Arrival

I received an e-mail from Chris yesterday (Nov 25) notifying me that my dossier arrived in Sofia and he had received word that they were pleased with it and beginning the translation. After it is translated from English into Bulgarian it will be forwarded to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The MoJ is the regulatory body that makes the match - selects a child to go with the parent. I have been told they are behind in this process - doing better - but still behind in matching people. But they think I will be waiting 9-12 months for a referral. I am the first person to submit their dossier to Bulgaria from my agency which means there is little advice or evidence indicating what I might expect from this process. The Bulgaria program only reopened to Americans recently (Aug I think) so my agency has just started a modest pilot program before opening it up to the larger public.

Dossier to Sofia

Finally! My dossier is finished, approved and on its way to Sofia November 18. The wait begins!

Lesson of the Week: Bulgarian Symbols: The Flag

The Bulgarian flag is comprised of three stripes - red, white, and green - a popular flag color combination (Hungary and Italy are also fond of this combo). According to Bulgarian Tourism, "a legend associates the origin of these three colours with the colour symbols of the Old Bulgarian Army. Its left wing was set apart by white strips on the spears, the right one by red, while arranged in the centre were the elite troops with a green strip, the traditional colour of the ruler. The three-colour flag had first been used by the First Bulgarian Legion of Georgi Raklovski (1861). By force of the Turnovo Constitution (1879), the three-colour flag - white, green and red, was confirmed as Bulgaria's national flag."

Сбогуване Dossier

I had all my materials for my dossier apostilled Nov 7 and mailed it to my agency Monday Nov 10. They received it yesterday Nov 12. They wrote today to say there was a problem with three documents (date typo). I redid the three documents, had them notarized,and went to the Sec of State for an apostille. Took most of the afternoon but I put them back in the mail today. They should leave the US next week. Where is it headed? Bulgaria!!!