Lasagna Fundraiser

Good morning everyone!!

We wanted to take the time to thank everyone who helped make our Lasagna fundraiser last night such an amazing success. We are so grateful for everyone who helped plan, decorate, cook, serve food, babysit kids, make flowers and everyone who attended. We especially want to thank Karen Williams who put together the entire event. Everything was beautiful.  We could not have asked for a better evening. 

For those who could not attend our dinner I want to share with you the nights events...we were blessed in so many ways.  We were very excited for the large turn out and everyone's positive response to our testimony, it truly was encouraging and heartwarming. Speaking of our testimony, I was so nervous but once I stood in front of everyone and began speaking it was like second nature... Trust me, that was strength from above because I could not have gotten through that (tear free) alone. Thank you Lord for that strength!!!! I also want to take the time to thank the teens not only for serving but also for your selfless generosity.  After everyone left for the evening and we were cleaning up, all of the teens approached us with a gift... They decided to donate the tips they received for their youth fund through the evening to our adoption. Nic and I literally had our wallets out to add to the teens tip jar when they walked over and gave to us, without hesitation, what they had earned for the evening. Because of their generosity we were able to add $106 to our total amount raised for the evening. I love that our church is helping to raise (along with their parents) children who care so much about others and their needs. We hope our children will grow up with the same beliefs and morals. We were literally blown away and beyond grateful. Thank you so much. In addition to the teens, we also had another youth from our church empty her piggy bank to donate to our adoption. Again we were so grateful and blown away by the selflessness of a little girl. Thank you again so much.  I may not have cried throughout my testimony but the generosity of these kids brought tears that I could not fight back. 

We are happy to share that through the generosity of the youth, friends, family and church family we raised $1605.23 last night. We have now raised a total of $11,486 thus far for our adoption. We are hoping to submit our dossier in October which means we will need to raise an additional $4093. We are so close and we know that GOD WILL PROVIDE!!!! He has already proven that he will by helping us raise over $11,000 in four months time!!! What an amazing testimony in itself. Money is nothing to our God who created the universe.  Our adoption will happen and our Amira, where ever she is today, will be a part of our family. In our hearts she already is our daughter and we love her. 

Thank you so much for your support and prayers as we continue along our journey in bringing our daughter home. :-)

God bless!!!

Biometrics in the works!!!

We are excited to share that we have received our biometric (aka fingerprint) appointment yesterday in the mail!!! As of now we are scheduled for September 25 at 11 am. However, we have been informed by other adoptive families that it is ok to go in to the uscis office before our scheduled appointment to get this done. Therefore, Nic and I will be heading to the office this Wednesday afternoon to get our fingerprints taken!!! We are so excited to get yet another part of our paper chase completed! After we receive approval from the uscis, the last step will be to get our dossier state certified by the Secretary of State in Indianapolis!!! I want to say that again because it sounds so awesome...this is our last step!!!! 

Little Amira you are that much closer to be in my arms. :-) 

Thank you again for your continued support and prayers!! We will keep you updated with our progress!! :-) 

So Blessed

Nic and I are excited to share about a letter we received today from a friend of a friend of Chami's.  Chami's friend Bethany, who she had attended school with at Ellerslie in Colorado, has a friend who recently heard of our adoption and wanted to do something to help us out.  Bethany's friend, who is originally from New Hampshire and some one we have never met, has been working to raise money for a mission trip she was planning this year.  She heard through the grapevine about our adoption and decided that she wanted to be a part in helping bring our Amira home. So along with a very nice letter was a check for $790!!!  We are truly amazed by the generosity of a person we have never met.  Furthermore, I just learned that this amazing individual is still in the process of fundraiding for her own trip. Therefore, she is giving us a gift that she could still use for her own call.  What a remarkable act of kindness. Thank you so much!! I hope some day we can meet face to face and I can thank you in person.  We are so grateful!!!  Best of luck to you on your mission trip, we will be praying for your journey as well!!

It is so unbelievable the people God has been and still is placing along our path to help us bring our daughter home.  Whether it be through donations, sharing our story, encouraging words and support, and/or sharing their story of adoption, we feel so blessed.  I want to take the time to thank all of you again, we appreciate all you have done.  :)

A little update on where we are today...after sending off our i600A, we are still waiting to hear back from Immigration.  I have been told that this process can take as little as 6 weeks to complete but this is if the government does not request additional information which can extend the process to up to 12 weeks.  We are eager to continue and complete our dossier, so we are hoping that we are on the shorter end of the spectrum but we know these things take time and just like everything else in life, this will happen all in God's time not ours.  Patience, Patience, Patience.  :)

From a fundraising standpoint...September 28 is our lasagna dinner.  It is at this event we will be sharing our testimony - what led us to adopt, the trials and tribulations - all the glory to you Lord, the process and where we stand in the process.  We also have a little something extra we will be sharing at the end of the dinner that I am very excited for. :)  The deadline to sign up for this dinner is a week from today.
We also have our orphan awareness walk October 5th at Coffee Creek in Chesterton.  If you are interested in participating in this event, please click the link below to register:

http://theorphanmission.org/W4O_-_Registration.html

Please choose that you are walking for Nic and Nicole Ayres.  :)

We want to end this tonight by again thanking everyone for their support.  We will continue to keep you updated on our dossier, fundraising events, and best of all our God Moments as they unfold before us.  God Bless and have a great week!!