Journey to Bulgaria

Not much to update but we did meet with social worker for home study and went over what that process looks like for home study, Sounds like they will make two home visits and we get to tell our life story and why we want to adopt. We also get to take the time to go over what kind of kiddo we are looking to be matched with and what we can handle for disabilities like developmental delay or autism.

We did our fingerprints for both federal and state so that was easy. We also talked to our agency about starting dossier which includes more paperwork about our life and getting a million medical records. The only thing that isn’t fun about medical is doctor has to notarize their signature so getting doctors to notarize their signature should be interesting.

Hopefully next week we find out if we match with the waiting child, we applied for but if she is matched with another family we are going to wait awhile and go “traditional route”. Traditional route is where your name gets put into Bulgaria MOJ database and when a child comes up that matches your profile than they will match you so the home study is important when it comes to making sure we are describing what we can and can’t handle. It could be 6 months before we are matched with a kid or could be 2 years it depends on how many other families are looking for similar characteristics in kiddos.

My guess is it will be at least a year before we are matched since we are looking for a child between 1-5 years old with mild to moderate developmental delay. We are probably open to other things but that is something we have to sit down and look at but whatever kid we get, needs to be mobile since we have animals and stairs in the house. In a year if we are not matched, we might try again for a waiting child.

This week we were able to turn in our waiting child application and start our home study. The home study right now is just submitting fingerprints and background checks which will take a while since we have lived in a lot of states due to military. We are not too far along on home study yet, but we have at least paid for it and started all the paperwork. We will meet our social worker soon who will be working with us and touring our home. We can’t have them tour house until the bathroom is remodeled from the pipe burst, we had during Christmas.  The contractor started this weekend, and we will be finished soon with bathroom!

                The waiting child application is equivalent to a mini dossier.  We had to write three pages about our family, home, and why we are interested in that child.  We will find out by the end of month if we are matched with kiddo.  If we get matched than we have 6 months to submit dossier and home study to Bulgaria.  After the dossier and home study are approved by Bulgaria than we can start planning our first trip! Then 3-4 months after the first trip we can pick up kiddo.  Overall, it’s a 12–18-month process depending on how long Bulgarian government and USA government take to complete and approve paperwork.  This is the timeline IF we get matched.  There is the possibly of us going up against other families. 

                This week we will meet with our agency to start our Dossier, and we also must finish completing background checks for 5-6 different states.  We will also meet with our agency to go over the waiting child’s medical needs to make sure we are aligned in what care she will need if chosen.  Luckily, they seem mild, but we will find out more this week to help us make our final decision if she is a child that could fit into our little family here in NH.

We spoke to St Marys International Adoption and we loved the agency and signed on with them today. We are going to try to match with a waiting child who stole are hearts but we do know that others might apply for her as well. Hopefully in the next few months we will be able to find out if she will be ours!

We will also be starting the homestudy soon and Im super scared for that because someone will be coming to our house to interview us and to look around our crazy household but end of day its part of process.

We have told work due to the piles of paperwork that we have to fill out since we have special requirements for our jobs.

Sorry family we havent told you at this stage we want to make sure we are prepared to tell you all and have answers for questions.

I started this blog so when family does find out they can track the journey from were we began.

1/16/2025

Today Wyatt and I will have our first meeting with the adoption agency we want to work with and we are so excited! I saw a little girl on their website today that stole my heart but not going to get excited yet, the journey is JUST starting and we have a lot of paperwork in front of us.

We have looked into foster care adoption and new born adoption but neither one of those paths really felt right or was a good fit for our family. So many people are going after newborns and its a 50/50 shot you get chosen for an adoption and that its 40k just for a chance to get a baby and to us it wasnt worth the risk financially.

We have broken the news to kiddo and she is hesitant but excited for the possibilty of a brother or sister. She just doesnt want a baby brother or sister because they “cry to much and are really loud”. I think she will be happy to learn we are looking for a toddler with disabilities similar to hers so she has another kiddo to grow up with that looks, acts, and talks like her.