Wrangler Dani

(We snail-mailed this letter over the last couple of weeks, but I wanted to post it here too. If you didn’t see it, or want to respond here, we still have plenty of beef to hand out! 🙂 Thank you for being such a loving and wonderful community.)

Dear Sherpa,

We are so excited to share our joy with you as we pursue our “adoption expedition”. This has been a multi-year trek, but we have been so overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God and the incredible way that our life story has unfolded.

Back in 2011 we felt definitively that we should adopt a child, and in  2013 we moved to Bend, Oregon, with that goal in mind (adoption requires rigorous preparedness for parenthood in the eyes of the state). After a year in Bend, we bought an older ranch house on five acres with plenty of room to grow. It’s a fixer-upper but with a lot of late nights and hard work we are slowly creating a beautiful, welcoming home, perfect for this new adventure.

We have named our home TreeWater Ranch, after this verse, which has been a guiding light to us as we follow God in this adoption expedition:

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought  and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

As of October, TreeWater Ranch is Home Study approved! We are applying for domestic infant adoption, and we could be parents within a few months! We feel very strongly that this is our mission field and that God has called us specifically to open our home to a child (or children) in need of a loving family. We believe that all life is precious and God-given, and we have the privilege of showing the world the unconditional love of Jesus through loving the least of these, as we have been adopted and loved by God.

We want to welcome you into our expedition as active participants with us (our “sherpas”, to keep with the metaphor). We can’t and don’t want to do this alone, and we are hoping that you will stand with us as we stand for a child in need of a home and family.

We need prayers, encouragement, wisdom and financial support as we enter this mission field, so please comment with whatever you want to share – Scriptures, prayers, notes of encouragement or donations – so that we can be reminded of God’s faithfulness and goodness through the love of our community.  We couldn’t even pack for this trek without you, let alone begin the climb, and we are absolutely honored to have your support, prayers, advice and encouragement.

If you’re interested in trying a bite of TreeWater Ranch as you support our adoption expedition, we have a tasty thank you gift to offer as well. We bought four steers this spring from a local rancher, and they’ve been eating the pasture-grass that Adam has worked so hard to irrigate and grow all summer. Last month, we butchered our steers, and if you want to try our delicious beef, please check out the details below.

Of course, if you’re ever in the Northwest, our door is always open and we’d love to grill you a homegrown steak and tell you the incredible story of God’s faithfulness to us!

Love, Adam and Dani Nichols – Adoption Expedition-ers

Your participation in this fundraiser will help us bring our son or daughter home! Domestic adoption costs between $25,000 – $40,000, and if you financially support us, we hope to thank you in a fun and delicious way!  We plan to ship frozen beef, with ice packs in insulated packing, so it will arrive ready for your freezer or fridge (or straight to the grill or smoker, who are we kidding). Our beef is 100% Black Angus, all-natural, completely grass-fed with no hormones or antibiotics, and no chemicals on the grass – just old-fashioned Central Oregon sunshine and water!

We are going to try to send beef to everyone we can as a thank  you gift for your financial support. Please don’t feel like you have to give these amounts, but here are some suggested donations:

• The Slow-Cooker – $150 donation – 5 lbs of ground beef and stew meat
• The Smoker – $250 donation – 10 lbs of roasts, ribs and ground beef
• The Steakhouse – $400 donation – 20 lbs of premium steaks, roasts and ground beef

If you’d like different quantities or special cuts, please let us know! You can use the PayPal donate button on the right-hand side of the blog to donate, and send a comment with your mailing address and any preferences. We can’t wait to share our beef with you!