It has been toooooo long

I know, it has been forever since I've posted. It is completely my fault, and I am sorry. Things have been really busy, BUT we have exciting news.

After a lot of prayer and discussion we have switched countries again, and are now in route to adopt from Hungary....AND....we have a baby girl in Hungary who we are currently pursuing!!!!!  I wish we could share her pictures/videos over the internet, but we will not able to until we make the adoption official. Let me tell you, Nick and I were in love at first sight. She is the cutest little two year old in the world. My heart sings every time I watch her videos and look at her pictures.

*This awesome picture of Budapest, Hungary will have to do in the meantime. 

A short bio of Arabella (that name is just adorable on its own): she will be two years old in May, and was diagnosed with leukemia in November 2013. According to her doctor in Hungary she is doing really well with treatments, and currently undergoing her second round of treatment.

In other news, our home study was approved about a month ago, which means that the sanitation and Fire Marshall inspection went flawlessly just fine despite the nerves and frantic cleaning. Thank you Jesus! We are  now in the process of being approved for international adoption by USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), and have a biometrics appointment on the 28th, where we will basically get fingerprinted and a background check done again. Other than that we have just been waiting, applying for a few grants, and doing some paperwork here and there.

Thank you to everyone that has kept us in your prayers (please keep praying ;). We have truly been blessed and humbled by your support.

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!