Monday, August 29, 2011
Friends and happiness....
It is amazing the friends you meet along this adoption journey. One of those friends is having an amazing day right now! You see after a 5 year wait, today they are finally seeing their precious little girls face for the first time and as our little princess said when she saw her....awww she is so pretty! That she is! We will all be overjoyed to meet her and to bring her into our adoption circle...a little family all our own! Congrats to the Thompson Ray Family!!! If you would like to see this cutie I am talking about head over to http://laydfrog.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-girl-introducing-chynna.html
Thursday, August 25, 2011
One Less.....
Adoption is something so near and dear to my heart that I can truly say that I love to share it with anyone willing to listen! Do you realize how many orphans there are in this world? Over 147 million....that's right I did say million. Just thinking of all of those kids going to sleep at night without the love of a family breaks my heart. So many people say that they want to do something but they never do. Maybe it is because they do not know what to do, where to begin or how to help. Let me offer some tips...
1. Maybe you are the family that wants to make one less orphan in the world but you do not know where to begin....start
by doing your research. Look into what you are willing and able to handle. Are you interested in foster care, adoption,
international or domestic. So many options...
2. Maybe you are the family who says I want to but I cannot afford it, I can tell you that God never said it will be easy and
there will be sacrifices along the way but it will be oh so worth it!
3. Maybe you are the family who is able to help out with another family's adoption. It can be very costly to proceed with
an adoption. Many people, myself included, work overtime, make items to sell, hold fundraiser etc. It is NOT because
we cannot afford the child, it is that there is a lot of money due in a quick time frame when adopting. If you are able to
help, do what you can to help that family's legacy in bringing the child home. You will be rewarded too!
4. Do you have an orphan ministry in your church? If not, why not? Are you willing to help start one? What a blessing
that can be! If you need information on getting one started, please email me at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com and I will get you
some info!
You see, we can make a difference in this world! We are working on bringing home a baby sister and we have already been oh so blessed by our first princess! She has been a blessing to others too!
Just look and see what love can do!!! God Bless you all!
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| referral pic march 2008 |
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| gotcha day july 2008 |
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| that evening...do you see a smile??? |
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| this week! our happy girl!!! |
Monday, August 22, 2011
First day of Pre-K
Well today our princess started Pre-K....wow time flies! It seems like only yesterday we were bringing her home and now she starts school! She arrived this morning went right in, put her back pack down and started to play with other kids before I left! Not 1 tear from any of us! When I picker her up, her teacher was quick to tell us how smart she is and what a good helper! Made us proud!!!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Did you get your ticket???
Do not miss out on your opportunity to win a I Pad 2 16gb from our giveaway! There are only 401 tickets remaining! We will draw the winner on Saturday September 17th! You will be notified on that day! All funds raised will be matched so your $10 ticket really will become $20 towards our adoption fund!
Tickets are 1 for $10 or 3 for $25! Do not be left out....thanks so much!!!
You can purchase your tickets by using the chip in link to the right of the screen...
Tickets are 1 for $10 or 3 for $25! Do not be left out....thanks so much!!!
You can purchase your tickets by using the chip in link to the right of the screen...
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Summer Days....
Well only 6 more days till we start pre-k at our house and today we decided to just hang out together. We picked up some school supplies and ran a few errands and just enjoyed being together. Ended up by a fountain and she asked me for money to throw in, after she tossed her penny, I asked what she wished for.....her answer??? Her baby sister and to grow bigger! We are working on it baby girl, you will have a sister before you know it. Then she may change her mind! LOL!
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| making the wish.... |
Our little gymnast!!!
I realized that over the busy couple of weeks that we have had, I did not share any of our gymnastics camp with you. Our little princess was at camp from 9am-4:30pm every day for a week and she loved every minute! I swear she seems to get better every time I watch her, could be all that flipping she does around the house! On the last day she received the award for camper of the day, she was so very excited! I hope you enjoy the pics!
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| on her way to picture day in her competition leo |
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| me and my princess |
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| with her cousin Ashlee |
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| camper of the day |
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| have you ever seen a cuter bug??? |
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Science fun...
Today it was wet and rainy so we headed to the science museum! What a great time we had. I love having a pass, it is the perfect place to go for a few hours and relax while watching a movie and having fun!
18 years....
On Sunday we celebrated our 18th anniversary! Can I tell you that it is possible to fall in love more and more? Who knew? When you are young you think that nothing can get better but let me tell you over time your love grows and grows! Seeing his face when he gets home from work, watching him dance with our princess, listening to me when I know he would rather be doing a hundred other things, LOL! These are all things that make me love him more!
We spent the day at Captain Hiram's and then the beach. We had a great time!!!
Cannot wait to see what the next 18 years will hold with our beautiful family!
We spent the day at Captain Hiram's and then the beach. We had a great time!!!
Cannot wait to see what the next 18 years will hold with our beautiful family!
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| our beautiful family! |
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| 18 years and counting! |
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Perspective and a challenge!
Today I was catching up on some of the adoptive blogs that I follow, I came across this post and it really spoke to me. Prior to going to China in 2008 I can honestly say that I had never seen that type of extreme poverty. Like the US, the wealthy seem to have it all but there is no middle class, the poor are oh so poor. I remember being there and at night crying over some of the images I had seen. I thought of what our daughters life was going to be and what it could have been. It really is eye opening to witness these things with your own eyes. Please take the time to read the excerpt below and really think about it. What can you do in your community, city, state, country, world???? It all starts with a simple action. We can make a difference if we just take the leap of faith and do something....anything! What are you willing to do? Will it make you step out of your comfort zone? Maybe that is what we all need, a new perspective. God bless you all!
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink ..." --Matthew 25:35-36
Jesus' words are a powerful and inspiring reminder as I sit in my office browsing on news websites the stories and images of the staggering tragedy unfolding in the Horn of Africa.
Nearly 10 million people are "critically short of food," according to the United Nations, due to what UN officials say is the region's worst drought since I was born 60 years ago. Those 10 million people live in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti and war-ravaged Somalia.
For some, the stories and images will be reminders of the Ethiopian famine. Twenty-five years ago, the images of bloated, dying children, images unlike any others seen before by millions of Americans, prompted a massive outpouring of donations and offers to help. That outpouring culminated in the "Live Aid," concerts in Philadelphia and London, the latter of which brought a group I had never heard of before to the world's attention -- U2.
For others, the name "Somalia" brings back the events of 1991-1994 when hundreds of thousands of Somalis were starving, prompting a U.S.-led peacekeeping force to intervene. That effort led to a military operation against Somali warlords and, regrettably, the deaths of 42 American soldiers.
I am reminded of two things.
First, the faces, the voices and the stories of people I've met in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. Kenya was the first nation I visited after joining World Vision in 1998, and where I learned one of the most important lessons of my life: Poverty is not an image, or a statistic; poverty has a face, a name and a story.
Second, I am reminded of the powerful and provocative quote from Josef Stalin: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
I fear that for many Americans -- Christians and people of other faiths or no faith -- will devote little time or attention, let alone resources, to the people suffering in the Horn of Africa. Rather they are preoccupied with "First World problems":
~~ How fluctuations in the stock market are affecting my 401(k) investments;
~~ Where to go on my next vacation;
~~ Whether to buy "name brand" or "store brand" items in the supermarket;
~~ Which diet and workout regimen will enable me to lose 10 pounds in a month; or
~~ The struggle over my next computer -- a notebook, a laptop, or the new iPad2?
Or worse, they are obsessed with finding out where Casey Anthony might be living, now that she's been released from jail after being acquitted of charges that she murdered her daughter, Caylee. Thousands of Americans followed Ms. Anthony's trial closely, and expressed outrage when she was found not guilty. They wanted justice for Caylee's death. Where's their outrage or sense of justice for the millions of children at-risk of dying in the Horn of Africa? Their lack of attention proves the late Soviet premier's admonition.
Many "First World" Americans have never met a person with "Third World problems":
~~ Whose income is $2 a day and who has never heard of a 401 (K);
~~ Whose only travel plans are traipsing by foot from Somalia into Kenya to a refugee camp;
~~ Whose primary source of drinking water is infested with animal feces, and has never been inside a supermarket;
~~ Who lost 10 pounds in the last week because of too little or even no food, and who has no use for a health club membership; or
~~ Who has no access to electricity, and does not need -- and maybe has not ever seen -- a computer.
I have the privilege of knowing people facing both First World and Third World problems. It is a privilege because, I believe, Jesus would consider it a privilege. He met with, ate meals alongside and learned from those His society considered its lowest and its outcasts -- prostitutes, tax-collectors, the poor and victims of injustice.
He would have been honored to meet and serve people like Hawo, a woman believed to be about 75-years-old who lives in Kalabeyr, a remote town in northern Somalia. Thanks to my World Vision colleagues working in the region, I know more about Hawo, than I ever will know -- or even want to know -- about Casey Anthony.
After the drought killed the more than 500 goats and sheep Hawo and her eight children lived on, they were forced to abandon their pastoral way of life and move to Kalabeyr. The nine of them live in a makeshift tukul, a small room within the compound of one of the town residents.
It is Hawo whom Mark Bowden, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, might have been thinking of when he said recently: "Resources are woefully inadequate. We have an appeal that is at the moment only 40 per cent met. ... (W)e find ourselves as the humanitarian community in a position that we want and are able to do more, but just don't have the resources with which to do it."
Jesus' words about hunger and thirst, as quoted in Matthew, led me a few years ago to create an NIT version (New Irreverent Translation), one that Americans obsessed with "First World problems" might relate to:
"For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water."
We did not create the desperate conditions of drought and famine threatening the lives of 10 million people in the Horn of Africa. But, as Christians, it is our responsibility to do something about it. It is our moral duty to help our neighbors in need -- here in the U.S. and elsewhere, and God commands us to help those we have the means to help. We cannot look at their situation -- on television, in newspapers or magazines, or on the Internet -- shrug our shoulders, and say, "Not my problem."
Written by Richard Stearns.
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink ..." --Matthew 25:35-36
Jesus' words are a powerful and inspiring reminder as I sit in my office browsing on news websites the stories and images of the staggering tragedy unfolding in the Horn of Africa.
Nearly 10 million people are "critically short of food," according to the United Nations, due to what UN officials say is the region's worst drought since I was born 60 years ago. Those 10 million people live in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti and war-ravaged Somalia.
For some, the stories and images will be reminders of the Ethiopian famine. Twenty-five years ago, the images of bloated, dying children, images unlike any others seen before by millions of Americans, prompted a massive outpouring of donations and offers to help. That outpouring culminated in the "Live Aid," concerts in Philadelphia and London, the latter of which brought a group I had never heard of before to the world's attention -- U2.
For others, the name "Somalia" brings back the events of 1991-1994 when hundreds of thousands of Somalis were starving, prompting a U.S.-led peacekeeping force to intervene. That effort led to a military operation against Somali warlords and, regrettably, the deaths of 42 American soldiers.
I am reminded of two things.
First, the faces, the voices and the stories of people I've met in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. Kenya was the first nation I visited after joining World Vision in 1998, and where I learned one of the most important lessons of my life: Poverty is not an image, or a statistic; poverty has a face, a name and a story.
Second, I am reminded of the powerful and provocative quote from Josef Stalin: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
I fear that for many Americans -- Christians and people of other faiths or no faith -- will devote little time or attention, let alone resources, to the people suffering in the Horn of Africa. Rather they are preoccupied with "First World problems":
~~ How fluctuations in the stock market are affecting my 401(k) investments;
~~ Where to go on my next vacation;
~~ Whether to buy "name brand" or "store brand" items in the supermarket;
~~ Which diet and workout regimen will enable me to lose 10 pounds in a month; or
~~ The struggle over my next computer -- a notebook, a laptop, or the new iPad2?
Or worse, they are obsessed with finding out where Casey Anthony might be living, now that she's been released from jail after being acquitted of charges that she murdered her daughter, Caylee. Thousands of Americans followed Ms. Anthony's trial closely, and expressed outrage when she was found not guilty. They wanted justice for Caylee's death. Where's their outrage or sense of justice for the millions of children at-risk of dying in the Horn of Africa? Their lack of attention proves the late Soviet premier's admonition.
Many "First World" Americans have never met a person with "Third World problems":
~~ Whose income is $2 a day and who has never heard of a 401 (K);
~~ Whose only travel plans are traipsing by foot from Somalia into Kenya to a refugee camp;
~~ Whose primary source of drinking water is infested with animal feces, and has never been inside a supermarket;
~~ Who lost 10 pounds in the last week because of too little or even no food, and who has no use for a health club membership; or
~~ Who has no access to electricity, and does not need -- and maybe has not ever seen -- a computer.
I have the privilege of knowing people facing both First World and Third World problems. It is a privilege because, I believe, Jesus would consider it a privilege. He met with, ate meals alongside and learned from those His society considered its lowest and its outcasts -- prostitutes, tax-collectors, the poor and victims of injustice.
He would have been honored to meet and serve people like Hawo, a woman believed to be about 75-years-old who lives in Kalabeyr, a remote town in northern Somalia. Thanks to my World Vision colleagues working in the region, I know more about Hawo, than I ever will know -- or even want to know -- about Casey Anthony.
After the drought killed the more than 500 goats and sheep Hawo and her eight children lived on, they were forced to abandon their pastoral way of life and move to Kalabeyr. The nine of them live in a makeshift tukul, a small room within the compound of one of the town residents.
It is Hawo whom Mark Bowden, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, might have been thinking of when he said recently: "Resources are woefully inadequate. We have an appeal that is at the moment only 40 per cent met. ... (W)e find ourselves as the humanitarian community in a position that we want and are able to do more, but just don't have the resources with which to do it."
Jesus' words about hunger and thirst, as quoted in Matthew, led me a few years ago to create an NIT version (New Irreverent Translation), one that Americans obsessed with "First World problems" might relate to:
"For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water."
We did not create the desperate conditions of drought and famine threatening the lives of 10 million people in the Horn of Africa. But, as Christians, it is our responsibility to do something about it. It is our moral duty to help our neighbors in need -- here in the U.S. and elsewhere, and God commands us to help those we have the means to help. We cannot look at their situation -- on television, in newspapers or magazines, or on the Internet -- shrug our shoulders, and say, "Not my problem."
Written by Richard Stearns.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Would you like an I Pad 2 16GB???
Hi friends and family! As we look at the daunting task of getting the rest of the matching funds taken care of which is approximately $4600 more dollars, we decided to hold an I Pad 2 giveaway! Who would not like to have one of these? I know I would! LOL!
If you are the chosen winner, you will have your choice of a white or black 16gb I pad 2 with 2 lines of engraving. Ipad will be delivered directly to your home! If you already own the I Pad, you have the option of just taking the $500 cash, your choice! So enough about that! How can you win you may be wondering???
For $10 you will receive 1 entry and for $25 you can receive 3 entries!!!
You can click on the Ipad giveaway chip in to the right and make your donation. You can also purchase tickets in person or by mailing a check. Please email me for our mailing address at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com .The drawing will be held on Saturday September 17! After you get your ticket, if you are willing to share on your facebook page or email please send me a link to that at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com for an additional entry.
Also if you are willing to take a set of 25 tickets to try and sell at your workplace, church, family friends etc, please send me an email at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com and I will get the tickets to you!
Thank you for joining with us on this amazing journey! I know that we can blow that matching money up!!! Do you believe with me???
For $10 you will receive 1 entry and for $25 you can receive 3 entries!!!
You can click on the Ipad giveaway chip in to the right and make your donation. You can also purchase tickets in person or by mailing a check. Please email me for our mailing address at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com .The drawing will be held on Saturday September 17! After you get your ticket, if you are willing to share on your facebook page or email please send me a link to that at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com for an additional entry.
Also if you are willing to take a set of 25 tickets to try and sell at your workplace, church, family friends etc, please send me an email at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com and I will get the tickets to you!
Thank you for joining with us on this amazing journey! I know that we can blow that matching money up!!! Do you believe with me???
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