Wrapping up thirty-one for Keliah

Final days to place your thirty-one order to help Keliah's family bring her home.

You can place your order at mythirtyone.

Orders will be placed on Wednesday the 23rd and will be delivered in 2 to 3 weeks.  Take advantage of the February special, for every $31 you spend...you'll get 31% off ANY item!  You will need to enter your full price items first and then enter in your 31% off item.  Send me an email if you have any questions.

Fundraisers for Keliah

You have to check out Keliah's families blog.  It is amazing to see people come together to bring an child into their forever family.  They posted yesterday that the are now at $365 needed to send their paperwork to USCIS from $890 needed last week!  For those that are not schooled in the world of international adoption, the USCIS step is the last step needed before they can turn their completed dossier into China so they can begin the wait to get their Letter Seeking Confirmation or LOA.

There is a little over one week left to place your order for Keliah's thirty-one fundraiser.  You can check out the catalog here.  So far your orders have raised $55 for Keliah's family to help with adoption expenses.  All commission from sales are being donated to Keliah's adoption fund.   Get yourself some adorable thirty-one products and help bring Keliah home.  Be sure and place your order by February 23rd!

Keliah's family also has two other fundraisers going on right now, Matilda Jane gift card giveaway and a gorgeous ABCDinc Headband.  Together, we can help them bring Keliah home.

thirty-one Launch Party for Keliah

The reason I became a thirty-one consultant was to help families who are fundraising to bring their children home.  We were blessed with many folks that helped us bring S home and we feel that we should be doing all we can to help other families and waiting children.  To start off my thirty-one fundraising  I have asked a wonderful family if we can do a party for them.  Mandi does so much for so many in the adoption community and I am so excited that we can step up and help them bring Keliah home.

Keliah is 9 years old and is waiting for her family in China.  She has spent so many years waiting for a forever family and this family is ready to be her forever.  The only thing standing in their way is the fees that need paid.  To start the journey they need to raise the funds for the USCIS immigration approval in order to submit their paperwork to China.

I am holding my first party for this little girl and her forever family.  You can shop with a purpose at Bringing Keliah Home starting today and ending at midnight on February 23rd.  Orders will be placed on February 24th and will be shipped directly to you in approximately two weeks.  All commission from sales go Keliah's family to bring her home.

For the month of February thirty-one has a great sale going on.  For every $31 product purchase you receive one item for half price.  If you spend $62 in product you get two items at half price.  To redeem the special 31% discount, enter $31 or more in retail purchases and then enter the customer's selected sale product with the item # followed by "S." For example, enter #3000S for the Thermal Tote when the customer selects that item as her 31% off product. Personalization is not included in the discount. Shipping and tax is calculated on the discounted price for the sale item.


Hop on over to Keliah's party and help her family bring her home!

Help bring Keliah home

Help bring Keliah home.  Her family is doing a Matilda Jane Fundraiser.  Check it out and help bring this precious little girl home.

The Waiting Child

The Waiting Child by Debbie BodieI saw you meet your child today
You kissed your baby joyfully
And as you walked away with her
I played pretend you'd chosen me.

I'm happy for the baby, yet
Inside I'm aching miserably
I want to plead as you go by
"Does no one want a child of three?"

I saw you meet your child today
In love with her before you met
And as I watched you take her out
I knew it wasn't my turn yet.

I recognize you from last year!
I knew I'd see your face before!
But you came for a second babe.
Does no one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was something new
A nurse came in and took MY hand
And then she gave my hand to you.

Can this be true? I'm almost six!
And there are infants here you see?
And then you kissed me and I knew
The child you chose this time was me.

This is a repost from Kenlyn, who is on her way to her beautiful little girl Scarlett tomorrow!

Selling The Girl Next Door

While many in the nation are watching the Sup@r Bowl right now my husband was watching this documentary Selling The Girl Next Door on CNN.  At one point he told me he just wanted to stop watching it because it was making his heart hurt.  My response is, it should make your heart hurt, human/sex trafficking is horrible and has to be stopped.  It's time to start putting these documentaries all over the place.

If you have followed my blog you know that I joined a class at our church a year and a half ago, Women and Children in Crisis.  In this class we learned about human injustice in all forms and it set my heart on fire for the orphan.  I have always had a heart for the orphan but I failed to get how there is no one to protect the orphan.  If someone doesn't stand up and protect them, who makes sure that they aren't trafficked.  In my class we all found our purpose, mine for the orphan, others for street children, for human trafficking, child soldiers, genital mutilation, the list of injustices go on.

My heart is broken for the orphan and for human injustice.  Human trafficking is happening everywhere, not just overseas.  I encourage you to watch this documentary and let it break your heart.  If it is breaking our heart what is it doing to Jesus' heart.  We need to stand up for those that can not protect themselves.  Bring justice to the oppressed. 

Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!  Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.  Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.  Isaiah 1:16b-17

Thirty-One

I am excited to share that I have signed up to be a Thirty-One consultant.  I have been thinking about ways that I can help families fundraising just like others helped me.  There are many direct-sell opportunities out there but I was looking for something that the market was not saturated with and was more to my personality.  After much thought and prayer I have concluded that Thirty-One was the best fit for me and my family.  It is relatively untouched in my state, they do not require that you carry an inventory, and most importantly it is faith based.

If you are fundraising for adoption I would love to help you with your fundraising.  We had several people who donated their profits or a portion of their profits to our family during our adoption fundraising.  I will donate my commission to your adoption fundraising and can earn hostess gifts for future fundraising or for yourself.  Depending on your location we can do a Catalog Party if you are not local to me or a Thirty-One Home Party with products displayed at your home or chosen location.  Check out My Thirty-One site or send me an email and we can set something up.

The Lord drew me to Thirty-One and my family is excited about the help that we can give others through this opportunity.

This past week, like the others before it,  went by lightning fast.  We are officially a very busy family of five.  S wasn't feeling well last weekend and Monday so I stayed home with her.  We got her into the doctor and she went back on antibiotics as they think we didn't get her last round of illness killed off with the previous antibiotics.  I felt like such an over reacting mom hauling her back in, they weren't nearly as concerned with her cough as I was instead focusing on the yuck in her eyes and nose.  Happy to say that she is back to normal a week later.

Wednesday was Magnet School information night.  We are praying that M will get to start kindergarten in a Language and Culture magnet school, their language is Mandarin.  If she gets in she will be in all day kindergarten where the morning is spent doing regular kindergarten activities and the afternoon is spent in Mandarin.  She will learn to speak and write in Chinese Character, numbers 1-100 and an additional 400 words in kindergarten alone.  She is really excited about it and was ready to start that day.  While many families are still touring magnet schools trying to decide which is best for their child we have only ever wanted our kiddos to attend this school.  Praying we get good news in April!

Thursday night was gymnastics for M and E.  S really wants to start but she has another year to wait.  Every time someone would not latch the gym door completely S was right there to run out into the gym.  I would have to go after her and break her heart as I brought her back to the viewing area.  She loves doing everything that her big brother and sister do.

Saturday night was our first Chinese New Year celebration with the local Chinese Christian Church.  Good food, great entertainment and fun for the whole family.  The kids in the church put together the cutest songs and dances.  Their choir was amazing and then their was a wonderful guest singer/speaker.  Our kids had such a great time dancing to the singing, M didn't even realize people where watching her as she danced up a storm.  We ended the evening renting a movie and snuggling on the couch.  S passed out as soon as the movie started she was so worn out from the celebration.

Sunday was S's dedication at church.  In our church, once a month all the families that wish to have their children dedicated stand at the front of the church with friends, family and the church staff to dedicate the children, mostly new babies.  We had some wonderful friends join us in prayer and our pastor's wife joined us and spoke the most amazing praise.  She had not met S before that moment and praised the Lord for healing hearts.  Had she met S before I would not have been surprised because we see how much more secure she is and those that see her on occasion have made the same comment that she is blooming before our eyes.  But for her to know that hearts were being healed just amazed me.

Sunday didn't end as well for daddy and I.  We had to make the painful decision to allow our old dog Dru pass on.  She had cancer and was doing horrible, in so much pain.  As soon as we got our kiddos settled in for the night I took her into our all night vet hospital.  I met with the most amazing young vet that looked at her without charging us another office fee.  She knew how hard this decision was on us and assured us that her quality of life was not there anymore and that surgery would be incredibly hard on her if she were to make it through.  This was the second dog that we have lost in the last year.  When Aspen passed away it was so hard on M and she was so upset when daddy had to take him to the doctor and we didn't let her go.  This time we knew that we needed to go when the kids were asleep and then talk to them about it afterwards.  M was the most upset, crying for a very long time.  These two dogs were the dogs she came home to, they were her first best friends.  She knows that Dru was not feeling well but her heart just misses her so much.

This week is another busy week with another CNY celebration on Saturday.  I will post pictures of the kiddos all dressed up after our last celebration.

Have a great week!