T-Shirts to Bring Sophia Home - Giveaway!

Our next fundraiser will launch on Monday September 6th. We are very excited to share with you our t-shirt fundraiser. The shirts were designed by Stacy and her husband at My Cup Overfloweth who will be on their way in a matter of a day to get their son Solomon. They have been so generous to many families in the same journey that they are in and we feel so blessed that they are allowing us to use their t-shirt design. I absolutely love the design and I hope that you will love it too.

As a preview to our t-shirt presale starting on Monday we are doing a giveaway. We appreciate your help in promoting our fundraiser and to show our appreciation we are giving you chances to win a t-shirt. Here is what you need to do to earn a chance:

1 entry for posting our "Bringing Sophia Home" button on your blog
1 entry for writing about our t-shirt sale/giveaway on your blog
1 entry for posting it on facebook (if we aren't friends we will need to become friends for this one, you can find me at Mandie Allen Metier)

That gives you three chances to win. For every 50 entries I will add in another t-shirt. Leave me a comment letting me know what you have done.

The shirts are available in a unisex mens shirt in navy, chocolate and cactus green, womens shirt (not a fitted shirt) in brown and city green, and in childrens sizes in navy and pink.

Check back Monday evening for the launch of the t-shirt presale. The presale is from Monday September 6th through Sunday September 19th. I will submit the order to the printer on Monday September 20th and should have the t-shirts to ship within two weeks.

New Veggie Tales

I know I have shared before about my love of Veggie Tales.  I can't wait for the next one to be released, "It's a Meaningful Life".  My kids like them too but I don't know if they "love" them quite like I do.  I hope you enjoy the song playing right now, it's from the new movie.  In light of our journey to our children this song holds such special meaning to me.  We are all so meant to be, He has no accidents or plan B's, it's all as he devinely appointed.

Be Blessed!

LOA!!!!!!!

It arrived at our agency today.  We should have it in hand by tomorrow afternoon.  And as quickly as possible it will leave our hands and off to USCIS.  One more step done!

Please help this family bring their son home

My dear sweet friend Stacy is weeks from bringing her son home, that is once they raise the last $5000 they need to pay the in country expenses of the adoption.  Please check out the raffle to bring Solomon home.  They could use all of our help and prayers right now.  They have been fundraising like crazy and are nearly there.  Not only have they been fundraising for their family but have also been reaching out to others families that need ideas, support and encouragement in fundraising.  They are a blessing to so many, let's bless them back!

Just what I needed today!

Check out this post on We Are Grafted In.  It is so well written and brought a new perspective to me today.

Be Blessed!

People need to understand, children with special needs don't have an illness, so there is no cure and it's not contagious. They only want what we all want, to be accepted.

There are currently more than 2100 children waiting on the China Waiting Child list who need a loving family.  There are more than 143 million orphans around the world.  Do you have room for one?  Can you help a family bring an orphan into their home?

Not all are called to adopt, some are called to support adoptions or sponsor an orphan but we are all called to do something.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  James 1:27

What are you doing about James 1:27?????

No LOA

There was a very large batch of LOAs that arrived in the US today but ours wasn't in it.  I am trying to stay hopefull for later in the week as next monday marks 60 days for us.  Praying for good news later in the week.

M had a bit of a rough day today.  By 8:15 this morning she had had two bloody noses and had petechiae on her cheek.  Usually the petechiae is on the roof of her mouth so I didn't think we had low platelet issue when I dropped her off at preschool after her first bloody nose but asked her teacher to let me know if her nose started bleeding again.  Sure enough, I hadn't even made it to work and had a call from her teacher.  I checked in a little after 9 to see how she was doing and was told her bleeding had stopped a few minutes before but she wasn't acting her normal self.  Our standing order had expired at the lab so I waited for her hematologists office to call back and then headed out to pick her up for a blood draw.  She is such a trooper when it comes to blood draws.  As we were driving to the hospital she told me if one doctor (phlebotomist) came in the room she wouldn't cry but if two came in she was going to cry.  The last draw she had a month ago she did great with one so I hoped and prayed they wouldn't send in two.  Thankfully, we only had one and she did perfect.  The good news, her platelets came back in the totally normal range, she just has a virus and is already feeling on the mend after an afternoon of resting.

As a mom to kiddos with medical conditions I am always amazed at how well kids do with medical procedures and how it becomes a part of life to them.  It is also sad that blood draws, trips to the hematologist, urologist, vascular specialist, bone marrow tests, etc. will be a part of normal life for my kids but they all seem to do so well with it.  We don't know yet how S will do with it all but my guess is she will take it in stride and not let it get her down.  Shortly after we get home S will have to have an MRI for us to know more about her hemangioma.  This will be the first MRI that our kids will have had so I don't know what to expect, I'm sure she will have to be sedated or at least I hope so in order for her to stay still.  My husband had an MRI and I know how loud they are and that would totally scare her.

Now if our LOA could just get here so we can get another step closer to baby S.