UPDATE ON BULGARIAN ADOPTIONS

Yesterday we received an update from our Agency in Bulgaria.  The email confirmed that 3000 children's files had been transfered from the domestic adoption register to the international adoption register.  The MOJ has already registered 400 of these children on the international adoption register.    The new family code provides that these children must be placed for international adoption within 2 months of them being entered on this register.

By mid December the MOJ will have made referrals to all the applicants from 2006 and 2007.  Within the next four months they will also have made referrals to all applicants from 2008.

The MOJ have also confirmed that from the beginning of November the Intercountry Adoption Council have started to meet twice a week instead of the usual once a week.  This should really increase the number of monthly referrals made and in turn reduce the waiting time for referrals.

This is great news to all of us who were expecting a 2-3 year wait.  You never know, by this time next year we could be parents!

  

Waiting.

Waiting is a big part of the adoption process.  The past couple of years have been filled with lots of adoption related activities such as attending the preparation course, going through the home assessment, researching countries / agencies, gathering documents, getting them notarized and apostilled and finally sent off.  

Now that that's all behind me the next stage is just waiting.  We don't know how long we will be waiting - it may be a year or two or even three (but hopefully not).  I'm usually fairly patient but I'm finding this wait quite difficult.  I suppose if we knew exactly how long it would take, it might make the waiting easier, I don't know.  So, to feel that I'm doing something or that I'm some way in control, I have been learning Bulgarian and buying clothes that I intend to bring with me to the orphanage as a donation.  Here's a sample of what I have so far. 

Registered with MOJ!

Got word today that my application was registered with the Ministry of Justice on 9th July 2010.  Now the wait begins.

My documents are on their way to Bulgaria!

Today I took the last few documents to the Dept of Foreign Affairs to get them apostilled.  Was in and out in about 25 minutes.  Went straight over to the DHL office to send the pack via overnight delivery to Anido Association.

Bulgarian Adoption Agency - Anido Association comes to Ireland

Representatives from the Andio Association held an information night in Dublin in the Stillorgan Park Hotel.  I think they were surprised at just how many people showed up - there must have been well over a hundred people there.  They gave a great presentation on the procedure, costs involved, what timeframes to expect and they took the time to answer any questions people had.

I received my Declaration today!

I was told on 22nd April that my Declaration was issued on Tuesday the 20th.  So excited.  Then I read on Rollercoaster that Declarations were taking about 2-3 weeks to be sent out.  Got a call today from my Social Worker to say that she has received my Declaration so I hopped in my car and collected it at her office at 2pm along with my homestudy report.  Feeling very giddy but also as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Requested my original birth cert from Adoption Board by email.

Starting Out

When I first started looking into Adoption from Bulgaria, late 2009, it was quite difficult to get information.  There were no Irish based Bulgaria-specific adoption groups on Yahoo and as far as I could tell no one in Ireland had successfully adopted from Bulgaria.  I contacted various agencies, some that I found on the Bulgarian Embassy's website and some, it turned out, that were based in the US and dealt only with US citizens.  Eventually I got in contact with Anido Association in Bulgaria.  I found them to be very helpful, very professional and they showed a genuine interest in helping prospective adopters from Ireland.   Since then things have changed, interest in adopting from Bulgaria has increased, so much so that in May of this year some representatives from the Agency came to Ireland to hold an information meeting.  There was a great turnout for the meeting - over 100 people.  There is also now a yahoo group called IrelandBulgaria which is specifically aimed at Irish couples and sole adopters who are interested in adopting from Bulgaria.