Moving Forward...Saying Goodbye....

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year to you all! We hope this letter finds you well!

We wanted to send you a letter since there have been some significant changes with our adoption.

First of all we can't thank you enough for your support and prayers in our efforts to adopt from Ethiopia. We have felt so loved, encouraged, and blessed by all of you! Unfortunately, since March of last year the process has not been going well. At that time Ethiopia virtually shut down their adoption program due to corruption and has reduced the number of inter-country adoptions by 90%.

When we first heard the news about 9 months ago we were hoping and praying that the program would open back up. It has not. The process is moving, but very slow. When we decided to begin the adoption process over a year ago, we were told that we would have our child home by the end of 2011. However, due to the recent changes in Ethiopia the wait is now approximately 3-4 years. We have dear friends that have chosen to wait, with the hope that the process will speed up. In our case we have been praying fervently asking God for direction, wisdom, and peace about which direction to take. After much prayer we have decided to end our adoption journey. We feel like this is the right decision for our family at this time in our lives but will always be open to whatever God may have in the future for us in regards to growing our family.

Over this last year we have fallen in love with Ethiopia, made amazing new friends along the way, and have seen first hand how loved we are by friends like you. Most of all God has opened our eyes and hearts to the plight of orphans all over the world and we will continue to help them and fight for them. In honor of Nahla we have begun to sponsor a little girl from Ethiopia and look forward to sponsoring more orphans and children living in extreme poverty. We will not forget them!

What God is doing now and what we have to look forward to in 2012 is already remarkable:

•  We've sponsored more children in Ethiopia.

•  All the finances that were donated by you went to America World Adoption which is an amazing non profit organization that helps to find children homes from all over the world and also brings teams to visit, and bring love to orphans (Visitingorphans.org)

•  Ministry doors have flung wide open for us in the area of purity, accountability, speaking and ministering to other couples

•  (I.E. we are starting 6 more men’s accountability groups in 2012)

•  Nikki and I have the honor of leading worship at our church

•  Josiah continues to be a wonderful source of love and ministry for us

 So with our plate full and hearts at peace with where God has us at this time we want to give thanks to all of you for everything you have done to help us with our adoption! For those of you who supported us financially, We know that you gave to us with the purpose of your money going to our adoption. Your money was sent to America World (our adoption agency) before the significant changes and slowdowns happened in March. We would like to send you your donation back since we are no longer adopting in case you would like to use it for another purpose. Those of you that helped us with our yard sale we'd like you to know that all that money was also given to America World Adoption for our cost of the initial phase and that donation has blessed the organization to keep it going.

Thank you again for your prayers and support and the blessing you have all been to us through this journey.

We love you all,

Jared, Nikki and Josiah.

Our new home church...our new family

For the past few months Jared and I have been attending a home church.  We have always wondered what a home church would be like and when we were invited by a wonderful friend we thought, why not check it out? From the first day we stepped foot into this warm, cozy home, we have felt very welcomed and loved. There are maybe between 30-40 members who are SO on fire for Jesus. Jared and I have attended very large churches for as long as we can remember so this is definetely a change. But a very refreshing one! The first day we attended, the  youth led worship and both Jared and I were brought to tears. Their worship was so authentic and simple. There prayers were so heartfelt and real. We were blown away! Everyone is so full of joy in that place. One of the first things I noticed was the radiating joy that shined on their faces. You really can feel the love in that place! Something else we really loved about this church was the incredible deep love and concern for orphans. There are four families that have adopted internationally, and another who has been a foster mom. The church has also just commited to fully funding a school and orphanage in Nepal. After a couple of months, it was clear to both Jared and myself that we had found our new church home.
The support and love we feel from this church is like nothing we have ever experienced.
We feel blessed!

May 7th Rummage Sale Fundraiser!!

It's time to clean out your closets and mark you calendar  for a fun day of shopping and eating to help us raise money for our adoption!! Our sale is set for Saturday May 7th and possibly Sunday too (depending on how much stuff we have left over)
We hope to have lots of great stuff to sell, as well as a yummy bake sale and a BBQ later in the day!! So if you have anything you would like to donate towards our sale please let us know! We are collecting any household itmes, as well as baked goods, bottled waters, hot dogs, and buns. We will collect food items the night before or morning of the sale.  We would love it if you could help us by telling your friends about our sale so that they can donate or shop too! We think it will be a fun day and hope to have the opportunity to also share with people about our adoption and the orphan crisis in Ethiopia and all over the world.
Please contact me at nicolepimentel5@yahoo.com if you would like to drop some things off!! Thanks again in advance for getting the word out and for your help!!

Lots of Updates!

So the month of March has been a crazy one with many ups and downs! To be honest, I haven't felt like blogging in a while because of the roller coaster ride of emotions this month has brought us so far! As many of you may already know as of March 10th of this month MOWA (ministry of womens affairs) made a statement that they were going to bring their recommendation letter amount from 50 per day to 5. These are the letters needed in court in order to pass court and proceed with an Embassy clearance (visa for child). With out this letter everything stops and they projected that the wait could be years due to this new procedure change. Since finding all of this troubling news out we have recieved many updates from our agency letting us know that things are looking positive and this new 5 letter procedure has not been put into practice yet. Maybe it won't at all...hopefully! You can read all of the news regarding this and stay updated with what is happening regarding adoption in Ethiopia at http://www.jointcouncil.org/
So all of this crazy news has brought with it many tears, moments of doubt and sadness. These last few weeks have been challenging for sure but it has also been a time of really trusting God, surrendering everything to Him, and praying, praying and more praying. We really want what will be best for the orphans in Ethiopia whatever that may be. So we continue to pray and hope for some updates soon regarding all of this. Will you pray with us? We are resting in Him and trusting....
On a lighter note we have some very good news to report regarding our fundraising! Before last week we had raised a total of $7000!! Thanks to God and the amazing generousity of our family and friends!! Last Sunday an amazing group of friends at our church, who we consider precious family to us, tithed for the month of March towards our adoption!! In one months time they raised $5000 to help us with our adoption costs!! Amazing!! We are so blown away by the love of these dear friends! Words can't describe how loved, supported and thankful we feel! So once again I am reminded that God is so much bigger than money and will provide for us to bring our daughter home! So far we have spent $11,000 in adoption fees and have raised $12,000! It is so amazing to watch God at work!!
Thanks again friends for your love, prayers and support!

Nickels for Nahla update

It is amazing to see how God is providing for this adoption! It is so inspiring to see so many people want to help out and get involved in helping us bring Nahla home! Even people we don't know and have never met have been requesting the Nickels for Nahla labels! So I think we have about 40 or so labels out there with families collecting change to help us with our adoption costs!
In May we plan to have our large rummage sale and in June or July we will have our benefit concert in Santa Cruz! Fun stuff ahead so stay tuned! If you would like a Nickels for Nahla label let me know and I will send you one!
Blessings!!

Dossier on it's way to Ethiopia!!

It's hard to believe that the long process of putting our dossier together is over! I keep feeling like there is something I need to be doing or a document thats needs to get notarized! It is a really nice, peacful feeling to have it done and know that it is on it's way to Ethiopia! It was sent yesterday and will be traveling through many countries until it finds it's way home to Ethiopia. January 28th was our offical DTE date (dossier to Ethiopia) which means that as of that day we were put on the official waiting list for our daughter! Now I need patience to wait for the day we recieve our refferal which will be 7-11 months from now. It feels hard to wait but I am also thankful to know that waiting means many other families are also adopting orphans and providing them with forever families! It feels me with so much joy knowing that so many people desire to adopt and bring hope to children who would otherwise end up on the streets or grow up in an orphanage with hundreds of other children. So waiting is a good thing :)
Thank you all again for your prayers and support! We will keep you updated as things move along!

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!!