introducing tippi ☾
I'm not sure words can do justice to the news we are so excited to share with you all. After what started as a very hard year (after a very hard year), we are impossibly thrilled to introduce you all to our daughter - Tippi Moon Emilia Sheffer. Our dream girl currently lives in an orphanage in Bulgaria and has been there her entire two short years of life. She is considered a special needs adoption due to some fairly big medical issues she has, and the uncertainty of what her future development will look like. What we know from the few photos, videos, and medical notes we have is that she is an incredibly strong fighter who has made massive progress despite her circumstances. She is beautiful, curious, and determined. We are already so proud.
When we started our adoption journey at the beginning of the year, we imagined it would take years to be matched, but after seeing this little girl's face on the waiting child list, we applied, held our breath (because we weren't the only family applying to adopt her), and waited for news. On Thomas's birthday no less, we found out that Bulgaria chose us to be her family. I can only compare it to the excitement of finding out you're pregnant - complete magic!
We are considered to be soft matched because our home study process is not complete. This means Bulgaria holds her file for us and we have six months to get through all the necessary paperwork and home inspections to complete our dossier and get it sent in. Right now we have finished all the paperwork we can, and the hold up is not being able to pass the inspections until we are further along with our renovations (frustrating, because even once we have our dossier sent it will still probably be at least 6 months of waiting to get her home where we can be working on the house). We have finally begun work on the house, and will be throwing ourselves into getting things done to a point where we can get the needed check marks.
Once we get through this, we wait for the dossier to be accepted and approved. Then we are scheduled for trip one, which is a week in Bulgaria getting to meet our girl. After this week we file while in the country to officially adopt her. We have to come home without her and wait (again) for our case to go to court in Bulgaria, and once passed, wait to be scheduled for trip two (another 1-2 weeks in Bulgaria to pick her up). This is not a fast moving process and our dream is to get her home before she turns three on May 30th.
We debated when to share our news, because although she's ours, it's not truly official until after trip one. But we love her so much already and wanted you to fall in love with her too. For a little girl who has never known love or family, I adore the idea that people all over the world are thinking about her and sending her love and light. I hope this will be enough to get her through the wait of finally getting to come home.
What can you do to help (because I know people will ask, they already have). This is a tricky one for us, because it's not in our nature to ever want to ask for help (our love language is giving). Firstly, keep our Tippi girl in your thoughts (an easy one). If you're local to us and have a few hours to spare, we could always use help with renovation projects - inside and out. We have started to apply for adoption grants and have quite a few more to apply for once our home study is approved. Thanks to amazing friends (Hanna, you are a dream) who have created this website, we are also fundraising to help with the massive adoption expenses. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
xx M
☼☼☼ We aren't allowed to post her photo online or on social media until she is officially adopted, hence the reason we will be hiding her face in all the photos we share until then. Just know behind the heart is the most darling little face that is impossible not to fall in love with.