Labor Day

Do you have labor day traditions? Maybe a last camping trip of the summer?

We are headed to a baseball game and spending the weekend with family. School here always starts the day after labor day. Anyone else feel like it robs the holiday of it's relaxation when you know a huge event starts the very next morning?

What about you? Have you started school yet? Are you going away for the weekend?

My Challenge

I have realized over the last week how even some of my own family members don't know about Give1Save1. What?!? I know. I was shocked myself. 

How many people do you know that are actual members of Give1Save1? Are you spreading the word? Half of our mission here is to spread the word. If we don't get our families names out there then we are limiting our pool of donors for them. 

Here is my challenge to you. Spread it. Recruit friends and family. You never know who in the world has missed those status updates completely.

Can you email your close friends?
Do you have a blog and can do one big post about us over here?
Here is the link to our About Page: http://give1save1africa.blogspot.com/p/what-is-thanks-so-much-for-stopping-by.html
Can you comment back here and let us know what you are doing to spread the word about Give1Save1?

Oh and please, please, please, if you know of a family adopting send them our way!!!

Keep sharing about the Maloney Family this week!
http://give1save1africa.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-family-meet-maloneys.html

New Family- Meet the Maloney's!

I love what I do here at Give1Save1. Seriously, I get to know the most amazing, generous people!

Our family of the week is the Maloney family. 

Hello Cuteness.

Lacey has done a really great job of keeping her blog updated and letting us have a view of their process. It never ceases to amaze me how God works. You absolutely MUST read her blog and see how God has worked every detail together to even bring them to our Give1Save1 page.

Posts like this one:

http://montanamaloneys.blogspot.com/2013/03/kinda-coming-together.html

and this one:

http://montanamaloneys.blogspot.com/2013/08/we-got-picked.html

Here is their sweet video. These stories people. These stories renew hope and faith.

They remind us that the world is so much smaller and

God is so much bigger than we think.

John and Lacey from Lucas Larson on Vimeo.

I believe that God is doing something big here and personally I want to be a part of it.

Who is with me?

I am praying for John and Lacey this week. I'm praying for their referral and peace and provision and strength for this journey!

Here is their blog:

http://montanamaloneys.blogspot.com/

And their Pure Charity link:

https://www.purecharity.com/lacey-tough-maloneys-adoption

Wednesday Check in

Phew. We started back up with schooling and it's grueling. As a family we homeschool our kids and this year we have three in school. One who is still learning the language.

Apparently, it's harder than I anticipated to practice your letter sounds when, well you can't make those letter sounds. I never realized how much B,C,D and E and G sound alike until today! Good night, but English is a hard language. However, I still contend that Chinese was harder...

Have you found any helpful teaching tools for teaching English as a second language?

I found this: http://esl-kids.com/
It looks really helpful with all kinds of printable worksheets and flashcards!

This one says there is a $25 membership fee. http://www.eslkidstuff.com/ Has anyone used it before me?

Help a girl out. Anyone, anywhere have some great links/websites/donotpanicadvice

New family of the Week- The Maxfields

We live in such a small, small world. Our family of the week was introduced to me through a friend from high school who has also adopted. I did a post about this amazing etsy shop.

I bought a t-shirt, which I love, and I asked for help in learning all about adoptions from Africa. All with this lady.

Lisa Maxfield

Now, here is the thing. I know there should be a video. But Lisa was in the middle of talking to me and applying for Give1Save1 when God decided to move huge mountains and put her on a plane for her court date in Ethiopia. Say, what?!? It was crazy fast.

Not so long ago I was on a plane coming home from China and I remember the numb feeling that jet lag leaves behind. I just could not in good conscience ask this sweet family to make a video. 

Why? Well...

 A. Nobody wants to see anyone looking that bad, nobody.

B. Nobody can think straight after leaving their baby behind in another country.

C. If God moved faster than we thought, who am I to stand in His way. Clearly, He wants the Maxfield's to bring their son home quickly! 

So,

Meet The Maxfields!

Once upon a time, a very, very long time ago, there was a little girl who met a little boy in first grade. They grew up and the boy fell in love with the girl when he was only twelve years old. He loved her smile, her brown eyes and the way she laughed and the funny clothes that she wore. He pursued her and eventually she realized what she was missing and she fell in love with him. 

God sent them far, far away to South Africa to learn all about Him and His work in this world.

Then God blessed them with a little baby girl from Vanuatu. They named her Koral.

Then God blessed them again with Caden from Ethiopia.

Then a little boy popped up in Lisa's emails. Boom.

 We all know how this story goes. We've all been there. A little face, a passion in your heart and you realize that you just found out you have a child on the other side of the world. 

 I may or may not be a little jealous that I didn't see his picture first.

 Yep, definitely jealous.

So, the Maxfield's need our help. This adoption is happening fast, really fast.  As is hopping on a plane before they can even make a video fast. That's a lot of money without a lot of time to get it all together. 

This family rocks my world with their determination to love the lost.

So, go spread this post. Spread it every.single.day.

Go to Pure Charity here: https://purecharity.com/lisa-maxfields-adoption

Donate a few dollars to help them bring Myles home.

They also have a blog to check out: http://justlove127.com/

One last sweet picture. Love this.

Blessings,

Update on the Bilbrucks

They got to meet their babies! Go check out their blog and read all about it and catch a picture or two. 

http://lovepouredoutandoverflowing.blogspot.com/

We also have their pure charity link!

https://www.purecharity.com/bilbruck-family-adoption

Who am I-Katie

You may be wondering who has taken over here on Africa's page. You may also wonder if I have my act together after this week. Don't worry. You are not alone. I wonder too.

I am Katie! I've been hanging out with my pal Tonya on our Asia page for a while now and I'm speed learning all about Africa and the many different adoptions here. It's all very new and exciting to me!

So here are some basics:

Family-
I am married to my college sweetheart. He is the kindest man I know. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have him. We have four children, aka The Fab Four, one girl and three boys. They rock. They are ages 8,6,5 and 3.

Favorites (in random order)-

adoption, China, purple, broccoli, worship, The Old Testament, nature, Autumn, bulky sweaters, a man named Craig, justice, reflective writing, books, Psalms, running, Jesus, redemption, people watching, princesses, superheroes...especially small ones,wrapped in capes, that fly off of furniture...my furniture. 

Fears-

snakes, failing, losing things (an unfortunate reality), that someday I will bury my son, that the faces of orphans will always haunt my dreams, that the faces of orphans will stop haunting my dreams, that my children won't love Jesus, and snakes. Did I mention snakes? Snakes.

My heart for adoption-

My heart fell in love with Jesus when I was a young girl. Then I fell in love with adoption a few 

years later. By third grade I was in love with three things, Jesus, orphans and China. My parents smiled when I told them I was headed to China someday. Only God himself knew how long and winding that road to China would be. But He is faithful, always. The winding road taught me that. 

My writing style-

Um...well, I'm random. I'm sarcastic, and reflective and I like to provoke thought and conversation. I prefer each post to feel like a conversation with a friend over a cup of coffee. 

What I love about Give1Save1-

Oh man. Seriously? What isn't to love? I think I love the hope it brings the most. I remember going through the adoption process ourselves last year and the panic that financing such a huge thing brings with it. I remember looking at those mountains in front of me and having a conversation with God and asking Him if He was sure about this. My sister told me about this thing called Give1Save1, and I looked it up and emailed Beth. 

It was a breath of fresh air. It was different from all of the grants. Dude, have you applied for grants? It's a nightmare. But Give1Save1 reminded me of why we were doing this. We made our video and watching it reminded me that God was with us, that a little boy would die without us and that we weren't alone. Every dollar that came in, from people I knew, people I didn't know, people near and far reminded me that God was there in the middle of that dark time.

Hope, that is what I love the most about Give1Save1. 

And there you have it. That is why I want to be a part of this group. That is why I hope this thing grows like there is no tomorrow! I hope the whole world hears about Give1Save1 and the crazy ladies running it. It is my greatest wish that other families feel like they have a place to turn in the middle of a journey that is full of mountains. I hope that we form a community of people lifting each other up when we fall down, breathing hope back into tired souls and watching our Great God bringing the lonely into families. 

Be blessed,

New Week-Meet the Bilbrucks

We're up and running...kind of. Blogger is not liking me right now and I have no idea why. I'm not a computer person, at.all. But I'm determined to bring you the Bilbrucks and their precious adoption. So, I phoned a friend! Tonya from our Asia page is going to save the day and copy and paste this baby today. So, forgive us if things aren't lined up perfectly or looks funny. Without further nonsense I bring to you.....

THE BILBRUCKS

You guys must go read their blog. Something about it just draws you in and you can't stop reading it! Lynsey is so down-to-earth honest about this entire process. I love it. I love seeing other people willing to put themselves out there like this.
http://lovepouredoutandoverflowing.blogspot.com/

I'm kind of dying to see the face of Rubie Grace!
Malachi is precious, absolutely precious.
Did you catch that they are bringing home not one, but two sweeties? Two.
Double fees, double stress.

That's where we get to come in. I love this part. Give1Save1 exists for families like this one.
We remind them to place their fears aside and cling to hope.
Every dollar that we give reminds them that they are not alone.
We are fighting with them to get these babies home.

So, watch their video. Try not to cry.
Head to their blog and over on the right hand side find the donate button.
For now, head to paypal and donate to the Bilbrucks.

http://lovepouredoutandoverflowing.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-06-20T07:46:00-07:00&max-results=7
 (there is a golden button on the right hand side that says, "donate.")

Remind them of hope.

...I'll keep you posted on the pure charity link.

Bilbruck Adoption from Memory Productions LLC on Vimeo.

                                                --Katie

Almost Time To Meet Our Family

Happy Sunday, everyone! Get ready to meet or family of the week very soon.....stay tuned!
Tonya:)

I bid you goodbye for a while..and ask you to say hello!

Hey all!
Ok, so we have some big things happening here over at Give1Save1.  Let me just hit you with them. The first being that Give1Save1 is merging! Waaaay back in the beginning we were one big blog. Do you all remember that? Then we branched out and we now have Give1Asia, Give1Europe, Give1Domestic and Give1Caribbean .  That's a LOT of blogs! And a lot of families! So here's the exciting news...we're going back to one big blog! Here's how great it's going to be?! Here's why it's so fantastic, it will increase the range of readers which will (hopefully) increase the support we give our families each week! Also, it will help with families who are just beginning to research adoption, they can go to one page and read about several countries, get connected with lots of families and hopefully get lots of questions answered! We're working on getting all the blogs together and they should be ready to merge in a few weeks, so make sure you like us on Facebook so you can be aware of our new page!

On another note, I'm gonna get real with you all. My hubby and I are in the process of two adoptions, from two different countries.  We're getting ready to bring our son (who will be 3) home in October, hopefully!(he's actually our second adoption but is coming home first, it's a long story) You can read more about our personal story here. Anyway, my hubby is going back to school, and we're quickly becoming first time parents..to a three year old! Life is about to get crazy up in here! So for now, I'm stepping away from Give1Save1. I'll be popping back in from time to time to say hey, share some Africa things with ya, but you are being left in GREAT hands! The mama's of the other Give1 sites are joining together on the new blog, and they love you and can't wait to get to know all the Africa families! The one you'll being seeing most around here until the official merge is Katie!

Katie blogs over at Give1Asia right now but is excited to get to know all the Africa families too! She's awesome! She and the others from the other Give1 site are pumped about the merge into one big blog! It's like we're all one big happy family! You'll wanna get to know Tonya, and the other Katie too, oh and Jennifer! These ladies all have huge hearts for adoption and we're all so excited to see new friendships formed from everyone being in one place! You know, the "adoption" friends you have totally "get" you, and now you can meet lots of other families who's little one's are from lots of different counties, who knows, maybe your heart will be softened for a country you never even knew about right?

Anyway, like I said, I'll still be around here and there. I'll be taking a break for a while, but I'll be back every now and then, and you know where to find me ;)  And like I said, I'll still pop in and out Wynne will still be posting too from time to time, and Alison too and don't forget Jessa, our newest contributor, she's in a BIG cross country move right now, but she'll pop in too :)

So pop over to our personal pages and say hey! Let us know what you're up to! We'll do the same.

New Week, New Family! Meet the Hopkins!

You guys, I want you to meet this family. They are awesome! Meet The Hopkins! 




Ok, so get this..they're leaving NEXT WEEK! To get their FOUR girls! Yes, that's right, you read correctly...FOUR girls to their already awesomely large family. I love it. You know what, I'm gonna challenge you this week, I want you to give at least $4 (or more, definitely more if you feel led) to bring home these four little girls. We all know adoption is expensive. Super ecpensive. and we can help take some of that burden off. Imagine me literally on my knees, begging you for $4, ok got that image in your brain? Now do it, give this family $4 (at least!) and SHARE their amazing story!