Worth Fighting For

I am on a roll this week! I don't remember the last time I've blogged every day! And yet, there is so much on my mind, so much on my heart...it's just one thing after another, and if nothing else, writing about it helps me think it all through, gain perspective, and get it off my chest!

Two days ago, I posted here about the peace we have over the decision we made not to pursue an adoption referral we received on Monday. I can't explain it, but it truly is a deep seated peace. That doesn't mean the decision was easy and it doesn't mean little things don't make me stop and think, "are we SURE we made the right decision?"

In fact, yesterday we found out we are farther away from getting the file on the specific little girl we have been praying over than we first thought. We went from believing it was likely, to being told it's a needle in a haystack situation once again...not what we wanted to hear, but still not a closed door. Add to that, today I realized that if we don't travel to get our daughter by mid-September of this year, we will need to update our home study for an additional $500 fee. Unless we are matched next month, the chances of traveling by then are slim.

Now let me be clear--we believe these are minor obstacles. We serve a BIG God. When it is time for our daughter to come home, not only will He provide the funds (even additional ones) needed to do so, but He will do so at the perfect time. I keep telling the "mama in me" that she will not arrive a day early OR a day late, but exactly when she is supposed to. Sometimes I repeat it as if it were my mantra. LOL.

It's these little things that Satan could easily use to make us doubt. To take us beyond the occasional question of "did we do the right thing?" and drive us right into a spiral of unbelief, despair, and discouragement when things don't seem to add up exactly like we'd like them to.

Back in late December, after Sean had shared with me his feeling of being drawn to this little girl, but while we still had no idea how we would get her basic info, I was feeling anxious. I was stressing out over little things, details we had no control over. He was wanting me to check here and there and (seemingly) everywhere, to do what we could on our end to get more info on her. In my discouragement, I hesitated at one point, and he could clearly tell I didn't feel calling any other places would help. He looked at me and said, "Isn't she worth fighting for?"

It took me by surprise, but yet, it brought me back to a place of belief. I had let some of those little things drag me down. I was beginning to feel discouraged and disheartened. I was beginning to doubt all of those other areas where God had clearly delivered things we could've only hoped for. Instead of focusing on how far we'd come, I was looking at how far we still had to climb.

I refocused, prayed and laid it all at the feet of Jesus, once again relinquishing control. Wouldn't you know, the day the first list came out, we not only learned her birth date, we learned her name. Once again, God delivered and He delivered HUGE! I was speechless. I was in awe.

It's times like these, when little things seem to be slowing us down. When we seem to take one step forward and two steps back, that I have to remind myself...those things worth having are worth fighting for. SHE'S worth fighting for. And until that door is closed, we will continue to fight for her. After all, we're on God's timeline, not ours. She'll be here before we know it...and right on time.  :)

Let It Be Said...

Let me first say, this is not a political blog. It's not even an opinion blog. However, with all the recent ranting, raving, arguing, and bashing going on, I just can't hold my tongue any longer. I realize, by choosing to share my opinion, I will lose some "friends". However, I feel compelled to no longer remain silent and I use the term "friends" in quotation marks simply because, if you can walk away simply due to someone else's opinion, well then, we weren't actual friends to begin with. I'm okay with that. Back to the topic...

I am a Christian. I have Christian friends. I also have Atheist friends. And Gay friends and Lesbian friends and Straight friends and friends of many, many ethnic backgrounds and belief systems; healthy friends, disabled friends, deaf friends, hearing friends, vegan friends, vegetarian friends, paleo friends, McDonalds friends :) Republican friends, Democrat friends, Libertarian friends, kind friends, rude friends, friends that make me proud and friends that seem to thrive on embarrassing me. Friends that I see eye-to-eye with on nearly everything and friends with whom I have only one place of common ground. And I love them. All of my friends. ALL OF MY FRIENDS.

But let me guess, when I described all of my different friends, you had opinions that immediately formed, correct? Some of you even formed an opinion of me. Some of you CHANGED your opinion of me. Why? Because you saw a label. You saw a label and all of your deep-seated beliefs and opinions came to the forefront of your mind. I know, because I do it too. We all do. We all label. We all judge. We do. It's (sadly) just second nature. What's even sadder than that? That we let those labels, those opinions and judgments DETERMINE HOW WE TREAT PEOPLE before we ever get to know them.

For those of you who consider yourselves Christians, I'm gonna call you out here because we SAY we hold ourselves to a different standard. Specifically, what does the Bible say on how we are to treat others?

Matt 7:12    Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

Matt 7:2      For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

Matt 7:3     And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?

And one of my personal favorites:

1 Cor 13: 1-7
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing.
If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
or rude. It does not demand it's own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

You see friends, I don't care what your beliefs are. I don't care if we agree or not. You can be the most rotten person on the planet...as long as you own up to it, we can be friends. It's called integrity. BE WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE. For my fellow Christians, Christ didn't call us to hate, to name-call, to berate, to turn a cold shoulder, to gossip, to hurt, to offend. He called us simply to LOVE. LOVE your neighbor. LOVE your enemy. And LOVE God with your whole heart. HE and HE ALONE will take care of everything else.

We are to be His ambassadors for the time He has given us on this planet. We are to REPRESENT WHO CHRIST IS. Why do so many people automatically dismiss us or hate us? Because we've screwed up directive #1, and badly! And please understand, I am as guilty of this as the rest of you--so please don't think I view myself as high and mighty here.  The truth is, WE WILL REACH NO ONE WITH THE GOSPEL OF GRACE IF WE DON'T HAVE LOVE. I don't care what your platform is, I don't care what your passionate about. If you don't do it in love--you won't get anything accomplished! And, yes I'm gonna say it, you won't do it through denying other people their basic, human rights. You won't.

You wanna discuss concerns you have with someone about their life? GET TO KNOW THEM. You want to share the love of Christ and His story of redemption? BUILD A RELATIONSHIP. We have to stop preaching and start living. We have to love people--in their hurt, in their pain, in their shame, in their guilt, in their triumph, in their goodness, in their success, in their failure, IN THEIR LIFE.

What is it about us that leads us to believe we can tell others what they can and cannot do?! *NEWSFLASH* We ALL need grace. We ALL need mercy. We ALL need love. We are ALL different versions of the same thing--sinners. No one better. No one worse.

I can only hope that in my life, the following is true:

Let it be said...
...that I was gracious.
...that I was merciful.
...that I gave forgiveness.
...that I left the planet in better condition than I found it.
...that I was fully engaged.
...that I had integrity.
...that I gave of myself to help others.
...that I was the best wife, mother, daughter, sister & friend that I could be.
...that I raised my children to believe they can be and do whatever they set their minds to.
...that I was a fully devoted follower of Christ; not of religion, or politics, but Christ.
Let it be said...that I loved.

You see friends, we don't need to preach Christ, we need to show Christ. We don't need to judge, we need to forgive. We don't need to persecute, offend, ridicule and hate. We need to love. LOVE. And leave the rest to a mighty God who, believe it or not, can handle it without us. :)  It really is that simple.

Spread the love, friends. Spread the love.

Peace

Last night we were forced to make one of the hardest decisions of our lives. As many of you know, we've praying and waiting for this little girl we came across by accident. We've been following her file and praying to hear soon that she is "paperwork ready" and that her file has graciously been assigned to our agency. The March "list" came out last night, and we received a referral. However, it was not the file we'd been hoping for, but one for a different little girl.

She met all of the criteria we'd asked for when applying to adopt. She was only 7 months older than the little girl we'd been praying over. She was located within an hour of the city where we will spend our entire 2nd week of our trip, which means our travel would've been considerably easier. And SHE. WAS. ADORABLE. A little girl, half a world away, needing a home, needing parents, needing someone to simply say "yes".

I cried. I believe I used the phrase "I think I'm gonna throw up" at least 4 times. I cried more. My husband even got teary-eyed (that doesn't happen people). It was heart-wrenching. It was raw. It was...horrible. We truly had no idea what to do. We were at a complete loss. We thought we were headed one direction and, in a moment, we were questioning everything we'd believed up until that point. It was by far the hardest decision of our lives. How do you contemplate two beautiful little girls, identical in need, and choose only ONE?

Once again, I found myself crying out to God, Jehovah-Shalom, to give me peace...to give US peace. We looked over every inch of her file, and her photos...oh God, the photos...did I mention she was adorable?? We talked about our gut feelings. I told my husband I was completely on the fence. On the one hand, I felt so strongly God had brought us through so much, answered so many specific prayers for the little girl who had already stolen our hearts. Did deciding on a little girl who was available now mean we didn't trust God to bring us any further, to deliver on what we had specifically prayed for? Was that taking the easy way out? Because, in so many ways, saying "yes" to this new little girl would be easier. On the other hand, was this God closing that door? Was this His "something better" that we'd told our children He would give us if He didn't give us the little one we'd been praying over? I was, as I said before, at a complete loss. Sitting smack dab on the fence with no clue what to do.

I asked what his thoughts were. He was very quiet. He admitted he didn't want to tell me. He said he was scared. He reminded me, for probably the 1 millionth time (true story), how he isn't drawn to other people's children. He's really not a kid-person. Ironic, I know, as we are going on FIVE kids. He loves our kids. He loves being a dad. In fact, one of his biggest fears about adopting was how he knew he felt about children who were not his own. He was afraid of bringing home a child that he might not see as his own. Although I am not built that way, I TOTALLY get that. I think that's the case for many people. We all love our own kids, but someone else's? Eh, take 'em or leave 'em, it's just not the same as the way you look at your own. So I get it. And I love the heart of my husband, who has such discernment that he does not want to deny a child the genuine love of a father.

Then he told me, from the moment he laid eyes on that first little girl, he knew he could love her as his own. He didn't understand it, how that could be (my husband, who is very logical, where everything-needs-to-make-sense and I-need-to-see-a-plan-before-deciding). For him to love a little girl in a picture as if she were his own was HUGE. It was simply from God, an answer to prayer, I believe. He also said it was not the same feeling when he looked at this new little girl. "Are we horrible for thinking about saying no?" he asked, as he voiced aloud our mutual concern. "Or is that just worrying more about what other people will think?"

In that moment, a complete peace washed over me. My doubts vanished. I was no longer on the fence. You see, what I haven't told (most of) you until now is that early on, when I was praying over this first little girl, I was scared. I have a tendency to jump in with both feet and ask questions later (I know, big surprise there). But with this, my heart being completely drawn to a simple image of this child, I knew I needed discernment. I needed something to show me that it wasn't just my wishful thinking falling in love with a child I'd found, but the leading of the Holy Spirit. For days I had searched my heart, trying to know what to pray, how to ask God to show me if I should be feeling the way I did. And in one moment, way back in December, I knew what to pray. I told God that if I was supposed to feel this way, if we were supposed to pursue this little girl, it needed to come from my husband. You see, faith is my spiritual gift. It comes naturally. It always has. I worry very little, almost never in fact. But my husband is very practical, very logical...he needs everything to make sense. So I left it at the feet of God and resolved not to say another word about this little girl. On the way home from celebrating Christmas at my parents house a few weeks later, as we were talking in the car, he said,

 "If I tell you something, do you promise not to freak out on me?"
 "Um, ok, what's up?" I said.
 And he sat there...contemplating whether or not to continue. "It just doesn't make sense."
"Huh?"
"It doesn't make sense"
"What doesn't?" I asked, thoroughly confused.
He remained silent, nearly driving me batty. Lol
"I shouldn't feel this way about a little girl I've never met."
BOOM. THANK YOU JESUS. I was smiling from ear to ear, naturally.
"I TOLD you not to freak out!!" he said when he saw my face.
"I'm not. But I have something to tell you." And I proceeded to share with him my previous conversation with God.

I share all that to say this: God knew what my heart needed then. And He knew what it needed last night. In the moment Sean shared his heart, I knew. God was leading me, once again, through the discerning heart of my unknowing husband. He and I both felt a love for that little girl for a reason. And for the same reason, we were not drawn to this second little girl. Maybe that sounds horrible to some of you. After all, she needs a home like every other orphan on the planet. But we serve a BIG God. And we believe He created a specific little girl for our family. One of them was our daughter. The other is someone else's. To say "yes" would be to keep her from the home she was created for.

So we wait. And pray. And we stand firm in our decision to fight for her, this specific little girl, until God Himself closes that door--or brings her home forever. Right now, it's still wide open. So we still wait...with a peace that TRULY passes all understanding.

Beauty for Ashes

For many reasons, we have decided that, until God closes the door for us, we will fight for this specific little girl who has stolen our hearts until we bring her home. It's strange at times, to have such a fierce love for a child we've never even met. And yet most of the time, it just feels normal, as though she were born from my own body.

The last couple of months, the day before and the day of the "list" coming out, I've been a bit of an emotional basket-case. I am excitement, worry, apprehension, fear and elation all rolled into one. And as I've said before, it's not due to a lack of peace over the situation or a fear of what will happen--because we know God is in control. It's more the mama in me--wanting so badly to care for my child and realizing I'm at the mercy of others for (literally) God only knows how long.

When we first came across this little girl, I was so captivated I began researching where she lived, the culture that surrounded her, what her weather was like, etc. Trying, somehow, to envision her there and what life was like for her. My wonderful, and very practical husband, however, told me it was probably better to wait until we knew for sure she was ours before doing all of that research. So I stopped. Until this morning.

I started looking again today. I pulled up images, websites, info pages...pages on language, history, climate, tourism, industry, location, and so on. At first I was intrigued. So much of this culture is foreign to me, so much I don't understand. Then I became excited. I mentally planned out (in a matter of minutes before my brain switched to another thought, lol) what would be the best way to drink it all in. I desperately want to understand where she's from, to experience so much of it. I picture us by rivers, hiking mountains, site seeing the numerous attractions, all in an effort to fully BE in her world.

And then it hit me. An over whelming sense of sadness and grief. While she will gain a family and love and security that she's never known, she will also lose the culture where she was given life. All of its beauty, its wonder, its history, its language...it will all be as foreign to her as it is to me one day. And that breaks my heart. It creates in me a pain that is different from any I've ever known. My insides ache for the loss my daughter will experience that she has yet to even realize.

There is so much about adoption that is beautiful, magnificent, truly sent from God. There is so much to be said for a child finding a home where he/she is forever loved and for the change only he/she can bring to that family. But so often I believe it is over looked, the grief they will suffer. Not just in the loss of their birth family, but, especially in cases of international adoption, the loss of their people, their language, their culture. This point was brought to my attention for the first time at an adoption conference we recently attended. At the time I thought, wow, I never thought of that...that's deep. But today, God has allowed me to FEEL it...to grieve for my daughter. I can't begin to explain how it feels but it is raw, and it is real, and it is painful. Yet I know that it is nothing compared to what my daughter will feel when she is older, when she understands, when she really gets it.

As a mom, I've always (at least to this point) felt confident in my ability to soothe my children, to comfort their pain, their frustration. Because I've been there. I've been the pre-teen that was picked on in the midst of struggling to figure out who I am. I've been the 4th & 5th grader trying to decide how to deal with friends and for the first time, those who weren't friends. I've been the 4 year old whose whole world is candy and roses and everything's sweet. :) But for the first time, I'm staring down a path I've never seen, contemplating issues I've never experienced myself, and wondering how on earth I will ever fully help my daughter grieve.

Adoption is beautiful, exciting, and wonderful...and at the same time hard, ugly, and down right scary. But it is drawing me closer to Jehovah-Jireh, the God who provides, Jehovah-Shalom, the God of peace, and more than anything, Jehovah-Rapha, the God who heals. Only He will make my little girl whole. Only He will mend her broken, hurting places. Only He will provide us with what we need, when we need it, to be there for her when she grieves. And she will.

"When sorrow seems to surround you
When suffering hangs heavy o'er your head
Know that tomorrow brings
Wholeness and healing
God knows your need
Just believe what He said

He gives beauty for ashes
Strength for fear
Gladness for mourning
Peace for despair"

         --Beauty for Ashes, Crystal Lewis

Life In The Slow Lane

Time for what seems like my "monthly" update on our adoption. On the one hand, it seems to be taking FOREVER. On the other, it seems crazy to think we will have had 3 lists come out since we received our LID. We are now on the countdown for school to be out! I can't wait to have all my babies home every day (she says right now, while they are playing nicely and getting along. lol).

So much has changed and yet at the same time, so little has changed. Monday night another list will come out. Our caseworker is hoping we will hear something from the CCCWA by then about the specific file we've requested. If she doesn't hear anything, she will search the list that evening, just in case the file was added to it. It's a crazy process that I know many of you do not fully understand. It made little sense to us until we were in the thick of the process. Now we throw around terms like DTC, LID, LOI, CCCWA, LOA, TA, etc and even our kids know what it all means. :)  In a lot of ways, it seems as though we've been at this same point in the process f-o-r-e-v-e-r. It feels like a lot of the same. There's not really even a lot more than weekly communication between us and our caseworker because there's not a lot to do on our end other than wait.

That being said, there is so much that HAS changed since the first list came out! As I've mentioned before on my facebook posts, we are privy to information that we should not have!  We have been able to locate this specific little girl's file and we have one of our agency workers checking on her paperwork daily.  In the beginning, when we first came across this little girl, the response from our agency was, "of course, send us the info you have and we'll do everything we can to locate her and get more information on her situation. It's not common to find the information we'll need to find her file and she may not be available if we do, but it's worth a try."  And now, only a few months later, their response was, "we can't say with certainty, but barring some strange thing we are not aware of, we see no reason why they wouldn't send us her file since we know where it is in the process and they know a family is waiting for her."  THAT, my friends, is HUGE. It's not unheard of, but it is extremely rare, especially given the circumstances of how we came across her and how unlikely it was that we would be able to get her specific info. Needle in a haystack type of rare. Truly.

So while we are still very much in the same place, we are much MUCH more hopeful, much more excited, and in reality, every day we wait is one more day closer to bringing her home!! To be honest, there's many a day that I must remind myself of that fact so that I don't wallow in frustration and despair. I don't, for one minute, want to make this process seem easy. But I don't want it to seem insurmountable either. I want you to read these posts and be able to share in the joy and the pain alongside us, but also to walk away with a better understanding of one of the many facets of adoption. I want it to be real. open. honest. And I want you to see the miraculous in the mundane, God in the midst of our wait, our struggle.

This I know: We have a daughter half a world away, created just for our family. She is loved. Not only by us, but by the birth mother who gave her the very best chance she could, in what I can only imagine was the most difficult decision of her life. God has bigger plans for this little one. I have no idea what they are yet, but she will not come this far, through this process, to simply exist. She was created for something bigger. We will meet her, not one minute too soon and not one minute too late, but at the time appointed according to the goodness of a mighty God who knows better than we do exactly what we need. And even though we may not see all of it right now (or ever), He is working even now, in the details of her life and in the details of her adoption. We hold tight to this truth:

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."  Exodus 14:14

He fights. We remain. That is all. That is enough.

DIY Deodorant

As I've mentioned on here before, I always want to test ideas/recipes out BEFORE I post them on here because I want to make sure you won't be wasting your time if you try something I've suggested. I want this blog to help make your life simple, not more work. Or, if it's gonna be a bit more work, I at least want it to be worth it, something that saves you money, keeps you healthy or something you can just take pride in having done yourself.

So today I wanna share a recipe for homemade deodorant. Yes, I realize you can take less than 5 minutes and a few dollars and just go buy some. Yes, I realize you're limited on time. However, I also realize that store bought deodorant is FULL of aluminum. And being that your skin is the largest organ on your body, you are putting that aluminum directly onto your skin where it seeps into your blood stream. Not good for you. PLUS, it's the reason your hubby's white shirts have all those yellow pit stains.

Yes, I realize you can spend a bit more and get a healthy, organic version from any health foods store. However, if you're willing to take 20 minutes once every 3 MONTHS (yes, you read that right) then you can have the same, organic, good for you type of deodorant for a fraction of the cost! And worst case scenario, if you try it and decide you either don't care for it or don't wanna take the time to make it, you can always use the ingredients you bought in many other recipes, so they won't go to waste.

I've been using this recipe for 3 months now. I just made my second batch today. I LOVE IT. It's simple, it's healthy, and it works! I searched for a long time through a myriad of recipes for homemade deodorant. But all I ever found were ones that had you make a paste and then rub it in your armpits with your fingers. NO THANK YOU. And besides, I have limited time to get ready in the morning because I want every minute of sleep I can get, so I really don't want to add another time of washing my hands while getting ready. Even if it only takes a few minutes every day. For a few minutes every 3 months, I can have regular, solid deodorant that doesn't require me to get my hands goopy. Yes, please!

I came across this recipe on the blog Frugally Sustainable. Love, love, LOVE this blog!! You should definitely check it out when you have a minute! Here's my version (with a couple of things omitted):

DIY DEODORANT

1 T cocoa butter
1 T coconut oil
1 T beeswax
3 1/2 T arrowroot powder
1/4 t. vitamin E oil
8 drops essential oil
Clean used deodorant container

You can find all of these items at your local health foods store (except the container of course). I wish I'd paid attention to the original cost, but knowing that the equivalent in store bought healthy deodorant is usually $6-8 each, this is waaaaaaaay cheaper. I'm roughly guessing it cost me about $30-35 for all of it. But this will make you at least a 5 YEAR supply if each batch lasts 3 months. You'd spend that on the store bought stuff in just over a year if not sooner. So it's approximately 1/5th of the cost if you DIY.  :)

The original recipe calls for shea butter and probiotics. I have no idea why I didn't get the shea butter, but it didn't seem to make a difference, so I'm not worried about it now. As for the probiotics, those can be expensive, so I wanted to be sure I liked the recipe before I bought them. Next trip to the store, I'm definitely picking some up! I also used only arrowroot powder and 1/2 the amount of essential oil it suggests because I have sensitive skin.

So here's what you do (total time about 20 minutes):

1. Melt the coconut oil, beeswax & cocoa butter over a low heat.

**I just eye-balled 1 T of each because the butter and wax are hard.**

2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the arrowroot powder, mixing until well blended.

3. Add Vitamin E oil and essential oil. Let cool in the pan to a pudding-like consistency.

4. Carefully scoop into your clean deodorant container with a spatula.

**Make sure your container base is rolled down to the lowest setting. Then you'll have to press down on each scoop of deodorant to squish it into the container. You should have very little left as it will take nearly all of it to fill a regular size deodorant dispenser.**

The finished product!! Now place in the refrigerator to cool completely and harden. Once it does, you can keep it in your bathroom at room temperature.

Here's to healthy, money-saving ways to DIY in your everyday routine!

DIY Face Wash

**Repost from 7/5/12 on my previous blog**

So there's a number of things I've been DIYing over the last few months, preparing for potential posts on here. Some worked and some didn't. But I wanted to be sure I'd tried them first so that I could give you honest feedback. I must say, out of all the things I've tried, this was my favorite by far! DIY Face Wash!

I've been back and forth between your standard, run-of-the-mill store brand face wash, and the high-end representative-ordered facecare line and all the in-between. I've never been as happy with any of them as I am right now. It's simple. It's relatively inexpensive. And my face has never looked or felt better. What do I use? OIL. Now PLEASE hear me out. I'd hate to lose you at the word "oil"! There has been tons of research done on the subject and more and more people are switching to what is commonly referred to as the "Oil Cleansing Method", with amazing results! Go on, Google it. Find out for yourself!

Basically, it boils down to this:

Dry Skin:            10% Castor Oil, 90% Jojoba Oil
Balanced Skin:    20% Castor Oil, 80% Jojoba Oil
Oily Skin:            30% Castor Oil, 70% Jojoba Oil

You can always change out the Jojoba Oil for EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), Grapeseed Oil, Flaxseed Oil, Sunflower Oil or others. I prefer to use Jojoba because it is lightly moisturizing without being overly thick. But before you put money into this, I'd advise you to research the properties of the different oils and figure out which one does what you're looking for.  I have balanced skin for most of the year, so I use an 80/20 ratio. I also bought both of my oils at a health food store so that they would be organic, but you could easily buy them at many local grocers as well. To make this easy on myself I did the following:

1. Rinsed out my empty pump bottle of face wash I had just finished using.

2. Emptied the contents of the Jojoba Oil bottle (the little one) into the pump bottle. In this case, the only Jojoba they had was a smaller bottle, so I used it's entirety to make up the 80%.

3. Eye-balled what I believed to be 20% of additional Castor Oil.




Now that I had my face wash, I decided to make it fit into MY schedule rather than adding any extra steps, just to be sure I was going to like it without much work. Remember: Simple is the key! So, when I got in the shower, I applied 1 pump worth (about a nickel size amount) of oil on my hands and began rubbing it in gently. After about one minute, I grabbed a clean wash cloth, wet it with fairly hot water, laid it on my face with my head tilted back just a bit, and allowed my self a minute or two to relax under the shower spray while the rag cooled. This "steaming" allows your pores to open up and the oil to really cleanse your face. Once it cooled to about room temp, I used the rag to gently wipe off any excess oil. **NOTE: Do not scrub the oil off your face. Your skin is supposed to feel slightly oily to the touch, but it will soak in within minutes. If you scrub it all off, you will need to use moisturizer afterwards, which the oil could easily do for you if you'd just gently wipe it off instead.

Then I finished showering, got out, and got ready for the day. Easy as pie! That was nearly 2 months ago and I wouldn't go back! I have found that if I wash my face at the sink at night (which I do if I've worn make-up that day) I may or may not need a tiny amount of moisturizer in the morning, but if I do, it's WAY less than I ever used before.

Results:

*Less expensive than store bought organic face wash. I was paying about $18 per bottle that would last me about 6 weeks. Now I'm paying about $40 (after finding a larger Jojoba Oil bottle) and while the full pump bottle still lasts me only 6 weeks, I have leftover oil for up to another 3 batches!

*My skin is clearer, softer and more balanced than with any other product I've used.

*One product does the job of many. No more wash+toner+lotion. Just wash. Maybe the occasional lotion, but rarely.

*Before, I was also paying about $16 for a tub of organic face lotion that would last me about 8 weeks. I started the OCM about half way through one of my lotion tubs. I'm STILL using it. It has about 1/4 left and it's been almost 2 months for me to use the 1/4th that I have!

I really have NO complaints. I would highly recommend this to all of you! Give it a try--at least 2 weeks of daily use and see your results! I'd love to hear how it works for you!

DIY Face Wash--a simple way to keep you looking beautiful.

Homemade Fabric Softener & Dryer Sheets

**Reposting from 6/14/12 on my previous blog**

Maybe you don't all feel the same, but my philosophy has always been, if I can make it/do it myself without much hassle AND for less cost out of pocket, why not? A lot of times when you make something yourself, you're able to keep out extra things that aren't good for you like preservatives and other chemicals. So in that case, they're also better for you.

I used to always use dryer sheets. Until the day the guy fixing my dryer told me how dangerous they were. Because of the chemicals in them, they leave a film on your lint screen that, if left unchecked and not regularly cleaned, becomes the number one cause of dryer fires. In order to check and see if your lint screen has this issue, take it out and run it under water in your sink. If it holds water rather than letting it run through, then you already have the film on there and it needs to be cleaned. You can easily clean it with warm soapy water and verify that it's fully clean by running it under water again to be sure it runs through the screen. The other thing the chemicals are known to do is to make your clothing less fire-retardant, which is never a good thing.

Now I don't know about you, but even without the fire-retardant clothing issue, who has time to clean their lint screen all that often? And who wants to sit up at night wondering if they clean it often enough to always be safe? I'll be honest. I have FOUR kids, soon to be five. The last thing I think about most days is all the smaller, routine home maintenance stuff like dryer lint screen cleaning.

All that being said, I was also hesitant when someone first told me I could simply use vinegar in place of fabric softener. I don't care for the smell of vinegar. And I LOVE the smell of freshly cleaned clothes. But I thought, well I'll try the vinegar. It worked. It was simple. It didn't make my clothes stink like vinegar. But they weren't overly soft, either. So I wasn't thrilled. Enter this recipe from Jillee over at One Good Thing. (I love her site!!) This allows you to get the inexpensive benefit of vinegar but also the softness and more enticing smell from hair conditioner! That's right, hair conditioner. It goes like this:

6 cups water
3 cups vinegar
2 cups conditioner

Gently mix all 3 ingredients in an extra large bowl OR a 1 gallon jug. If you're too fast in mixing it you will get bubbles, so be sure to be gentle. Once it's all mixed, use it just as you would your store-bought variety! Easy Peasy! Now, I will say that I chose to make the recipe in half, simply because I wanted to reuse my old store bought bottle and it's just over a half gallon size. But feel free to make it in the full version if it works for you. I always find that I use more shampoo than I do conditioner so it's easy for me to use up conditioner faster this way. If this is not the case for you, just find whatever brand of conditioner smells good to you and use that--as this is what your clothes will smell like when you're done.

If you'd still rather use dryer sheets than liquid softener, you can! Simply take your homemade softener and completely dampen (but not to dripping) 5-10 clean old wash rags/scrap towel pieces. Let them air dry, then keep them in a bin or container in your laundry room until they're needed! Each rag should work for at least 10-15 times before it needs to be re-soaked and dried. This is not the method I use, simply because the liquid version works for me. To make dryer sheets would be an extra step I don't need to take.

Hopefully this has encouraged you to to grab the ingredients (because you likely have them on hand) and take 5 minutes--yes, only 5 MINUTES--and try making your own! It's so easy and so inexpensive! And that's always a beautiful thing!

Note:
*I prefer to mix using a whisk as it seems to blend it a little easier.

After Mixing

Before Mixing

Transferring...A Beautiful Thing!

I've had a number of you ask me over the last few weeks for some of my DIY recipes. In order to save time, I'm simply transferring some of the original posts from my previous blog onto here. It's as simple as Copy & Paste, which is a beautiful thing in my book!

It will mean there will be about a week of regular posts from me, which hasn't happened in a looooooong time! LOL. I hope that the posts give you ways to save money, have some fun, and encourage you to try something new!

If you have any questions on ANY of them, please don't hesitate to ask!  First up tomorrow, Homemade Fabric Softener! Enjoy!

All I Can Do

So much in my head. So much in my heart. So many things I wanna say and yet all of these words just seem to be jumbled up in my mind!

First, I should say that we did NOT receive a referral last night. While that is disappointing, it is not surprising. And we are still hopeful! Hopeful that we will receive the file of the specific girl we are praying for to be sent directly to our agency. It doesn't happen often, but it DOES happen! So we remain hopeful.

Second, I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are at peace over this whole process. We knew what we were getting into when we started this, and it's going pretty much exactly like we were told it would. If we underestimated anything, it would be the amount of love we already hold for a little girl we haven't even met yet. But other than that, in the beginning things are paperwork, paperwork, paperwork...now it's just hurry up and wait...and wait...and wait. The last two months we've been eligible to receive a referral. And on "list days" (when the list comes out), I'm a big ball of nervous, excited and anxious. And I can't focus for anything! LOL. And then the list is out, and there's no referral...and I'm a mixture of emotional, frustrated, more anxious, and impatient for the next month's list! It's quite the emotional roller coaster.

And yet...we are not worried. Our frustration, our anxiety, our impatience does not stem from concern if we are doing the right thing, if our daughter will be okay, if the waiting will ever end, if God is still in control...those are not things that even cross our minds. These are simply the emotions of parents waiting desperately to hold their daughter, knowing she is somewhere, half a world away, waiting for that forever love she so deserves...and there's nothing we can do about it. We can only wait...

Third, while I want the waiting to end, to have her here in my arms, there is no part of me that wants to miss the here and now.  Life is happening while we wait, and I want very much to remain a part of that. There are 4 other kids in this house who need me, who need us. They have school and friends and activities and love to share and I don't wanna miss one moment of my time with them. I want to help them, to hold them, to love them, and to share with them every part of this difficult journey to bring their little sister home.

So what do I do? I do what I can today. In this moment. I do all I can do for them, for her, for our family as it is and our family as it will be. I help with homework, I oversee chores, I make the meals, keep the house running, calm the arguing...all of the daily family life stuff. I'm also keeping regular contact with our agency for updates, I'm painting/preparing what will be the girls' shared room, I'm reading books and meeting with friends who've come back with their daughters so as to learn as much as possible. And soon I'll be going through Sissy's old clothes to set them out for Mei Mei, and creating a packing list for our trip. I do all of these things, because while I can't do anything from my end on the adoption front, I can certainly participate in life as it is while I prepare for our daughter's arrival. It's all I can do. And I'm loving every minute of it.

I also get to listen to my children's prayers for their little sister, to answer their questions about where she is, what life is like for her, why we can't bring her home now and what we'll do when we go get her.  I get to tell them about a little girl, half a world away, that was created just for our family.  And when I talk about the specific little girl we are praying over and I call her by name, I get to hear my daughter say, "We call her Mei Mei, Mom." To which I replied, "Well not til we know she's ours." And she looks at me with a smile on her face and says, "Well, I call her Mei Mei..." (then whispers) "...because I love her."

Oh my sweet girl, I love her too. I love her too...

Oh The Waiting...

It's that time again. The wait before "the list" comes out. Basically, there are always children waiting to be adopted, but once a month there are new faces added--children who have just become adoptable. We've given our caseworker the info for the child we are waiting for, age preference, that she be a girl, what special needs we feel we can adequately handle, etc. So she's gone through the list periodically looking for a child for us. But basically, we are waiting each month for the new faces to be added so she can look through those and send us a referral.

As many of you know, we are waiting for a specific little girl's name to be added to that list and praying that our caseworker can find her. :)  The details of how we came across her are nothing short of miraculous and I will share those one day, if God chooses to bring her to our home forever. In the meantime, we've decided that we will fight for her specifically until God closes that door! That tends to make our waiting every month just a little more crazy!

So the list will come out this next Monday night (our time)/Tuesday morning (China time). If you think of it, we would greatly appreciate your prayers during that time! It usually comes out around 8pm our time and we will either have a referral (or not) by as late as 1am.  Last month when this happened we were crazy busy emailing and calling back and forth between our caseworker and others to determine if this little one would be on the list. And while I am at complete peace in the turnout of the whole adoption and whomever God has chosen for our family, the day of the list coming out (at least last month) I am a complete ball of anxious, clock-watching, can't-focus-on-anything, might as well go to bed worthlessness. LOL.

And once again, I completely in awe of how this little girl, who I have yet to meet, has utterly and completely stolen my heart...

I Wanna Be THAT Mom

I'll admit it. I do. I wanna be THAT mom. You know, the one who appears to have it all together? She volunteers 3 days a week at her kids' school(s). She makes it to the gym every morning AFTER rising early to read her bible, fix her family breakfast from scratch and get them off to school. She meets friends for lunch, after she delivers meals on wheels. Her home is always impeccably clean. Not to mention that she decorates like a pro. She even blogs in her spare time and inspires everyone with her words, her charm, her openness, her life in general. She's organized. She's ON TIME. She's the homeroom mom and puts on amazing holiday parties both for her kids' classes and for adults in her home. She's a great cook, a devoted wife, an amazing friend. Yep. I wanna be her. And sometimes, I beat myself up when I realize just how far from being her I really am. It's humbling. And depressing. And so absolutely FRUSTRATING!!!

But when I take a step back and allow Him to, God speaks to my heart. Quietly, reassuring me, loving me. And that's when the Truth hits me. That mom, she doesn't exist. She isn't real. Yes, there are moms who have it more together than others. There are moms that thrive on volunteering and do it well. There are moms who go from sun up to sun down, non-stop. And they wear themselves out. Sometimes, they get so busy doing that they forget to just BE, to just enjoy their families. They don't have it all together any more than you or I. Then an even bigger Truth hits me...

I don't have to have it all together. I don't have to be that mom. I have strengths that are mine alone. And I can use them to the best of my ability to be the best mom I can be. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all struggle. We all fail. We all find ways to go on. We all have areas where we triumph. We are enough. I am enough. YOU ARE ENOUGH. There is no right or wrong here. There is no one mom who is better than another. We have all been called to OUR place, in OUR family, to do OUR best. Not another woman on the planet could come into our home and do our job as well as we can! It's what we were created for. It's where we thrive. Some days, we look like THAT mom to others. Some days, we watch other moms seemingly outshine us. It's an endless cycle, but it's just that, a cycle. We (speaking to myself here!) need to focus on where we are strong rather than where we are weak. We need to encourage that mom who's clearly struggling as her kid is screaming through the aisles at the supermarket. We need to smile. We need to laugh. We need to relax and simply enjoy the life we've been given and not sweat the small stuff! We need to take a moment, even if it's 5 minutes locked in our bathroom, LOL, to breathe, to give ourselves the grace found only in realizing that we are enough. We are THAT mom already. :)

A Whole Lotta Nothin...

So I haven't posted in almost a month. Mainly because we've been busy recuperating from the lovely flu and strep the last couple of weeks. We don't get sick often at all, but when we do, with 6 people in the house, we tend to pass it around freely!

The January "list" of newly adoptable children in China came out last month and while I like to play it calm and cool, in all honesty I was a basket case that day! We did not end up getting matched with a child, so we wait for the list to come out again this month. It's usually the 3rd or 4th week of the month. While the waiting is monotonous, there is enough to get done around here (finishing up the changing of the kids rooms, painting, finding or building new furniture, etc) that it keeps my mind off of the wait. I'm sure that won't be the case once we know her name, know her face, have a specific child we know is waiting just for us. So for now I'm thankful I have things to keep me occupied! And we've seen God work in SO many incredible, impossible ways this last month! Maybe someday I will be able to share them all but for now we must remain silent while we follow the process.

I do have a number of posts almost ready to come out of my head. LOL. For some reason, some of my best post ideas come to me as I'm laying down to sleep or trying to get back to sleep after the 249873569328th interruption! You'd think I'd keep a notepad by my bed to write these ideas down, but alas, I do not. I keep telling myself that it's such a good idea I just KNOW I'll remember it in the morning...and yet none of those posts have yet to see the light of day. What can I say? I'm a work in progress!

I also have a number of projects to finish that I'm excited to share on here, but again, I'm organizationally challenged...did y'all pick up on that?? This last week, in fact, I was explaining another great idea of mine to my husband and his response? "How about we just finish one of the OTHER projects you've started first?" Pshaw! As IF!! Where's the fun in that?! I told him then and I'll say it again here, he told my daddy over Christmas this year that being married to me is always an adventure! So see? "I'm just keepin ya honest, babe!"  :)

So anyway, all that to say, there's basically a whole lotta nothin going on 'round here. But I promise new posts next week! These ideas HAVE to get out of my head!!

We Got Our LID!!

We finally got notification the other day that we have an official LID (Log In Date) with China! Basically what this means is, they've received our paperwork, processed it and approved us to adopt from China! Now we only need to wait to be "matched" with a specific child, then the wait to bring her home begins!!

I've had many of you ask about our timeline and what all is left to do and what all we've done so far in this process. In order to make it easier for all of you to understand, I thought I'd list the steps in the full process here!

April--Mailed our application to Living Hope Adoption Agency.

May--Signed our contract and paid contract fee.

June--Started online training courses and started home study visits.

July--Continued with home study visits, background checks, ordering birth certificates and collecting personal reference letters.

Aug--Home Study complete

Sept--Mailed off I-800A USCIS paperwork

Oct--Got fingerprinted and USCIS approval.

Nov--Mailed dossier to LHAA to be authenticated and sealed.

Dec--Paperwork complete and Dossier mailed to China.

Jan--Official LID of Jan 8, 2013!! Now we wait for our referral!

After we officially have a referral, the steps are as follows:

1. We mail our LOI, or Letter of Intent, to China saying we wish to adopt this specific child.

2. We wait for China to send us our LOA, or Letter of Acceptance saying our adoption request is approved for the specific child. (This could take anywhere from 20-120 days to receive from the time we send China our LOI.)

3. Once we receive our LOA we will send in our I-800 paperwork for her citizenship.

4. Once we have our I-800 approval, we will send our visa paperwork to China.

5. When the visa paperwork is complete on the China side, we will receive a TA, or travel approval, giving us a 3 month window in which to pick up our daughter!!

6. Once we finalize dates for travel, we will be off to China where we will spend about 2 weeks finalizing her adoption, getting Dr appointments done, her passport and visa paperwork taken care of and hopefully visiting her orphanage and home town. She will be given to us about 48 hours after we arrive and will remain with us for the duration of our stay in China! **insert happy mama dance here**

7. Then, praise Jesus, we will BRING HER HOME!!!

I know that there are a LOT of steps in this process and to some it may seem overwhelming. In fact, when we first started the process, I decided that in order to keep my sanity I was only going to focus on the next step. Once we got into the first few months of it, I began to feel more comfortable with all the steps, what order they came in and was more relaxed. Now it's hard to believe we're over half way done! It really is a lot easier to understand and deal with when you're in the middle of it!

We are excited beyond belief to bring our daughter home this year!!! And we feel so humbled and blessed for all of you who are following along with us and praying over our family and our little girl while we wait! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Why Am I Always the Bad Guy?!

I'll admit it. I wanna be the good guy. I wanna be the one my kids think is cool, fun, ya know, big party in a little package...er, um, ok, NOT such a little package, but I'm working on that! ;) But I digress...

My husband, while he truly does know otherwise, likes to joke about how I must enjoy sitting at home watching soap operas (HELLO?! Most of them are off the air now!!--I mean, um, NO I don't watch soap operas!) and eating Bon Bons all day. Let me just say, I prefer the not-so-seasonal anymore Reese's holiday peanut butter egg-tree-pumpkin things to whatever Bon Bons are. Never had a Bon Bon! Again...I digress...

I am blessed to be a primarily stay at home mom. I love having the flexibility it gives me to run errands during the day, blog, have lunch dates, do stuff at the kids' schools, and then have the energy to be able to be the one who needs to be up at a moment's notice at night if one of them needs me. One of the things I DON'T like is being the primary rule enforcer. Don't get me wrong. My husband is THE most involved father I know and we make all of our decisions regarding our family together. He is completely hands on and I don't know what I'd do without him!! That being said, he also works an 8-5 job and is getting his Master's Degree, so he's gone a couple of evenings a week. So other than the weekends, I'm primarily the one interacting with the kids when it comes to chores, homework, etc. Most of that is done by the time he's home, so he gets play time. :)  I harbor no ill feelings about this at all because he works SO hard for our family. But that doesn't mean I enjoy it all either.

Take today for instance.  I had my Little Little come home early from school yesterday complaining of a tummy ache. The school called, I told them to give him some time to stick it out but they called again an hour later for me to pick him up. I hated to do it, but he sounded miserable. My typical rule is: puking, fever or diarrhea will keep you home or bring you home. Anything else, suck it up and you can rest when school is out. Now that may sound harsh, but I was the QUEEN of staying home from school "sick". My mother, bless her heart, is somewhat gullible and a LOT trusting. (Sorry Mom, it's true.) I could fake, quite well, nearly any illness I needed if I didn't feel like going to school. Seriously. I missed like 22 days my senior year!! I am not proud of this. I was at the time, but not now. Now that I'm a mom, I realize the importance of being in school when you are fully capable of being there. Don't get me wrong, I FULLY support taking your kids out of school once in a while to experience life. In fact, I think if your kid has perfect attendance it's sad. Really, I do. I was disappointed when my Little Little got the award for perfect attendance the first 9 weeks of school. I enjoy randomly pulling them out for a day to make a weekend trip to see family or go to the zoo because it's beautiful out or just have a day with Mom! If it ever affected their grades, I would rethink my position, but for now, this is where I stand. Wow! Again, I'm off topic. I apologize!

Anyway, Little Little has not puked, ran a fever or otherwise. But he is somewhat pale, just wants to rest and generally feels yucky. It's not serious enough to head to the Dr yet, but I can tell he's not feeling great. So I agreed to keep him home today, with the stipulation that if he's the same tomorrow or better, he's gonna tough it out at school.

Yesterday, after school, Big Little came home and went to lay down because he didn't feel well either. He took a nap! He never takes a nap!! But when he woke up, he felt somewhat better and was able to do his chores and eat supper. He wasn't 100% but he was better. So I sent him to school this morning. An hour later he called saying he wasn't well. Like his brother, I told him to give it some time and see how he did. He called back another hour later. Still felt like he just couldn't stay. So I gave in. Against my better judgment, I gave in. He came home and scarfed down a bowl of chicken noodle soup and crackers and an decent size glass of Sprite. His appetite alone tells me he's fine. AND IT MAKES ME SOOOOOO MAD!!! I gave him the benefit of the doubt and he used it. Little Little sipped his soup and nibbled his crackers. He's upstairs resting while Big Little is watching TV and playing hooky. How am I supposed to tell the difference between what seemed to be two kids with the same symptoms?! How do I give one the benefit of the doubt and not the other?!

Now I have to be the bad guy! Why am I always the bad guy?? This is one of the not-so-pleasant aspects of motherhood. If I worked outside the home, I may be harder to persuade since I would have to leave work for them to be home. Instead, I have no reason, other than my mom-opinion, to leave them at school. Hhhhhh. Why can't things be more cut and dry? It would make life a lot easier! And it would keep the Big Little from getting in so much trouble!

Thanks for listening to my rant! If you have any ideas to make this kind of situation easier, feel free to share!! I'm always up for sharing ideas with other parents!! And on a positive note, I will say I'm glad I'm dealing with a child faking illness rather than the actual full-blown plague that's going around!!

DTC!!!!!

DTC! DTC! DTC!!!!!! Finally, after 3 WEEKS of having our paperwork lost, it has been found, it has been "authenticated and sealed" and it has been sent to China!!! So now, we are officially DTC (Dossier to China)!  No sweeter words have ever been spoken (so far). :)  A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and thus, from my heart as well.

I cannot tell you how hard it is to work so hard on the things WE can control, only to entrust others with our hard work and have them lose it! And all we could do was sit by and wait patiently for it to be located. SO. INCREDIBLY. HARD. And we haven't even gotten to the point of waiting for our official approval of a specific little girl. I have a feeling that will be a period of time when our home is spotless, the kids rooms are tidy and I micromanage everything. LOL. I'll be sure to let you know when the time comes to start praying for my husband's and kids' sanity!

One thing I must tell you though. In the midst of all of this craziness, in the midst of feeling so helpless and being frustrated with feeling like we were the only ones fighting for our daughter...we have been blessed with an amazing caseworker. She is just as involved, just as frustrated, just as heartbroken over our lost paperwork as we are. She IS fighting with us for our daughter. It would be easy for her to just sit back, not worry, and just let us know that she'll contact us when she has some news. But she calls and emails us regularly, sharing her thoughts, her frustrations over these things. She is empathetic to the fact that I've been losin my ever-lovin mind over here waiting to hear they'd located our paperwork. She understands that for us, it's not just a process, not just a case number...she gets that we are fighting for our CHILD, and that we are already head-over-heels in love with a little girl we have yet to meet. She knows my heart and responds to my heartbreak and frustration and joy with love, patience, excitement and compassion. She is AMAZING. And we are so blessed to have her!

So there will be celebrating at the LaRue household tonight people!! Mama's buying dessert and we are going to mark this milestone off the list in this journey!!!

We are DTC!!!!! *insert big smiles and a happy heart*

A Day to Give

As many of you know, we are right in the middle of adopting a little girl from China. We don't even know her name yet. I'll admit, that's hard. It's even harder when I made it a point to have all of our paperwork in EARLY in the hopes that our dossier (the packet of our entire life!) would be in China before Thanksgiving and we'd be on the waiting list to be matched...only to have our paperwork LOST for nearly 2 weeks at the Chinese Consulate in NY after it was ready. Hhhhhhhh. VERY frustrating. But we got word yesterday that it has been located and is supposed to be picked up by the courier on Monday, returned to our agency on Tuesday and hopefully on it's way to China by Wednesday. Here's to hoping...and not holding my breath. But I digress...

One of the biggest parts of this adoption for us has been the fundraising. The thing is, we are perfectly capable of affording another child in our home on a daily basis. We don't, however, have $35,000+ just sitting around to get her here. I won't go into the issues others have regarding the cost of adoption. I will simply say, "we are NOT buying a baby". There truly are legitimate costs involved. Do they all have to be THAT expensive? Probably not, but I'd say 95% are probably spot on and the other 5% is probably a fee that someone set for their services that could've been less. In the end, it could be a million dollars to get her here and I'd still do everything I could to raise that money. We were led to China for a reason...for OUR daughter. And I'd move heaven and earth to get her here.

We've had 2 hugely successful garage sales with items donated by friends and family. We've sold things we no longer need. We've sold cookie dough. I've sold items I make. We've saved and scrimped and put money aside. We'll put away our tax return and any bonuses my husband gets at work. We've applied for every grant we thought we had a chance to receive. And we're getting close. SO close.

Our final fundraiser was this last weekend. And it was by far my favorite! We partnered with Lifesong for Orphans and Both Hands Foundation. Basically, we located a widow in our area and put together a team of 12 people and their families and spent all day Saturday doing repairs on her home. All of our supplies were donated, as well as the food for breakfast and lunch. All in all there were 29 people and we were able to scrape and repaint the entire exterior of her home, haul of what I originally thought was 6 trailer loads of trees and debris, but actually it turned out I was wrong. It was NINE trailer loads!! We also took care of some routine maintenance on her property, flipped her mattress for her and set up an appointment for a local automotive shop to check out her car!

In joining us, our team committed to sending out letters asking their friends and family to "sponsor" them for the day, much like raising funds for a 5k run for cancer or diabetes. And because all of the supplies were donated, 100% of the support goes to our adoption fund! It's such a beautiful way to raise funds for adoption!!

Below you'll find the video we created from pictures and video clips of the day, just to give you a visual idea of that day. It was LIFE CHANGING.  I wish I could adequately explain it, but there simply are no words that would do the job. Ms Marty gets to remain in her home, we raise funds to help bring our daughter home, and everyone involved has their worldview changed...all because they gave their life away for a day.

Both Hands Video

Check out the video...and feel free to share it via email or facebook as donations are still being accepted for this project!!

Christmas Tree Skirt DIY

Today I wanted to share with you one of my favorite traditions we started a few years back. It has come to mean so much to me and the kids absolutely love looking at it every year and reminiscing over years past. It's our DIY Christmas Tree Skirt and it's super simple! We take a rather simple tree skirt we purchase at the store, and we add the kids' handprints, name and year. We usually do this a few days before we set up the tree so it has time to dry overnight, but I have been known to get behind *ahem* and end up doing it as we take the tree down so it's ready for the next year! :)

What you'll need:

• Tree skirt (I usually get mine from Hobby Lobby), it must be somewhat plain so it has room for multiple handprints.
• Fabric paint (I would recommend either silver or gold or even pearl, as these will shimmer well, although any color will do.) It MUST have a small tip on the bottle that enable you to write with the paint.
• Paper plate
• Paper towels
• Small paint brush (I just use one of my 1/2 inch wide artist brushes, but any child's paintbrush would work.)

1. You'll need to spread out the tree skirt in an area where it won't be bothered for about 24 hrs. This is probably the hardest part of the whole process because it may not be easy to find. I use my husband's poker table because it's not used except once a month and his poker room is out of the flow of our main traffic.

2.  Pour about a quarter-size amount of paint on the paper plate. Take one child at a time (I suggest starting with the oldest and going down as you may need to take the youngest to the bathroom yourself to help him/her wash up) and paint the child's hand, being sure to get it thoroughly covered but not globbed up in any area.

3. Instruct child to make a "five" with his/her hand and to NOT MOVE. They need to let you place their hand on the skirt and to remain still while you press their palm and every finger down individually for good coverage. (This is easy to do the older they get but I even have great handprints from when my daughter was 9 months, so it IS doable.)

4. Carefully peel their hand away, hand them a paper towel to wipe off excess and have them go wash up with soap.

5. Now you trace their handprint (as the print itself won't be extremely visible if left alone) and then add their first name and the year either above or below the print. Then move on to the next child until you're done!

6. Allow your skirt to dry overnight just to be safe, then place it around your tree when you're ready and enjoy!

Our children LOVE to look at handprints from years past to compare their size. When one fills up, we simply purchase another one! At this point I plan to give one to each child when they are grown, but I may find some fun way to cut them apart and frame or quilt all of their handprints from years past. Who knows! The possibilities are endless!

Have a blessed Christmas!

Welcome to the Circus!

That pretty much sums up life for us around here! With 4 kids and 1 adoption pending, things can be a little hectic at times!  It really does feel like I'm always juggling one thing or another! But from time to time I get a moment where I can sit down, and read, craft, blog, or otherwise. And it's in these moments I hope to share with you not only a glimpse of what crazy, beautiful, wouldn't-trade-it-for-the-world, chaos looks like, but also a few things here and there that will save you time or money or just give you that sense of accomplishment you need some days.

My posts will be sporadic, sometimes every day for over a week, sometimes once in two weeks. I do it as I have time, while focusing the majority of my time and effort on those that matter most, my family. So check back periodically and feel free to comment or just read...although I'd LOVE to hear from you any time something I've said or shown you helps! Hopefully you'll find a minute or two here and there to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ring-side seats! :)