Well we have officially taken the first step! Thomas and I submitted our application with our adoption agency last week and were approved the very next day. Before we knew it, papers were in the mailbox and we were staring at documents written partially in Bulgarian. 77 pages of official adoption paperwork detailing the entire 2-3 year process is, well, incredibly overwhelming. I knew it would be. Our new motto has become "One step at a time." I think we say that at least once a day now. We have to. We only have grace for today. I don't have grace for a homestudy interview yet, or for travelling to meet my child in a Bulgarian orphanage. I most certainly don't have grace to leave them there for months while the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice finalizes all our paperwork. A process that to them means just more documents but to us means our baby isn't home yet. I don't have grace for flying home half way across the world with a child that has only spent a few days with me, but is mine. And no grace for the re-adoption, VISAs, post-adoption processes etc.
But I do have the grace to look through the papers in preparation for our orientation call on Wednesday and to do a yard sale this weekend. That I can do. One step at a time.
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Today was Caelen's first day of Kindergarten! She was so excited she was bouncing off the walls and begging me to start school before 8:00. We had so much fun reading, doing math, phonics, spelling, music and handwriting. Her sisters participated as much as they could which made it fun for everyone. Math was the most loved subject and where we spent most of our time. Addison worked on some simple mazes to increase motor skills and did really well. The linking cubes were a huge hit as well.
All in all, I can't believe that Caelen is in Kindergarten. It's going to be a fun year. The challenge will be keeping enough books around for her today read. Today, during school, she read at a 5th grade level and then bought an 87 page chapter book that she finished in one hour. I definitely don't want to let her down by not feeding her voracious appetite for books!