BRINGING THEM HOME!!!

So as for the red tape required to bring the girls home, it has been three months of additional paperwork, waiting, etc. After the third round of criminal background checks, medicals, references, and citizenship visa applications – we were informed that our petition to adopt was officially accepted into the Ministry on May 20 and that our court date would be set for July 5. Our case file was presented to the judge on the 5th in Sofia and was approved on the spot. On July 20th we were legally approved as the parents of Julia Sophia and Stefana Marie Roehlig!

Their new birth certificates have been issued and now we’re waiting for their passports to be processed. Once their passports are approved, they’ll have one final medical and then the Canadian Embassy in Bucharest, Romania (there is no Canadian Embassy in Bulgaria so it has to go to Romania) will issue their visas. It’s hilarious – a German, an American, married in Mexico, adopting Bulgarians with visas produced in Romania living in Canada…can we get another country involved???

Since Gunther and I are permanent residents of Canada, Julia and Stefana will also be permanent residents and will retain their citizenship in Bulgaria. We’ll see down the road about getting Canadian citizenship for us…for the time being, after all of the paperwork we’ve had to do for this adoption, I think we’ll just live as a global citizens under the Roehlig name!

Once their visas are issued by the Canadian embassy, we can go back to Bulgaria to bring them home. We expect this to be sometime in late August/early September. Needless to say, we are SO eager to get there and get back. We plan to bring Rosi back to Vancouver to help with the language transition. Thank goodness for Rosi who has been critical in helping us to communicate with the girls and Galina over these past four months! She is also our guardian angel.

I’ll keep this blog updated as things progress…in the meantime, thank you AGAIN for all of your special thoughts, prayers and wishes! The Roehlig Haus is ready for the little Roehlig Frauleins to come home!