October GiVeAwAy!

Ten of you guessed it

and

Brittney A. you win it!

Our newest fundraising items now available are hand crafted

"got love? adopt"

Christmas Ornaments.

I was having trouble getting good pictures. I finally gave up so I could post.

These pictures don't truly capture the cuteness of these ornaments.

The are so pretty and festive.

They are available to purchase on our store site,

www.minus1project.com

In case you needed a push to start your Christmas shopping...every order of $50 or more starting today through November 10th will receive a free Christmas ornament.

Letter finder:

Post on the 28th: o c a

Post on the 27th: n i m m s

Post on the 26th: t h r t

Post on the 24th: e n a r s

--in that order.

So far...

we have received 7 correct guesses on our new fundraising item. If you haven't tried yet, give it a whirl. Rules and directions are on Sunday, Oct. 23 post. Join in the brain-teasing fun!

More photography fun and the last letters!

Upon seeing yesterday's post, Ben reminded me of some great action/silly shots he took with our camera of the girls. I wanted to be sure to share those, too!

This is the final letter-revealing post before the Monday winning post.

It is being posted early so that Mrs. Matthew's class has more time to work on the unscrambling!! :) Get to work, kids!

Be sure to find all the bright colored letters in this and the 3 previous posts. Arrange and rearrange them to spell out our newest fundraising item.

--Remember don't comment here with your guess. Email, takva73@gmail.com or message me through facebook. All guesses need to be received by Sunday, midnight.

Thanks for playing along. Have a great weekend!

Photography Fun!

Ethan enjoys dabbling in a bit of photography. His favorite subject as of late has been his sisters....like we've never seen them before. :)

Here are several of my favorites.

And like every true photographer, sometimes his timing is a bit off.

I think it is safe to say that he is looking forward to another little sibling to practice on!

(Add the colored letters to the others in the previous posts to spell out our new fundraising item...all rules are on Sun. , Oct. 23 post. And remember: DON'T leave your guess here as a comment for all to see!)

Hoodie weather

I'm not sure about where you live but here it is close to hoodie weather.

I really like wearing old jeans and a big, comfy hoodie.

Well, I really like wearing jammie pants with a hoodie but seeing that I'm well past the college years, I can't seem to bring myself to wear them in public.

I'm excited to post that for a limited time, Minus 1 Project will be selling hoodies.

We have three styles to choose from.

They're available to purchase now on our store site, www.gotloveadopt.com.

(Hoodie orders may take 3-4 weeks to arrive. Be aware of the possible delay.)

These will only be available for a limited time: Order now!

In other fundraising news: all the (-1) shirts arrived this week, were packaged up and mailed out!

Until the weather turns about 15 degrees colder and/or my (-1) hoodie arrives, which ever comes first, I'll be wearing my (-1) baseball tee.

This is now my new favorite top to go with my jammie pants! :) Please tell me I'm not the only one who leaves on jammie pants until the last minute and then slips on "real" pants right before needing to leave the house.

(photography by Lucy)

*Find the colored letters and get in the game...see post below (Oct. 23) for all the details.

Geocaching

Our family has a new favorite hobby:

GEOCACHING

If you have never heard of it or have never tried it, the best place to start is at www.geocaching.com .

In a nutshell, there are small geocaching boxes hidden all over the United States. You can put in your address under the "Hide and Seek Cache". A map (that can be downloaded to your phone) will show where you can find the boxes. And then the hunt begins!

The boxes are typically filled with trinkets, a log book and pencil. Rule has it that if you take a trinket, you need to put one in. (Our kids each take a few things with them in case they want to trade out for what they find.) You can purchase geocache travel bugs and coins that are trackable. It is a really neat activity to watch your "bug" travel from box to box. (The person who moves it, registers the movement on line.)

I really should have Ethan writing this post--he is much more in the know about this. He's even made his own box that is hidden not too far from our house.

It does make for a very fun, free family outing especially on a beautiful fall day.

You never know where the map will lead you.

Just beware...you may run into some wild animals during your search!

*taken on Tim's phone yesterday while searching for a geocache box.

(Don't forget to collect the colored letters and begin to arrange them to spell out our new fundraising item. See post below for details.)

The unscrambler is back!

We have a new item that we are adding to the store next week. I realized it should arrive just in time for our end-of-the-month give-away!!

Here are the rules:

-Over the next week some letters in my blog posts will be in color. (To insure that they stand out easily.)

-All the letters in the name of our new fundraising item will be revealed by Fri. 10/28.

-You need to email, takva73@gmail.com, or message me through facebook your guess. Don't leave your guess here as a comment!

-You may guess as often as you like.

-All guesses must be in by Sun. 10/30 evening.

-The names of all the correct guessers will go in a pot.

-Winner and our new item will be posted Mon. 10/31

The girls' whereabouts during school hours.

Since Lindsey came home, I've been asked many times..."What do you do with the girls during school time?"

The question for this school year should be..."What do the girls do during school time?"

Note the difference in questions?

During the past few years the boys have taken turns doing school with me while the other entertained the girls. I also schooled with one girl on my back (in the carrier) and the other bouncing on my hip when they were really little.

This year has been much better as far as interruptions from the girls. The two of them, for the most part, play wonderfully together with one problem. They manage to completely destroy what ever room or rooms they play in. I have decided that is the trade off for us being able to get school done in a timely and suffcient manner.

So here we have a picture of the girls engaged in a good school time activity:

They spent the longest time "reading" books to each other. When they had finished I don't think there was one book left on our big book shelf.

On the flip side,

after school the other day, I went upstairs to find this:

and their dresser looking like this:

and me scratching my head as to why they would think this was a good idea or how they got up high enough to hang clothes from the curtain rod.

The clothes are still hanging there because that's how we roll...that is until our social worker comes to do our homestudy update in a few weeks. :)

The unscrambler returns to the blog on Monday for our October give-away.

Have a restful weekend before I start giving you letters that will keep some of you up at night...you know who you are! :)

Motion of Mercy

That's the motion of mercy, Changing the way and the why we are

That's the motion of mercy, Moving my heart

Living for the lost, Loving 'til it hurts

No matter what the cost, Like you loved me first

That's the motion of mercy

God give me strength, to give something for nothing

I want to be a glimpse, of Your kingdom that's coming soon.

This song would be the follow up to my post on The Adoption Alteration (see below). I hope it encourages you, like it does me, to make an effort to extend a motion of mercy to others.

The early bird....

gets the Tervis tumber!!!

The adoption alteration.

Our subdivision consists of super fancy houses, moderate homes and some apartments. The apartments are mostly family housing for the university. There are many international families that live there. I love how the playgrounds near the apartments are usually like a mini-U.N. meeting--if only the real nations could get along like the kiddos at the playground!

The other evening I sat and chatted with a Chinese couple while the girls played on the playground. They were very interested in Lindsey. I was a bit concerned because after every question, they would converse in Chinese leaving me wondering what they had to say about this American lady.

As it got dark, we both decided we'd better be getting home. As I called for the girls, the wife came over and put her hand on my shoulder. I wasn't sure where this was headed until I saw the tears in her eyes. In her soft, broken English she told me that she has seen young girls on the streets of Beijing. She went on to say, "There is no life for orphan in China, she have no future, you have changed her destiny, she has family, she has sister, she has love, if she was left in China she have no one. You save her life, you change her destiny."

Now with tears in my eyes, I sincerely thanked her for her kind words. I assured her that we were the fortune ones. I explained to her how Lindsey has brought so much laughter and love into our family and that we love her incredibly. We agreed to meet up again another day.

As we walked home in our usual fashion, Lucy in the stroller and Lindsey speeding ahead on her bike, I thought about what she said. We have heard stories of the lives of orphans once they age out but she has seen it. She, maybe better than most, understood the awful truth of what Lindsey's life could or would have been. Broke my heart.

I then came to a new realization about my daughter's adoption. And as much as her life was altered due to our family's decision to adopt, I thought the real truth is that the Lord has used her to change my "destiny".

The purpose and plans for our family have been forever altered. There is such a powerful truth in adoption. The truth that we were loved long before we were born. We were chosen for no reason other than we were loved. The Lord didn't fear opening His heart and family to us. He certainly knew our adoption was not always going to be rainbows and unicorns and yet He adopted us anyway. He looked past all the "what ifs" and invited us in. He continues to love and accept us and keep us as we fall short.

Adoption? Be ready to have your "destiny" altered.

Encouragment

Last week I received a very encouraging email along with some super cute pictures. The sender, Mary, captured so well the purpose and heart of our Minus 1 Project that I wanted to share it.

"The more that see, the more will hear Him and the more Minus 1 orphans there will be. These shirts are going to give that person who was thinking about adoption, a nudge. The one who never really thought about it, a tug. And there will be less orphans."

Thank you, Mary and all of you who have purchased and wear our fundraising shirts.

Families stepping up and out to find their children and bringing them home.

Now, that's a Minus 1 Project!

Burn-out week!

Am I burned out?

Oh...no!!

The constant peace from my Lord, positive news coming from our agency, the lovely fall weather, some great new fundraising items and my perfect children are giving me some renewed strength in the wait.

(Did you catch the joke about my perfect children?)

What is burned out, then?

The Minus 1 Project Big League baseball tee.

American Apparel

Burnout fabric with a vintage worn-in feel.

This will seriously be your most comfy shirt and if it isn't the most comfortable shirt you own, we'll refund your money...after our little one is home, that is! :)

--we are placing the order for the baseball and white/black (-1) shirts this week. Order yours today, HERE, to ensure we have your needed size and your wait for delivery is short!

And just to be sure that you don't think, that I think my kids are perfect, take a peek at what the girls did the other day:

(I never thought I would need to vacuum out the inside of the dishwasher.)

I hope you have a great, burned-out (ordering) week! :)

Bear with me here...

I came across this quote from Ryan Bomberger in an article written about Steve Jobs.

"It's amazing to me that, in 2011, especially among Christians, how foreign a concept adoption is. Adoption is the essence of salvation. There is no Christianity without adoption, in the spiritual sense. Yet, in the physical sense, it is rarely considered an option"

It is rarely considered an option. Wow! I read and reread this--posted in on facebook hoping others would read and think about the impact of this statement. Do most people not even consider adoption an option. Do they quickly dismiss it as it's great for you, but just not for me options?

It kind of took me back to the old question: Is every Christian called to adopt? And I REALLY got to thinking--dangerous and scary all in one! You know the saying, thinking out loud? Well, I'm here blogging out loud. I'm not trying to offend or accuse. I am in no way saying that I am right, just blogging.

Do we need to be called to give food to the hungry. Do you need the Lord to speak and confirm whether or not you should offer some money to a family who needs some extra to make it to the next month? Do you need to wait and wait for a clear answer before helping someone in need?

Now, I completely understand that adopting a child is much bigger than taking a meal or writing a check. And I am not under minding those things--they are needed and can speak volumes of love and servanthood.

What I'm contemplating is the need for the lighting bolt answer or push to adopt. Should it not, at most, be an option. The orphan crisis is huge--stretching from local to international. The number of Christian families is much larger across the globe than the number of adoptable orphans.

"We have the opportunity to unleash purpose in a child waiting to be loved. All I know is that loving them unconditionally, adopted or biological, will allow their God-given purpose to flourish"

Shouldn't this opportunity at least be an option for all of us?

You can read the article in its entirety HERE.

In the Wait

We have heard some good news on the adoption front here. Referrals are set to pick back up in November and December--yes, next month!! :) We are one of the top families that have had their home study in Korea the longest--not a title we were going for, however because our wait has been close to 14 months our agency is hopeful we will be in the first batch of referrals.

Have they promised us? No.

Is my heart completely set on seeing my child's face by the end of 2011? No.

When you have been "in the wait", I think you learn to guard your heart a bit from getting too set on one scenerio because you know how quickly things can change.

And so I settle back into the wait. I am well aware (I remember from Lindsey) that the really hard wait begins after you've seen your child's face!

WAIT - to remain in readiness for some purpose

I like this.

I think it very well sums up my position here.

I remain waiting , am totally ready and so thankful for the purpose for my family's wait!

Adoption. It's worth every minute of waiting.

Smokey

If you have been following this blog since the summer, you may remember my post about our beach trip and the hermit crab purchase. Here's a recap: Our boys have been asking for years and years to get hermit crabs at the beach. This year on a whim we said, "yes".

Upon returning home from the beach the boys played and played with the hermit crabs, well, as much as you CAN play with hermit crabs. Two out of the three have survived--hermit crabs, not children, although Ethan did get a nasty pinch on his thumb that required a band aid for several days!!


And you know the saying: give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile!?


And so it began: the asking for more pets. We are a bit limited because of allergies. When the boys were little (before the girls) we had a bunny. Ben managed to drag the old rabbit cage from the basement and clean it. He saved his money, convinced we would say yes to something that could live in that cage. We eventually agreed to a guinea pig.


Fast forward a week: we arrive to PetSmart for our pet purchase only to find out that they had free baby guinea pigs in the back. (FYI: Apparently, when a pet has babies at the store they cannot sell them. They often have small animal babies for adoption. Good to know: we like free and we love adoption! :)


--I did feel a bit uncomfortable with all the "adoption" talk about this rodent. I know I might be a bit sensitive with this issue, but it seemed a bit ridiculous using that term. There is an adoption center where you sign your papers and appropriately so, some of us were wearing our "got love?" shirts. I'm thinking the gal thought we were a bit nutso over guinea pig adoption!--


And so it is that Smokey has come to reside in our home.
I have to say...I am not a big fan of animals but this little guy is really cute. He is very cuddly and personable as he squeaks at you when you enter the room and purrs while being scratched.

He fits right in around here!