We received wonderful news today that our paperwork, which was submitted to the Minister of Justice in Bulgaria on June 20th, has been reviewed and accepted! Hip hip hooray! It was actually accepted on July 18th, on which date we were officially registered to adopt from Bulgaria. But, for whatever reason (I think God was teaching me to trust in His timing), the MOJ's office just notified our adoption agency of this information. No matter! We are registered!!
So, the next step? A REFERRAL!
You might be thinking, "What the heck does that mean? And, why is she so excited?!" All of our paperwork is now registered with the MOJ and will be sent to the International Adoption Committee. The IAC also gets the paperwork of all the kids that are registered and are waiting to be adopted. Then, this committee looks at the families that want a child and matches them with the children that are waiting to be adopted. When they feel like a good match has been made, they issue a "referral" to the waiting family. They send an email to the waiting family with all the information that they have about the matched child - pictures, videos, medical documents, and background history on the child. So, when I say we are waiting on a "referral," we are waiting to see with whom the IAC matches us. Once we get a referral, we will have up to 2 weeks to review the documents, pray, and decide if this child is the one that the Lord has chosen for our family. At this point, one of two things will happen -
- We will accept the referral and about a month later will travel to Bulgaria to meet our child - EEK!!!
- We will decline the referral and wait to be matched with another child.
Andrew and I believe without a doubt that God is completely sovereign. He already knows who our child is and has known since time began. That is incredibly mind boggling to me, but so very reassuring! Our prayer at this time is that God would reveal that child to us and that we would know as soon as we lay eyes on him or her that he or she is the child for our family. We are praying that the first child we are referred will be the child that we accept. We truly don't want to have to decline a referral. So, please pray with us that we would KNOW our child and that God would be gracious in allowing us to fall in love at first sight, knowing that he or she was created for our family!
