Cow and Chicken Update

I just wanted to give a quick update on the girls project to buy a cow and some chickens for a family in South Asia. (See post below!)

They worked hard, grinding wheat, baking bread, and spreading the word to friends and family about their project. Thanks to the generosity of many of their friends, they were able to raise $667, enough to buy, not only the cow and chickens they originally had planed to, but to also buy two rabbits, two sheep, and two goats as well. They were THRILLED to be able to meet and exceed their goal, and I wanted to thank all of you who helped them out by giving money or buying items they were selling.

Merry Christmas!!!! Hoping all our friends and family have a wonderful day tomorrow celebrating our Saviour's birth!!!

Some Chickens, a Cow, and Maybe Some Rabbits Too

Abigail and Bethlehem kneading bread for their fundraiser.

Some chickens, a cow, and maybe some rabbits too.....that is what the girls want to get for Christmas. They always collect the mail when it comes through the mail slot, and they found our Gospel for Asia gift catalog and asked me what it was. I told them it was a catalog to buy things for families in South Asia that don't have very much money and not much food either, and then went back to my dish washing. A few minutes later, I heard them talking together....

Abigail: "Look, Bete! Chickens...and pigs....and cows...and here is a camel!! What shall we get?"
Bete: "I like the cow."
Abigail: "A cow would be good 'cause they have milk to drink. If the family has kids they need milk."
Bete: "Chickens lay eggs, like our chickens!"
Abigail: "How 'bout the camel...what do camels do?"
Bete: "I don't know. I don't like the camel much. It looks kind of weird."
Abigail: "They have bikes and stuff too."
Bete: "I like the animals best."
Abigail: "Me too. Lets get some chickens and a cow."

They come into the kitchen....

Abigail: "Mama, we've decided to buy some chickens and a cow. Do we have enough money in our banks?"
Me: "Probably not, but you could earn it....it would be hard work though."
Abigail: "We want to do that."

"We want to do that." Raise $386. A two year old and a just-turned 4 year old. I explained to them as best I could how much money that was. They were undaunted. I asked if they would like to pick a couple cheaper items instead of the cow. They responded with "Nope, we want to buy the chickens AND the cow and MAYBE some rabbits and goats if we earn more than we need for the cow and the chickens."

And so they began trying to figure out how they would raise the money to buy.....

Some chickens......

a cow......

and maybe some rabbits too!

I asked on Facebook for some ideas from friends.....my parents, who pastor the church we attend, suggested they do a presentation about it in church and they could take up an offering. Several people suggested selling crafts, art projects, and baked goods.

They did their little presentation at church last Sunday, and I was SO proud of them. Abigail stood up and very shyly told people they were going to buy chickens and cows for a family in Asia and would anyone like to help......then, at the top of her little voice, she sang Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam - Bete stood beside her, but was a little TOO shy to join in. This coming Sunday they will find out how much they will have raised from that.

Several friends have found out about their fundraiser and generously donated money.

And then Abigail said "Why don't we make bread to sell?" I had been mulling over the bake sale idea, and while it is a good one, this is the time of year where there are so many sweets around that most people I know are trying to avoid them. Bread....homemade bread was a fabulous idea!! I suggested to her also selling freshly ground flour (we have a grain mill) - for people who want to make their own bread or cookies.

So that is what we are doing. For $5 you can buy a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread, made with 90% organic ingredients, and for $5 you can buy freshly ground Organic Hard White Wheat Flour. They will also soon be offering Soft Wheat Flour (pastry flour). If you are interested, email me using the contact button on the right hand side of the blog.

Several people have asked me what part of this work the girls do themselves. Because they are so young, they do need lots of mama help, but you would be surprised at how much they can do! (Especially Abigail)

Abigail and the grain mill.....all set to make fresh flour.

First you put in the grain, turn it on and then.......

Scoop out the freshly ground flour into jars or bags to sell!

When it comes to making bread......

Mix it all up.

Mix it somemore.

Knead it for 20 minutse (yep, she did it herself).

Let it rise, and before you know it, you have two loaves all ready to bake!!!!

As Abigail was kneading the bread today, she looked at me and said:

"Know what, Mama? We're making Jesus happy. That's the most important thing ever."

Yes it is, my precious girl. Don't ever forget it!!!!

Adopting on a Budget: how we saved, scrimped, and fundraised our way to Bethlehem

I've been wanting to do a blog post about adopting on a budget for a long time now, but haven't got a chance! We'll see how far the girls let me get......maybe it will be a two part series. :) Which means, of course that I'll write the first part and then for the next 6 months or so say "I really need to write that second part" and then I'll forget! I'm going to start our budget story back when we first got married, so bear with me.....I've been feeling I should share this....not so you can say "wow! what great budgeting!" but so that you can see how possible it is to get out of debt AND adopt with God's help and by giving up a few things that are not REALLY needs. And there are SO many ways to save money - the ways we saved money may not work for your family, but you may find a few ideas here that could help you think of ways your family can save money!

When Don and I met and married, he had a lot of college-related debt, a couple credit cards with balances on them, and a car payment. Total came to a little over $50,000. We talked and prayed a lot about budgeting, getting out of debt and our plans for the future. We decided that the best plan would be to get out of debt except for our house mortgage before we had children. And so we wrote up a rather strict budget. We sold his car (at a loss), and bought an older one we could pay cash for - in so doing, saving hundreds of dollars a year on insurance premiums since with a car not worth more than $1500 we only needed liability insurance, not comprehensive. We decided to be a one car family - I got a job with a close enough location and schedule to Don's that I could drop him at work in downtown Portland (no need to pay parking!) and drive two miles to my work, which had free parking! I got off 15 minutes before he did, so could be waiting outside his work when he came out. Besides saving a ton of money, it gave us the opportunity to spend much more time with each other than if we'd had seperate commutes. We looked carefully at each and every bill we had to see where we could cut out even a few dollars - by doing something as simple as paying car insurance twice a year instead of every month, we found we could save $12 per year, we were able to cut a chunk out of our electrical bill by unplugging things and turning lights out when we left the room, we checked email at work and at the library instead of paying for a home internet connection, we took quick showers to save water, we walked everywhere we could (to church, the grocery store, etc) to save money on gas. Not huge amounts of money, I know, but when you find say 10 or so ways to cut $12 per year, it does start to add up to a good size savings! We started by putting just the bare necessities on the budget and then added a $25 per month "entertainment/date" fund and $20 each spending money. Our food budget was $150 per month and our clothes budget $80 per year. We both love a good challenge and sticking to our budget sure was one! We had fun. We discovered tons of free stuff we could do for dates - we went on lots of long walks together and talked! We never felt deprived in the slightest.

I worked for a chiropractor full time at the front desk, and doing insurance claims, and Don worked for an architecture firm. We lived on my income, and his income went completely towards paying off debt. It was fun watching our debt going down, down, down and in Sept, 2006, just 17 months after getting married we sent in the last check. Out of debt! That first paycheck Don got after paying off his education was such an amazing feeling for both of us. Just a month later, we started our adoption fund, and were thrilled to find we were expecting our first baby! God gave us 12 precious weeks with our first little one, Autumn Joy, growing inside me and then she went to live with Him on Nov 18th. Can't wait to hold that little one in Heaven someday! On Feb. 14, we found we were expecting our second little one, and in Oct our precious Abigail joined our family. I had quit my job at the chiropractor in January for various reasons, and started working part-time throughout my pregnancy with Aba at a Christian bookstore. I was still able to drop Don off at work and pick him up on the days I worked, and on the days I didn't work, he took public transportation, which was cheaper than paying parking. We stuck with our same, strict budget and put all the extra we made in savings. When Abigail arrived, I was officially a stay-at-home mama!

When Abigail was 11 months old, I started getting the 'baby bug' again. We had talked about having two children by birth before adopting (adoption had been on both our hearts for many years, but that is a different story) so as to get some parenting under our belt, but I felt a strange sense of urgency, like the Lord was saying "if you don't adopt now you are going to miss one of the children I have planned for you". We decided to go to an adoption orientation at All God's Children International, an adoption agency that had been recommended by one of the patients at the Chiropractor I worked for. We went to the orientation session in Sept 2008 and the next day left for a two week camping/road trip to the California Redwoods. On that trip we read Jan Beazley's The Strength of Mercy and spent a lot of time praying together about God's plan for our family. When we got home, we celebrated Abigail's first birthday and signed a contract with AGCI to adopt from Ethiopia. We had in savings, just enough for the first big fee $10,000, but beyond that did not know how God planned to bring the money. All we knew was that He had a child already chosen to be part of our family and we needed to step out in faith to bring her home.

Our budget during those first few months of the adoption process was similar to what it had been during Abigail's first 11 months of life - we lived on Don's income, and had a little extra to put in savings every month. When we started the adoption process here is what our monthly budget looked like. Stop reading here, if you feel uncomfortable reading the nitty-gritty details of someones income and expendetures:

Don made $3358.33 gross pay per month. Just enough for us to qualify for the Ethopia adoption program to add a fourth member to our family. After deducting taxes, and $413.oo for Abigail's and my medical insurance every month, we had $2368.69 to work with in a month. Here is how we spent it:

Tithes and Offerings: $350-$400
Mortgage: $542.35 (we bought right before the prices skyrocketed....so thankful to have the smallest mortgage payment in Portland!)
Utilities, including cell phones (we got the most basic plan possible, and don't have a land line): $300 per month
Clothing: $10
Food (and other necessities like TP, cleaning supplies, laundry soap, diapers etc): $175 (went up from $150 when Abigail was born)
Life Insurance (paid annually to save monthly handling fee): $48
Car insurance (paid bi-annually to save monthly handling fee): $55
Gas for car and money put in savings for car emergencies: $150
Entertainment: $5
Incidental Expenses: $95
Spending Money: $20 x 2 = $40 per month

The rest, would go in savings and towards our adoption.

And then, in Feb, right after we submitted our dossier, Don was laid off from his job. Without income, AGCI could not let us move forward with our adoption. I felt like I was having another misscarriage, but this time, THIS time, it was just about money. Money was causing us to lose our baby......and there HAD to be something we could do about it. Collecting unemployment was out of the question, as USCIS would not approve a family collecting unemployment. Don started looking for work he could do from home and found a few families that needed drawings for remodel jobs. The owner of the little cloth diaper store where we bought Abigail's diapers randomly offered me a part-time job that would allow Abigail to come to work with me. We prayed. We cried. We met with AGCI and begged them to let us move forward on what little income we could come up with. And God said yes. Three months after Don was laid off, we were put on the waitlist to bring our daughter home.

Our income at that point fluctuated very much by what Don could find and bring in each month. Some months, he made $400 - some months $1000. He applied to many, many places and no doors opened for a full time job. We DID make enough to satisfy USCIS, but the average amount we actually had in hand (that we could count on to be there every month) to spend on bills was roughly $1200. To keep moving forward with our adoption, we had to carry Cobra insurance coverage and that with our mortgage, and utilities pretty much wiped out our income! Not only did we have bills to pay, we had an adoption to fund! We discovered that what we had thought was living on a super tight budget was actually quite comfortable living!

With Don working from home, we had some added expenses - to obtain and to be accessable to clients, we really needed to have internet at home. We needed more minutes on our cell phone plan. We cut our food/household expenses budget to $100 a month. We started hanging our laundry to dry instead of using the drier as much as possible. We prayed for God's provision.

I still don't know how God made the money add up. God blessed us so much and every single one of our bills was paid on time. We always had a little extra to give. Somehow, we ended our adoption with money in savings instead of being in debt.

For all of you out there looking to save money - whether you want to adopt, or whether you want to free up money to give to other families adopting, or to orphan/widow care, etc, or if you are in debt and want to get out of it, here are a few words of advice and some of the ways we have saved money.

The easiest way to save money, is to not spend it. Just don't. If you don't absolutely need something, don't buy it. Sounds simple, but it's harder than it sounds. Especially when whatever is on a really good sale!

Ideas along this line?

Don't spend money on anything to drink. Water is basically free and good for you. Sure it's cheaper to make coffee at home instead of buying it at Starbucks, but it's even cheaper not to drink it at all! And yes, you can stop drinking coffee or tea or soda. After the first 30 days you will hardly even miss it. I promise....we've done it!

Learn to cut hair (really, it's not that hard!)or just don't cut it at all - I cut Don's, and the girls and I don't cut ours at all.

Skip the makeup. Really - God made you to be beautiful without it.

Cloth diaper! You'll save a ton. I don't care what some people say about it costing the same as disposables. It doesn't (unless you don't wash your own and use a diaper service - in that case, it does cost the same). And it's totally not gross! We bought many of ours used, and have actually ended up diapering the girls for free by selling some of the diapers that didn't work for us for more than we paid for them - off-setting the price of the ones we kept. While you're at it, switch to cloth menstrual pads or if you're a tampon user, switch to a cup (Keeper or Lunette) - also not gross, although I was skeptical at first! If you're really brave, switch to family cloth - SO not gross! Feel free to email me if you have questions about any of this stuff - going into too much detail would mean this super long blog post is even super-longerer. :)

Don't eat out. At least, not often. When you do eat out - don't order drinks or appetizers, and go somewhere you can find a coupon for! If you can't find a coupon, go somewhere with decent sized portions so you can split. If you have kids already, check out which local restaurants have kids-eat-free options.

Clothes and shoes...when it comes to clothes, there are SO many ways to save money. One of the best, is to wear what you have until you wear it out. Host a clothing swap among your friends to get rid of what you don't like and get some new stuff for free. Shop at discount stores like Ross, or thrift stores and garage sales. I always keep a look out for clothes or shoes I can sell on Craigslist or Ebay. Here in Portland, we have a store called Next Adventure that sells hiking and camping gear, as well as athletic-type clothes and shoes. They take used gear for store credit, so when I shop at garage sales, I'm always looking for something cheap I can take there (ski gear, camping stuff, hiking boots) - I can usually get $10-$20 credit for every dollar I spend. Then if the girls or Don needs shoes, winter coats, etc. We have credit to buy them for a fraction of the cost of using cash. Whenever I buy clothes for the girls (at thrift stores, garage sales, etc) I pick up a few extra outfits I can sell on Ebay. The stuff I sell on Ebay (or Craigslist, or the consignment shop) pays for what we keep and gives us money to buy a brand new outfit every once in awhile (on clearance, of course!). In this way, I've been able to clothe them both for free! We also do hand-me-ups and hand-me-downs with close friends, which has been a huge blessing!

Barter! Use Craigslist to barter for things you need instead of buying! We needed our garden tilled, and since we don't have a tiller, it would have cost $50 to get it tilled. I posted on Craigslist that I had misc stuff to trade for rototilling and got it tilled for a pair of shoes that, while worth $100, I had paid only $10 fo at Goodwill. The guy who got them was thrilled at the deal and so was I! (We've gotten our garden tilled two years in a row by barter). I could have dug the garden instead of tilling it, but I know from experience that I'll get a better harvest by having it tilled.

Oh, and by the way - grow a garden!!! Glean, can, and freeze food for the winter! We've canned applesauce the last few years from apples we got for free from a friend's tree - another local farmer we made friends with sold us windfall apples for $0.10 lb last year.

Eat oatmeal for dinner. A lot. :) Did you know that polenta is very filling and you use one cup of polenta to 4-5 cups of water or broth and it makes a delicious, inexpensive meal for 3-4 with a little spaghetti sauce on top!

One of the most important pieces of advice I can give you, is that when you are budgeting, scrimping, saving, for your adoption or whatever....do not forget to GIVE. No matter how little you have, you will ALWAYS have enough to give. And it doesn't have to be money. When you find a good deal on canned tomatoes - pick up extra for the food bank. Give your time by volunteering at local shelters, outreaches or retirement centers. Offer to do child care for free for a friend at church so she can go on a date with her husband or just have a few hours to herself. When your garden is bountiful, and your shelves filled with canned applesauce, give some away to your friend who is adopting, or whose husband just got laid off. Support an adoption fundraiser - as much as I'd like to, we haven't had the money to buy other friend's adoption t-shirts + shipping, but we could support their adoption monetarily by sending the amount we knew they were making on one T-shirt (usually on a $25 t-shirt the family only gets about $15 towards their adoption - by sending them $15, you will help them just as much as if you'd spent $25!). Don't have the $15? Is there something sitting around your house or garage that you're not using? How 'bout that extra (fill in the blank) that's been sitting around for ages? Sell it on Craigslist! Have a fundraising garage sale and split the money with another adopting family.

Oh, and fundraising. We paid for much of our adoption by fundraising. We had good response from sending out support letters ( please don't ask your friends to sacrifice their hard earned money without first making some sacrifices yourself!) I was humbled and amazed by the generosity of our friends - I will be forever thankful for the extreme generosity we were the recipients of and the love and friendship that brought our daughter home, we put donation jars in local coffee shops, made stuff to sell, sold stuff on Craigslist and Ebay, and had multiple garage sales. When we sent out our support letter, we did ask for money, but also knowing many of our friends are as strapped financially as we were, we gave other suggestions - donate unwanted stuff to our garage sale for one! One dear friend went to her ladies Bible study group and each of them cleaned their garages and houses out, giving us TONS of great stuff for our garage sales. Whenever we would go pick up a donation of yard saleable stuff, we would sort through it and separate all the really good stuff to sell on Craigslist or Ebay. It was a lot of work, but then, isn't THIS worth all that work and more?



The only reason I share this in so much detail, is because I know how discouraging it can be when you want to adopt and financially it looks like it would never work. But friend, believe me - if God wants you to adopt, He WILL provide the money. HE owns the cattle on the hills....HE sees every sparrow that falls - every child without a family. He knows where your child is and how much money it will take to bring them home.

Money is so overated.

Awhile back I asked Abigail if she knew what money was for - she though for a minute and then said: "Sometimes we use it to buy stuff. But mostly, money is to give away." Very wise words for a three year old, and what I truly believe is the key to financial security. The key that is getting lost all too often in the materialistic society we live in.

We ARE still out here.....

Woohoo! She's TWO!

May 13th, we celebrated Bethlehem's second birthday. She was thrilled to receive, among other things, her first pair of scissors.
Playing on the sidewalk in front of our house....

in style!

These girls are so precious to me! My heart is so full of love for my daughters. I am such a blessed mama!

Well, it has been an all-time record length of time since I blog posted. So much has gone on, and I do hope to catch up one of these days, but for now, I will keep it short. :) I had planned, back in February to post about the lovely time Bethlehem and I had at the Created for Care retreat in GA - and of the many friends we'd made through blogs and email that we finally met in person - it was so much fun and such a blessing to be able to go. The highlight of the trip was watching Bete play with E, who was at Hannah's Hope with her in Ethiopia and meeting E's mama, my dear friend M! Anyway....I PLAN to post some pics from that trip soon....but then, I planned to post them sooner and I haven't, so who knows?!

We recently traveled to Bend to join in my cousin Ruby's wedding festivities. While there, many people commented on how much more secure and comfortable Bete was in our family than she had been in the past, and as I reflected on it, I realized how very true it was. Our little one has come so far. I am so thankful that God put us on this adoption adventure and made Bethlehem our daughter.

One moment during our trip sticks out in my mind and is so beautiful to this mama's heart that my eyes fill with tears just thinking about it. It may sound common place and un-special to some of you, but to those of you that have traveled this adoption/attachment road you will know why it is so special. I don't even remember when it happened, but we were in a fairly large group of people Bethlehem had never met before, and she and I somehow got seperated - I could still see her, but she couldn't see me and I decided to see what she would do. It took her just a few seconds to realize that mama was not right next to her. A look of concern came across her little face - not panic, just concern. She tipped her little head back and started tracking faces - as she surveyed the sea of faces around her and didn't find a familiar one, her look of concern deepened, but still, no panic. Then, our eyes met. A huge smile broke across her face and she dashed over and threw her arms around me in a big hug. "I found you, Mama!" she said triumphantly and hopped back down to play on the floor.

It was such a simple moment - but such a big reminder of how far our sweet baby has come. She was so secure in her approach to finding me - she didn't panic or get upset. She KNEW I was there and she calmly went about finding me. Once she did find me, she didn't cling - she just was happy to again be next to me, and was pretty much instantly ready to get down and continue playing at my feet. We have come far in our journey of attachment - and still have farther to go. But her attachment has a good foundation and her sense of security grows stronger as time goes by. Precious girl! The Lord is slowly healing your heart and binding it with his love. Your mama and daddy are so proud of you!

Okay - that's all for now. My girls need me! :)

Regrets

The adoption journey, like so many of life's journeys is filled with SO many emotions - ups and downs, tears and laughter, struggles and prayers. I have been thinking lately specifically about regrets. I have to admit, that I do have some, and while they are in the past and I don't want to dwell on them, I do want to learn from them. I pray that many of you on similar journeys will not have the same ones I do.

There are also many, many things I don't regret. I don't regret (although I did at the time) that AGCI wouldn't allow us to go on both the boy and the girl list because of our house size. At the time, it didn't make sense to me and I was very frustrated - we did not care what the gender of our child was, and there was, at the time a greater need for families to adopt boys. But God already knew about our Bete.

I don't regret that Don was laid off in the middle of the adoption process (although I did at the time). We had submitted all our paperwork and were waiting for wait list numbers. It was almost the termination of our adoption journey, and I cried many tears in the three months before we were allowed, only by God's grace, to move forward. God already knew about our Bete.

I don't regret for a moment the spunky, joyful girl God chose for our family. He DID know about our Bete and orchestrated many events that we didn't understand to make her part of our family.

But I do have regrets. I regret not trusting God more. I regret the anxieties I often let overwhelm me instead of resting in the knowledge that He truly DOES know best and has perfect timing. I regret the fear that I dwelt on too much - fears that the country would close down, fears that we would do all this work and end up not bringing a child home, fears that IF we did bring a child home I would be unable to be the mama she needed and we wouldn't bond 'right'. I regret minimizing my fear and lack of trust as 'normal' and that 'hey, I'm only human, anyone else would feel this way too'. I regret the times that instead of taking my burdens of fear, stress and anxiety to Jesus I carried them around with me for days before remembering that He was waiting for me to hand them off to Him and say "I trust you enough to let you take this - even though I don't know the what, when or why."

I'm not saying it is not okay to have fears....but it is NOT okay to not let Jesus calm your fears and trust Him to take care of whatever you're fearful about. I'm not saying it is not normal to have anxiety and to worry.....I'm saying it is NOT okay to let those anxieties and worries rule your life. To not REALLY trust God. God knows us, and understands us better than any person ever could - He knows that a mama's heart is intertwined with her child - He made us to be that way. He made us to long for our child, to ache for them when we are apart. He made us to be nurturers. But He also made us to depend on Him and to trust Him to take care of our children. I often thought during the process after Bete was referred to us "I'm sure glad Jesus is taking care of her while I can't". As if somehow me being with her and taking care of her would mean He didn't need to???? I want Him to take care of her when I can too.....because He does such a better job and without Him, I just can't be a good mama to my precious little ones that HE entrusted to my care.

My children are His, not mine. And I need to remind myself daily of that fact. Life is so much easier and joy filled when I do and I sure don't want to keep racking up the regrets!

One Year Ago Today......

One year ago today our precious daughter, Bethlehem, was placed in my arms. I have been thinking so much about that day - the feelings of excitement, joy, and fear. Thinking about how blessed we were to be entrusted with the care of this child. And remembering how I prayed for the Lord to give me wisdom and to make me the mama she needed to see her through the pain and fear of yet another major life transition. He did. With His help, we have seen our daughter go from a terrified, insecure baby, to a toddler who gains trust and confidence every day.

One year. A very short amount of time if you really think about it. I used to look at the blogs of mamas who had been home a year and think about what experts they were....and now here I am at one year home and I sure don't feel like an expert!!!

Today we celebrated Bethlehem. We celebrated the last 365 days that she has been in our arms (and she literally hasn't gone far from my arms in the last year!). She has brought so much richness into our lives. Here are some pictures of that day, one year ago - and then some pictures from today.

Our first glimpse of her - lying in her special mother's arms, having a bottle, relaxing - not realizing her little world was about to be turned upside down. Again. (Just fyi - bottle/nap time is NOT the ideal time to meet your new baby IF it has a personality anything like Bete's) :)

There she was. My arms had ached to hold her for SO long. And she was right there in front of me! Oh precious, precious baby!

This is your mama.

You have GOT to be kidding me! THAT is NOT my MAMA!

She was so scared, it broke my heart. She didn't know me - didn't know that I'd been praying for her, waiting for her, LONGING for her for the past 14 months. All she knew was one minute she was snuggling in the familiar arms of her special mother, drinking her bottle and the next she was passed off to a stranger. She didn't want to calm down, she didn't want to be fed a bottle by some strange lady - she wanted her special mother. So her special mother took her back, calmed her down, and got her almost to sleep before slipping her back in my arms. She fussed sleepily a little, then slept.

Together at last.

I couldn't stop staring at her! She was beautiful!

The little one I had prayed for so long was finally home in my arms.

The clothes she came with were huge - like 3 times too big for her. Just for fun, I dug them out today, squeezed her into them and put on the brown shirt I wore that day, one year ago.

Such a big girl now!

Daddy still Rocks!

Mama snuggle!

Now she cries if I don't hold her.....not when I do! :)

Aba and Tiny, loved celebrating Bete Day!

For Bete Day, I decided to let her choose what we would have for breakfast. She chose pumpkin muffins and after making and consuming some of them, we took the remainder, along with some cookies and chocolate to AGCI and visited with all the wonderful ladies there, especially our case manager, Christy. It was fun to see them all and show them how much Bete has grown in the past year!

Then we headed to Coldstone Creamery to use our free, no-purchase-necessary coupons we got a few days ago.

Waiting patiently!

Notice Abigail's mouth in this picture. This is how she usually takes bites.

Bete doesn't do anything half way. Not even little things like taking bites. This girl throws herself heart and soul into everything she does - I love it! (Except when it's a tantrum) :)

She takes bites like this......

Or like this.....

Or like this.

All done!!! That was yummy!!!

After running laps around the ice cream shop for awhile, we headed out for a snack at another place we had coupons for. :) It was a fun, quiet, family day, that ended with meeting my family at Ikea for a quick dinner before we headed to NCO where we volunteer every Monday night. A perfect day celebrating Bete!

We are so blessed. I thank the Lord for the last year He has given us. I thank Him for the hard times, the good times, the nights where I've slept for 10 hours straight, and the sleepless nights, the joys, the laughter, the tears, the lessons in love and the lessons in being less selfish. I thank Him for this little girl, the little one He gave into our charge just one year ago today, the little one who is already so passionate about Him and loves to sing "Jesus Songs" at the top of her voice (which is quite loud) ;). I thank Him for the sense of humour He gave her and the tenacity and strength I see in her character that will have her following Him even if her friends/the people around her don't. I thank Him for the wisdom He has given us this year in helping her deal with her grief/anger/fear from the huge losses and transitions she has had in her short life. (And I know He will continue to give us wisdom with this in the years ahead). I thank Him for helping us build a strong foundation for her bonding and attachment to us and us to her, and I know He will continue to show us how to grow and strengthen this bond in the years ahead. I thank Him for the grace He has shown me every day this year as I try and fall short of being the "perfect mom".

I thank Him for Bethlehem. My daughter.

Patterns for Sewing Pads

I've had a few people recently ask me for patterns for pads and wanted to do a quick post for anyone who wants to make some for themselves, or join in making them for others!

Here is a link to the pattern we've been using most often for the kits we've been sending overseas:
http://growlearngiveprogram.blogspot.com/p/sewing-instructions.html

And then links to a few more websites with patterns that I've either tried or plan to try!
http://manymoonsalternatives.com/make_your_own_pads.php
http://sites.google.com/site/shewhorunsintheforest/
http://theuncommoncrafter.blogspot.com/2008/06/menstrual-pad-tutorial.html

I also have a really great tutorial that one of the lovely ladies who joined the sewing project to send pads to Africa came up with - if anyone wants me to email it to them drop me a note with your email address!

And if you want to buy some:

Domino pads are SUPER! See previous post for my take on these. My favorites!
http://www.dominopads.com/

I've never actually used Luna Pads, but I love their company - besides just selling pads to the general public for personal use, they have a "Pads for Girls" program that allows you to buy cloth menstrual pads at cost for several different programs in Africa.
http://lunapads.com/

Colleen at Royal Buns makes custom cloth menstrual pads at very affordable prices. You won't see them on the website, but drop her an email through the contact button and she can give you more info! She made 75 night-time pads for only $2 each for the "It's a Girl Thing Project". If you've ever checked into buying cloth pads, you'll know what a SUPER deal she gave us on them! I love her wool soakers too!
http://hyenacart.com/royalbuns/

There are many other cloth menstrual pad companies and many free patterns out there - this is just a small sampling, and somewhere to start.

When we started cloth diapering, I thought - "well, I really like cloth diapers (and the money they save), but I'd NEVER use cloth menstrual pads - that's just GROSS". And then I saw how comfy the cloth diapers looked and felt next to disposable diapers and thought "Wow! Maybe cloth pads wouldn't be as gross as I thought". And it wasn't - actually, it wasn't gross at all. I like them 10x better than disposables!

Another great alternative to cloth pads (especially for tampon users) is the menstrual cup. I recently got one and am really liking it. You can find them at both Domino Pads and Luna Pads or at thekeeper.com

Okay, enough about pads for awhile.....pictures of cute little girls to follow shortly. :)