Introducing...

We have a SON!!!!

We are the very excited parents of Bozhidar or as we affectionately call him, “Bozi”!!

 I’m sorry. That sentence does not do justice to the four years that have passed--the mountains of paperwork, the stress/anxiety, the tears, the endless fundraisers, multiple background checks, multiple fingerprints, doing and redoing the special needs form probably 6 times, multiple homestudy updates, one billion notarizations, one million apostilles, repeated confirmation that my name is my name, the patient and supportive friends that lived through this with us and listened to me whine, endless trips to the AIM store in Lake Wylie (Hi, Richard and Gregg! We miss you!) and more recently the UPS stores here in Wilmington, Knoxville and Nashville. Ok, so maybe I exaggerated about the notarizations and apostilles, but it’s a lot. And we were on a first name basis with the AIM store guys in Lake Wylie!

This kids is ours. We’ve put in the time and it was more than 9 months--actually, more than 4 pregnancies. If that doesn’t demonstrate serious love, I don’t know what does.

Our visit in May!

Proud parent comment here… Do you know how hard it has been not to plaster social media with this
cuteness? He stole our hearts with those gorgeous big brown eyes in his referral photo. Once we met him, we were undone. This is our child through and through. Isn’t he perfect?

 Bozhidar was the name given to him by his birth mom. It means “Gift of God.” How could we NOT keep that? We are keeping a portion of his last name as his middle name and that also means “Gift of God.” Adoption is beautiful, but it’s traumatic. We chose to have him keep his given name in an effort to keep as much of his birth family’s identity as possible. We want to honor his family and the difficult choice they made. I came up with the name Bozi when I first saw his name and Boshko is his current nickname, so you may hear that out of us as well!

 Soo, what’s next?

We are off to pick up our boy in less than two weeks!! Once again we are buying airline tickets at the last minute, because that’s how international adoptions roll. The significant drop in price due to not traveling in the summer means we can take our kiddos. Our timing is so fortunate, as Bulgaria is about to shut down traveling with siblings. We are pretty lucky we made the cut. We never anticipated this to actually work out. It is a huge blessing and answer to prayer!

We are so close and it still feels so far away. I have so much to do--namely baby-proofing!

Working on those passport poses!

A huge thank you to Hannah Mace, a sweet friend from our previous church for coordinating a virtual shower for us. Also, another huge thank you to those who participated! We are starting over with a two-year-old in diapers, he operates more on an 18-month-old level. We needed everything. She saw that need and came up with this idea. All age-appropriate toys we had owned have long since been given away. You all truly showered us with love and we are so grateful!! I specifically registered for things that will challenge him developmentally, even the bath toys had a purpose. Baths are not common and often very traumatic for children from orphanages. Also, the girls have truly enjoyed opening gifts every day when they came in the mail! I don’t know if those of you in the event enjoyed watching the videos, but we sure enjoyed making them. We even had a friend who sent them a gift and they were so surprised!! We found Bozi a great bed on craigslist and a sweet friend in Knoxville gave us a dresser. My cousin gave us her glider. It worked perfectly. The shower technically wraps up today, but if you want to watch some of the videos or see what’s left on the registry you can go here, or post at the bottom for questions.

Hannah!!!

What will this trip look like? 

We will fly in and out of DC. We found the best deal on tickets from there. The first or second day we
are in Bulgaria I will be driven to Sliven to pick Bozi up from the orphanage. Kev and the girls will remain at the apartment. It’s about a 3 hour trip one way. After I pick him up from the orphanage, Bozi and I will be driven back the same day to Sofia to stay for the remaining time. The country has a set number of days you are required to stay. During that time we have a few things we have to do, like going to the US Embassy, getting his passport, getting his TB test and results, as well as bonding. Please pray for us. This won’t be easy. Bozi will be pulled from the people who have raised him, taken to a new city with new people and then we will get on a plane and come back to get him settled yet again.

Here are some specific prayer needs. 

Adjustment, bonding and travel for Bozi. Pray it goes smoothly or at least that we have endurance and patience through the process.

Adjustment and travel for the girls. Pray their expedited passports come back quick, they handle the trip OK and do well meeting their new brother.

Dealing with jet lag for all of us--on the way there and back. We won’t really get to catch up on sleep. This will be challenging for all of us.

Bozi on his birthday!

Pray for wisdom, patience and guidance in handling this new adjustment.

Pray for us after we come home. We don’t know what to expect or how things will go. It’s a little different than adding a new baby to the household. This kiddo walks-ish, talks-ish, we don’t know much about him (other than he’s cute) and he will be traumatized--not just from leaving the orphanage, but not knowing his birth mom. He will have some wounds that may never heal. We will all be learning.

I know a few of you are familiar with my mother’s necklace. It’s a little different than most mother’s necklaces. Kevy and the girls gave it to me on Mother’s Day two years ago. I rarely take it off—it’s my favorite. Most people never realize what it is until they ask. It simply has a “C” and “V” on it. Honestly, when the letters overlap they look more like a design than letters. My “B” has arrived. I have been so anxious to add a “B” since we received our referral. The lady who originally made my necklace no longer has an Etsy shop, so I fortunately ran across Miss Ellie’s Emporium on Etsy. She made the same style letters. She looked at what I already had and created a “B” for me. She sent it to me super fast and was so encouraging about the adoption.

Ahh!! We are sooo close!!

My absolute favorite piece of jewelry!