Sunday, February 27, 2011

Update and Some Info for Our Indiana Friends/Family!!

I know I've said this before, but I am absolutely amazed and humbled by this whole adoption experience. We're still in the beginning stages and almost to the middle stages - yay! Our homestudy is done, just waiting on the final notarized copy to come in the mail. Next step when we receive our homestudy is to send a copy of that, our marriage certificate, birth certificates, a check for $890 and our "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition".

Anyway, I am just in awe and amazement of how God's been with us every single step of the way. Our pastor is doing a sermon series on money and being wise with your finances said a quote today which really spoke to me: "If God wanted you to have it, He'd provide the money for it." He has literally helped provide every single penny we've had to pay so far and I've just been amazed. God definitely wants us to adopt a certain child in Ethiopia and is providing for it every step of the way in so many humbling ways...

As most of you know, we've been doing several fundraisers (tshirts, Thirty One party) and our latest one is our Yardsale for Hope. Just about a month ago I first announced about this and how we were looking for donated items to be able to include in our yardsale. I am just amazed at how many people have given us items to sell! People are blessing us left and right! Our biggest issue we've run into now is where do we put everything? Our garage is getting to be overflowing with items and our "school room" (our 4th bedroom that we usually use for homeschooling) is completely packed full of stuff. We now have stuff piling up in our living room and Michael is out picking up even more!! It's absolutely incredible and SOO humbling to see just how many people are willingly giving items to us so we can raise money! Our biggest issue we're running into now is lack of tables for the yardsale - if you or anyone you know have any extra tables (that fold up, obviously) that we could borrow early this week to use this weekend, we would be SOOO thankful (I promise we'll take excellent care of them)! You can contact us at 252-626-6964 or e-mail us at nunezfamilyadoption@gmail.com  I will be posting another blogpost in a few days some pictures along with a general list of items and more info about the yardsale. Keep an eye out! :)

For those who have donated items, we honestly cannot thank you enough!!! You have helped us SO much and I cannot wait to document this "event" and tell our child when he/she gets older about how many people have come together to help bring her/him home! God has brought so many amazing people into our lives and we are forever grateful!!

Lastly, I've had several people from Indiana (where we're originally from) comment on how they wish they could donate stuff for our yardsale. Well... You're actually in luck! I am still in absolute amazement because of one of my great friends and sister in Christ, Sara. I have known her for a few years and "met" her thanks to our common bond of the Marine Corps, both being Marine wives. She is one of the most amazing, caring, and Godly women/moms I know and it's an absolute privilege to call her my friend. She was really wanting to donate items for our sale and living in Louiseville, KY while her husband is on recruiting duty, she is obviously way too far away. God spoke to her and gave her an idea that she contacted me with. She is going to go to our home town/area and organize another Yardsale (and bakesale) for Hope, with the proceeds benefiting our adoption. How amazing is that?! She's going to do a majority of the work from long distance until the date and then will come up for a few days to help "organize and direct" it. We are still not sure of the date or location as of yet (not sure if it'll be Montpelier/Hartford City area or more near Muncie/Selma where our church is - ideas?). If anyone has any ideas, wants to help, or donate items, please contact her at marinecorpswife18@yahoo.com . Thank you, Sara for your incredible support, and thank you for anyone who is willing to help her!!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Seriously?! How many times will God do this?!?

So, tonight at about 7:45pm, I got a phone call from Michael as he was on his way home. He said he had great news! God provided us with a special check that just so happened to be.... almost exactly half the amount of our dossier fee  (just $2 and some odd cents away)! I swear, anytime I get worried about costs, God continually shows me HE is in control and that we are doing what HE wants us to do!

Along with this check, our Yardsale for Hope is in just 2 weeks (March 4 & 5) ! Our garage and "school room" in our house is filling up thanks to so many donations from so many amazing people! I am just in awe of how generous people are and don't know how we'll ever be able to repay for all that everyone has done! I am in high hopes of a great turnout for our sale! Also, a few people asked how long we were taking donations. We will be accepting donations until Wednesday, March 2nd! Anyone local - please share with your friends/family! I have created fliers, so if you're wanting to hand any out to friends or family, please e-mail me at nunezfamilyadoption@gmail.com and I can e-mail you a digital copy that you can print out.

For an update on our adoption status - we're still waiting for our finalized home study. Unfortunately our doctor's office is very slow at getting Michael's medical letter back with us, so it's kept us from getting the finalized home study. I'm hoping by the end of next week we will have it (the home study)! We have also gotten our passports in the mail! Wahoo! Just seeing those make me all excited for our travels to Ethiopia! I know it'll still be the end of the year at the earliest probably, but still exciting, none the less!

Anyway, wrapping this up with thanks....
 * Thank you to our amazing God! God, you have been there with us every single step of the way! You have given us the hearts that break for the orphans. You have provided for us in more ways that we could have ever imagined!
* Thank you to everyone who has, is, and will be praying for us. Your prayers are what have kept us going!
* Thank you to everyone who has helped provide for our yardsale! Your donations are SOOOO appreciated!

* Thank you to Danielle, Ron and Tarrah, Sam and Liz, and Becky and Jeff for spending time writing reference letters, getting things notarized, and filling out documents. You are all appreciated more than you know!
* Thank you to everyone who has given us monetary donations! You have helped get us to where we are now in the adoption process.
* Thank you also to everyone who has bought one of our shirts to help fund our adoption! You guys are so appreciated, too!
* Thank you  to Cindy and everyone who ordered purses during our Thirty One fundraiser a couple weeks ago! Cindy, you were so awesome for doing that for us!
* Last, but most definitely not least... Thank you to EVERY single person who is supporting us. Your thoughts, prayers, and specifically support has been incredible. We appreciate you and love you all!!!

(I'm sure I forgot some, and will add more later! For now, I'm off to spend the first evening this week with my husband!)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Home Study DONE!

Yay! Our last homestudy interview is now completed! We will have our completed homestudy back to us in 2 weeks! We are so excited and feel like we're finally getting somewhere! Once we get that homestudy back, the next step is to turn in our 1-600A which will schedule us for FBI fingerprinting. When we finish that (which can take up to 2-3 months, but we're hoping and praying for it to happen much sooner), we are able to submit our dossier to be notarized, state certified and authenticated by the US Dept. of State and Ethiopia Embassy, which will then be sent to Ethiopia and we're put on the waitlist for a referral!! I'm hoping (but more than likely won't happen) for it to all be done by my birthday in April. Wouldn't that be a great birthday present? :)

I'm just so ready to be finished with all the paper chasing! Here are all the papers for our homestudy (and just think - our dossier has MORE than that, and we're missing 4 documents in this photo!):



And our final installment for the home study fees, wahoo!