Change (it is a good thing)

Nick and I have officially switched adoption programs. :)

We are now adopting from the Republic of Georgia! About a month or so ago our case worker for Bulgaria notified us of an eight month old baby girl in the Republic of Georgia. As soon as we heard about her, Nick and I were praying and thinking about it non-stop. We really believe that God has called us to switch countries for her, so we did. She is not going to available for international adoption until she is 12 months old, and we really do not know much about her yet because the agency's doctor has not been able to visit her because she is currently in foster care, so this is really just a leap of faith on our part.

In other news, Nick and I have finished all of our interviews/meetings with our social worker! On Tuesday the Fire Marshall is coming to inspect our apartment, and then on Friday the Sanitation Inspector will be doing the same thing. I am getting kind of nervous about them coming. Both Nick and I will be cleaning/organizing like mad people. hahaha

Nick and I have a new fundraising site: http://www.gofundme.com/544yqk
(It is simply a site where people can support us through their donations)

And as always, please keep us in your prayers!

Pheeeewww

I know it has been awhile since there has been a post, but nothing exciting has been happening. Just paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork. Bleh.

Now, the first stage of our home study is COMPLETE! Thank the Lord! We paid the last fee yesterday, and officially submitted all of our documents. :) The next step is to meet/interview with our social worker, which will hopefully happen soon immediately. All of this waiting has gotten old, and I know that this is just the beginning. BUT it will be so completely worth it!

Until then we are preparing our little space for inspections from the Fire Marshal and the sanitation/health department, and getting it baby ready.

We have kind of hit a lull with fundraising. Nothing new and exciting yet (unfortunately), but I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Until then, we still have the coffee website (Just Love Coffee Roasters):  https://justlovecoffee.com/nickandeliserichard 

CoupAide: http://coupaide.com/deal/richard-adoption-fundraiser/

and

Amazon!  http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&tag=richadopfund-20

More information about these fundraisers can be found under the "Ways YOU Can Help" tab.



A very appreciative thank you to everyone who has contributed. These three fundraisers have raised about $300 so far! Thank you for every prayer, encouraging word, and financial contribution. :)

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Today is a very special day...

BECAUSE it is our wedding anniversary! Four years ago today we said I do, and it has been the best decision of my life. I am so thankful for my awesome husband, who always encourages me and keeps on believing in me even when I don't. He is my rock, and I love him dearly. To many many more years my love!


Here are some throwback pictures to commemorate the date. :)

 

 

 

*cheers*

Back from Vacation

We just got back from vacation yesterday, and I can not believe that last week went by so fast! We traveled back home to visit with both Nick and I's families and friends. We flew home to Louisiana, and traveled to Gulf Shores, Alabama the next day to spend the week at the beach. We had a super fun time, and made many wonderful memories!

Seeing a shark swimming in the ocean when you are about 25 feet away from it will forever change you...hahaha. We saw two sharks one day at the beach, sting rays, and jelly fish. Needless to say there was never a dull moment. :)


My marvelous father-in-law brought his boat, so a few days were spent wake boarding and tubing around the bay. My arms and legs are still sore from being thrown from the tube multiple times (apparently I am quite out of shape).

I have posted a few pictures from the trip courtesy of Mrs. Chris Buchan Jones. :)

*Boat day! Nick got to drive us around

*Captain Nicholas

*Me trying not to fall while wake boarding

*The beautiful sunset on the way back to the boat launch

 

*THE BEACH! It was really beautiful and the water was super clear.

 

 

Even though we took a break from all of our adoption paper work during this vacation, we were still checking on our Bulgarian adoption group for updates from other families in the process of adopting, and keeping tabs on our fundraising websites. Now that we are back I have a few things on the top of my list that I need to check off (getting fingerprinted and getting a Maryland driver's license, which is to be done next week!).

 

Still loads of paperwork left and our adoption classes to be taken, but we hope to get all of it done before Nick starts graduate school in about three weeks. And so far so good. :)

A Good First Meeting

Nick and I had our first meeting with our social worker last Friday and it went splendidly superb! We met with her at our house right before we moved on Saturday, so the apartment looked pretty crazy. I thought it was going to be a short visit, but it ended up lasting a couple of hours (it felt like no time at all though). We went through all of the paperwork that we needed to finish, and what type of adoption classes would best fit our needs. After getting all of our questions out of the way, she started asking us a few questions about how Nick and I met, why we want to adopt, ect. Just by talking with our social worker, we found so many things in common. It was crazy cool.

After the meeting I felt so relieved, like this huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I mentioned that we just moved, and we are actually downsizing a bit to save money for the adoption. This was a concern after realizing that our living space needs to be baby ready now for the home study, and we just signed a one year lease to a new apartment. Our social worker reassured us that it is just fine, and that the space will be enough for our baby (YAY!). It is really nice to know that someone else is on our side through this process, and is willing to assist in anyway they can to see us succeed.

This is just another step in the process that reassures me that this is God's plan, and He will help us overcome any obstacle that we will face.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Yard Sale = Sucess

After putting up many flyers and getting the word out as the best we could (Facebook, Craigslist, and word of mouth), our yard sale turnout was amazing!

*The flyers we posted.

*Us by our signage. Nick can never take a normal picture....

*Our yard sale from the sidewalk. We had a table and boxes set up on our lawn too.

 

 

We decided to set our yard sale goal a bit high ($800), because we wanted to stretch our expectations for the sale and see what our God could do. Even though we had a few big items, we lacked quite a bit of smaller/regular yard sale items. Still, we ended up raising $788! Woohooo! The money made from the yard sale will be directed to helping pay for the rest of the home study program (approximately $1700 due).

I just want to take a moment and recognize all of the wonderful friends that Nick and I have made in Baltimore. Thank you for your donations of items, time, and money! A special thanks to Brian and Victoria for all of the wonderful items that you donated for the yard sale. Ashley, with your bottles of water and baked cookies, you were at the yard sale in spirit. Dan, for lending us the table that helped keep our yard sale items off the wet ground as well as the items you donated. A large thanks to all our friends that came out and supported us by buying items and donating to our cause: Angela, Kimi, and Jon.! Everything that you all did helped make it a big success, and it would not have been the same without you. Thank you so so much! And of course, a sincere thank you to all our neighbors that stopped by and contributed to the success of our yard sale.

 

The first meeting with our social worker will be this Friday. We will be going over all the necessary documentation required by the agency to go ahead with our adoption. Our home study has official begun!





Fundraising like crazy!

With the large numbers looming ahead for how much this adoption process will cost, Nick and I are trying to do as many fundraising things as possible! We are having a garage sale on July 13th. We are hoping and praying for a good turn out! Our goal is going to be $800, which is very possible! These funds will help us get through the home study process that we just got accepted into! The agency that we are doing the home study with is called Adoptions Together. Since our adoption agency (Children's House International = CHI) is not located in Baltimore we are having to do the home study with them. We need $3000 for all of the interviews and such with the home study (pre and post adoption) before this process can be completed, and $1900 of that upfront to get the process started before our application can move forward with our agency (CHI).

So please pray that God meets and exceeds our needs! Keep our garage sale in your prayers, and pray for favor that we exceed our goal of raising $800!

For those of you that are not located in Baltimore, MD, you can help us by buying coffee (if that is your thing), mugs, and apparel from Just Love Coffee Roasters. A percentage of what you purchase will go to help fund our adoption!


Here is the link:  https://justlovecoffee.com/nickandeliserichard

All of this information is also available in the "How you can help" tab on the top of our blog page.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

What now?

After being accepted into the adoption agency's program, a lot needs to happen before we can send our application overseas. Even though the process can take 2-3 years before we actually get our child(maybe longer, maybe shorter), a lot is happening now.

The next step is finding a home study program (they make sure we are not crazy, interview us, see our home, do background checks and what not). So far we have a couple programs in mind, but $3,000 or $5,000 is not something that we were expecting to have to pay immediately into the process, but nonetheless now is the time! We knew that the over all cost would probably be about 25,000-30,000 dollars, but we figured it would be more spread out over the couple of years. But the overall start up costs will be about $6500 to get our application to Bulgaria.

Let the fundraising begin! haha We are already planning a yard sale and a bake sale is in the mix too, so that should be exciting!

Please, please, please keep us in your prayers throughout this process, that God would provide and pave the way for whatever he has planned for us.

Our Application is approved!

Our beautiful journey to adopt has begun!

Nick and I found out on 6/17/13 that our application for adoption has been approved! This is when the emotions started to overflow. I am scared, excited, anxious, super happy, over joyed, and nervous. I keep thinking what about the money? We do not have enough money. BUT, we are not doing this because we are ready and extremely financially stable. As Nick always says, we will never find the "perfect" time to raise a kid because no matter what things happen and life changes.

Adoption really is such a beautiful thing and it mirrors what Christ did and does for us daily.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father."For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. Romans 8:14-16

Adoption is something that Nick and I knew we wanted from the very beginning of our marriage. Nick specifically knew way earlier on in life than I did (this is something that he has wanted since he was a teenager). And if not now, then when right? Even though I feel overwhelmed by emotions sometimes, I know that this is something God wants us to do.

This is His situation.
He is our provider and He will get the glory.