Background
We met and got married in Atlanta, Georgia and our son was born there. When he was five months old, we moved to Richmond, Virginia for Todd to begin work on a PhD in clinical psychology. Lisa worked full time and life was pretty hectic. While we lived in Richmond, our daughter was born. We continued to talk about adoption as something we would do when life became more settled.
When our children were 4 and 1, we moved to Minneapolis for Todd to do an internship as part of his PhD requirements. We weren't sure what to expect since we would only be there for a year and it seemed so far away from what we knew, but we loved Minneapolis and quickly felt at home there.
After completing his dissertation and internship, Todd was able to find a full-time job as a staff psychologist at a VA hospital...back in Virginia. We began to settle here and talked again about adoption, but first we needed to get our finances in order. Todd was blessed to complete graduate school without any debt, but we were still in no position to begin funding an adoption. We worked to cut our expenses and Todd took on extra work teaching for Liberty University. Finally, we were ready!
Starting the Process
We began the paperwork for the adoption in the fall of 2011. We knew we wanted to do an international adoption and had several countries in mind. Bulgaria seemed like the best fit. Todd had been there 3 times to teach, so he was familiar with the country, and they had a good, solid, Hague-accredited program. We applied, were approved, and we waited.
The Children
Our social worker called on January 8, 2014 and I assumed it was just a check-in call since we weren't expecting a referral until the summer. We were shocked to learn that she had our referral! We were matched with a brother (age 5) and sister (age 6) in a small village in Bulgaria. Our first trip would be at the end of February and we would arrive in Bulgaria on Lisa's birthday.
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