Adoption: changes liveS

I have heard others speak of certain moments in their lives as, "A God thing" or "A God wink".  One of those moments when you feel something so strongly down in your soul, as if you have heard the Lord's voice through the emotions you feel.  I had one of those moments several weeks ago while comforting my older daughter during the middle of the night nightmare.

Unfortunately, from the day she came home, Lindsey has suffered from night tremors and bad dreams.  The other night she crawled into my bed crying, I watched as she snuggled in, dried her eyes and slowly went back to sleep.  Having the privilege of comforting and calming her in the night, impresses on me the reality of darkness defeated by love, redeemed by acceptance and trust allowing me to witness a small glimpse of the gospel and I realized that in adoption, the life you change might be your own.

Several weeks after Carson came home, I shared HERE that he taught me such a truth lesson in trust and love by letting go of his precious bottle, as I viewed as his only connection left to his birth country, and allowed me to hold it for him.  His bravery and resilience blew me away.  He was choosing to trust me and I saw so clearly the gospel.  Watching my youngest, I realized that in adoption, the life you change might be your own.

I could share story after story on how my life has been changed since we opened our hearts to adopt.  I think most adoptive parents and siblings would agree that they have been blessed much more than they thought when bringing home a child or two.  Kind of like wanting to reply to the famous line from strangers and friends alike, "He/She is so lucky to have you."  Seriously?  

Are you willing to share an "adoption life changing moment" on your blog?  If so, we'd appreciate if you shared the picture of our newest design.  If you do, please leave me a comment so I can be sure to go over and read your post AND I'll enter you to win a free "Adopt.  The life you change might be your own." shirt next week.

This new design is ready to preorder on our Minus 1 Project (www.minus1project.com or www.gotloveadopt.com).   We are working hard to make our Minus 1 Project site full of high quality, fun items to help celebrate and share adoption and foster care.  

Have a great weekend!

I am that blogger.

Tonight I was reading through a friend's blog post about their recent trip to Ethiopia when I saw my blog on the sidebar, way down, showing the latest post about 3 weeks ago.  I can remember seeing other blogs like that and wondering how can someone let their blog go that long without an update.  So a humble apology to all of you who have gone weeks without updating. :)

Somehow our summer has been just as busy as the school year.  A different busy but busy all the same!   I think part of it comes from our boys getting older and having their own agenda for the day.  I remember the days of just throwing them in the stroller or car, no questions asked and no complaints.  It is taking a bit more effort to keep family times just the family, but we're doing it!

A family week at the beach was just what we needed.

We returned home from the beach for a whirlwind of 2 weeks packed with swim meets, a birthday party, Guatemala serving trip, visit to my sister's and a skunk family nesting under our porch.  I'm looking forward to this next week of nothingness on the calendar to hopefully refresh before having to start thinking about school.

I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Soak in these next few weeks with your family before your calendar and days are full!

Tiaras for Teresa

I think many of you may have been following the Bartlinski's story.  Their daughter, Teresa, was adopted from China and recently passed away.  She left an amazing mark on many, thousands of people.  You can read all about her story on their family blog, www.ourplacecalledhome.blogspot.com.www.ourplacecalledhome.blogspot.com.


For the next 2 weeks we will be running a fundraiser for them to help with their medical expenses.

Triathlon of Faith

If you've been following our family's blog for some time, you know that we enjoy a good triathlon.  I actually did my first triathlon as a fundraiser for Carson's adoption.  It wasn't successful as a fundraiser but it did get me hooked on the sport.  My dad really enjoys them. His favorite line is, "I did my usual:  last overall, first in my age group."  I'm determined to keep doing them well into my 70s so I can be first (and only) in my age group. :)

This is Tim after completing his first triathlon of this season.

Tim has committed to travel to Guatemala soon to serve through Potter's House.  (You can learn more about this organization at www.pottershouse.org.gt.)

He designed this shirt to help raise the money he needs for his trip.  100% of the money goes towards his funding so we are keeping it separate from our Minus 1 site.  If you'd like to help support him and sport a cool, super soft tee at the same time, please let me know.  Shirts can be ordered/purchased through paypal to takva73@gmail.com or email me, kelly@gotloveadopt.com, for our address to send a check.

The shirts are $25 and come in adult small - adult 3XL (a tad more of 2x and 3x).

Thanks, friends!

Poolside Photo Bomber

I was excited this morning when our visors arrived.  They came at the perfect time for me to pack up and ship all that had been ordered and be home in time to take the kids to the pool before naptime.  I brought one of each visor with me for a photo op.

I think it turned out good and visors, great!  All colors are in stock and ready to ship, www.gotloveadopt.com.

 And just as I was taking one of my last pictures, along comes the cutest photo bomber in his fancy sun hat.

 He later tossed the hat to share a snack with a sweet little neighbor!

I hope your official first weekend of summer included some sun, water and a snack shared with a friend.  

Box Fun

While I have been working on organizing and consolidating Minus 1 store stuff, I've recovered some empty boxes.  I know you've heard people say how kids like boxes better than toys.  I am thinking that might be true:

 (My three youngest and two neighborhood friends.)

These boxes were houses, trains, buses, robots and more!

And just when I thought they had exhausted all uses for them.  This happened:

(Note the squirrel to the left of the stick.)

They made a squirrel trap!  The other four kids were upstairs waiting patiently, holding the end of the yarn, for the squirrel to go after the treat they left for it.  Carson, however, was just wanting to shoot it. 

They did "catch" (I use that term loosely:) one but by the time they came down the steps and plowed over Carson to get out the door, the squirrel had popped the box over and was high tailing it out of our yard.  I'm not sure what the plan was if they actually did catch it but I am sure it would have been a "catch and release".

Moral of the story:  When considering your next toy purchase, consider hunting down a few big boxes. I think they encourage imagination, team building, cooperation and a whole lot more.  (Not to mention that they are easy on the summer budget.)

New name...

What do you think?

We are working on our store site and most likely are going to drop the "Project" from our store name.  The Minus 1 Project originated as our blog title with the "project" referring to all the things we would be doing to make there "minus 1" orphan in the world.  We wanted to document all of our fundraisers in hopes of giving other families ideas and sharing what was successful.

I like the simple "Minus 1" for the store name and underneath something like 

"because every adoption = (-1)Orphan".

I'm hoping that will allow us to work on some new new (-1) designs.  I get loads of questions when I wear my shirts with that because people are curious as to what it means.  

**We were disappointed to hear that our new chevron "Take It All" bag is in very limited qualities.  If you were considering ordering one, don't wait.  I don't think they'll be on the site much longer.  We are searching for another great bag to replace it, hopefully soon!

www.gotloveadopt.com

 Take a minute, too, to read the post below if you haven't already about our store site.  Have a great day!