Nickels for Nahla

So my dear friend Kristin designed some adorable labels called Nickels for Nahla, that you post on a coin jar or any other type of container. Kristin gave them out to our Bible study group so that our friends could fill up their nickels for Nahla jar with coins to help us raise money for our adoption. We have already collected a full coin jar from one of our friends and are surprised how a little bit of spare change can add up! Josiah is having so much fun putting extra coins in our jar. It's a fun way to get the kids involved too!
If any of you would like a cute Nickels for Nahla label to help raise money for us with your spare change let me know and we will mail you one! We can even mail you more than one if you think of someone else who might like to join in. I am going to post a very cute picture of Josiah with his jar :)

God Provides!!

Hello dear friends and family!
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was very special since we were able to spend lots of quality time with family. This Christmas was even more exciting for Josiah then the last because he really understands now about the true meaning of Christmas and of course the presents. We had so much fun attending Christmas parties, looking at lights, reading Christmas stories, and of course decorating cookies. It was so special to share the story of Christs birth with Josiah and listen to all of the questions he had about Jesus's birthday. It was also special to look through the World Vision catalog together and talk about the needs of people around the world. Josiah was very surprised and interested to know that many people don't have things like clean drinking water, food, clothes, toys or a house like we do. After looking through the catalog he decided he wanted to give the gift of clean water to those who have none this Christmas. So that was our outreach gift this year and Josiah was very excited to be able to help those in need!

As far as the latest news with the adoption process goes, we have our fingerprint appt. on January 12 and then we wait until we are approved. We are hoping we won't have to wait too long but as always we know Gods timing is what matters and He already knows who our daughter is so no worries right?
We also have some updated fundraiser news to report! Thanks to so some very generous family and friends over the holidays our grand total we have now raised is $6000!! Whoo hoo!! Praise God!! We feel So blessed, loved and supported! We also feel encouraged that God is providing for us to bring our daughter home!  So thank you again for your prayers and financial support! There will be one less orphan, alone with out a family because of your help!! Doesn't that feel awesome?!  One step at a time with your help! We love you and thank you!!!!!!!

Belated Updates!

So I guess I am discovering that I am not so good at keeping our blog updated! I can't believe it has already been one month since my last post. I am really going to work on being more consistent with updating my blog....starting.. now!
Ok so here is the latest!  We have sent out our immigration form (I600A) which allows us to bring our duaghter home from Ethiopia. We just recieved our appointments to get fingerprinted and then we wait to recieve the approved I600 form to arrive by mail! Hopefully we will be able to send out our Dossier by early February but you never know with this process. We are learning to be patient and surrender the timing and process to God. It's hard to be patient when I just want to go to Ethiopia and bring our daughter home but I know Gods timing is so much better then mine!
We also feel so blessed to report that we have raised $2200 towards our adoption from the support letters we sent out! We feel so amazingly blessed by those who have given so generously to help us bring Nahla home! People have sent us such encouraging words, support and prayer! We are VERY thankful because every dollar helps us so much!
Starting in January we will begin to plan for hopefully TWO future benefit concerts. My precious and amazingly talented friend Brooke from Boston has offered to fly out and host a benefit concert for us in Santa Cruz! She has a beautiful voice and plans to be one of the performers at the concert. I might even sing a song with her!
We would also like to plan a concert in the Sacramento area and are beginning the process of hopefully making that happen!
Another amazing friend has also helped us design a shirt that we plan to sell at our fundraising events and sell right here on our blog! It is turning out to be such a neat shirt! We can't wait to unveil it in the new year to you all!
In the spring time we will plan a hopefully very large rummage sale to also help with all the adoption expenses.
I feel really excited for the new year and all of the fun fundraiser events that we hope to make possible! Our heart is that our own adoption journey will inspire and bring awareness to the orphan epedemic in Africa and all over the world. We hope to show that it is not impossible to adopt internatinally, and pray that maybe along the way someone else might feel a tugging on their heart to do the same. Thank you all for reading this blog, and supporting us!
We will keep you updated more often now :)

First Homestudy Visit a Success!

On Saturday Jared and I had our first visit with our social worker (Emma) for our homestudy and it went great! It was so much more laid back then I thought it was going to be...whew! Right before Emma came over I was super nervous and within tem minutes after she arrived the nerves were gone. It wasn't formal at all and didn't even feel like much of an interview. Jared and I basically talked and shared our hearts about the adoption as well as our goals for the future with Nahla once she is home. The one serious question she did ask was if we had guns in the house, which we then said, "no." Then Jared flexed his bicep and said..."except for these guns." Thankfully she laughed :)  We were just really ourselves and it went so smoothly! She will be back this Friday to talk with me and then on Saturday to talk with Jared and then we are done! Our homestudy will probably be written up and ready in the next two weeks! It really feels like things are moving along quickly! Our goal is to hopefully have our side of things done by January (the dossier) and then the wait for a referral will begin!! In the meantime we are taking one step at a time and praying for our daughter daily. 
We have also been encouraged by some generous friends and their financial donations towards our adoption. We are hoping to have some really neat shirts made within the month to also help us raise money.
Thank you for your prayers and we would so appreciate any donations you might be able to give us to help us bring Nahla home!

Support letters sent and Homestudy Saturday!!

We feel very excited that we have finally mailed out our support letters for our adoption! It was so fun to write them and announce our adoption to our close friends and family! If you are reading this and you have not recieved one and would like one let me know! We are hoping and praying that people will get excited with us and support us in bringing Nahla home.
Well the day is almost here! Saturday we have our first Homestudy appointment with our social worker. I feel a little nervous but mostly excited that this process is moving along. It feels like things are moving quickly and each day we are a step closer to our little one. For those who don't know this already, we have decided to name our daughter Nahla. We aren't sure of her middle name yet. I would like to use her Ethiopia name or a part of it, as her middle name I think. Now that we have named her it feels even more real. It also makes me feel closer to her and more connected. Every night as I am falling asleep I pray for her and her mom. I think about her often now and wonder if she has been concieved yet or how many months along she is in her mothers womb. I can't wait for the day that I finally meet her and hold her in my arms!

Homestudy to begin in TWO weeks and our first donation!!!

During this process so far I have read on many blogs about the insane amount of paperwork that is involved in adopting. I have been preparing myself fo it and it has come. I have officially been sent everything I will need to fill out or have others fill out and it truely is crazy!  I am trying to take it one baby step at a time knowing that it will all get done in time. It is at the same time so exciting because we are getting closer each day to bringing our little one home! Only 2 more weeks until our homestudy begins!!
Last night some dear friends of ours gave us our very first donation check for $500!! We feel so loved and blessed. It really was so exciting to recieve that first donation and be encouraged that we are loved and supported through this. Jared and I have used $4500 of our own money from savings so now we have raised $5000 off of the total cost of our adoption! Soon we will be designing some really neat adoption shirts and hats to sell so we will keep you posted when those come out!
We hope you will get excited with us and think about helping by donating towards our adoption. You will be helping to bring an orphan home to a loving family! When you meet her you will know that you personally played an important part in bringing her home to us!! Isn't that amazing?? I think so!
You can support us by paying securely through paypal on our blog or by sending us a check in the mail. 100% of your donation will go to funding our adoption!! Thank you for your support and love!! We can't do this with out your help!

Official Approval by our Adoption Agency!!!

I feel so excited right now it's hard to type!! I just got off of the phone with our adoption agency and we are approved to move forward in our adoption!! Even though I knew deep down we would be approved it feels so amazing and official now! It feels like I just found out I am pregnant! Of course we have quite a journey ahead of us and we have only just begun but I can be patient with God's help! Our next step is to sign more agreement forms and send in our first program fee of $1500. This is really happeneing and now it is time to begin our fundraising! In the next 4-6 months we will need to raise about $5700 to cover our initial costs before our referral to Ethiopia is sent out. God is so much bigger than money so I know we can make it happen! Our total adoption fees from start to bringing our child home is between $25-35,000. That sure sounds like a lot of money but for some reason it doesn't scare me. I know we will raise it and feel very excited to watch God at work through this process. Jared and I are brainstorming about fundraising ideas and we welcome your ideas too! We need all the help we can get!
We're thinking our first fundraiser is going to be a marathon right here in Sacramento on December 5th. We will keep you updated as we organize this event! We hope you will join us in running, getting people to sponser you or Jared for the run, or just donating to our cause!
We also plan to do a huge rummage sale fundraiser in the early Spring of next year so stay tuned for that!
I have figured out how to add a donation button through Paypal on here so you can donate anytime right through our blog! When you see the email address as Bellabargain5 it is me, it is just my Ebay email that is linked through Paypal but it will go directly into our account which will help us bring our child home!!
I hope you will get involved and get excited! You will have a direct connection with our future child and know that with your help she will be an orphan no more!
Thank you and keep checking back to see new posts! We would love if you would become a follower of our blog and send it out to anyone you might think would want to help!

Why Adopt Internationally?

This is the question I am frequently asked so I thought I might explain.
Since Jared and I have been married we have had many conversations about possibly adopting someday. It has just always been there even when we have gone back and forth with the idea. Presently it feels like the right timing in our life and the right place. Ultimately we believe OUR child is in Ethiopia. Here are many of the reasons why we feel called to adopt from Ethiopia specifically.

There are 4.8 million orphans in Ethiopia

1 in 4 women dies in pregnancy or childbirth

• One in six children die before their fifth birthday

• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old

• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition

• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years

• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)

• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone

• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school

• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000

Average life expectancy is 37 years

Application has been sent!!

Well after many days of gathering information and a few computer glitches along the way, I was able to send out our application to the adoption agency today!! I feel very excited and can't wait for the next step! I also can't wait to officially announce our "paper pregnancy" news to everyone but am still waiting to share with some family before we do. It's hard to guard my heart but am trying to because you never know what could happen through this process. I really do feel such a peace about our decision and not as nervous as I thought I might be. We will continue to pray and would love if you would join us in prayer as we trust in God to make this dream become a reality!

This video for me was my "no turning back" moment about adopting...It is amazing!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM

A New Journey Begins!

So this is my very first blog!  I have been meaning to create a blog for some time now but better late than never right? I have no idea what I am doing so bear with me!!
 As of now we are a family of three. Myself, my husband Jared, and my 3 year old son Josiah.  Now that he is 3 we have had many long conversations about when to have our second child. Since the beginning of our marriage we have talked about possibly adopting someday and it has never really left our mind or hearts. About two months ago we decided we were ready for baby #2. Ready as we'll ever be!  I started daydreaming about my second little one and began to get excited. One night two weeks ago I had major insomnia. I could not stop thinking about adoption, which was sparked by a friend who had told me that day about a mother she met who had adopted an orphan from Ethiopia. I ended up on the internet at 3am researching Ethiopia and adoption agencies. All that I learned that night, and all the days since have not left my mind or heart. It has sat like a brick on my very being. It has become so obvious what God is calling me to do. There are 5 million children who are orphans in Ethiopia. My dream is to start by making that number 5 million minus 1. Jared has always been ready to jump in and adopt so he too is on board and very excited.  We understand that this is a long, crazy journey but we feel called and ready! We have decided on a Christian Adoption Agency called America World Adoption. Our first step is to send in our official application to adopt!! We would love it if you would pray for us on this journey!! Let the adventure begin!!