bring their child/children home!

 All the proceeds from this fundraiser will be divided equally between all of the families! Check it out and order some T-Shirts - $7 from each item purchased will go to these families  - these are the "almost home" families/children, and we are only one of many families in this category!

These hats are hand knit by women in Uganda

Over $3,000 has already been raised for these families already!  This campaign only lasts a week (I think it started today, but I am not sure).  

These are made in Costa Rica providing jobs there! 

Please consider purchasing something, and please share on your social networking (blog, FB, twitter, Google+) and help these families bring their children home!!!

This event ends January 6, so don't wait to order!

A Surprise Blessing!

Photos taken 12/14!

We had something amazing happen last week!  While I was reading a blog from a family who was on their "meet ya" trip this week in Christy's country, I recognized Christy's city!  This family was able to bring their son to stay with them for 3 days instead of visits twice a day like we had!  Then she commented that now they have to find things to do.  I contacted her, as I had seen that she had the same translator/driver that we did (Yavor), to see if it would be possible to check in to see if the thickener I was able to have brought to Christy was working and how the supply was lasting.

Not only were they able to do that, but Yavor was allowed to visit Christy and take photos!  He said she was quite tired (probably just laying down for a nap).  He also found out that the thickener is working well, and that the supply I sent should last a long time.  The nurse also requested that we send her some orthotic hose to help with her legs as she is super flexible and they think it would help to limit her movement.  It would take yet another miracle, actually a series of miracles, but we might just be able to pull it off and get her some "hip huggers."  I will work to get the hip huggers to our adoption agency attorney over there through a family who is going over there for their first trip in early January, and then she'll need to give it to Yavor and he would have to be going to her city with another family and have time to go to Christy's group home in order for us to get them to her, but it is possible...Please pray that we will be able to do this for her.

Her email was so fun to read, I'll quote it here:

"Dear Ruth!

We were able to go to Christy's group home today twice. The first time we went and Yavor went in and the nurse wasn't there until 12:00. This was in the morning. Yavor got to see Christy, and the care giver told him that Christy was doing really well, but she didn't know about the thickener, or anything about the supply of it needed. She said he should ask the nurse. Yavor said Christy was doing really well, though, and the caregiver told him that she'd had a medical appointment the week before and that went great!

So we went and had Jerry's visa picture taken and then we went to the mall and had lunch and then came back to the group home after noon. I said to Yavor, "see if you can get some photos of Christy and tell them her American Mama would be soooo happy!"...so Yavor took my camera and went in to check with the nurse. On his way in he said.."Now you realize that I probably won't be able to take any pictures, but I"ll try anyway!"...and then when he came out he brought me these on my camera!

Oh Ruth! She's so beautiful! I'm so thankful that we got to encourage you in this way! I said to Yavor..."Bravo!" "Bravo!"..he was beaming that he got to do that!

So..the report from the nurse:

Christy is doing great. She's off of her heart medicine now and only on her brain medicine. She's growing and actually outgrowing all of her clothes! She doesn't need any more thickener at this time. It's working well, but she has enough for a long time to come she said. Also, she mentioned wanting some stretchy ortho type socks or tights that would help to keep her legs straighter. Not sure what that meant, but she thought you might know, and if you could send those, that would be great. When you come for picking up, you'll need to bring her bigger clothes, the nurse said!

Okay..love to you!! Praying this blesses your day greatly!

 Mary!!!

Um, yeah!  That totally blessed my socks off!  And she's a woman after my own heart with all those exclamation points!  LOVE IT!!!!!!

As far as our adoption stuff goes, we were able to get our fingerprints done last Thursday, and I will be mailing them in through an FBI Channeler.  This way we should get our background checks back in about 2 weeks instead of 6 - 8 weeks!  Then I will have to send them to Caring Hands (a service that hand delivers documents to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC to get apostilled) and we will have them send the apostilled background checks directly to our adoption agency!

I am still hoping to hear any day now that our second stage dossier has been submitted.  These fingerprints/background checks will not be needed until we are assigned a judge/court date (and they might not be needed at all, as it depends on which judge we get), so this is not slowing anything down.

So here are the steps we still have left to go through:

-Article 5 translated/authenticated and  added to complete dossier submitted to Big Wig (approx 12/18)

-Complete dossier goes through 1 month of passing through lots of hands (finish approx 1/20)

-Gets signature from big wig (approx 1/27)

-is taken to the courts. (approx 1/31)

-assigned to a judge (approx 2/14)

-assigned a court date (approx 2/20)

-court date/adoption granted (approx 3/1)

-adoption gets signed court decree from the judge (approx 3/10)

-new birth certificate is applied for (approx 3/11)

-travel dates given once new birth certificate is done (approx 3/18)

Then we get to go bring her home (end of March?)

We also were blessed to have one of our photos of our visits with Christy put in a video that was just released today!  Please share this video, and consider participating in the 2013 



And please read about the Winslow family and there visits with their precious children last week.  This is the family who worked with Yavor in order to get updates on Christy! They still stand in need of funds to complete their adoption, so please consider donating to their grant!

Thank you Mary Winslow!

Thank You Yavor!!

Thank You God!!!