Aaron & Elizabeth Shakal

are adopting 3 children from Bulgaria

They’re waiting!

Our adoption process led us to a group of 3 siblings in Bulgaria needing a forever home. A girl 11 years old, another girl 9 years old, and a boy 6 years old, they were taken out of a bad situation and need to be adopted. After talking about it, we put in an application to adopt all three. We want them to be able to stay together in a safe place.

Help us bring them home. The cost is far more than when we were looking at adopting one child, and still so worth it. The cost to adopt three is now $52,000. We are trying to raise at least $30,000 AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to help with the fees and the travel to bring them home. The sooner we can raise the fees, the sooner we will be able to set a date to travel.

When we met with our case worker and she introduced us to three waiting children, siblings that need a home, it was not something we were expecting. We thought we were just going to talk about the next piece of paper we needed to fill out. There’s so much paperwork. Instead we saw pictures and heard a part of their story. So, we asked for their information so we could talk and pray.

There are always things you envision when preparing to adopt - how young you are looking for, how many you are planning for, boy or girl, etc. But when we started reading their story, all that faded into the background. We want to love them, care for them, protect them, and be with them. We want to enjoy music with them, or play board games with them. We want to give them a place where they can stay together, and where they can also connect with parents who will love them and protect them. We want to talk about princesses or super heroes, and read them stories. We want to share their interests, and introduce them to our interests and fun. We want to do it together. We want to serve together, learn together, and grow together.

We want to show a patient love that will give these a safe place and a warm place to grow. We wish they were already here and with us in their forever home.

Please pray for us as we go through the process to adopt these three. Please donate to help us bring them home. Please help us share as much as you can to get the word out to everyone. They are waiting. Let’s shorten how long they must wait as much as we can, and give them a home together with us.

Adoption Status

Matched

Adoption Agency

Hand In Hand International

Updates

  • Update 9

    It's there!

    November 25, 2025

    Our full Dossier arrived in Bulgaria last week. Now, we are just waiting on their government to get to our forms and approve them. Then, we get to set our first date to travel over.

  • Update 8

    Dossier is Sent!

    November 3, 2025

    The final form came in the mail. We immediately took our documents to the Secretary of State today, and got them stamped. Then, we put everything in an envelope, and sent it off to our agency. They will finalize the translating. Then, they will send everything over to Bulgaria. Once the paperwork is processed by Bulgaria, we get our first travel dates.
    We are one step closer. Now, we get ready and stay ready to travel because we don’t know how much notice we will have before flying out.

  • Update 7

    A Quick Update

    October 19, 2025

    It has been a while since we've let everyone know what is happening. Long story short, we are still waiting on one last form to be returned to us from the government. We had our USCIS i800 approval to adopt, but when things changed with the introduction of these three, we had to submit an update to expand the ages listed on our i800 approval. This form still has not come. This department is not affected by the shutdown because it is supplied by the fees that they charge. We are just stuck waiting for them to update our approval and send us this form.

    Once it arrives, we can send everything over to Bulgaria for the final submission, and soon after we can set a travel date to go see our three. Pray the form arrives in the mail soon.

  • Update 6

    We're so close!

    August 21, 2025

    The last piece of our dossier is almost finished, our Dept. of Homeland Security approval. We were already approved, but then we needed to update it with different ages to better match our three. Once it arrives, we run down to the Colorado Secretary of State and get all the documents stamped with a special verification approval. Then, we send it to Hand In Hand to get sent to Bulgaria, and we make a mad dash to pay all of the agency fees for the whole adoption. That will allow us to set the date for our first trip over. We have all of the fees in various forms ready to be paid. We just need to work out arranging to get the money there. We are hoping to have this done in the next week.
    Then, we still need to raise the funds to cover travel, housing, and food for two trips.

  • Update 5

    They Picked Us!!!

    July 31, 2025

    To give a little context: because of the age of the oldest girl, we are presented to the kids, and they have a chance to look over the pictures and letter that we sent. Then, they get to choose whether to proceed with the adoption. Our letter and pictures were sent in almost a month ago, and we have been waiting.
    They picked us!!!! We got word today that the children chose to let us move forward with adopting them. We can now send in our Dossier for the Bulgarian government to look over and give final approval. We are have most of it together. We will finish up this weekend. Also, our agency is going to email a copy of our Home Study over so that we can get approved to speak with the kids in online meetings. We might get to talk with them very soon.

    Meanwhile, we look towards our paperwork and fundraising. Once the papers are in, we need to get all of our agency fees paid so that we can set our first date to go over to Bulgaria. We still need to raise just under $20,000 to pay the various agency fees before we can set the date to go over. Then we will still have travel costs related to the two trips. But now, the end in sight just got a little closer.

$13,365 raised of $30,000 goal
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Matching Donors

  • Sharon Compton matched $500

Donations 37

  • Anonymous gave $50

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Bonnie Hughes gave $30
    We are so excited for you to bring these kiddos home!

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Anonymous gave $30
    God Bless 🙏🏼

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Anonymous gave an undisclosed amount

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Anna Birman gave $30

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Anonymous gave an undisclosed amount
    I hope you get your babies! Any baby is a blessing!

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Anonymous gave $100

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Anonymous gave an undisclosed amount

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Pay It Forward from Conboy Family gave $910
  • Anonymous gave an undisclosed amount

    Matched by Sharon Compton