Ok, so I'm fully aware of how much I absolutely suck at blogging. I was trying to do a little "series" on what we did to raise money for Ryan's adoption...what worked and what didn't...and I just got lost in the craziness that is life. Anyhoo, Ryan is home!!
Yeah that isn't news at this point, but so many people joined this adventure on the tail end of his adoption, or after he was already home, and they're like "what's the deal with this cute kid?!" so I'm going to post his story right here!
I first saw Ryan's picture on a friend's facebook page on June 7th, 2014. (I would later learn that June 7th is his birthday! It was meant to be, right?!) My husband and I were taking our three kids to the park and I was scrolling and stopped dead on his picture, because he reminded me of my brother who passed away years ago. I showed his picture to David (hubby) and he was like "he's cute, but we're done...three kids is a lot" so, I pouted and let it go. I couldn't get this kid off my mind though! I kept bringing him up, Dave kept shutting me down, and by August I was like "I really feel like we're supposed to be his family" and David said he would think about it, pray about it, and was no longer giving me a firm no...he moved into "maybe" territory! In September of last year we had a big, long talk about adopting again, and to make a long story short Dave said if I could somehow put the money together, he was in. So, full force fundraising started!
We contacted Reece's Rainbow, who got us in touch with the agency that held Ryan's file, and the paperwork began. By October we were officially matched with his file, our homestudy was in the works, and I was making hair bows and other crafty stuff nonstop. I would stay up until 3 or 4am to craft, then spend the following day hustling my hair bows locally, in auctions online, on Etsy, anywhere! We did several other fundraisers and by the grace of God always had the funds available when it was time to write a check for the adoption.
So, by spring we had a completed homestudy, USCIS approval (our governments approval to bring a kiddo home from a foreign country), and a completed dossier (all the paperwork required to adopt...things like FBI fingerprints, medical reports, etc) and all of this stuff was shipped off to Bulgaria for approval! During this time we were praying for God to put someone in our path who would be willing to go to Bulgaria with me to meet Ryan! My husband's job is really demanding during the summer and there was no way he was getting a week off to go to Bulgaria, and while I love traveling, and I'm pretty comfortable in foreign countries, I was nervous with it being the first time I would be in Bulgaria, and I was also nervous due to the long list of special needs Ryan had on his medical report. I wanted someone to come along and pray me through that trip! My friend Kristie stepped up big time and said she would come along and we had a blast!! Meeting Ryan was amazing, and scary. There is nothing like walking into an orphanage and being handed a seven year old who weighs less than 10 pounds.
I can't stress enough how grateful I am to have had a friend there with me. I'm not much of a crier, and I have a pretty thick skin...but seeing him in this condition, and knowing I was going to have to leave him there at the end of the week shattered my heart. If I hadn't had a friend to talk to, pray with, and go out with between or after orphanage visits...I would have cracked. We spent time at the beach (his city was on the coast of the Black Sea), ate way too much, and took a day on the way home to tour Paris. It was a beautiful trip, even though it was sad for me to leave my baby behind! Thank God for the good friends in your life!
So, after seeing the condition my little boy was in, I was on fire to get my paperwork done when I got home. We had to do a "secondary dossier", basically updating some paperwork, completing some new paperwork, honestly it wasn't that bad because we have an amazing doctor who fit us in immediately to update our medicals and signed anything and everything we needed him to. I ran around like a nut and finished our paperwork the same week I got back from Bulgaria. All of that got sent off to Bulgaria, and we were then waiting for a court date to make the adoption final!
The months between first trip and when I finally picked Ryan up in October (we passed court in September) were the hardest months of my life. I was in such a bad place, and completely exhausted from trying to hide that I was at such a low point. I was so worried that he would die before I got back to him, and pictures really don't begin to describe how small and frail he is/was so it was hard for me to explain to people, even my husband, why I was so worried. It was a bad time. When it was time to pick him up, I went alone and I was fine with that because Bulgaria wasn't a new unfamiliar place to me anymore. My friend Jamie met me there halfway through my pick up trip to help me get through airports and security and all that mess with a tiny guy and all of our luggage. I think she was just in it for the Ryan snuggles though... :)
Finally finally finally...on November 4th we were home. Ryan was a son, a brother, a nephew, a grandson, a friend, an American...an orphan no more!
I will post another blog with pictures from both trips to Bulgaria. They're all on my phone, I just realized I never transferred them all to the computer!!
Thanks for reading and hopefully this catches everyone up on Ryan's journey!
