As I type this we are 2 days away from being in Bulgaria, where our hotel stands just 3km from where the orphanage is that houses our sweet little girl. We fly out on Friday May 24 and arrive in Bulgaria on May 25. We will meet her on May 27 and return home June 1. Over the course of that time we have been told we will visit her each day for a minimum of 2 hours, but as the week goes on they may increase that time. At the end of the week we will be able to complete documents committing to adopt her. Then we wait, but the wait will not be years, it will be months. A small inconvienence for a lifetime of family.
We have tried to learn as much as possible about the area we are traveling to over the past couple of months. We have spoken with someone who has lived in Bulgaria so we can get a glimpse into the history, culture, food, etc. We have spoken with a couple who visited their soon to be son at the very same orphanage a couple of months ago to learn all we could about what the visits may be like, how the orphanage is and what the area has to offer. We feel ready, as ready as you can be I guess! We are looking forward to seeing what her world looks like, how she responds to us and what she likes and dislikes. We want to soak it all in so we can hold it with us until we can go and bring her home. It will be hard but it will be worth it.
Over the last few weeks we have celebrated so many milestones, college orientation, graduation, turning 16, end of the school year music concerts, academic awards, the list goes on. Adding this into the mix only adds to all the excitement, nerves and emotions. It’s a lot. So many things to be thankful for. And as we approach this meeting and are able to spend time with her, visiting, playing, hopefully getting outside, we are so incredibly thankful for the journey that brought us here. Despite all the frustrations, unknowns, confusion and distractions, here we are. It seems surreal.
Please keep our family in your prayers as we embark on this journey. Our kids will miss us and we will miss them. They are in great hands with so many people surrounding them with love and caring for them so well. And we are so incredibly grateful for that. It makes it a little easier to be away and miss some of the things we will miss. Our kids have been so gracious, understanding what we are doing and coming alongside us in this even when it means we have to travel far away. We are so proud of them, they are simply amazing.
I often think of running in relation to life, we both run and it’s a big part of our life and has been for decades. With adoption it’s sort of like running a marathon. You look at the training schedule and feel overwhelmed, you write it all down, create your checklists and get started. You wonder how you will ever get in all those miles (or adoption paperwork), you start to question your ability to actually do this. Then it starts to get easier, you figure out a rhythm (or the paperwork gets easier because you’ve “been there, done that”), you learn along the way, you become flexible with your time and effort and you just check off as you go. You get to race day and you can reflect on all the effort and you go for it. It feels like a sprint initially (so much to do in the adoption process up front!), then you start to grow tired (when do the forms and fees end?), it’s inevitable (at least for me!) and eventually you make it to the dreaded “wall.” Not an actual wall but a place that sits right around mile 19 where you want to give up (enter, “the wait is too long”), you want to just stop but you know if you do you’ll likely never finish and you dig deep down and push yourself to keep moving because your heart and soul is invested in this (you’ve seen those big eyes, cute curls and chunky cheeks). Then you hit mile 24 and you realize you are almost there and there is this presence of energy you didn’t even think you’d have. And it sustains you, along with the cheering crowds (lots of prayers from amazing friends and family), across that finish line. And if you are like me, once you cross it with your arms up and tears streaming down your face you wonder how you ever doubted this moment (it feels like it was meant to be). You made it, you did it. Even in the moments of feeling like you would never get to this (that first meeting of a sweet child you’ve only seen in pictures), even when you felt like the training was derailed (“why is this taking so long”), you made it. So many paralels.
In our first adoption a verse we clung to was “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” Hebrews 12:1-2. I cannot think of a better verse to continue to cling to as we have been on this journey, culminating in the end of the story he always knew would occur, meeting our little girl and getting one step closer to bringing her home.
Gard Family Adoption Adventure 