Glorious

She's ours!  We are hers!  Officially a family!

This morning our lawyer represented us in a court hearing in which 'Gemma' was declared to be our daughter!  At the last minute, our case was almost postponed because the Social Services department had a paperwork problem, but our lawyer begged for us, and the prosecutor and judge were compassionate.  We are beholden to our lawyer for her efforts on our behalf.  Also, we are grateful for the other parties that had to make a decision to hear our case this morning.  Praise God for his goodness!

Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.  Psalm 111:3

Got That Elusive Signature!

We got the signature from the Minister of Justice of Bulgaria on our second stage dossier, seven weeks after the US Embassy approved our Article 5.

 This is was a very hard wait for different reasons.  It was an unknown wait; some have waited for 8 weeks in the past, some have only waited 2 weeks.  When we saw the overturn of their parliament in February, we tried to rush our dossier to the hands of the outgoing Minister.  We weren't successful.  So we held our breath to see what kind of person would be appointed to the Minister's position.  Would he be supportive of adoption, would he 'like' Americans, would he have the time to sign while settling in to a new role? The recent adoption ban in Russia was rolling around in our minds, although the two countries are unrelated.  Dragomir Yordanov was appointed caretaker Minister of Justice on March 12th.  It was comforting to us that his resume included studying at University of Kentucky, at Williamsburg, Virginia, at The National Judicial College of the USA, Reno, Nevada, and the Judicial Education Center in Arizona.  There was even a rumor circulating that he was an adoptive father.  So our concerns for many of the questions were quelled by receiving a picture of his background.  Prayers began for his schedule and workload to offer the time for him to sign.  We were assured by our social worker and Bulgarian attorney that everything was normal, and to remain patient.  Our wait was long, but not unheard of, and we are grateful for Mr. Yordanov and his staff for the signature that keeps our adoption moving.  With the upcoming early election on May 12th for a new parliament, it is unclear if Mr. Yordanov will remain in his position as Minister of Justice.

So, we now are waiting to receive a court date for legalizing our adoption.  Our attorney will represent us and we will not need to travel for court.  If all goes well with court, we will have an immediate decision and 'Gemma' will become legally our second daughter.  Within 4-6 weeks of our court date, we will travel to pick her up and bring her home!

Yes

"When you say YES to adoption, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong. There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because it is hard," but all that is garbage. You know what's hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like hell to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will."

~Jen Hatmaker