Wonderful blessings

I had the most amazing weekend with family and my hubby this weekend.  For such a short time period we got lots accomplished.  We got to make the needed errands done, went camping in the most peaceful relaxing time we've had in awhile also spent several hours working on the house and got several things checked off our list.  I am so thrilled and my heart is overflowing.  We have so much work left but through God's grace we willg get things done in His perfect timing.  Life is great and I'm loving this warmer fall weather! Keep checking here and ask top join our deaf adoption Facebook group for more info on the status of our adoption.  Our latest fundraiser is the beautiful bracelets that provide clean water in Africa and help bring our boy home.  All made here in the USA!

Long days

The past few weeks have been long days as we hurry to finish our house.   Painting mudding sanding wiring. .. we are slowly making progress and hope to soon have a working bathroom sink!  We have cabinets stained painted and installed and are soon gonna look at countertop for the bathroom.  We will both be s relieved to be finished just in time to start on outside winter yard work. Keep us in your prayers as we prepare for hvac n final electrical inspections.  We are ready to have this all behind us and move into our addition so we can get better organized. Pray that our three current fundraisers are successful as we try to raise our next agency payment! We are halfway to next payment amount and a huge yardsale the end of October(23,24,25) and then our fun painting fundraiser Nov 1st! Please feel free to donate items to yardsale.

Or donate directly at www.Adopttogether.com/ourdeafadoption

Vote Yes!

Today was my first day back at work and its been a long day! Awake off and on all night then alas up at 5am to start my day! Loving that I can once again sneak out the back door without waking everyone. Here is hoping tmw goes as smoothly! Today we exercised our right to vote and Brianna thought it was GREAT! All these nice older ladies and gentleman with sweet smiles. She had a blast and learned about our great democratic system. Vote for Carr and replace Clark, Wade, and Lee!!!!








Well off to run errands before back to work tmw!


Jessie

Sitting here watching my hyper two year old in her wonderful rainbow colored tiger face paint at chick-fila kids night and cannot help but think just how much she needs a sibling/s. She is having so much fun playing with the kids in the next booth instead of finishing her chicken. This past weekend at my sisters wedding she had the time of her life playing with my best friends kids and I cannot help but think to when we final have our boy home and are able to bring our kiddos to chick-fila so they can all get their faces painted and enjoy chicken and just the joy of getting out and doing something fun together as a family! Brianna will love having a brother. I know I enjoyed all three of mine (at times) and at times I still do.... ;)


We are just hanging out....doing errands and picking up items we need while we wait to go pick up Daddy from the airport. He has spent the last few days helping his mother replace her roof. We are so looking forward to him being back and us moving forward with the house as we race to get things finished in a timely manner!


As we continually run into more issues with the house and having to buy more and more supplies. We are increasingly aware that without God's providential help there is no way we will be able to complete this adoption. We know that we serve a mighty God who is able to do all things and we rest in the promise that HE will grant the desires of our hearts and that HIS people will help provide for the orphans! Thank you for taking the time to read this and please PASS this and our fundraising site on to EVERYONE you know. Share our story with your church, and PRAY that God would help the house and homestudy go smoothly and provide the needed funds to bring this boy into our loving arms!


http://www.adopttogether.com/ourdeafadoption tax free donation!!!


Thank you
The Pruyns

Two steps forward?

Finally I have been able to the boys room 85% painted and have started working on their closet. We are trying desperately to finish the rest of the drywall and finish the last of the mudding so that we can began working on the sanding and then lay floors! Keep us in your prayers. Work starts back for me this week and while I am so excited to begin saving money for the adoption and finishing the house and homestudy it drastically cuts into my time to be able to work on the house. Making things much more difficult and reducing the time I can spend fundraising and working on other projects. So please just keep praying for our son and passing on the info on how you and others can help us!




Thank you!

update on the addition

Yeah! I finally got to paint a closet! I have primed the boys room and soon hope to finish painting there and lay flooring! I have finally done a good mudding job so that means maybe my sweet hubby will let me do more! I am LEARNING!!!! It has been a whirlwind of a summer and some serious hard work. I am about ready to start back to work and my normal routine! Pray for our finances as the house has eaten more than we expected and thus we are having to COMPLETELY rely on fundraising from here on out to bring our son home! Please consider helping by sharing our info with all your friends and churches too! Http://www.adopttogether.com/ourdeafadoption


Shirts www.adoptionbug.com/ourdeafadoption




Thank you


Jessie

Juniper oil anyone

So today has been almost a repeat of Tuesday in the amount of stress hormones I've experienced also if you factor in last Fridays emotional upheaval then yes I'd say some essential oils are in order for this woman! My most amazing  brother-in-law came and stayed with us a week, spending all his time tiling our shower for us which looks amazing I might add! He got in some time with his namesake and we had the pleasure of his company while the poor boy worked on our house all week! Its a mess! We are working diligently and ask for your prayers as we seek to finish our addition these last few weeks of summer. We have reached the money has run out and we are running on elbow grease portion so its been tough, but with family and friends we are making it! Shout out to Dad for all his experience and help. He has been a wealth of knowledge and help, we are eternally grateful! Pray for our boy daily and pray God would lead this walk. Sometimes the hearing world at large doesn't understand the Deaf world in which we operate and that is proving yet again a challenging road for me to navigate so prayers on that end! We are at home depot yet again then back home for more work tonight. Thank you again for your prayers and support!


Jessie Pruyn

Busy times of preparation!

 Wow this past week has flown by in a blur! Brianna and I were blessed to have Brice off for a week from work and how did we celebrate as a family you might ask? We all hung drywall! All day, everyday!  We did finally stop about 5pm on Friday and celebrate our country's independence with some friends and family.


 This past week has been super busy. Brice's Dad has been a gem! He taught me how to pour our own shower liner, and then today taught me how to do tile! I LOVE it! Like I am going to miss this a lot, but I will add that this past week has been hard on Brianna so I know its better that we finish all this before our new kiddos come home as they will have an even BIGGER time adjusting to a new home, new country, and new LIFE!


Some exciting news on the adoption front. We finally got approved to begin our non-profit online fundraising! This means that you can share our website with anyone and everyone that you know and their gifts are tax deductible! So please tell EVERYONE! My biggest fear is that we won't have the money needed to proceed with this adoption and Brice as well as myself know that the God we serve can indeed do mighty things through his people. So we are asking that you please SHARE! Share this blogsite...share our facebook page, and even better share our adopt together page.
http://www.adopttogether.org/ourdeafadoption


We have a little less than one year to raise the needed funds and have just a little over 2-3 months to raise our the money for our next agency payments to complete homestudy and begin dossier (roughly $6,000). We appreciate all your help as we spread the word!


Don't forget to tell people about our coffee http://www.justlovecoffee.com/ourdeafadoption


or our shirts for sell http://www.adoptionbug.com/ourdeafadoption


Lots of ways you can help us reach our goals as we begin saving every dime we have for the estimated $23,000 in travel costs alone to go get our kids, be in country, and then the cost to bring them home!


  This past Sunday we learned more information in our adoption education classes about some of the issues our kids might face as older children. Just like Brice and I are nervous and scared to be moving with our young daughter to a country we have never been and leaving the beloved home we have poured so much of ourselves into for the past few months and years even, our kiddos will be leaving everything they have ever known for something and someone they will have barely known. For that reason alone I am glad that we will have the long stay in their country to learn their ways, their food, as much of their culture and rituals as we can so that we can better meet their needs, but I won't lie it is downright nerve wracking when I think about it sometimes. While I can't speak for my better half, I tend to be a creature of habit. I like my comfort zone, I like normalcy, routine, while an occasional adventure is great this will be one of the biggest and most definitely for the longest duration of any adventure I have yet experienced.


 I ask for your prayers. That our hearts would be prepared for whatever God has in store, that HE would guide every step of our way, that HE would provide the needed funds, and that HE would be glorified through it all!


So say a prayer and SHARE, SHARE, SHARE!


Jessie

Seriously...

So this week started off amazingly as we had our homestudy. Learned that we can go on hold if we don't raise the funds needed to continue to process and that we love our agency as they prayed with us and helped us know what we needed to get finished without freaking out about what wasn't done. We feel like we are in a good place! This morning started off somewhat on a more sour note as I called to ask a few questions about hanging drywall in regards to hvac and instead got yelled at that our hvac had to pull the permit instead of us despite me doing the electricity. Good grief....I hate the politics of things. Tmw we go and get fingerprinted to make sure that we aren't criminals. Just pray everything goes well. Never done anything outside of take my brothers candy when I was a kid but so afraid we will be the freak case who gets flagged because there was a mix up in the system and it will delay things. Sigh....knowing its all in God's hands. I know He has a plan but after watching the documentary Stuck with my BFF its so hard to think of all the MILLIONS of orphans that are suffering around the world and in need of LOVE! Bless the poor social worker. I just broke down crying on her telling her my biggest fear is that we will be so close financially to meeting our goals but not enough to complete the adoption. Trusting God can be such a hard walk of faith! Off to drive the bus for camp SummerSign today. May God bless you all !

Trusting while in action

So today the drywall arrived, the hvac is almost completed and if we get a few days straight of sunshine then my yard will finally get covered back up and not be torn to pieces! I have cleaned house (always more to do on that end) and am making some crafty things to sell at our yard sale. natural bug salve to ease those itchy bug bites, Bath salts, and other neat craft stuff that will all be for sale.
Brice and I are so tired. We had such a time getting out of bed this morning. I have been up to almost midnight most nights, working on adoption paperwork, grants, cleaning house, or playing with Brianna. He is working every spare minute on the house, but we are taking breaks to just enjoy life so no worries, but our goal is to get as much accomplished over summer before I go back to work as we possibly can!


 We finally got most of our supplies in and this weekend will pickup the remaining things we need to really get things moving so that we can work all next week on drywall! I am going to call the HVAC inspector Tuesday morning and have him come out. Be prayerful that we pass otherwise it is quite a bit of additional work and expense that we will encounter fixing the problems I foresee.


Keep us in your prayers specifically for strength and energy, so tired as of late.


Please share our story with your friends and churches. We are doing everything possible on our end to prepare for this little one to be ours and as of now we are the only family pursuing him. Keep us and him in your prayers as we have our first home study done June 23rd!


Thank you!

Blessed not stressed ;)

Wow time flies and quickly becomes a blur. We have been working steadily on our house. Made these wonderful plans that included drywall delivered on Monday, adoption agency call on tues, then wed-thurs Brice and a friend were gonna hang drywall somewhere in there they were supposed to cover my septic system too. Well it has rained and rained the ground is so wet they wont deliver the drywall, so we had to postpone that until next week and of course cant cover septic with mud everywhere...sigh. My dental work from last week is having issues so I return to the dentist this Thursday and Hvac is coming tmw instead of next wed like I thought (Praise God) so we rushed to pull permits this morning before driving an hour to a Video Phone so that we could take the agencies phone call. It has been rather hectic and my emotions have been all over, but I praise God for the network of supportive and loving friends who have walked this road of adoption before me, have a heart for adoption and children and just guide me through this time! We called today and set up the time to officially begin our first step in the homestudy process. Knowing that this child we are pursuing and the other child we desire but have no idea yet their identity need a forever home and someone to love them just breaks my heart! We KNOW that God has a plan and are trusting that He will work out the details throughout this adoption process. He has shown Himself faithful over and over again and we know that He alone led us to this time and place! So off we go on our fundraising endeavors!


 Several friends offered some great ideas and I am currently working on a chili cook-off for this fall to include a silent auction...if you know of a location big enough(free)...that is my first hurdle!!! Email me at jesspruyn@gmail.com


Also working on a painting fundraiser...painting party class with friends!!! So keep your eyes open! In the meantime get your coffee and shirts on!


www.justlovecoffee.com/ourdeafadoption
www.adoptionbug.com/ourdeafadoption




Check these out and look for other ways you can help!!!


Thank you!
Jess and Brice

Today has been a fabulous and productive day. We poured concrete so that HVAC can begin soon. We also got both BLUE stickers for the electric and septic so we are READY to move forward. Our new goal is to have the Final Inspection the end of June, meaning all drywall hung, light fixtures and receptacles in place (hopefully pa int done as well). That would just leave the minor detail and flooring for July! Please pray that we meet these deadlines as well as have successfully Fundraisers as we don't want anything hindering us in our journey to bring home two orphans. We have started even MORE paperwork for the adoption process and are arranging our schedule so that we can begin the needed trainings required for our home study.


Keep us in your prayers. SO excited to see where God is going to take us!


Jessie Pruyn

Homestudy here we come....

Application and tons of paperwork mailedas of last Thursday. Praying we pass our rough in inspection today then we can start insulation and drywall. Would love to paint by July! This momma needs some coffee...driving two miles to make a phone call at 7 am is ridiculous! Alas I am going home and at least should have a productive morning filling out grants and preparing for inspection and to bring our sweet kiddos home! So excited to be on this journey with my best friend....love you Brice Pruyn!

Application pah

Took us about a week but finally got our application submitted and paid. We have officially took the first step of faith in bringing our son home. Now we wait a week while they review our info and then we shall see. Keep is in your prayers as we begin preparing all the way around. Check out our Facebook or other fundraisers below! Check out how you can help us raise money to bring our son home!

Busy weekends

Yesterday was a fabulous mothers day. We went to church, saw family and friends then came home to work on the house. Brother Aric had a great sermon on not worrying. Certainly hit home with Brice and I as he had been filling me in on everything related to the Dominican Republic in regards to their history, culture, economy.He also helped come up with ideas for us to rent out our house when we move to the DR! We prayed for our son (wherever he is) then went home and threw ourselves into working on the house yet again. We had hoped to schedule the electrical inspection this week but now it might be better to wait until a have the bugs worked out.

  So much left to do and time is moving quickly. We are constantly praying and preparing for this adoption. We are almost completely done with our application and have raised $50 toward the first portion of our costs.A far cry from the $2750.00 more we need.

Please pray and share our story as we seek God and prepare to give one of His orphans a forever family.

Thank you!

Where do I begin...

So most of you know that we've begun the addition on our house with the goal of adopting a deaf child. Ever since we began courting in 2009 Brice and I knew we wanted to adopt a deaf child one day. It wasn't until last summer working with Camp Summer Sign  (8 week deaf childrens camp I've been involved with for years) and in seeing so many adoptive families that God seemed to be lining things up for us to begin this journey. Brice and I prayed then began the research in contacting various adoption organizations and we had come to the conclusion that until our house was done we really couldn't move forward. We felt like this must be our first step of faith in the adoption process. Resigning ourselves to the fact that we must focus on our house, we haven't been focusing as much on the fundraising. This past Wednesday all that begin to change. God has worked in ways I couldn't begin to imagine and so now we need your help.

This past Wednesday we got a email from an agency that we'd contacted almost a year ago inquiring about a deaf child. They said they had gotten a call from the Dominican Republic and had a deaf toddler who needed a home and they remember that we were interested specifically in deafness and contacted us to see if we were interested. We briefly prayed and quickly replied yes we are definitely interested in a deaf child but you need to know that we don't meet several key requirements one of which is that our house is under construction and so we can't pass a home study. the other being that we haven't been married for 5 years it will only be four years as of May 22nd. After much prayer and deliberation we've decided that God has opened this door and we're going to walk through it as far as He takes us. We know we are called to adopt and rest assured I've checked and if God halts this then the money does transfer to another adoption, but we desperately need help, support, for you to host fundraisers for us! We will need roughly $50,000.00. This our homestudy, legal fees, our required 4 to 6 month stay in country and other misc costs. While that is our goal and a safe estimate. We need $10,000 to move fast and $2,500 to even begin!

We are holding to the fact that if this is the child God has for us then its going to happen! We ask for your prayers and support!  Please share our blog...pass it on!

 It has been a crazy past week with some wonderful God moments that have absolutely taken our breathe away and of which I will share very soon, but first a quick update on the house.

The weather has once again given us a fit with tornados and storms the beginning of last week, but thankfully we are still moving forward. Brice's Dad came over this weekend and with his expertise we are hopefully gonna be ready for our rough in inspection in about a week! Praise God! Then we can move forward with the insulation and drywall. We found out that septic is ready to go and just waiting on the dumpster to be removed then we are in business.

In the midst of it all our beautiful little girl turned 2! As of today she has begun those terrific twos and this past Saturday she had a few friends over at the park and played and enjoyed her time with her friends! It was some beautiful weather and we were both glad to have a short break from the house. We are so blessed to have friends that we can so easily communicate with and I am VERY grateful to my most amazing husband who helped me run errands, load and unload the car and juggle everything then took us out for Mexican afterwards!

 I am blessed beyond words with my wonderful family and cannot wait til we bring our son home and God grants us even more love to go around!

 Jessie

How you can help...

We are just beginning our journey but we know we are going to need at least $35,000.00 if not more because of the in country stay required. Having already borrowed everything we can to do our "adoption addition" to our house as well as desiring to be debt free..fund raising is a must and so it begins...we currently have several small fundraisers braclets $2 ea or 3/$5 and car decals $10 (these can also be stuck on books, furniture, walls whatever...)with the phrase "Support Deaf Orphans".

We have set up a savings account, but are working on some other options as well (will update soon).

So how can you help..pick up a jar...We currently have jars that we want to pass out to family and friends. We call them the loose change laundry jars....you know how men never clean out their pockets and there is tons of loose change. We are asking you to collect that for us!

We are also checking into making a cookbook and having a massive garage sale! So send us your favorite family recipe, go through your closets and donate us the junk you don't need!

Host a bake sale, craft sale, or have an awesome party and sell tickets letting people know the the money is going to help bring a child home! Get creative and please share our blog with everyone you know! We will be updating progress of our house, our life and the status of our adoption process!

  If you feel God leading you to help please don't hesitate. So many of our friends are talented in so many diverse areas so we are asking you please use your skills and help us reach our goal to bring our son home! This is more than we can accomplish alone but together I know God will unite us as the body of Christ to help the fatherless. Help us give a child the forever family he so desires and share the love of Christ!

Thank you for being willing to make a difference!

The Pruyns

Car decals $10

Buy a decal for your car, books, or wall....many different uses. Made from vinyl thanks to Megans monograms in Dyersburg, TN! Additional shopping charges may apply...In red, blue, white with "Support Deaf Orphans" also some white with just the ily hand.

Buy for that interpreter friend you never know what to get, or a family member who loves sign!

Busy spring

Framing done, roof on and all but a small part of siding done. Brice and I have worked almost non-stop with a toddler the past few weekends and have almost finished all the electric thanks to our handyman Dad whom has been willing to teach us. Shopping and errands with Grandma and grandpa hayre to gather supplies as well as help from neighbors in keeping the toddler busy has kept everyone involved. Hoping to move forward with septic and HVAC this next week as weather has once again delayed our plans slightly....learning to patiently rely on God!
Pray with us in these next few weeks as we try to pass our rough in inspection and begin insulation and drywall! 

January freezing

January started off freezing. We have called the contractor several times but seems the weather only allows for limited activity in regards to construction, so I am trying to wait patiently while I would love to just scream! The cold weather has allowed us to catch up on some work outside and see other things we needed to get done around the house but mostly we are just trying to wait out the cold so we can begin making progress on our lovely addition so we can move forward with our addition we have raised almost $300 toward the homestudy need another $1200 for the homestudy then begins the hard part of raising 25K for the actual adoption.

Please keep us in your prayers as we begin this massive addition and prepare to being home our son!

Don't freeze in all this cold weather!

This chilly December

Woke up to another cold drafty morning. About two weeks ago the construction crew came and tore down the back room to our house. They left the laundry room, praise God because they haven't showed back up since! This leaves the house a little drafty although or good friend and neighbor came and helped me try and insulate as much as possible...sigh. Pray that a have patience. I know that Gods timing is perfect but patience especially with the house is not my strong point especially since a were planning on working allot on it over break. Guess we will spring break!

Life has been a blurr as we keep up with our crazy schedule working, Christmas parties, friends and church events. Brianna has had a blast and enjoyed these past few weeks.

I have as well until we came hinge to no washer and dryer yesterday! My first thought was " yeah! They working on my house." Followed by..."oh crap I can't wash and dry the tons of clothes I planned to do Friday!" Such is my life!

One of my closest friends is in the waiting stages of her adoption (lega4jesus.WordPress.com) so a have been in touch all week keep her in your prayers!

Well it's time for us to put up chickens and head toward bed. So good night and pray for a speedy addition!