Some Good, Some Bad -- But a DECISION FINALLY

We'll start with the bad news first -- The IRS sent this official statement on Friday -- it is their rule on taking the adoption credit for a failed international adoption:

Foreign child. If the child is not a U.S. citizen or resident at the time the adoption process began, you cannot take the credit unless the adoption becomes final.

Not what we NEEDED to hear -- HUGE stumbling block because the funds we do have left to continue the adoption will go to the government to pay taxes.

Good news came from the Immigration Department on Friday -- This is what they have to say about changing the country to Bulgaria:

Please submit a written request for change of country of adoption
without fee (see attach)

This means that we can do the change fairly quickly and will not have to pay the fees associated with this paperwork, it will also mean our "expiration date" for the adoption is extended for another 15 months.

Good News from the agency:

Bulgaria said that they should send our dossier as soon as possible and they could possibly consider it at their September meeting . . . .

this would be wonderful. There are some documents we have to get in order, but hoping it will all fall into place.

And now Our Decision: Because of the tax issue we have no choice but to work to get this done before the end of the year. If things fall into place and it looks like we will travel to bring the child home before that we can continue. If not, we have to stop pursuing the dream. There is no other choice.

We do have the support of our agency, they are doing whatever they can to help us, but so much of it is out of their control too. They have put me in touch with a wonderful woman who fundraised a huge portion of their adoption, but I'm not sure we have the time to do what they did. It took them three years -- we have three months. It doesn't seem possible but she's hopeful. We will try.

Beyond that we can only pray -- pray that we are on the right path and that we can find our dream in Bulgaria. I still have trouble understanding how things fell into place so smoothly, it felt as if God was paving the way to Kazakhstan; it felt so right -- how could he close the door? Now we feel as if he's opening a window -- we have hope again; just a small amount of hope, but hope all the same -- can't help but wonder if the window will stay open until we get all the way through to bring another child into our family.

Please keep us in your prayers ............