Not fabric related.......

Today I want to talk about something that is NOT fabric or sewing/quilting related, so if this is not what you would like to read please stop reading now :)

Today I would like to share something very personal and also provide an explanation why orders from December 7 and up to December 15 were a week delayed as I had posted the warning on the website. 

My family has been wanting to adopt a child for years, even before we had our daughter we have always wanted to adopt a child. Not a healthy newborn baby through domestic adoption, no, I mean while it would be nice we both feel that first since we have been blessed with our daughter and I got to experience pregnancy and early infanthood and all that with my daughter it would be better if we do not pursue that route and let someone less fortunate than us experience this. Also, most people do not know that but it takes years not to mention tens of thousands of dollars to adopt. Second, I personally feel that a lot of these babies would be parented by biological parents if the parents had been given help and means to parent ( a lot of them are very young, have addiction issues and/or are poor). We have dodged many bullets and had many close calls with our daughter and those who know me well know that we have been through a lot with her, but the story has a happy ending and we have a wonderful girl who just turned 5 last week.

Given all that we decided to adopt a toddler with some medical diagnoses. We originally wanted to adopt from Russia since that is where I am from and we felt it would have been a very good fit, unfortunately we took too long to decide and Russia closed its door to adoptions from North America. We chose Bulgaria; Bulgarian culture and language is very similar to Russian and both countries share the same alphabet. We applied and it is a very complicated lengthy process as you have to meet all the requirements of both countries. In Canada just to qualify prospective parents need to spend a lot of time with social worker, complete a home study where they basically go through your life with a fine tooth comb, attend mandatory classes and complete a lot of paperwork, submit fingerprints and do extensive medicals every year just to name a few. After we finished all that we were told that a wait is 5 years on average and to be patient.

Well it has been close to two years and I was working on the fabric orders one December afternoon when my phone rang. I was told that an unexpected referral came in for us from Bulgaria, I could not believe what I was hearing. I dropped everything and we rushed to the agency where we were presented with the referral, after that we were told we had to go meet the child and our flights had to be leaving on a certain date which was only a week and a half from that point. This is why I had to put that urgent message on the website and delay your orders by a week, I am so sorry to those affected, but I had very little time to find any help that I could fully trust to do everything.

Anyway we went to Bulgaria and spent a week with a very amazing little boy. I am happy to announce that he will be joining our family sometime in the coming Spring (hopefully sooner than later, it all depends on how fast we get a court date in Bulgaria and all the legal part gets done). All I can say is that we are all very excited for him to join us. As I mentioned he has a few medical diagnoses and will need medical care once he is in Canada. I am trying to keep this post short, so if you are interested in details and learning more about him I am posting a link here. I also have a huge favour to ask - as I mentioned it came very unexpectedly and it costs tons of money. We are very fortunate we were able to take out a loan against our house to cover all the expenses, but it is affecting us financially quite a bit. If you can support us in getting our little boy home we would be forever grateful, if you can't, please share it with your friends, it means a lot to us! No donation is too small! Thank you and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! Here is where you can read his whole story.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/1u9a7y3gk0?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet