Thursday, May 30, 2013

Update on the McKnights..they need some serious prayer!

Hey guys remember the McKnight's? Well they're in Ethiopia picking up their daughter right now!

Traditional Ethiopian Dress, is this little girl not gorgeous?! Watch out Nate and Desiree, those boys will be knocking before you know it! 

Being silly with her dad..guys..she has a DAD now

Love it. 


If you haven't had a chance to read up on the McKnights story, you need to, God's moved some pretty major mountains and totally changed their path, its awesome. 

But they need major prayers right now! Here's a brief note from mom:

"Ok calling all prayer warriors....We have been in a paperwork nightmare the last few days but unsure of any details so not posting until we knew . We truly need your prayers right now. They may not clear Fitsum to come home tomorrow and we are beyond beside ourselves, in complete shock and heartbroken. But this is not done we have been fighting for her FOR DAYS. We have a formal petition in right now and wont know anything until tomorrow morning 10AM our time 3AM your time. Please pray they issue us a visa in the morning, please pray for all of our hearts as this has been the most trying time ever. BUT we serve a God who preforms MIRACLES and He has preformed miracle after miracle before our eyes! We know He is sovereign and He loves His children! He is behind us and before us and we are praising Him regardless of any circumstances at hand because He has already conquered this! IT IS DONE! If our God is for us who can ever stop us? !!! The God of angel armies is always by our side!"

Say a prayer for them, we want their daughter HOME! 



Wednesday, May 29, 2013

What I Wish I would've known about the "Paper Chase"

How many papershcasers do we have out here? Being on our second adoption I learned some things the first go around that have helped save major time and $$ this second time.  Here are some tidbits I have learned..

1. Many times (at least in our case) some of the dossier documents you need are the same that you might need for your home study (ie: a physical) instead of taking two forms at two separate times, just take the form required for your dossier, our home study agency accepted that one with no problems because usually the dossier medical form is more detailed anyway.

2. get your home study done first! don't worry about your dossier as much in the beginning. As soon as you finish your home study, you can apply with USCIS, and then wait for your fingerprint date. So bust out that home study first and then work on dossier documents while you wait for your fingerprint date and your approval letter to come.

3. Keep every single receipt (you never know what the government will ask for when it's time to file taxes)

4. Keep everything in a binder, as soon as you get a document for your home study or dosser file it in that binder.

5.  Keep in constant contact with your social worker and/or case worker and as soon as you get a dossier document scan them a copy so they can check it and make sure it's ok and you don't have to do it again.  Some agencies many already do that (AWAA does) but if your agency doesn't, it's a good way to stay on the ball.

6. Try to get your fingerprints done early? I've never done this but know many people who get their fingerprint date with USCIS and then choose to try and go early, and actually everyone I know has gotten in early! We're waiting for our appointment letter now and we just might try to get in there early this time.

7. Read every single detail, some forms might have to be filled out with a specific ink color, check that.

8. Make copies! Even when you're not instructed to. When I get a form done, I always make a copy, just in case.

9. You gotta fight now.  Not everyone you're going to work with during the paper chase period will be as speedy as you want them to with forms.  They don't understand the urgency you may have or the need to get things done quickly.  You have to start fighting for your child now, but give others grace.  The paper chase is a great time to start sharing about adoption and you don't want to leave a bad taste for adoption in someones mouth because you choose to yell at them at the window of the doctors office because they don't understand your urgency. ;)

10. Don't let time frames discourage you.  Sure every agency gives estimated time lines of when your paper chase should be complete but every family is different and some hold ups you just can't control.


That's it!

Don't forget to check out our family of the week this week, they're writing everyone's name who donates on a frame for their little guy! Make sure you get your name on there. :)




Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Lead Me To God-The God Puzzle

Ok so first off, since yesterday was Memorial Day, maybe some of you didn't get a chance to meet our family of the week since you were probably swimming, boating, BBQ-ing, ect. Well, don't forget to go meet them! They're awesome.


I have an awesome book I want to introduce you all too, since I know you're either 
1. a parent 
2. an expectant parent 
or 
3. some how involved in the life of a child. 




Think systematic theology, kid style.  It's a book written about God and the Bible for kids! Something I've noticed as I'm picking up books for our little guys is that there just aren't many books that explain the Bible and teach about Jesus, yes we have the Bible but there are some tough subjects in there and just like we use other books to help us study God's word deeper, our kids need that too, and they need us to teach them.  I think as parents it's our biggest job to teach our kids about Jesus and His love. 

This book has the depth of a theology textbook, but it's presented in a way that is easy for children to understand.  What a great thing to go through with your kids over the summer and connect with them on a whole new level and watch their love and understand of God grow. 

I'm getting my copy..are you? 

They even have a Facebook page..go give it a like! 


Monday, May 27, 2013

New Week, New Family-The Gibbs!

Hey all,
Happy Memorial Day! I hope you have something special planned today to remember those who've severed.  I'd like to introduce you to this weeks family! They're so cute you'll die. Meet, The Gibbs!


They are just the sweetest family.  They're adopting two little ones! One from Ethiopia and one from DRC.  They've received their referral from DRC and are awaiting travel! We can definitely help lift some of the financial burden can't we?! Yes! 



Make sure you check back so you can watch that thermometer go up! 


Friday, May 24, 2013

I Walk for Water

Just wanna highlight this awesome book for you all that I found out about a while ago...and forgot to share! It's called "I Walk For Water" and it's a children's story about an African boys daily walk for water.  


So I did a little research about the author and she's a fellow adoptive mama! How awesome is that.  Anyway, I love that she choose to write a book about this crisis because it's a simple and easy way to introduce your children to the reality of our world and that there really are people who have no access to clean drinking water.  

Anyway, you can find your own copy here, check out their Facebook page here, and their blog here.

You really should go buy their book, I really don't think there are too many books out there 1. on this subject and 2. that are appropriate for kids...just think of the little seeds you could be planting reading this book to them... ; )




ps...say a prayer for us..we have a yard sale tomorrow for our adoption and we're praying God shows up BIG :)

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Olive My Love

Hey all,
I have a new favorite store on Etsy, it's called Olive Handmade.




I'm kind of into throw pillows and looms right now, so this stuff was right up my alley but not only that, Olive My Love supports adoption! For the month of May 10% of all sales will go to benefit the Sparrow Fund.  If you haven't heard of Sparrow Fund you need to head over and check them out.  They provide support, education and encouragement for families in the adoption process, as well as grants. Anyway, so shop at Olive My Love in May, and support Sparrow Fund at the same time. It's a win win. 


Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Real Life Wednesdays..find us on Insta

For this week's #thisisreallife highlights, you'll have to find us on Instagram where we shared our favorites ;)

Do you like that sly trick to get over to Instagram? I thought you would.

(old school instagram...)


But! 
We want to know something from you!
What kinds of things would you like to see on our blog?
Not guaranteeing that they'll all make it on here, but what would you like to read about?

We like to think we're a Christian-Adoption-Parenting-Style and decor-mama blog :)










Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Learning to swim..

This is kinda adoption related, kind of not...

I'm quickly entering a new season of life, the season of motherhood...

It will be here before I know it.  This weekend we took our high school seniors up to Lake Shasta for their senior trip.  As we were giving them advice about starting their new season in life, I found myself thinking that I needed to hear the same thing! I've longed to me a mother for so long, and now that the reality is coming up that soon (Lord have mercy I hope it's soon) our little man will be home.

I find myself pausing and while I want to fast forward sometimes until he's here, I want to pause because I know this season of my life is ending.  I'm beyond thrilled, ecstatic.

But as the school year ends (I'm teacher) I pause looking at my little students knowing that this is my last year, this time next year I'll be working with my own little guy on ABC's and 123's.

Someone tell me this is normal.

I find myself sitting and thinking a lot. Thinking about attachment and bonding, thinking about a plane ride home with a sweet boy who will most likely be scared to death.

I know not everyone can relate to this, but even as paper chasers, I think you go through seasons you know? The crazy busy season of photocopies and notaries, and then maybe notarizing again because you had the wrong wording once you got to the state office (oh was that just us?) But then you enter the season of waiting and thinking it will never ever end, but one day friend it will end! And all you've been reading about will be happening to you.

I find myself now more than ever needing to have total dependence on God.  I'm reading this awesome book recommended by our own Wynne, called "The Circle Maker" it's totally challenging how I pray and I've found that in this season, I'm in need and I find myself in constant prayer.  There's a part in the book where the author asks when you last hurt your knees from praying so long. I think my knees are getting sore, because I've been a prayin'! Praying for new seasons and new growth not just for me but for all of you too! As we are all on this road together, whether we've adopted, are adopting know someone adopting, love Jesus or maybe just a blog readers (we love you too!) I'm praying for us all as we're learning to swim in these new seasons we're in or entering. Remember when you learned how to swim? The water was so scary...until you learned how to swim..



Was that totally a jumble of nothing? That's how my brain feels at this very moment. Please don't tell our social worker ;)  And someone please say this is normal.


ps...don't forget to 1. donate to our family of the week
and
2. tomorrow is real life wednesdays! remember to tag us in your real life moments 



Monday, May 20, 2013

New Week, New Family-The Schills!

Hey guys!
I am so so pumped to introduce you to this week's family. The Schills!


Abby (mom) is a fellow Noonday Ambassador and I've loved getting to know her throughout our adoption journeys.  I remember talking with Abby before they even officially submitted their application to America World, and now they're getting ready to submit their dossier! They're hoping to adopt a little girl form Ethiopia, and I know you all can help them out!



Abby is also doing a giveaway for a $50 Noonday Collection Gift Voucher! So make sure you head over to their blog and enter to win! I know you all love Noonday! 



Friday, May 17, 2013

For all you Congo mama's

Have you guys seen these? So cute, I think my little guy probably needs these to show some Congo love to his buddies, anyone else plan on getting a pair, how could you not?!


Check out more on the Toms and Eastern Congo Initiative here.

Happy Friday loves!




Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Real Life Wednesdays

Last week we introduced you to our new series "Real Life Wednesdays" where we wanna feature some of our readers in their "real life" moments.  We've since gotten pretty techy and got an Instagram, I know, I know, we're big stuff now ; ) So you can head over and follow us (G1S1africa) and you can tag us in your real life moments this next week!

This week we're gonna show you Lindsay's real life moment..have you met Lindsay? She's blogs over at our G1S1 Caribbean site , go check out her story, they've had one heck of a year-show her some love. Anyway Lindsey tagged us in this pic





They've finally been i600 approved! So awesome! One step closer! That is real life my friends, waiting with each other through the hard times and rejoicing in the great times! We're so happy for Lindsay.

Did you have any #reallifemoments this week? I know you did. Share them with us! We'd love to share your moments with you!

#thisisreallife


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Now What??

My husband and I are in full time ministry.  He's the high school pastor, and I help out.  We're gearing up to say goodbye to all our seniors soon, in fact this weekend we're off to our awesome "Grad Classic" where we take them out to Lake Shasta and treat them like kings and queens (ok, sort of, the boys have to sleep outside and it's kinda crammed) but they eat awesome food (which says a lot on a youth trip) and we get to spend just a few more days with them, just them and us. Before they go off to college.

I feel like graduation is a lot like adoption.  

You work so hard for four years (some maybe 2 years if you were like me and thought colleges didn't look at grades until junior year...) and then you get into this great college or choose a job, but you're kind of in this..now what? phase. 

You know what I'm talking about, where you feel like you should be doing something more because you graduated you're in college or you have a job. It's like, okay I did all this work and...now what?! 

I think that's kind of like adoption, you work super hard to get all that paperwork done, you get fingerprinted you have interviews, read books, fill out more paper work, ect, ect, ect (said like "The King and I ;) And then you ship off your dossier and THEN......

Now what?

You wait. 

And you wait 

And you wait

And you see what God has in store. 

When we started our adoption, I prayed for God to use our wait time for something bigger than we ever thought He could. 

He totally did

We'll be DTE one year on May 18th, and in just 1 year He showed

-open our eyes to special needs adoption
-widen our age parameters
-and then we found out about a little boy in West Africa who needed a family (in a country I didn't even know existed) 
- Blew down mountains to show us that we can adopt two kids, at the same time from totally different countries.

Ok, so if you're in that now what stage I'm gonna tell you exactly what I tell my girls who are about to head off to college and are usually freaking out if not now, in about 6 weeks...

Be open and ready for God to use you in ways you never thought possible.

Be ready to change, change is good, change is necessary.

The "what if" stage can be totally scary, but totally amazing if you let it happen.

Let it happen and see how big God is.


"God will be in control forever." 1 Peter 5:11 





Monday, May 13, 2013

New Week New Family, The Calders!

Hey gang,
I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day with your families and if you're waiting to meet your little one I hope your heart was full with anticipation! Meet this week's new family, The Calders !







so far you have blessed this family with $735!


They've just received their referral from Ethiopia and are expecting a court date soon! Here's a little note form mom to help you get to know them a little better...


"Adopting is something that Jason and I had talked about even before we were married. We have been active with a Christian rescue mission (City Union Mission) for over a decade working with children from the urban core in Kansas City. In working with countless children that come from such a place of need, many of them being foster kids, God put in us the desire to open our home to a child in need. This plan always seemed very far off, because we had our own young children at home, but this past summer God spoke to both of our hearts and let us know that the time was not later, it was NOW.  We had always planned on fostering to adopt when the time came, but just as we were shocked that God was leading us to adopt now, we were just as shocked to feel Him leading us toward international adoption. Something that had never even been on our radar, that had never been part of "our" plan. We are so excited about bringing another child into our home. It continually amazes us how this process of adoption is a mirror of how we have been adopted into God's family. We can't help but be excited about living that out and using this opportunity to share our faith with others."



Awesome right?! So go ahead and give your dollar and share their story! Let's help this family with the last leg of their journey! 




*we are still partnering with Pure Charity, but allowed our families who had already been selected to be featured, to choose if they wanted to use Pure Charity or not, June 1st all funds will be going through Pure Charity.*

Friday, May 10, 2013

A fun post for mothers day for ALL you mama's out there, and meet our newest contributor!


Hey guys, 
I think that post title was the longest ever, but I couldn't think of a title for this post. 

I have someone I'm super excited to introduce you too, meet Jessa, our newest contributor over here at Give1Save1 Africa!  You can read about her and her husbands amazing adoption journey here on her blog, head over and get to know her a little, leave her some encouragement or just say hey.  You'll be seeing her post around here so you'll wanna check her out ;) I asked to to write a little bit about Mother's Day, since it's coming up super soon and all, and there are a lot of different emotions for everyone depending on what stage you're at in life, so-without further adue...Jessa...




There are few things in life that I have dreaded more than Mother’s Day.

Bungee Jumping.

Socially Awkward Situations.

Plague.

Mother’s Day has always fallen somewhere in the middle of those.

You are given a year grace period after marriage where Mother’s Day sails on by without a second glance. A card to your own mother, a few “Happy Mother’s Day” to some ladies you know, and you are good.

Even handing out carnations to the women who walk into church is a joyous occasion!

I’m not sure why Mother’s Day always falls on a Sunday, but “holiday makin’ peeps” certainly weren’t thinking about church-going women that struggle with infertility when they dubbed Sunday as the day.

No. No.

Not thinking at all about the fact that you will be surrounded by an abnormal amount of people who all have the same question:

So when are YOU going to be a mommy????

And I don’t know about you, but while enjoying a perfectly stuffed cream cheese Danish, sipping a far too weak cup of Styrofoam encased coffee, and trying to make friendly conversation, the last response you want to hear is…

“Oh. Well. We’ve been “trying”. But it looks like we are facing some infertility issues.”

I imagine this falls into the “Socially Awkward Situations” category.
#2 on the dreaded list.

To the credit of many well-meaning people, they didn’t know what they are walking in to.

I, on the other hand, knew exactly what I was walking in to. And I suppose that is what made the dread of Mother’s Day so daunting.

Until I met adoption.

Adoption has changed everything.
How dare adoption waltzed and mess up my perfectly sarcastic and somewhat miserable view on Mother’s Day. 

I was comfortable in my pity, until God decided it was no longer my time to wallow there.

Beauty from the ashes.

As many who have gone through the process of adoption may know, the phrase “growing in my heart” is thrown around quite a bit.
I always thought it was cheesy but that was maybe before I started to feel my own growth…sans elastic maternity pants.

In the “no show” stage, it is easy to “know” you are in the process of adoption. There is all the excitement that comes from sharing the news. All of the new questions, new trainings, new planning. But, there are days that, other than the mile high stack of paper on your desk, you sometimes just don’t think about it.

And unlike a mostly guaranteed 9 month pregnancy, after 1 ½+ years of waiting, sometimes you don’t WANT to think about it.

But the beauty of growth is that, in its time, blooms (and/or baby bumps) start to appear. It may take months, it may take years, but at some point, it starts to show. And you feel it.
You feel it move you.
You feel it change you.
You feel it as a part of you.

And it is beautiful.

And this year, as I approach Mother’s Day in my full term adoption maternity pants, knowing that we have a daughter waiting for us…
Knowing that we get to see her soon…
Praying for her specifically by name…
Resting in the beauty of God’s timing…
I’m not dreading another year of awkward conversations and the passing up of the carnations.

Actually, God’s promised me a bouquet of roses.

“God sent me to announce the year of his grace…and to comfort all who mourn,
to care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
A praising heart instead of a languid spirit.”
Isaiah 61:2-3 (The Message)

So Happy Mother’s Day.

To all of you who are mothers.
To all of you who will one day be mothers.
To all of you who have come from the ashes into the beautiful story of God building family through adoption. 

Thursday, May 9, 2013

THRIVE

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a conference with my hubby called THRIVE.  It was here in Northern California and was a conference for leaders in ministry.  My husband is a youth pastor, we work with high school students.

I'll be honest I don't usually go to conferences with him, but this time hearing that Francis Chan was speaking, I was hooked pretty fast

I had such a blast being leaders form all over the country, getting pumped up about ministry again.  Sometimes ministry is rough, it can be draining and you can feel like the life is sucked out of you, but I can honestly say that after this conference I'm pumped up again to serve our youth and our city.

Basically we had discipleship hammered into our heads.  I'm all about the discipleship method, because well, Jesus did it.  And I believe relationships are super important. I think sometimes, all too often we might use the "turn or burn" method with evangelism (and I'm not a huge fan of that word-evangelism, but since it was used in the session I'll use it ;) ) And that tactic definitely might work in certain situations, but most likely, you'll need to build a solid relationship before you're able to share about your faith, right?

Think back to before you were a christian, someone..somewhere was probably involved in your life, had a personal relationship with you.  They might not have pounded theology down your throat but you knew something was different about them..they showed their Jesus through their relationship with you right? Totally. And maybe you weren't even connected with that person when you actually became a believer (but I hope so) but they played a key role in your life because they invested in you.

Here are some big points I came away with:

-Don't do fast ministry-one shot evangelistic projects don't change nations (now, they may get you in, but you've got to stay connected)

-Go knowing you'll be there for the long haul

-Connect vocations, this was so huge for me. Think of all the gifts the people in your congregation have-people like doctors and teachers can sometimes get into places "missionaries" can't. Use that

-Join God in what He's already doing, dont' reinvent the wheel, if someones doing it well, join with them

"Don't feel like you have to boil the ocean, start small..."

I hope that wherever God has you, you are being used by Him.  Whether you're changing poopy butts all day, serving in the Congo or working the 9-5, you are totally useful to God and I needed to hear that this weekend. Be used where He has you right now friends. 


"Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit"

-Matthew 28:19



Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Real Life Wednesdays, the inaugural post

Raise your hand if you more often then not, sit on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, twitter, ect and one of the following thoughts pop into your head.

"Man, there kids are always dressed so cute, why won't mine ever get out of their pajamas?"

"Wow, they post pictures of green smoothies every morning, I bet they never ever eat chick fil a or a big old greasy hamburger"

"Their adoption journey seems so easy, so simple, they never hit snags and all their paperwork seems (according to what you read online) to never have an issue."

"My house is never that clean"

"I have laundry that's been in the dryer to a week" (yep, that has me all over it, and yes, it's STILL sitting in there, I'll turn it on to fluff it up and then fold it..maybe..)


Or have you seen this pic? 
or better yet, is this you? 


Ok we all have those moments right? And we ALL know that no one is perfect, but why do we allow those negative thoughts to creep in?! It's ridiculous.

So, we're gonna start this weekly series over here on Give1, and don't get all freaked out that we said series, it's gonna be a fun series, where we basically get to show our whole Give1 family that we're normal and our life gets pretty messy!

Here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna have a little link up party.  Whenever you have one of "those days" we want you to write about it! Or Facebook status it up! Tell us and the world that you know wheat, we're not perfect but we're okay with it and we're gonna have fun with it! Every Wednesday we'll pick one of the "Real Life" moments of the week that has been linked up or that has been Facebooked (make sure you tag us) and we'll post it here so we all can encourage one another.

And this isn't just for moms, or even just if you're in the adoption crowd, we want to hear all your stories from whatever walk of life you're at!

Ok, I'll start..


My real life moment of the week:

Everyone has been applauding me on how fast how paperwork for our second adoption is going, truth: I thought I threw our NOTARIZED (you all know how important that is) doctors letter in the trash, on a Thursday (mind you trash day is Wednesday) so when I discovered on a Tuesday night that I thought I threw it out, I then went through like 6 days of trash-ice cream pizza, ranch dressing...I was IN the trash can for like over an hour.

Couldn't find it

Had a breakdown and thought life was over (I'm dramatic)

Opened the closet to get the vacuum

There it was.

I had put it safely in there so it wouldn't get lost..



#thisisreallife



We wanna know your real life moments! So, tell us and maybe we'll feature you!!!!


Leave a comment with the link to your blog in the comments section below






Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Adopt Shoppe

Hey y'all! Today I'm giddy over this share. Have you heard of The Adopt Shoppe on Etsy? Just have a look at these little babies...




Here's the catch though... Kate's so good that she can't keep items in her store! So here's what you've got to do... Stalk her on Facebook. If I find something good you know I'm going to tell you. Now you know. What's your fave? This one's mine.




Monday, May 6, 2013

New Week, New Family-The Cloars!

Happy day after Cinco de Mayo!
Last week was our first week partnering with Pure Charity and it went awesome! Didn't you all just love it?! I mean it was addicting watching that thermometer rise and rise, right?! And this week you can do it all over again, meet The Cloars.



Super sweet family that just accepted two boys off their agencies waiting children's list. They're waiting on a court date to go meet their two new sons, and we can be a part in their story.




 "But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving." 2 Corinthians 8:7


Friday, May 3, 2013

Cupcake Day is Tomorrow!

Two reasons I'm celebrating today. One is over to the right side of your screen. Do you see that bar?! It's almost full!!! I'm so excited! This has been such an awesome week of sharing. Thank you to everyone who gave to the Marrs family, and everyone who shared. These people are surely loved and so is that little girl.

But my other reason is that Cupcake Day is tomorrow. First of all, let's just come clean about bake sale stands and lemonade stands, shall we? Have you ever done these with your kids? The truth is that kids can be really gross and you probably wouldn't want to eat anything that an actual child actually made. True? It just feels like we need to talk about this. OK, last year "Will" had a lemonade stand (parentheses because Will was quickly bored and we were quickly exhausted and out a few bucks). We do them quite often actually. So anyway, a cop comes by and asks for some lemonade. Will is, at this point, completely bored from sitting in the front yard for 20 minutes (sigh), and hardly responds. We are prompting him to use his manners, to stand up and get his customer some lemonade for-crying-out-loud, so he finally does. First he fills the cup up just a tiny bit and we tell him to give him some more. Then he fills it WAY up to the top. It's so full that as he walks over to hand the police officer his lemonade, it starts to spill. He then ***drinks the lemonade down*** so it's not so full before handing it to the guy.


look at this tongue! it's the first one, but you know he's going to lick it


i bet you saw that coming. did he double dip? oh, yes, he did

Abby often has "worm juice" on her hands. She's the worm whisperer and I have no idea how they come to her. You know like in Harry Potter they have Parseltongues (geek out with me for a second if you're a nerd like me), and all the snakes find the people that can speak to them. I think Abby's like that with worms. Anyway, as much as I like to keep her hands clean, you do not want to eat something Abby made for you. Just be polite and pretend.



For the purpose of this post I let the kids make and decorate cupcakes. They are likely dirty, germy, ugly, and oversprinkled. Tomorrow I will help, I promise. I'm even making pralines as my own contribution. I will hover over this thing and keep my kids out way past when they are "done". I will remind and remind and remind them that the money will collect is not theirs to keep even though Will will tell everyone "he's going to buy a laptop" with his earnings. He means "donate to imprisoned children in Africa". Sorry.

But still I'm pumped because there's something fun about a bake sale, right? I can't explain it. It sounds a tad silly, but the weather's nice and there's just something wholesome and fun about it. And when they get it right I just beam, you know? So I just told you some horror stories here, and ladies, you simply must comment. Don't leave me hanging like that. Do you do lemonade stands? Will you be doing cupcakes tomorrow? If so, send me your pics for next weeks' recap! And tell the real truth about it. You know you love the lemonade stand yourself!


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Mother's Day Gift Guide No.41 Style

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and I wanted to share a little No.41 goodness with you guys that I know your mom will love! 

I'm not sure if you have the lowdown on our Signature Bags, but with your purchase, you are not only providing a sustainable salary to the girl who made your bag, the additional proceeds go to feed a school child a hot, healthy lunch for one year. As of February 2013, our No.41 girls fed 870 secondary students and 36 teachers at a local village school in our area of Rwanda. 


Our paper bead necklaces and adorable new ruffle aprons go towards the overhead costs of the feeding program to help with things like: the cook's salaries, silverware, plates, electricity, water.. Basically all the necessities used to feed those cute kids! 


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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A Little Hirth Update

Hey guys, remember this lady?


Bob and Lindsay are in Ethiopia right now getting ready for court. There will be one more Hirth this week. I can't wait to see pictures! We'll beg her for a post next week, ok?

Today, can we just send our love and prayers with them? Prayers for their little girl, that she be protected while they are gone. Prayers for safe travels, a lightning fast embassy clearance, and God's peace in this last wait.

Do you have any prayers requests today?

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 
-Philippians 4:7