Christmas Ornament Site Is Up and Running!

Our Christmas ornaments site to raise money for adoption is up and running!  Click below to visit online and purchase a handmade ornament (or two)...

A New Path

Hello everyone. I've had some adoption news to share for a few weeks but was waiting until I was sure before I posted it. As many of you know, we set out about this time last year to begin raising money and pursuing an adoption from Uganda. Throughout the year, God seems to have stopped us at every turn. Without going into too much detail, a few months ago, Gene and I began to sense that the time was right to continue our home study process. As we began to pray and seek the Lord about His plan and timing, a strange thing happened. Both of us, separately, were feeling pulled to China rather than Uganda.

At first I dismissed these feelings because my heart was set on Africa. But as I continued to pray, my desire for China grew and grew. One day I mentioned it to Gene casually and his response was instant and sure...he, too, had China on his mind and heart. We agreed to wait and pray and make sure this was indeed God's voice.

Long story short, through the past couple of months we have prayed and talked and discussed with Eden as well...and we have officially decided to switch our application with our agency to pursue another special needs adoption from China. Our hearts are full with the hope and joy of returning to China, with Eden this time, to bring another precious child into our family. Our hope and prayer is that if God sees fit, we will go to Uganda one day to adopt...in God's way and in His timing. We still have such a heart for that country.

So, in light of this great news, I have the ornament preview I promised in my last post. Gene should have the website up and running for orders by Thanksgiving...but, I thought I would at least post pictures of what I've been busy making to raise funds. All of these pictured are made from light bulbs. We will have a few that were left over from last year that aren't pictured. Here you go!

Snowman

Rudolph

Jolly Old Saint Nick

Penguin (his little orange feet are SO cute!)

Doggie

Each ornament is $10 plus shipping. They make great teacher gifts, too. Please keep us in mind this year for those small gifts you need to buy. Each ornament will come with an insert with our family's story so those you give to will know that their gift will give hope to a child across the globe who has never known Christmas with a family. I hope you all have a GREAT Thanksgiving week!

Trick or Treat

Hello everyone...I promised I would do a better job of keeping the blog updated. So, I thought I would take a few minutes to post some pictures of our Halloween. We are careful in how we celebrate this "holiday." For us, it's really more of a fall celebration...with candy. We don't do any scary decorations or costumes. We do, however, enjoy dressing up and trick or treating.

This year was by far our favorite so far. Have I mentioned lately how much we love our neighborhood and neighbors. There are kids right on our street for Eden to play with...and, the kids here actually play outside! I love sitting talking with the moms as our kids play. It's so nice. This year we went to a fall festival at a local church on Oct. 30th with one of Eden's favorite friends, Abigail, from ballet. Then, on Halloween night, we loaded up in the back of our neighbor's truck and rode around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Eden had a blast...and so did mommy. Daddy stayed home and handed out candy.

Here are some pictures:

Eden's costume. We gave her the Native American name "Little Happy Nut"...happy nut is how she was described in our referral paperwork by her Chinese caregivers :0)

Eden and Abigail at the Fall Festival.

And again...

Pure joy in the "jumpy fing"

All loaded up and ready to go. Notice Julia, the little girl in pink, dressed up as an Asian Princess, which thrilled Eden..."Mommy, Julia is Asian like me!" So sweet...

And off they go...

Have a great week everyone. Check back soon...sample ornaments are ready for our fundraiser. Gene doesn't have the website quite ready to process orders, but I am going to give you a sneak peak of what we have this year in the next day or so.