Kindle Fire Give-Away

We are excited to announce another fundraiser to help with the travel expenses for Vincent. We are going to raffle off a Kindle Fire 7 with LCD display. To enter the drawing, click on the donate button, enter the amount: $10.00 for one chance, and $25.00 for three chances. We will begin the entries today and will close them on December 19th. If you are not local, we will send the Kindle next-day so that you will have it for Christmas.

In addition, we will have two $25.00 Gift Cards for 2nd and 3rd place winners.

Please share this with your friends and family as a fun way to help us to raise money for Vincent's adoption, and take a chance to win!

Giving Thanks

I  started writing  this the day before Thanksgiving, pretending for a moment that I have nothing to do but sit here and write my blog. It reminds me of when I was in college, and would grab a fabulous novel to read during mid-terms and finals, and would justify reading when I had to study.I had no business writing when I had so much to do, and I never did finish the post. So here we go for a second try.

I have been cooking for my family since I was in 5th grade. Seriously. My mother got a full-time job that year, and while she was home a few house after my brothers and I returned home from school, she would run in, cook dinner, and get things together for all of us. I had watched her make dinner forever, and started asking if I could cook. Before long, I was changing recipes, experimenting with food, and more than capable of cooking for 8 people every day. I made cakes, desserts, and some pretty good dinners, if I do say so myself. I remember the first time I made pasta after Matt and I got married: I put the whole box of pasta in the boiling water, and Matt said "Who else is eating with us?" I had never cooked less than a pound of pasta! (Luckily we both like left-overs)

I always say I love cooking, but I hate making dinner. Cooking is fun and creative, making dinner is expediency and thinking of a balanced diet. Thanksgiving dinner brings both of these things together. There is expediency, what do we need to have, what traditions do we keep, what traditions can we put aside, and what is fun to eat? When my niece and nephew were little toddlers, I decided that I would teach them to make bread. (did I mention I am the only one who likes to cook of my sisters?) So I would go over to my sister Sally's house and Jeff and Steff and I would make bread. I can remember the fascination on their little faces when the bread dough rose and then cooked into shapes of their initials. Last night on Thanksgiving night we Skyped with Stephanie who is in Australia for work. I showed her on the camera our traditional homemade rolls I make now, some 24 years later, and promised her I would make her a whole batch when she gets home.

With another Thanksgiving behind us, I am thankful for so many things. Thankful for Matt and the kids, thankful to have my parents with us, so healthy and vibrant. Thankful for health and a wonderful career that helps me to provide for the needs of my family and to help towards the adoptions. Thankful for the wonderful friends we have. Last week our Shannon went with friends from school to help some of the victims of Hurricane Sandy, and we are all so thankful for the blessings of our home, electricity and heat. We keep all of those affected by the storm in our thoughts and prayers as they live with so much less than we have and yet are grateful to be alive.

Next year at Thanksgiving, I will be adding stories of our 'little guy.' At that time I will be thankful for completing another, and our last, adoption. Each day I am grateful and thankful to God, 'from whom all blessing flow'. Through his Providence, we receive 'every spiritual blessing in the heavens', and He has chosen to give us so many.

One of the many Thanksgivings at our house on Chesworth Road

One full table!

Cousins!

Celebrating 4 birthdays

Sarah with my Mom

A glimpse of the past...my whole family in Williamsburg.

With the Christmas season officially upon us, I am looking forward to another holiday. We are almost finished our room additions downstairs, which will be awesome when they are done. All three of the older girls are moving downstairs and they are loving it. We have one room completed, and they are sleeping in there at the moment. Before Christmas break when Sarah and Meghan will be home for an extended period, the second room will be done. There is nothing like spreading out, cleaning out old things, and finding new places for important things. The older I get, the less I keep, and the less interest I have in spending time organizing and cleaning!

Just a reminder about Goat Milk Soaps! They are selling well and all the profits go towards helping us to pay for our travel fees.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Goat Milk Soap Fundraiser

This is the first of our fundraisers for Vincent. We were so blessed to have so many people help us with Maeleigh's adoption, and to be honest it is difficult to begin the fundraising process again. People do not always understand that you need to fund raise to afford an adoption. Many people think that you should have the money before you begin the process.It's just not that way. What I know is that we have been asked to do these adoptions, and with them come the fees that are needed to pay for the services.

We are still selling bracelets, and I will post a new link to the bracelets.We are also doing a goat milk soap fundraiser. I bought some of these soaps to help another family bring their daughter home, and I loved the soap so much that I decided to do a fundraiser for Vincent. These are awesome stocking stuffers and they make great teacher gifts as well.

Thank you in advance for helping us to bring Vincent home!

Click on the Soap button to order your Goat Milk Soap.If you are local, we can save shipping and I can arrange to bring you your order.

Thanks!

Preparing

The last few weeks have been full of preparing for us. We have been preparing for Hurricane Sandy, and were out of power for about 4 days. We were fortunate that while we had a very large branch fall on our house from a tree in the back, everyone is safe an unharmed. The storm hit many people in neighboring New Jersey, so our hearts and prayers go out to all the people who lost so much in the storm.

This is a picture of all the kids (plus Meg's college roommate who rode out the storm with us)eating a pizza dinner after our neighbors loaned us a generator for a few hours. Don't be fooled by the brightness of the picture...it was pitch-dark in the room except for a few candles on the table. The only one who didn't mind the power outage was Shane!

The tree limb shook the whole house and made us very grateful that more of the tree did not fall!

We muddled through until Thursday of that week with no power. When the power finally came on, Maeleigh yelled "Thank God!" not bad for being here 7 months!


                                            




We are also getting closer to preparing for Vincent. we have our NVC cable and we are moving along to getting ready to travel. The next post will be for a fundraiser for goat milk Soap. Stay tuned!

This was hanging off the roof....we were so lucky it was not larger, and did not cause damage!