Allieisms

We went to our old neighbors son's graduation tonight and while we were there Allie needed to go to the bathroom.  She walked in, walked out, and exclaimed, "Mommy...the toilet is upside down!  Really mommy it is!"  I walked into the bathroom to see that the person who last used the bathroom must have been a man and he had left the seat up!  We laughed so hard at that one...I just love what little kiddos say!

Miss Allie at 3

Bookshelf for Allie & C's toy room

I love coming up with projects for our house and most of the time my husband thinks I'm crazy helps me to make my ideas come to life.  In our new house, the basement has been made into Allie and "C's" toy room and I've been trying to come up with some creative and inexpensive ways to make it look homey yet organized.  I'm so excited that my "bookshelves" worked!  We used vinyl rain gutters and spent less than $10!  I now want them in not only both of the girls' rooms, but also my classroom!!!

Winner!!!

The winner of the first Junkposse necklace is Ann!  Congratulations Ann!  E-mail me your address (nichole_paulzine@hotmail.com) and I'll get the necklace in the mail ASAP!

There will be more giveaways soon!  The next giveaway will be posted sometime this week and Allie will draw the winner on June 4 which would have been our two year wait anniversary for baby E.

Necklace giveaway!

For 2 1/2 years we've been acquiring things for "baby E" in our home that either embrace the Ethiopian culture or helped us to feel closer to him/her.  Now that we've decided that Ethiopia is no longer in our families future, we no longer know what to do with these things.  Some of them, we are going to keep to teach our children about the culture because we love it so much.  Other things, we feel could use a new home.

When we began our journey to baby E back in January of 2009, we began trying to learn everything we could about Ethiopia.  I began to surf blogs and soon stumbled across Junkposse and I fell in love with not only her jewelry, but also her story.  Tracy is an adoptive mom and grandmother and dedicates her work to various causes.  Her work is amazing and a portion of her profits goes toward numerous non-profit organizations.  Once I saw Tracy's work, I knew that someday I wanted to own one of her necklaces.

Our first giveaway is a gently used (I've only had it a few months) necklace that was made by Tracy and it's in the shape of a wing with the word Ethiopia inscribed on the back.  Tracy designed this necklace for the Ethiopian Angels because when she looks at the shape of Ethiopia she thinks it looks like it's shaped like a wing.  Take my word for it, is even more beautiful in person!

To win this necklace, simply leave a comment telling my why you would like to have it and if you have a blog I'd love it if you could blog about the giveaway.  We will be drawing a winner sometime next Saturday (5/21)...my first day of summer break!!!

More changes with the Ethiopia program bring tough choices

After much consideration, many tears, and a heavy heart we've decided that the best thing for our family of four ("C" included of course) is for us to withdraw from the Ethiopia program. With the new update on the CHSFS Ethiopia website about the wait between referral and 2nd travel being 1 year (and I have a feeling it will extend past that), we feel that even though Ethiopia is in our heart it's not what is best for our family.  We can't imagine seeing a picture of our child and not being able to bring him/her home for a year or more.  We want to thank our friends and family for the love and support they've given to us over the past 2 1/2 years as we have journeyed to "baby E."  When we chose Ethiopia we did so because we not only loved the program, but we loved the Ethiopian culture as a whole.  This decision was not an easy decision to make and we can only hope that our love for Ethiopia can be expressed in another way in the future.  We know that God put Ethiopia in our hearts for a reason and that someday he will make the reason more clear. 

Mother's Day

I am a mom of two little miracles, one I am able to kiss every day and the other I long for the moment when I am able to hold her.  Both of our daughters are amazing little blessings whom wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for their first mommy's.  Today as we are celebrating our family and how blessed we really are, we are also thinking about their birth moms who gave them life.  We hope that both of our daughters birth moms have peace today and every day with the choices they've made.

Happy Birth Mother's Day (yesterday) and Happy Mother's Day everyone!