We started talking about adoption early in our marriage. International adoption has always been on our hearts, but life got in the way and faded to the background for a while. My husband and I always assumed we’d have one or two…or maybe even three or four kids, then we’d adopt. When we decided we were ready to start our family, several months turned into several years until we found ourselves in our thirties, celebrating our twelfth wedding anniversary, and unable to get pregnant.

As a couple, we grew in our faith during those challenging years as our friends and family around us kept having babies. We held onto our conviction that God had a plan for our family and that His timing was perfect, even when we couldn’t understand it. After several years of infertility treatment, we were blessed with the birth of our son Lincoln in October of 2018. He brought our family so much joy and answered our and so many other’s prayers. Shortly after he was born, we started talking about adoption once again. We decided we were ready and grew excited to take the leap of faith into what began our adoption journey.

Discovering CCAI’s Bulgaria Adoption Program

After much prayer and research, combined with the advice and recommendations of friends who had adopted before us, we decided to pursue an adoption from Bulgaria through CCAI. We submitted our initial application towards the end of 2020 and planned to pursue adoption via the traditional route and expected to wait years. The two of us could never have imagined that we would be preparing to welcome our son into our family a short 18 months later!

We submitted our dossier to Bulgaria and settled to wait for a match in October 2021. A few weeks later, we received a waiting child file from CCAI. We had been praying that, when we received a match, we would know that this was the child God had for our family. He absolutely answered that prayer in ways we could never have anticipated. We didn’t expect to feel an instant connection to a child. The first thought that crossed my mind when I saw “Sam’s” photo was, “He looks like us!” The little boy in the photo reminded me of our son, Lincoln, and of my brother as a child. After seeing his photo and reading his file, Nevada and I agreed without hesitation that we needed to apply to adopt him.

The process for a waiting child looked different than the “traditional route” we had expected. The both of us scrambled to update our paperwork and complete the application, and read everything we could get our hands on about his medical needs. At the same time, we tried not to get our hopes up. We weren’t the only family applying.

Hurry up and wait

My husband and I found out that we were selected to parent the little boy we’d already started to fall in love with about a month after receiving a welcome call! The next nine months are a bit of a blur, filled with more paperwork, meeting our little one for the first time through early morning zoom calls, and planning for his arrival. The whole time, CCAI’s Bulgaria Adoption Program held our hands!

So many small things happened during that waiting period that confirmed God had been preparing us to be this little boy’s family. We were so thankful for CCAI throughout the process – their evident care and concern for our family, their kindness, professionalism, and expertise have been invaluable. We could not have asked for a better agency to walk through this process with us. Grayson arrived home on August 10.

Finally Home from Bulgaria

Adoption is most certainly one of the most difficult things we have ever done, but equally one of the most rewarding. We have challenging days. Managing Grayson’s medical needs related to his severe hemophilia and the lifestyle modifications his diagnosis requires has been a huge learning experience. But we can hardly remember what life was like without him.

To learn more about CCAI’s Bulgaria Adoption Program, visit our Bulgaria Program Page.