Fingerprinting... done!

We are really making progress now!

Yesterday I had my fingerprinting appointment for USCIS. This is the last big thing we need to accomplish before sending our dossier to Bulgaria! We are so excited that we are almost there! We have to wait for the fingerprints to be approved and then we have to get a few more things including that notarized and apostilled. This should all take another 2 weeks, then we can send the dossier! It's crazy!

I have no idea how long it takes to get a dossier approved, but once that happens we get our official referral. That is a document that says we can adopt our boy! Once we get that, we can book our trip to go see him! Lots of exclamation points, because we are getting so excited!

We just started school with the kids and are learning as much Bulgarian as we can until it's time to go. We are focusing our efforts on that now, since all our paperwork is pretty much finished. We just got a certificate from our adoption agency telling us that we are approved by them to adopt our boy!

Fundraising has gone well. We have paid all the fees on this end of things in the US, but still have to pay 8500 Euros to the agency in Bulgaria, our travel fees, and various things like his visa and medical appointments to get him home. Our tshirt fundraiser went well and some of you have asked if you can still get a tshirt. You can go to: http://teespring.com/world-s-best-adoption-shirt and reserve one, if 25 people do this, they will do another print of them. You won't be charged unless they end up reprinting.

If you already got your tshirt, but want to be a part of the adoption story, you can still donate to our Pure Charity account and get a tax deduction: https://purecharity.com/dorazioadoption . We have been doing well saving our money and are about halfway there on the rest of our fees. I think we are doing this all without going into debt and it's crazy!

You guys have all been so supportive and amazing through this whole process supporting us financially, through prayer and through your love. We've felt like we haven't been going through this alone. We are on the home stretch now, hopefully you will all get to meet our son soon!  

Garage Sale Gold!

We had the garage sale this past Friday and Saturday with amazing success. We raised an incredible $1800 and we still have a few big things left to be sold! There were so many people who donated items to us in the weeks leading up to the sale. The stuff filled our garage completely and even spilled over to our backyard. It was overwhelming, but every item brought us to our total, so in the end, definitely worth it!

We had great friends who donated their time sorting and pricing items in the week before the sale, which was awesome because I've learned that garage sales are not my thing! Then, Friday morning when we started pulling stuff out and setting up, we were surprised and overwhelmed by the people that showed up to help! All day Friday and Saturday we were surrounded by friends who weren't going to let us do this on our own.

We feel so blessed and so loved by this weekend. We are truly full to the brim!

We've been praying boldly about the financial aspect of the adoption. It's been something that hasn't made us feel stressed, but that we know needs to happen. We have received over $11,000 from donations on our Pure Charity website: https://purecharity.com/dorazioadoption Between that total and what Dan and I have put in, we have paid for everything we need to pay for to apply for the adoption! We still have 8,000 Euros to pay to the Bulgarian adoption agency, all our travel costs, and aftercare, but we are on our way!!! It's amazing!

Our t-shirt sales are also going well. Our goal is 100 shirts and we've sold 40 shirts already!! If you haven't gotten one yet, check it out: http://teespring.com/world-s-best-adoption-shirt  Here's a close up picture of the design:

Our home study has been approved by the state of Colorado and now our paperwork has been sent to USCIS. Please pray that it will be dealt with in a timely manner and approved quickly. The government of Bulgaria shuts down for the month of August, so we probably won't get the dossier submitted before then, but hopefully everything will be dealt with right in the beginning of September. We want to get our son home soon!

Thanks for all your prayers, support, and financial contributions. We are so in awe of the way you have all invested in our son and our family in your own ways. It's filled us with peace and joy that we can't begin to describe. 

World's Best Adoption Shirt!!! World's Best Garage Sale!!!

This shirt is amazing!

Impress your friends!!

Don't miss your chance to be the best!

http://teespring.com/world-s-best-adoption-shirt



This garage sale is the most amazing garage sale you've ever been to!

You will find all the items to make your dreams come true!

There is something for everyone at our incredible garage sale!!!

http://denver.craigslist.org/sys/5106455273.html

Home Study Visits are Finished!

Things are going really well, really smoothly! It's pretty incredible to have so much peace and comfort in a time that has been billed as stressful. I know we aren't all the way in it yet, and there might be stress coming, but so far we are doing great!

We had our last home study visit last Friday and it went really well. The social worker was very thorough asking questions, but we never felt like we couldn't just be ourselves. We have been forthcoming about everything and it seems to be all good stuff for her. We had the opportunity to describe each other, and therefore to listen to descriptions of each other from the people we love the most. It was precious and touching to hear the things Dan and the kids had to say about me and one another. I think we have grown even closer as a family going through this process!

The social worker has to write up her report, and then the serious paperwork begins. We have FBI fingerprinting and background checks, sending official documents to secretary of state to be authenticated, and many other annoying and boring paperwork based tasks to complete.

Our garage sale is coming up in a month and a half and we have a t-shirt sale fundraiser we are going to run. Other than that, just our donation site: https://purecharity.com/dorazioadoption is our only fundraiser. We are a third of the way toward our goal, which is incredible!!

At this point we are just waiting on everyone else involved in the process. Please pray that all the paperwork will be received quickly and smoothly without incident, and that the officials are able to get to our documents in a timely manner. The quicker our paperwork goes, the sooner we will have our son home!! Thank you so much everyone for your support!

Paperwork, Birthdays, and Home Study Visits

Things are going so smoothly so far. It's been great to get through paperwork without too much trouble. We were told that the thing that normally takes the longest would be the doctor's appointments, and those are already done and notarized!

April 28 was "Luke's" 13th birthday. It is amazing to feel so much love for a child that we don't even really know yet. We really wished all day that we could be there with him to make his day special. We are trying to trust that we will be able to share his 14th birthday with him and then all the rest of his birthdays too!

Some amazing friends have started to help us organize a giant garage sale. Save the date for July 9 - July 11 all you local friends and find some perfect new pieces for your house, or clothes for your wardrobe, baby stuff, motorcycle stuff, and that's just the beginning!! More details will come soon.

We are also 1/3 of the way to our goal on purecharity.com/dorazioadoption!

It's been incredible to see the generosity of the amazing people in our lives. People have been donating time and money, praying with us and for us, listening to our story, and being there to offer a kind word of encouragement. It's been humbling to see people offer pieces of themselves and partner with us in so many different ways. 

We had the first social worker visit for our homestudy over the weekend. It went great! We have our second one on Friday and the last one the week after that. Things are rolling along!

Thanks for praying with us and encouraging us!

Pure Charity https://purecharity.com/dorazioadoption

So many people have generously asked us if they could be a part of our adoption story through financial support. We wouldn't have felt right about accepting any money from anyone without giving you an opportunity to claim charitable giving on your taxes. That's where this site comes in. If you feel it on your heart, we would love for you to help add to our adoption fund along the way with us.

Anything you wish to share will be sent directly to our adoption agency, Gladney Center for Adoption to cover all the costs of our process, besides our travel to Bulgaria.

We will try to get some fun fundraisers going also, but for now, we are grateful for whatever might be on your heart to give. We humbly thank you for helping us on our way.

https://purecharity.com/dorazioadoption

Learning how to be a parent all over again

The 2 day training we had at Gladney Center for Adoption broke us and rebuilt us all over again. We learned so much! We thought we had a pretty good handle on parenting and that our kids were growing up to be well adjusted individuals. The training wasn't just a check mark on a long list, it was something I wish I had 13 years ago!

We learned about sensory issues, which was eye opening. It's amazing to understand just very slightly what some kids with sensory issues will go through. My head was throbbing after the lesson! A child with sensory issues can face challenges when dealing with things we think nothing of.

We learned how to nourish our child properly with food, play, and rest every two hours. Giving them the right combination of foods to eat to support brain growth and activity is super important! Giving them a break to play in a way that makes them sweat, and then allowing them to rest and recharge will give them the regulation they need.

We learned that kiddos need predictability and consistency to help them ease into different activities. How transitions can be tough, and how posting schedules and house rules can help them understand what to expect and what will happen. It's all about helping them feel safe.

Among all the other rich education, there was a section on attachment and parenting styles that wrecked us. We learned that we have been parenting our kids using avoidant/dissmissive and ambivalent/entangled styles. Figuring this out is the first step, but they also built us back up with tools to help us earn a secure/free attachment and parenting style.

We have been using these great tools with our kids now and I feel like we've seen a difference not only in them, but in ourselves. It helps direct us to the present with our kids and keeps us in a playfulness with them. When there's an issue that needs correction, we know how to address it in a way that helps them feel safe and loved, but also gets the point across.

I'm excited to continue to learn these tools, so that when "Luke" comes, we'll be able to help him grow into a secure young man. We just want to love him and help him feel safe!

We would recommend this Pathways training to everyone! Here's some books that they drew from in case you are interested in taking a look:

The Connected Child by Karyn B. Purvis
http://www.amazon.com/Connected-Child-healing-adoptive-family/dp/0071475001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428879895&sr=8-1&keywords=the+connected+child

Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Soul-Connections-Neuroscience-Relationships/dp/141433415X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428879926&sr=8-1&keywords=anatomy+of+the+soul

Parenting from the Inside Out by Daniel J. Siegel
http://www.amazon.com/Parenting-Inside-10th-Anniversary-Self-Understanding/dp/039916510X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428879968&sr=8-1&keywords=parenting+from+the+inside+out

The Out of Sync Child by Carol Kranowitz
http://www.amazon.com/Out---Sync-Child-Carol-Kranowitz/dp/0399531653/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428880014&sr=8-1&keywords=the+out+of+sync+child