Garage sale fundraiser was a huge success!!

Good morning!!

We are excited to announce that our garage sale fundraiser was a huge success. We would like to thank the many people who volunteered their time to make this event possible. A special thanks to my mom and grandma for spending over a week helping us prepare for this event, we could not have done it without you! I would also like to thank the people who helped watch our children during the event, donated and/or purchased items and everyone supported us through prayer and words of encouragement!  Thank you also to Pastor Allen Wright and New Life Wesleyan Church for allowing us to use the church garage and yard for our garage sale, it was an ideal location!!  Last but not least, thank you Lord for a beautiful day and amazing turnout....through you all things are possible!! 

Because of the effort of our friends and family, we were able to raise $1750!! Again we cannot thank everyone enough! The amazing part about this number is our next fee that is due in July is $1500 + travel expenses for our home study agency to send a social worker to our house. Therefore, we have raised just enough money to cover our next expense! We do not think that is a coincidence! 

"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

Thank you again for your support and prayers.  We will continue to update everyone as we continue through this process of bringing Amira home. 

***We want to add a side note that if anyone has any questions about our adoption, why we selected Ethiopia, why we decided to adoption in the first place or any other questions or concerns please feel free to email us: 

nayres19@comcast.net 

We would love to answer any questions or help clear up any concerns you may have. 

Have a blessed week!!! 

Home study update!! :)

Good morning!!!

Nic and I wanted to share that we have recently met with our home study agency and are excited to say we have officially chosen to work with St. Elizabeth Coleman. We decided to go with this agency for several reasons: 

1.) this agency is approved by America World Adoption as an agency they work well and often with for international adoptions. Therefore, they are familiar with the process and paperwork. 

2.) this agency is based on Christian principles. They understand what we mean when we say we felt called to adopt. We truly have put our trust in The Lord for this process and we feel confident that a Christian adoption agency as well as home study agency is where we should be. 

3.) After we met with the agency for our first initial meeting, we both felt comfortable with how the agency is ran as well as how they communicate. All in all, we had a very good vibe. 

Those are the three top reasons we have decided to go with St Elizabeth Coleman. So where do we go from here?? Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. We have several essays to write as well as providing other information about our lives. I knew this "paper pregnancy" as they call it would be long but I never imagined it would be this detailed! There are three background checks that will be preformed as we go along... We passed our local check, not that there was any doubt. A second background check will be submitted by the home study agency. While the agency is doing things on their end, we will continue to gather physicals for ourselves, medical records for our children, financial information, ect. Once we finish and submitted the paperwork we need, the agency will officially assign a social worker to our family. She will come out and spend lots of time at our house and evaluate our lives. Once that is complete she will write up our home study which will be reviewed by several people before it is finalized. 

While This may seem like a relatively easy process, it is very time consuming. Our goal is to have our home study complete by mid August. Once that is completed and in hand, we will be submitting it along with a few other things for our final background check. This will actually be done by the FBI. As long as everything matches what the FBI has on record about us, we will be approved. 

Communication about everything with our home study agency and social worker is key in making this the smoothest process that it can be. We have been warned, there will be hick ups along the way but not to worry. We are excited to start this part of the process. The farther we go, the more real everything becomes!! It is so exciting to know we are that much closer in learning who our daughter is and being able to hold her and love her! The important part to remember, which can be hard for me, is that this will be done in God's time not mine! Patience, patience, patience! 

We would also at this time like to remind everyone that our Cornhole, garage sale, cook out, bake sale is this weekend at New Life Wesleyan Church 75 E 1100 N in Chesterton. The garage sale will be open Saturday 9 am until 5 pm. The Cornhole tourney will begin at 1 pm, registration at 12 pm. We are asking a $20 minimum donation per team. There will be cash prizes. If anyone is interested in helping with the fundraiser, please let me know. :)

Thank you again for all your support and prayers!!! God Bless!! 

Cost update for December 1st

Hello everyone!!! We have an update with more accurate total for what we will need to raise by December 1st. This still does not include background checks, authentication, notary fees and a few miscellaneous fees. But I wanted to update everyone on where we stand :)

$300 initial application fee
$139 adoption class
$2500 1st installment program fee
$300 Application fee for home study
$2500 2nd installment program fee
$800 translation of dossier
$1000 post adoption deposit
$150 courier fee
$4500 1st half of international program fee
$2500 estimated home study fee
$720 I600A - application for advance processing of orphan petition
$170 fingerprinting

Total: $15,579

This total is only what we need by December. There will be more fees as we go along (anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 additional) but we are looking at the short term goals rather than the whole. This way we are focusing on the here and now rather than worrying about the future!

"Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Matthew 6:34

Thank you everyone for your continued support and prayers!!

Words cannot express....

Words cannot express how unbelievably grateful we are for everyone that helped with our Bob Evans fundraiser.  It truly is AMAZING how many people have come together to help us bring our little Amira home.  I would love to individually thank each and every person for helping us make our fundraiser such a great success.  We have not heard a total from Bob Evans but we know that it was a success from stories we are being told of the event.  Once we have officially heard from Bob Evans, we will be sure to post the outcome.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

This adoption has been such an amazing process.  I have seen first hand how amazing people can be.  The support we have received from friends, family and complete strangers is nothing less than spectacular!!!  We greatly appreciate all of your support and prayers.  Through the strength of God and your prayers we are going to be able to give a little girl a life that every child deserves!!!  I would like to ask for your continued prayers and support as we move along this adoption process. Please include in your prayers not only our family and Amira but also all the other orphan children of the world.  Thank you again so much.

One more little side note I wanted to add...Friday (the day of our Bob Evans Dine to Donate) I had taken the kids to the park to run off some energy after their Bob Evans Breakfast.  The park that we went to is filled with tires that have been shredded and laid out instead of rocks.  When we came home I found a piece of rubber from the park on our couch and this is what it looked like....

I know this might just seem like a piece of rubber but to us it is a symbol of so much more!!!  It is amazing when you open your eyes to the wonders God is capable of, how much you truly find him everywhere.  To us this piece of rubber is more than just an old tire, it is a friendly reminder from God that our mission in Africa is his will.  We will not stop until our little princess from Africa is a US citizen with the last name Ayres!!!  We cannot wait to give you the opportunities to flourish and grow and to show you the love every child deserves!!!  See you soon baby girl!!!

Home study update and fundraisers!!! :)

Hello everyone! 

Nic and I want to update everyone where we are with our adoption process. Our "paper chase" is progressing along very well. We have collected a majority of our paperwork already. There are a few things we are waiting for in the mail but other than that we are pretty much as far as we can go with our paperwork until our home study process begins. 

Speaking of home study, we have officially selected the agency we are going to be working with throughout the remainder of our adoption. We will be working with St Elizabeth Coleman out of Indianapolis.  Today I will be sending out our completed application form, along with the necessary paperwork and application fee. Once the agency approves our application we have to make a trip to Indy to meet with the agency. Once this is complete, we will be assigned a social worker from northwest Indiana who will need to make a minimum of 4 trips to our house.  We will be sure to update everyone on the home study as it commences. 

Fundraiser reminders: 

June 7 is our dine to donate at Bob Evans in Chesterton. If you present our flyer at checkout, Bob Evans will donate 15% of the total bill to our adoption agency in our name.  

June 22 is our Cornhole, garage sale, bake sale, cook out fundraiser at our church New Life Wesleyan in Chesterton.  Registration for the tournament will begin at 12 and the games will begin at 1. The garage sale will be open from 12-5. Currently we have a lot of baby, toddler, maternity, men's and women's clothes. We have toys, appliances, purses and much more!!! I will continue to update everyone on this fundraiser as it gets closer. 

Thank you everyone for your donations toward our garage sale and your prayers as we continue on our journey to bringing our daughter home!