How we began our journey.

In November 2009 Frank and I decided it was time to start our adoption journey. We had known several families who had adopted so we knew a little bit about how to get started. We had friends years ago who had used Catholic Charities for their home study so that is where we started. We then had to decide domestic or international. We quickly learned as a family that already had children we would not be eligible for a young child in this country unless we knew a birth mother. We felt like that was not the direction God was leading us so we decided to adopt internationally.

So what country do you pick? We first thought Russia. We had known several people who have adopted from Russia and had amazing experiences. However, We quickly discovered that Russia was not realistically within our budget. So the homework began. I learned all about travel requirements, travel expenses, length of time requirements and all of the other things required by different countries. We where instantly drawn to Bulgaria. I know it was a GOD thing. Once we decided on Bulgaria we still had to pick an agency to work with. We had our home study agency but we had to have an international agency that worked with Bulgaria. We where given a huge list of international agencies from Catholic Charities and looked at each and everyone of them. We were led to a small not for profit agency out of Portland Oregon. They seemed so knowledgeable and just like the right fit for us. Once again it was a GOD thing!

We are now at the point in our adoption journey where all of our paperwork has left the US and is in Bulgaria somewhere with someone!! I am new to this blogging stuff so I am going to work on a time line to show how our process has gone thus far.