Paperwork, Preparation and Praises

"How can I keep from singing your praise?

How can I ever say enough, how amazing is your love?

How can I keep from shouting your name?

I know I am loved by the King

and it makes my heart want to sing."

 

 



Whohooo, it only took 10 days for us to receive our Notice of approval from the NBC (Depart of Homeland Security). We now have official approval from the US government to adopt from Bulgaria.  Our next step is to gather the final notarizations, county stamps and state apostilles and then our DOSSIER IS COMPLETE.  For those of you who are not familiar with the adoption process, we've been working on this since September 2012, so this is a big deal!

Our agency has told us it will take approximately six weeks to translate all of these documents into a Slavic language spoken in Bulgaria.  Then, everything will be sent to Bulgaria and we'll be official, ready to start seeing some little faces!!!!

 

In the meanwhile, what are we doing to prepare, you might ask?  Well, I'm glad you did!  We belong to  a small group of adoptive and foster families who meet once a month to encourage and support each other. As a group, we are reading through Karen Purvis' book,  The Connected Child. I've only finished chapter 1 so far, so I can't tell you much about it yet, but I've been told she is a wonderful resource on attachment and bonding with your adopted child.   Our agency provided us with a wonderful link to a resource. It's a Bulgarian Phrases for Children cd.  Another family who adopted a child from Bulgaria created it when they weren't able to find any other material for themselves.  It's a great tool that will help us learn her language using common phrases we will need, such as "Are you thirsty?", "Are you hungry?", "I love you." etc.  We're excited about immersing our family into this new language. 

 

A very sudden and unexpected blessing fell into my lap this week.  A friend called and offered me the chance to "assume the identity" of another adoptive mom.  What?  Ok, I'll explain it more.  A group of adoptive moms has been planning a trip to Atlanta for a conference designed  just for them, and about 450 other women. One of the ladies is no longer able to attend due to illness, so I was asked to take her place.  Words cannot express how excited I am to be able to spend the next 2 1/2 days with a group of moms who have already walked the road I am currently walking.  Humbled is the only word that seems adequate to express how blessed I feel that God would drop this into my lap and work out all the details of time off work and finances to cover the cost.  I am looking forward to all that God has for me to learn and absorb as well as the friendships that will be made.

 

So, how I can keep from singing His praise?