What we've been up to:

We celebrated Mother's Day by visiting both of our moms.  I received my very first Mother's Day cards ever, and I was so excited!  I know I might not technically count...yet, but I'll treasure these cards forever.

Jeremy and I finished up the spring semester at seminary, and we both now have 39 out of 90 credit hours under our belt. Yes, we still have a ways to go, but 39 is definitely something to celebrate.  We're especially thrilled that we are done with our biblical language classes!  This means we can focus more on learning Bulgarian this summer.  We are taking one small summer course this summer as well. 

Super-exciting adoption news:  we received our official, finalized home studies in the mail this week.  We have three originals, and boy does it feel good to hold these puppies in my hands.  They literally represent months of work and a couple thousand dollars!  

 MORE super-exciting adoption news!  We were awarded a matching grant from Brittany's Hope!  Their foundation will match any amount we can raise this summer up to $2,500!  That means if we raise $2,500, it's really like getting 5,000 when Brittany's Hope matches it.  We are currently thinking over some fundraiser ideas right now, and hoping to start on this goal asap.  If you would like to give toward this goal, simply click the DONATE button over on the right of my blog to give through PayPal.  I will definitely be posting more about this soon. 

 On a fun note, we picked out a colors for Ivelina's room.  We are keeping the walls a neutral color (that white sample really isn't as white as it looks in this photo...it's more creamy).  The border will be comprised of the colors shown.  My mom and I plan to make a bedspread, pillows, and a cushion for her toy box that will match these colors as well.  I'm so excited!

We've been working on a little project this week too: sorting, leveling, and organizing my children's literature.  I hope to have everything neat, stored, and easily accessible in the next week or so.  I absolutely love my children's lit collection and probably won't ever part with my books.  Only about a third of my stash is shown in the photo.  Many of these were my books when I was a child.  It's been so fun going through them and remembering sitting on my mom's lap as she read me bedtime story after bedtime story.  I was juuust a little obsessed with books when I was little.  Still am I guess!  My husband has been making me some awesome shelves where I can store everything.  He's awesome =)

My new shelves which should really come in handy for storing books, craft supplies, and teacher resources.  Some people have asked us, and, although we really don't have all the details mapped out, we do plan to home school Ivelina, especially for the first year she is home.  After that, we'll see what happens.  We're not overly concerned with getting her caught up and "on grade level" as soon as she gets home.  We just want to focus on getting her adjusted to life in North Carolina, and we want to focus on bonding with her.  Of course, we will incorporate education, stimulation, and developmental activities into everything we do.     

I guess that's about it for now.  Our next adoption step is sending in our I800 forms to apply for immigration.  We hope to complete that step in June.  Then, of course, it'll probably take all summer to get approved for immigration, but that's okay.  We have LOTS to do to keep us busy as we get ready for Miss Ivelina to come home hopefully at the end of this year.  *fingers crossed*

Thanks for reading

~Shelly