Meet This Week's Family!

Happy Monday!
I can't wait to introduce you to this weeks family! You're going to love their story, and you'll probably cry too, but that's ok because it's so sweet, meet The Lyles...

Can you believe this story? It gives me goosebumps.  Here is a little note from mom:

"We adopted a three year old girl from the DRC in November of 2012. When we traveled to pick her up we met Severine. The girl we are now in the process to adopt! She is the oldest child in her orphanage. We were not expecting on adopting again or at least so soon after coming home with our first adopted daughter, but we knew this little girl needed a family and we fell in love with her:) So as soon as we got home we began to work at raising the funds so she can come home to a forever family."

Ok guys, we need to get this girl home with her family! Can you imagine being the oldest in an orphanage and probably thinking you'll never have a family? Well she DOES! And we can help get her home! 

Give, share and pray guys, Pray we can get this girl home soon! 

So far you guys have raised $496.00 for the Lyles family! 

Let's hear it for the boys

So, our little guy will be about 3 when he gets home.  Let me tell you..it's been so hard for me to find clothing and accessories that I like for little boys! As my husband says "little boys don't accessorize Stephanie!" I still think the can. So, when I need just a little "blah time" as I like to call it (time away from paperwork, researching attachment , etc (because side note: I think all that is very important, sometimes you just need to vege right?!) )

So in my dreamland of Pinterest where price tags don' matter, I've found a few things that I think could suffice for my hopefully "will be a hipster hippie little boy" 

Is it just me, or did you see some accessorizing in there? 

All photos from Pinterest 

What's your style?

Happy weekend loves!

Doro Wot, Cupitt Style

Today we're sharing the best doro wot of all time. This is as tasty as what you find in Ethiopia. But before we begin, let me point out a few things.

1. Doro Wot smells divine. But it doesn't really photograph well. Sorry. Eat it anyway.
2. Those are not my man hands. Those are Brandon's. I don't really cook food very well.

OK, so now that we've got that out of the way, let's get on with it.

We buy ours at an Ethiopian market, but you can get the injera and the berbere here if you shop online. Injera ships out on Tuesdays, so plan accordingly.

let all that just chill for a while and then...

i like mine a little chunky, but you can use sauce if if you like it smooth

add a bit of water too if it's looking too thick for your taste

Now present it to your family. Here's what ours did. Abby looked hungry and sad.

Jude ate a ton of injera. 

Will thought he could handle the heat. But ended up guzzling a gallon of milk. 

And we ate 'til we could hardly walk, like we always do when we make this. The end. 

Camp + Asher's Room

Hey yall, it's me Wynne!  I am excited to continue Beth's series about babies rooms with inviting you into Camp + Asher's room!  [I've been meaning to take these pictures for a while...so I'm thankful for the kick in the butt to do it!]  Welcome!

Welcome to Camp + Asher's room!  This room was such a labor of love ;)  It was our former office, and acutally the day we accepted Camp's referral I was painting it to turn it into a prayer room!  But it was just too fiting that the room I spent many nights on my knees in prayer for our kiddos become their room.  The rug (in the pics of C+A) was something I picked out along before we knew who C+A were.  I thought maybe it was "too girly" for Camp but when Asher came along I knew it was perfect.  Since they share a room, I love that the color palet on the walls & their bedding is totally gender nuteral.  Grey & yellow.  Their bedding is the same fabric but just switched up a bit to make it look different and our color scheme really carries all the way through.  The baby shower's colors were grey & yellow (post here) and a lot of the decor in their room was from the shower - my bestie Jenna made the cute name banners, the pom's hung from the celing are from the shower too.  

Most everything else in their room has a story to tell and that's what makes me love it so much.  The number balls on the book shelf are from Ethiopia.  Alison brought them that cute grey + yellow bowl from Rwanda.  Beth painted the beautiful girl in the corner.  Camp's mobile is from my first time to Rwanda.  The pillows on the chair are from the t-shirts we made for them while we were fundraising them home.  And really the list goes on of beautiful things my friends painted/made/brought home them with love!  Their room is a sanctuary [well, except while they are screaming while they are supposed to be napping....] and I love every detail!  

Camp and Asher are sure glad you stopped by! Come visit us over at Gloriously Ruined.

The Fair Trade Fashionista, a guest post

Hey y'all!

I'm Brandi and I blog over at http://thefairtradefashionistas.wordpress.com. I've only been obsessed interested in fair trade for 15 months, 2 days, and 14 hours a little over a year. It's been one of those things that can feel overwhelming when you first scratch the surface. I declared, when I first started blogging, that fair trade had always seemed a little “hippie” to me. It was: smelling like patchouli oil (which has a very “earthy” smell), sometimes greasy hair, bare feet, no make up, an overall nonchalant attitude towards fashion, style, or even, in some cases, hygiene. And guess what y'all? That just ain't my style. I'm a self-professed product junkie. I LOVE shoes and bags. And I was raised right. Southern girls do not leave the house without their "faces" on. Just ask Dolly Parton.

So why did I feel compelled to navigate these "hippie" waters? Well, to make a long story short, we'll just say that God started breaking my heart for what breaks His. Orphans. Slaves. Poverty. But what can we, with our "first world problems," do to help alleviate these mostly third world issues? Well, what do we usually do to alleviate our problems? SHOP! AND EAT CHOCOLATE! AND DRINK COFFEE! Can I get an "amen"? I love the fact that these are practices we already incorporate into our daily lives, but we can, and should, make fair trade choices (for all three). :) And guess what, new Friends? It matters.

It makes a difference.

It's biblical.

(This is an extremely simplistic answer. And definitely not all-inclusive) Fair trade shopping helps alleviate the orphan crisis. By guaranteeing a living wage, extreme poverty is being eradicated. And when people are no longer oppressed, down trodden, and are empowered to work, learn, eat? Slavery ceases.

We live in an amazing time. There are so many opportunities. Companies are being started at a grass roots level to help these people in vulnerable situations move towards economic self-sufficiency. And guess what? The products are amazing! Stylish. Well-made. Pride has been taken in the making, designing, harvesting, etc so you can be proud to purchase and give for your closest friends and family, and for yourself (my favorite).

Supporting fair trade standards helps us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Haven't you changed jobs for better pay? Better hours? Better work environment? Why should our neighbors, whether they live in our same zip code, country, or hemisphere, be denied the same opportunities? By shopping fair trade and raising our standards, we're raising theirs as well. Just as faith without works is dead, I'd say "love" is interchangeable there with "faith." If you don't treat love as a verb and ACT, it's just intentions. And we know what they say about good intentions.

You might be asking what you can do? I want you to think big, but START SMALL. Your first foray into fair trade may be picking up a fair trade bag of coffee your next grocery trip. Almost everywhere sells it (even Wal-Mart!). I really love Target's Archer Farms Organic Fair Trade Tierra Del Sol coffee. And it's about the same price as most of the other bagged coffee too. Green Mountain Coffee is another option and they sell the beloved K-cups for Keurigs. While drinking that smashingly good cup of fair trade coffee, you can read a book. I'm an avid reader and don't even know where to start with this. I love Don Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, even though it has nothing to do with fair trade. It's about living your life as a better story. Or there's Jen Hatmaker's 7 that might royally ruin you. And oh. my. word. Melissa Fay Greene's There is No Me Without You?? I almost couldn't take it. And let's not forget Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunns Half the Sky. (This is meat, not milk.) And, for the love, when you decide to go shopping for clothes, jewelry, shoes, hats, or even makeup, come check my blog and see if there are any suggestions there for shopping fair trade. I've spent a small fortune on "research" for it and it pleases me, and especially my budget-conscious husband, to no end if people get something out of it.

So that's that for now. I hope this hasn't overwhelmed you at all and that you feel empowered to make some changes to your shopping habits and lifestyle. It's really painless, and so much fun because of how vested you feel in your purchases. I love knowing that my purchase has helped the actual producer/laborer. And you will too!

Go be love to someone today!

xo,

Brandi

Meet this week's family!

Hey guys,
I have the sweetest family to introduce you to, meet The Siebs...

How amazingly sweet is this video! Goodness you all are getting so creative! Anywho, they're waiting for a referral of a little girl form Ethiopia! So, can you help them get a little closer to their little girl? Maybe give a $1, or $2 or more! 

So far you guys have raised $1,410 for the Siebs

...and 6 months went by

Wow. Has it really been six months? On the front end of this adoption thing, six months was a really long time. Like time crawling kind of stuff. But now he's home and you know what they say... the days are long but the years are short. I can see that.

So in a nutshell Little Mister is adjusting really well. Attachment is not nearly the issue I thought it would be. He's attached. Check that box. Healthwise, you guys know the he had brain atrophy and some serious delays in the physical department. He's still a couple months behind the norm, but he's showing that he'll catch up. He even starting taking a few steps and walking with a little walker today! 

Likes: His people, snacks, and his green blanket.

Dislikes: Getting dressed

Here's a super casual peek into our day...

It was fun chasing him around with that camera. And it was grueling making that mediocre video. Sorry you guys have to do videos on Give1Save1!!! That bites! Ha! :)