Christmas Shopping with a purpose and a give away!

Check out the bottom of this post for the Giveaway!
Linny over at a place called simplicity and Stacy at my cupoverfloweth had a great idea about giving with a purpose.  They have set up a page that is full of families selling items to raise money to adopt.  So this is our family's fundraising page. I plan to use her site for most of my Christmas shopping. So here is a little about our precious treasure that we plan to add to our family.  My husband and I have hearts for the orphans of this world.  After we had our first two children we knew that if our family would ever grow it would be through adoption.  There are so many children in the world that need a family and we want to make one less. We first started our journey trying to foster to adopt an older child that had less of a chance at being adopted.  This ended in tragedy which you can read about here.  All along we were interested only in older children because we felt that is where the need was so when we realized that it wasn't safe to take in an older child when we had little ones in the home we started researching.  We quickly realized that there is a great need for homes for African American and Biracial babies to be adopted.  We prayed and felt at peace about this decision.  We are soooo excited and we can't wait to meet our newest family member.  I definitely feel paper pregnant.  There is a very short wait time for these babies so the sooner we raise the ransom the sooner we can love on our treasure.

To the right you can see the items I currently have for sale.  I am selling T-shirts and jewelry.  The t-shirts all say love one another on the front and have Isaiah 1:17 written on the back.   I just got the shirts in and I will post better pictures of people wearing them next week.  If you would like better pictures of any of the items just let me know.  When you order a shirt just message me what size you want in the shipping notes.  I can also get these shirts in different colors so just message me if you have any special requests. The jewelry I am selling is beautiful, handmade one of a kind magazine bead necklaces made by the women of Uganda.  By buying these items, you can help them feed their families three meals a day. You help send their children to school. You help empower these women. Below I have some up close pictures of the necklaces.  I will be getting more necklaces in next week and some t-shirts so keep checking back for new items. 

{gigantic bead necklace}

{5 strand multi colored necklace}

{Multi-Colored Gigantic Necklace}

{You can win this necklace look below for details}

{Multi-colored long necklace}

Everything listed has free shipping buy 2 necklaces and get $5 off.  Just email me and I will invoice you.

Now for the giveaway I am going to be giving away the necklace right above to the winner.  If you mention my blog on your sight or start following me you get an entry.  If you purchase an item you get two entries.  There is no limit to the number of entries you get, Just comment me below so I know how many entries you qualify for.  When I have 15 different entries I will pick someone out of a hat and let everyone know.  Thanks so much for helping us change the world one child at a time!

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A Wedding!

Many of you don't know but Eli and I got married young, really young.

I was engaged at 18 and married at 19.  When people found out we were engaged they assumed a baby was on the way. Who gets married for love at 18? Well we did.  We were constantly asked "why?" much like we are with our adoption. We wanted to get married and the sooner the better.  My parents were not thrilled for the rush of it but were surprisingly very supportive.  We were definitely immature and had a lot of growing up to do.  We just knew that we could not bare to be apart and there was a reason for it. The best part is, we got to grow up together. 

 One of my best friends got married this past weekend.  It was beautiful and everything she dreamed of I am sure.  She found a beautiful man to share her life with.  Eli and I have been married for over 9 years and most of my friends from high school are just now getting married or aren't even engaged yet. Which is the norm.  Through out my marriage there were many many times I felt I missed out.  Missed out on the whole going away to college experience.  Living on my own, having my own money and space.  Having people my age that could identify with me. 

On Friday night I went out for the bachelorette party as any matron of honor should.  That scene was not me at all.  I had fun with my sister and catching up with high school friends but it was very clear that I haven't missed out at all.  At the end of the night my (married) sister, (engaged friend) and I all looked at each other and said aren't we so lucky.  One of my single friends their even said to us at the end of the night please pray for the right guy to come along for me.  There is nothing wrong with being single or going out to have fun with friends.  Many people prefer to be single and God has a different plan for them.  I was just amazed that we could be out there amongst all that fun and truly miss our significant others.  I realized how much God has blessed my life.  My marriage was very hard when I wasn't focused on God.  It is so easy to see how everyone else lives and follow along.  God created each of us for a different purpose on this earth so if we all try to do what everyone else is doing we will never be fulfilled.  It is only when we look to God with our decisions that we will be blessed.  God has changed Eli and I so much in the past 10 years since we got engaged.  We have been through some very hard times together and some very beautiful times together.  We were made for each other.  Even though there were many times when we didn't think so.   God has blessed me with a Man who wants to change the world with me, who reads my mind, who doesn't put up with my anxieties and always cheers me up.  He prefers me with no make-up and sweat pants.  I don't have to impress him to get his love.  I love him so much more today then when we stood face to face on our wedding day.  As long as we follow God's lead with our future I know we will continue to be blessed so much more then we deserve.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded of how beautiful our life really is.

How is your life beautiful?

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My Fundraising Items have arrived!

Our adoption fundraisers have arrived!  The sooner we sell these items the sooner we can bring our child(ren) home.  You can scroll through all the items on the right and if there is something you would like to purchase click on the rectangle above the buy now button and make sure the item you want is highlighted and then click buy now.  If you have any questions just message me.

Each necklace or bracelet was hand made by Ugandan Women.  They receive fair trade for each item {better then fair trade price}. The money that these women receive for making this jewelry directly impacts their lives by helping them feed their families and send their children to school. One by one, these women are gaining the skills, confidence and resources necessary to lift their families out of poverty. This change begins with the purchase of a single beaded necklace by a caring and concerned person like you.  Each item is one of a kind, handmade.  Some of the items I only have one or very few of.  I will try to keep only available items posted but there may be a rare case that I have several people wanting to purchase the same item.  In those cases I will have to order more of the item and then ship it to you.  I will let you know right away if that is the case.  Otherwise I will ship all items within 48 hours.  Shipping is free.  Please spread the news about my items.  All of the profit made from these items goes directly to support the Ugandan women and to bring our baby home.  What a great cause you would be supporting and Christmas is right around the corner.  Thanks for helping us bring our child(ren) home to their forever family.

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What's Next

Ayla decided that she wanted to play with play-do [naked]

I convinced her to put some clothes on [it's chilly]

and didn't know where the play-do would windup

not what this post is about but we have been doing some serious play-do playing this morning

and she cracks me up

We have made a decision and we are going to do a domestic adoption.  We are still in the process of foster adoption and waiting for a match but that could be years.  I have more to say about the kids that are slipping through the cracks of the foster care system and the sadness it brings me that I can't do anything about it but I will save that for another post.  I have learned that there is a great need to adopt African American and biracial babies. We had not planned on doing the whole newborn baby thing again since we had been planning on adopting an older child.  When Ayla was one I sold and gave away nearly every baby item we had. Now for some reason we are over the moon excited to bring a baby home and maybe that is why God had us go through the tragedy we did with an older child so that we would open our eyes to the babies that need homes.  Most of the parents that adopt babies in America are Caucasian couples that want Caucasian babies that look like them. To Eli and I the color of skin has absolutely nothing to do with love.   We are called to care for orphans (not just orphans that look like us).  Sometimes there are AA babies born that don't have adoptive parents lined up yet and they need a home fast.  I just read a blog where a family adopted two AA babies and they were the only option that the birth mother had to pick for her son. You can read more about her view on domestic adoption here.  Anyhow this babies are put up for adoption so that they are not aborted or put into the foster care system.   Because [thankfully] they are not yet part of the foster care system they are usually placed through an adoption agency which means it is very expensive.  We unfortunately do not have 20k laying around.  A couple weeks ago I filled out an application with an adoption agency to get the process started.  We got a call only a couple days later with a possible match that we could pursue.  The birth mom was due in only two weeks!  I have been on this adoption journey for 9 months submitting my home study to any child that was in our age group getting nowhere and she is sitting here on the phone telling me that I could be a mother to this baby in two weeks! 

Unfortunately this baby came with a 20k ransom.  I hadn't even started fundraising yet.  20k needed in two weeks.  We were not prepared and we had to pass on this situation.  I immediately cried when I got off the phone.  I prayed for that baby to be adopted into a loving Christian home. To say no to a baby that needs a loving home because of money did not feel right.  So I am going to do every and anything to save the funds so that we can pay the ransom needed to bring our baby home.  I realized about 90% of people that adopt do fundraisers to raise the money for part of the adoption cost and God blesses there fundraising efforts so that they can bring their child home.  So keep your eye out on my blog I have lots of jewelry from Uganda on the way.  This jewelry helps support families in Uganda and will help bring our baby home to their forever family.  I am also in the process of creating a t-shirt. So please spread the word and be a part of giving a child a family.  As soon as we raise the funds our baby could be home in just a couple months

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Water

A friend of mine has a birthday coming up and instead of gifts she is wanting people to donate money to fund a well to provide enough water for a community. 45,000 people die a week from not having clean drinking water. There is something we can do about it. Just as I was reading the information on this donation my son [who is currently not feeling well] asked me for some cold water. I easily gave him a bottle out of our fridge. Think how many moms have to give there children dirty germ infested water when I can easily give my child clean water or waste water for that matter. It isn't that much money for us to give to make a huge difference in another community. Please click here to donate and be part of making the world a better place.

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International? Domestic? Foster to adopt?

I have been researching, researching, researching.  Since we changed our foster to adopt age range from 0-5 it made our adoption journey much longer then anticipated.  We are so so protective of Jackson and Ayla now and we really want to make sure that our decision to adopt doesn't have a negative affect on them.  If you are curious about what I mean go here to see how our foster to adopt placement ended.   Anyhow now we are sticking to the "rules" we want to adopt in birth order if possible.  So now I have been thinking about an African adoption researching Ethiopia and Uganda.  This would mean all new paperwork, home study etc. uggggggg!  I have met through the blog world this amazing woman who has adopted 8 kids.  6 from foster care, one from Ethiopia and one domestic infant adoption.  Yeah, she is pretty much an adoption expert and she has quickly and patiently answered my thousands of questions.  She just started working for Mother Goose adoptions.  Click here if you would like to read her blog.  I think going through her would be great choice if you would like to adopt an infant.  Since we got our home study done in April we only have until April to use our home study before it expires if we want to adopt domestically. So either way we need to make a decision pretty quickly.  All the costs are covered if we adopt through foster care adoption but since that option may not work for our family anymore I need to come up with a way to raise money.  The estimated cost for an adoption is $20,000 - $30,000.  I know God calls us to care for orphans.  The orphan statistics are to sad to ignore.  Once we see and know we are responsible for what we do next. We have a home and hearts waiting to love and welcome our new child(ren).  I know God loves adoption and he will provide the Ransom we need to pay to get our child(ren).  So I would love any advice that you who have adopted can give.  Were to adopt? Fundraising ideas?  Stay posted and keep praying for us we have to make a decision soon.

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