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 4

    Busy, Busy, Busy!

    July 18, 2025

    Elizabeth and I are just finishing up heading up and running our Vacation Bible School at our church. It was a wonderful and exhausting week as we got to work with so many children. I loved teaching the Bible stories and throwing out so many candy showers. But even in the busyness, our minds were still thinking of the three waiting on us.

    This weekend, we start to work through some specialized adoption training courses. Plus, we are preparing for a garage sale to remove some of the items from what is becoming their bedrooms. We will be able to setup two of the beds starting this week. Bedrooms are starting to come together. Then, they can help us make them their own with decorations, colors, and blankets when we bring them home.

    We hope to post an update soon that has the remaining total altogether of what we need to raise to set that first travel date.

  • Update 3

    Bulgarian Government Approved

    June 30, 2025

    On Friday, we were busy with our Youth Group at summer camp, when I checked my email. There may have been a few tears and my hands may have started shaking slightly in excitement. We found out the Bulgarian government's Ministry of Justice approved us to move forward with the adoption.

    Because the children are at least 10 years old, we now get to give a letter and pictures to them so they can decide whether they want to be adopted by us. So, in between bringing a bunch of teens home from camp safely, we added to and prepared a letter to be given to the children. We worked on putting together pictures that will show a little bit of who we are. They are being sent over to the adoption agency in Bulgaria that we are also working with to show to the children.

    Once we hear back from them, we have some documents to get certified by the Secretary of State and sent over to verify our identity and background checks. So, now for a lot of notarized documents and a bunch of continued fundraising.

  • Update 2

    We Raised our first 10%!

    June 19, 2025

    We passed our first 10% raised here. We are also turning in the papers to submit our first grant today. $52,000 was a big jump. Plus, the timeline shrunk and the urgency went up. We were going to raise the funds during the matching/waiting period. But we passed right by all of that when we were introduced to these three waiting children.
    My wife figured out that with this and our other fundraising efforts we have raised or have pledged to us over $20,000 since we started fundraising earlier this year, with most of it coming in the last 3 weeks since we found out about these three precious, waiting siblings.
    Now to apply for two more grants, and continue to raise more funds to make this possible as quick as we can.

  • Update 1

    Application Sent

    June 9, 2025

    Last Thursday we sent in the application packet to adopt these three. Since they are waiting children, our application packet was sent before the dossier is finalized and sent.
    The presentation letter and the photos will be shown to the children. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian government is going through our application to see if they will approve us pursue adopting these three.
    So we wait, we raise funds, and we work on the last few documents for our dossier. We are praying for a quick approval from Bulgaria. Then, we are praying that we can bring in the funds quickly.

$13,365 raised of $30,000 goal
Two ways to give
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Matching Donors

  • Sharon Compton matched $500

Donations 37

  • Jerome Shakal gave $100
    I’m so excited

    Matched by Sharon Compton

  • Anonymous gave $100
    Praying that God will be with you all throughout your journey.
  • Jerome Shakal gave $2,500
  • Jerome Shakal gave $2,500
    I love being a part of this!
  • Anonymous gave an undisclosed amount
  • Jaken Harlan gave $100
    Praying fervently for you guys. Love you!
  • Brenda Carr gave $50
    I am very excited for you. Praying everything continues to move forward and that the children will soon be home with you. I know Grandma Joyce is so excited. I am Joyce’s cousin, we just reconnected after 55 years.
  • Jerome Shakal gave $2,500
    We are excited to be able to be a part of this!!
  • Dave and Betty Baldwin gave $100
    We love you and are praying for you guys.
  • Gary Callis gave $100