It's morning in Bulgaria...

I know that our Bulgarian NGO (non-governmental organization, for those not hip to the lingo) has an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia to submit for pre-aproval of our daughter's Visa.

Here's how the process goes from here:

1. Visa Pre-approval - A letter is generated by the Embassy when this is approved and that letter goes to the MOJ (Ministry of Justice)

2. MOJ sends the case to the Sofia Municipal Court - It's unclear to me if the MOJ sends it with a date attached (process on this day...) or if the Sofia Court just schedules it when it gets there. I believe, however, that the MOJ has the authority to tell/nudge/order the Sofia Court to expedite and process "immediately."

3. Sofia Municipal Court finalizes the adoption - This is when she is legally ours.

4. The NGO gets her new birth certificate and passport

5. We travel to Bulgaria to pick her up. (squueeeeeeee!!!!!) While in Bulgaria we take her to a medical screening appointment and then to the Embassy to get her Visa.

6. HOME (this is my favorite part, btw)

7. Post-placement updates - a social worker from our agency comes to visit at scheduled intervals to report on her health and wellbeing following her placement in our family.

These are the last 7 steps of a 30 step process.

We are truly in the home stretch. Everything that I have read in the MOJ's international adoption guidance says that our daughter qualifies to be processed immediately. We don't know how immediate that really is. The impression we have, however, is that immediate is, in this case, pretty...errr... immediate. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself yet, but I found myself doing the math and it seems within the realm of possibility that she could be OURS, legally, within a week's time. Could we be traveling to see her in two weeks or so??? Only God in heaven knows, but I'm praying like crazy.