Month: June 2011

Father’s Day

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We were hoping to have a court date to announce to you but unfortunately, still no word. So I will tell you about my amazing husband and my wonderful Grandfather.

I don’t think I could have made a better choice in a father for my children. Jon is wonderful. He dotes on his daughter, reads and plays with her, teaches her, has patience with her and loves her fully and unconditionally. I read a quote today that reads “A daughter needs a dad to be the standard against which she will judge all men.” I think Jon holds that standard quite high for any future suitors.

I am so blessed to have Jon co-parent with me. Because of my understanding of what a father was, I never thought I would have a partner for that. I’m so glad he has proved me wrong. He has redeemed the example I had from my own birth father and showed me what a real Dad is. I am also constantly amazed at how perfectly we agree on nearly all parenting issues. Our styles, priorities and hopes for our children are nearly identical. Our hopes for our family have been completely in tune also. Adoption was not just something I wanted and he consented too. He wanted it and is just as passionate as I am. He is just as eager to have Sofie  in our arms as I am, although he may keep those emotions in check a little better than me!

Today we also got to celebrate my Grandfather’s 89th birthday. It was pretty special to celebrate such a momentous occasion with a man who was so important in my life. He assisted my mom through leaving my birth father, helped raise us kids and was always there for us with his insight and support. I am so thankful for him. As this is likely his last Father’s Day, since his health is worsening every day, I’m thankful I got to see him smile today and look around the room to all the family that he has loved and helped guide.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of our trip to the water slides a few weeks ago. Just another example of what a wonderful father Jon is…
 We brought the Bum along 🙂 She always does this with her 
hair when she isn’t swimming… It makes me laugh 🙂

They were having far too much fun 🙂
 On the big kid, really fast slide!

 Down they go! Good thing Livi isn’t afraid of going under 🙂
 Hot Tubbin’ it!

 Chillaxin’
Such a good Daddy:)
 Group Shots
 Pretty Girls!

My Little Ballerina

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Livi has been in ballet for a few months now and LOVES it! She practices all by herself, loves mastering new moves like the plie, and has really developed her balance, dancing, and even confidence… not that she was lacking that too much! She even got to have real dance photo’s taken and take part in her very first recital!

For the pictures parents weren’t allowed in to the room. I was so surprised but I understood how some parents could hinder the pictures a lot more than help. It was my first experience of Livi being “grown-up” enough to not need me! I think it was much harder on me than on Livi. As you can see they turned out great!
For Livi’s dress rehearsal I decided it would be okay for her to have a little make-up on for the stage. She just ate it up. Thankfully, I had explained that it was only for the stage and she hasn’t asked for it at home. 
Miss Coral putting some make-up on Livi before going on stage.

Waiting to go on stage…

There are four little girls in Livi’s class and they all did so good for both performances. No crying and they worked the audience! When Livi came off from dancing for an audience the first time she got upset and cried to me “I want more!” She was “so proud” and kept talking about how everyone clapped for her. Uh Oh… What have we introduced her too?!
Coming off stage from the dress rehearsal! 
After the last performance they all got a ribbon. Livi was so proud!
Daddy got her flowers fitting for any Diva in the making 🙂
I was very proud of my little ballerina and so glad she had so much fun. We will have to see how the schedule fits and how things go with Sofie home, but Livi is hoping to be in Ballet again next season!

Finally… an Update!

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In case you don’t check our Adoption page regularly or missed it on Facebook, we finally got an update on the Adoption!

It turns out that the MOJ gave her approval for us to proceed with adopting Sofie on June 7th. All the papers should be at the court house by June 14th at the latest and our agency is expecting our court date to be some where between June 20-26. THAT IS TWO WEEKS PEOPLE! I really hope that my next blog post is announcing our court date.

I told my Grandma about this update today and she told me that yesterday morning she woke up from a dream where she could almost see Sofie. She said she felt sure that Sofie was coming soon and then today I showed up with the update! I know I’m not one who fully buys in to all the mystic spirituality stuff, mostly because there are so many crazies out there, but surprisingly, I do fully believe in dreams sometimes being communication from God… and I believe in anything spiritual my Grandma says. She has a direct line to God in an amazing-chills-miracles-happen-around-her kind of way. Hopefully, Oma’s dream means that Sofie will be home even sooner than we are thinking 🙂

Opa had a really bad day today. He is aging, his health is deteriorating and he is ready to go to Heaven. He was quite out of it and sleepy for our visit today, but likes seeing the energy Livi has… as long as she isn’t screeching 🙂 Even on his worse days he always asks about Sofie. He may not always remember her name, or the details of our adoption, but it is so special to me that he always asks about Sofie specifically. I sometimes feel like maybe he is holding on just to meet her. Maybe that is a little egocentric but he has been a very big part of my life and I’ve heard lots of stories like that. I think we might be stopping in to Oma and Opa’s house on the way home from the airport 🙂

So, what’s next you ask? Court will legally make us parents to Sofie! Assuming the judge grants the adoption, it will take about a week to prepare the Adoption Order (paper work). Once our Bulgarian agency has the Adoption order they can apply for Sofie’s new birth certificate with her new name on it and us as parents. It should take about a week to ten days. With the birth certificate, they will then apply for her passport…About another week to ten days. With her birth certificate they can also finish applying for her Canadian citizenship. Citizenship is the unpredictable beast. For our friends who adopted from Bulgaria before us, Citizenship took just over a month. They got the okay to pick their son up exactly 2 months after court. If we experience the same time line as them (and it has been pretty close so far), we will be able to pick Sofie up at the end of August.

The end of August is too late in my books… so please send up all your prayers, wishes and hopes that we get the okay to go get her sooner than that!