She is officially a Seventh Sister now!

In a courtroom in Bulgaria at 10:55 am their time, 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!

An Adoptive Mother's Heart

I dreamed of her again last night.  Not my first dream of gotcha day.  When I see photos of her in my arms, my arms ache and my heart hurts.  I had no idea how quickly I would be knit to her and how strong that bond would be.  Even though my arms are full of blessings from my Lord, and my life is so busy that I question how I can possibly care for or love one more, I long for the day that I bring her through our door and into my home - for our home to become her home for ever.

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 Dossiers has made it 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!  The court date can be up to a month later, but is usually sooner than that, but I will notify everyone as soon as I know!

Travel to bring her home will happen around 6 weeks after the courtdate if the adoption is approved in court the first time around (it rarely doesn't).

Praise God - They Worked Things Out!

I have no details, only that dossiers will be headed to court this week!

I am so thankful that this little speed bump is behind us!

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!