Across the Rainbow

On the other end of the rainbow there is a little one waiting in Korea for their family to be theirs.  That little one is waiting for a life of love.  And this family is not waiting to give that love.  They started giving their love when they decided to add to their family and make it "Minus 1" again.  Please check out their blog and this totally cool, colorful, rockin, rainbow raffle that ends tomorrow at noon.  Just click on the photo and it will take you straight to the rainbow of "Got Love!"

Fundraisers and Facebook

For those who may not know, my mother and I have been working since the early fall on fundraising for our foreign mission trips and helping adoptive families fundraise (that one is a work in progress).  We just branched out with some really cool new items.  We started a facebook page and you can find it under Making Footprints and if you haven't checked out our website you can go here and scroll through all the older posts to see items that we have made and sold to our wonderful supporters.  We are raising all the funds to use while we are in Costa Rica in May.  We are wanting to purchases Spanish Bibles to take with us, and help "the least of these" that we may meet.  If you know anyone that is adopting and would like to fundraise with us let them know they can email me at makingfootprintswithlove@gmail.com.  We are also working on t-shirt designs and I am hoping we can get those designs out for all to view in about 3-4 weeks.  These will be an awesome fundraiser for adoptive families.  The more we can sell, the bigger profit to be made (costs less per shirt).  I have posted all of our new items on our facebook page, so take a look and see if there is anything you might need.  And keep checking back on facebook, because you don't want to miss the upcoming giveaway that we are getting ready to launch in the next couple of days. 

This is my FAVORITE piece!!!

I want it for myself, but will

have to wait til I can get some more made.

I named this piece "Love Is Not  A Color."  It represents the love that makes a family of all colors.  We will definitely be making some more similar to this. 

Another awesome fundraiser going on is The Adopt Shoppe.  You can find this shop on facebook as well and on etsy.  Kate's store name is The Adopt Shoppe on both sites.  Her family is raising money to adopt their 4th child from Taiwan.  They just brought Mia home this summer and are in the beginning of the process again.  An amazing family.  You can read all about them here.  Kate is getting ready to launch a new item for her store and is doing an amazing giveaway to 5 lucky people.  The giveaway will end on Friday, so you better head over to Facebook and LIKE The Adopt Shoppe. 

Click on the above image and it will go straight to The Adopt Shoppe Facebook page.

Meant To Be

Each of my children were meant to be. They were each designed just for me, made for me, sent to me. So, for all those that have been posting what they are thankful everyday, here is mine. I am thankful everyday for the same thing. It is at the top of my list. I am so thankful that my children were meant to be. They each have a story, wether they came from "flesh of my flesh or bone of my bones." They are mine. They were meant to be hugged by me, kissed by me, loved by me, taught by me, and so much more. If they weren't meant to be then God would not have given them to me.
I love this song and it speaks everything that my heart feels. This Thanksgiving is meant to be. It is our first Thanksgiving all together. It is Leia's first turkey day. I will never be able to advocate enough for the orphan. I hope those who watch my life truly see the blessing of adoption. My life is blessed because of adoption. I have two more blessings that were "meant to be." I know the 147 Million Orphans in this world are meant to be; God wants them with a family. But, we are meant to give them a family or help someone else give them a family. You may not know anyone personally who is adopting at the moment, but there are so many families who could use the help to bring their child(ren) home. I have said this before and I will say it again, help them. Buy a shirt, donate money, anything you can do to help them bring their child home. You may not be one that can or wants to adopt a child, but you are still commanded to care for the orphan. So, I beg you, please help someone who is adopting. I have not met anyone yet through the adoption world who had every penny of their adoption expenses saved up when they started the process. I have not met anyone who did not have to fundraise and ask for money. I speak from past experience, we do not like asking, do not want to ask, and wish there was another way. But it costs to adopt. Yes, it sounds like tons of money and maybe there are ways to make it cheaper. Through years of research and two adoptions, the money all goes for something. Yes, there are crooks, but there is that sometimes with everything. Some money goes to help the ones who are left behind. People say, "Well, there is someone who is on a waiting list to adopt that baby." TRUTH PEOPLE, there are not 147 Million plus people who are waiting and willing to adopt. There are children left behind in orphanages with barely enough food to survive, the clothes on their back, and some orphanages so full not even a place to lay their head. That is the truth. Some orphans come from better situations, and thank you Lord (a prayer sent up) for those places.
If you are wondering how you find people who are adopting, you can click on the CHRISTMAS FRENZY button on my site and you will find 42 families who are currently in the process and are selling items to raise money. They will take donations too. You can also go to www.makingfootprints.org and click on the MISC icon and there are currently 3 families who are doing fundraisers through our site that would love to have a purchase made in their name. We have two more families that will soon be added as well. Please pray about this and help an orphan and their "menat to be family." Some families will get their child home and still have adoption bills left to pay (I know all about that, as well as others close to me do). It is my prayer that someone will be touched to help a family who is in the process of bringing THEIR child home.

Our Christmas, Their Christmas

Make Christmas different. Are we so wrapped up in ourselves that all we can think about this time of year is what all are we going to cook, who all we have to buy for, organizing everyone's Christmas lists, buying just to be buying, stressing over the holidays, that we forget what it is really about? We stress over such ridiculous things and waste our money buying things for people just so that they have a piece of junk to open that will more than likely end up in a yard sale.
So, make it different. Be the change. Buy a goat for that hard to buy for person that has everything and give it to a family in honor of that hard to buy for person. What would be more awesome than knowing your Christmas gift was money that purchased a goat for a family who is starving somewhere on the other side of the world? I think that is such a wonderful gift to receive. Someone else has something to help sustain their family instead of me taking back that sweater that didn't fit just quite right.
We go so overboard with me me me. I don't want my children to think that Christmas is just about them getting gifts. I want them to know that that is when other people in the world take a day to remember Christ's birth, and that we remember it everday, not just Christmas Day. We remember his birth and death everyday. We remember the life he lived, the examples he gave. The biggest example being, He GAVE. He gave everything for us. He gave his life. I want them to do things that they think Jesus would do if he were here right now walking with us (physically).
Like I said a few weeks ago we are doing things differently. We are trying. The last several years we started changing things, but I think this year will be the best. I cannot wait for everyone to open their gifts, the gifts that gave to more than just the person opening on Christmas morning. They give hope to someone else.
I cannot believe I did not know about Operation Christmas until this year. Beth Brodine, Mommy to Leia's His Hands Sister, posted about it, and I am so so glad. I told David about it and he was pumped about it too. Our kids had the best time buying toys for other children. They smiled, laughed, and ran up and down the ailes looking for things that they thought the children would want. They were selfless...not once did they ask me if I would buy something for them. In their little hearts they knew this was for someone who had nothing, never received a gift, didn't have toy of their own. If we all could be like little children with a giving heart. They kept saying things like, "Oh mommy, I really like this so I think this would be something they would like," "Mommy, they are going to love this," "Mommy I wish I could take it to them so I can see their smile, because that would make me so happy."
The ideas are endless of how to change Christmas. Their are those scraping pennies to bring their child home from an orphanage who are selling such wonderful things, buying animals and so many other things through www.worldvision.org. I have a couple links on the sidebar that go to sites of people selling some awesome things to raise money for their adoptions. And Operation Christmas is an awesome experience for the whole family.
So, when you start getting stressed over the holidays think on this....there are children and families all over the world who have never seen a turkey, will not see food on Christmas day or the day before of days after, they will drink Cholera contaminated water (if they have water at all), they will sit in the orphanage that is so cold their hands feel like they will fall off, children wil have no family to smile and play with through the holidays or after, widows are leaving their small children for 16 or more hours that day in search of a morsel to feed them so that they do not die, a baby will no longer be sustained by breast milk and the family will leave it on the doorstep of an orphanage because they know if they don't the baby will die, 30,000 children will die that day and every day before and after. So, be thankful. Be thankful that you can Be the Change and make Christmas different for you and for them.