On May 7th, Hope officially became part of the Birchfield family! Once the judge signed the order, there was a 20 day waiting period for any family member to come forward and agree to adopt her. We can travel to Moldova to take custody of her now, but we can’t take her out of the country.
I will try to explain the situation. While Moldova has a US Embassy, no one there has the authority to issue a permanent or immigrant visa. Therefore, we will take her to the US Embassy in Bucharest, Romania during our second trip where they do have the authority. In the past, this process has gone smoothly. However, since we are the first family to adopt from Moldova under new guidelines, the process has become very complicated. Political tension between Moldova and Romania is not helping either. If you will recall, the Moldovan President ousted the Romanian ambassador following the riots of the April election. Now, Romania is requiring that Albina present documents in person on our behalf even before they will give us an appt. for Hope’s visa application. Albina will travel to Bucharest (8 -9 hour) drive on Wednesday, May 13. Her appt. is at 1:00 pm. That is 5:00 am Alabama time, so if you happen to be up, please pray. If things go well, she will apply for Hope’s passport on Thursday. It supposedly takes two weeks to get an expedited passport.
Getting Hope’s passport is just one of the many, many details that need to be worked out in order for us to travel on May 20th. Just looking at the situation, it seems impossible. However, we know that with God all things are possible! We are really pushing for this date, because we are sooo ready to be united with Hope and if the trip is delayed, Dow will not be able to travel with us. Dow has a very important tennis tournament scheduled to begin on May 29th. It breaks my heart to think about leaving him again and also that he would not have us with him at this tournament. Please pray that all of these details just fall into place and that Hope’s passport can be expedited within 3 - 5 days instead of two weeks. Ultimately, however, please pray that we will just trust God’s timing in all of this and remember that He is in control and sovereign.
Pics above: Hope with two of her care givers.
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