WE ARE MATCHED!!

     When I wrote my very first blog post, we were (not so patiently) waiting to hear back from the MOJ (Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria) if they would approve our initial application to adopt Flora and place her on hold for our family. It took a full month, but a couple of weeks ago we got the call from our case worker that we were officially matched!!

  So this means now the real work starts. We have to complete a Home Study, get all sorts of child abuse and FBI clearances, go to medical evals, get tested for things like TB, have reference letters written, fill out paperwork, fill out more paperwork, and on and on.....

  We are HOPING our Home Study will be wrapped up by about the third week of May. At that point, we need to get approval from the US State Dept to adopt internationally. Once that approval is granted, everything will be submitted to Bulgaria and we will wait to be invited to travel and meet our girl.

  The girls are very excited! Gianna and Sera have a photo of Flora in their bedroom, at their request. Sera has already asked me if she can travel with me, but Dad is not so sure about that. ;-) We are taking it one step at a time and praying every day that things go smoothly, and that Flora stays safe and healthy in the orphanage until we can get to her.

  We recently celebrated our littlest one's birthday. Francesca turned 2 on Sunday, and overnight she went from a baby to a little girl. It was a wonderful, joyous day. But, I thought about our little girl in Bulgaria all day. What was she doing while we were having a wonderful time celebrating? Does she know we are coming? This is certainly a whole different ballgame than when you are pregnant and waiting for your little one. I knew my babies were safe and warm. And I knew that if they needed medical care or help, that they would get it just as soon as they needed it. With our Flora, we have to have Faith that God will watch over her and that her caregivers will take good care of her for the next several months.

  Here are some recent photos :-)

Here is the Birthday Girl!!! TWO!!

And this is a photo of the big sisters as we were at the Post Office to send our first set of official adoption documents to our agency!! It's so neat to be able to chronicle this whole journey !

And just for fun, The Moose!! Can you tell how excited he is?!?!

God Bless!! <3

~Angela