Sevenly: Generosity Water

I am so excited about my latest venture. 

Have you heard about all the great things happening at SEVENLY? 

Well, I am officially partnering with them in their mission to do good via one of my all-time favorite things: 

t-shirts. 

Seriously, there are few things I love more than a shirt that gives back, and Sevenly shirts do just that. 

Know what else they are doing?

They are helping to bring Emily home!

That's right, for every shirt purchased via my blog (whether it's from a link within a post or the button on my sidebar),  a portion of the proceeds will go directly towards our adoption. 

And I could not be more honored to partner with them. 

They are doing so much good for others. 

Last week, they raisers over $16,5000 for End 7, which means that they were able to give medicine to over 33,000 people to protect them from those seven life-threatening, yet often neglected, tropical diseases. 

And this week, they are taking it a step further and working with something is very near to my heart. 

If you may recall, in October of last year, I went to Malawi to do clean water work. 

And my heart was forever changed by seeing people value and treasure water in a way I never had. 

So, this week I am so excited to team up with Sevenly to help promote Generosity Water, as they work to build clean water wells in Ethiopia.  Generosity Water is dedicated to ending the clean water crisis in developing countries, one community at a time by embracing creativity, forming strategic partnerships, and providing in depth accountability. In 2011, Ethiopia suffered from the worst drought in over half a century. As a result, an estimated 100,000 people died from the effects of drought and famine. To this day, 56% of their population still lives without access to clean water, making it the #1 killer of people worldwide. 

This week your support helps to build a well that provides clean drinking water to an entire community! We are not just providing a well but providing the tools for healthy upkeep of sanitation and hygiene. We are helping to sustain a whole community and keep many children alive and healthy for years to come! 

  I am so excited to play a teeny tiny part. 

I'm also excited to show you the AWESOME shirts this week: 

Oh, that last one. Be still my heart. I am seriously crushing on this t-shirt. 

The fact that it does something good for another? 

Well, you just can't beat that. 

Head on over to Sevenly, do a little shopping, and help bring Emily home....all at the same time. 

That sounds like a great way to start off your week, yes? 

Actually, I'm not all that awesome, but thanks for suggesting it

Today it happened. 

The moment I was half dreading/half expecting/half hoping would never happen....wait, that's three halves. Clearly I was an English major. 

By this I mean, today was the first time someone said something directly to me in a negative way about our white family adopting a black baby. 

Long story short: 

I was out running errands, and a lady I didn't know asked me how many children I have.

 I told her I have two girls and am adopting another girl. 

She replied with a big smile on her face (she's a clearly a fan of adoption, that one). 

She then asked the question that always follows the adoption announcement: where from?

I said Congo....she had a kind of blank look on her face at this point...

pretty sure she wasn't 100% sure that Congo is in Africa, so I clarified and said, "That's in Africa."

It was all downhill from there. 

Her eyes got big. 

Her forehead crinkled up. 

She looked like she had just tasted something sour. 

And she said, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, you must be a really awesome person."

Seriously. 

And why is that exactly? 

I think it was pretty awesome when I passed both Shakespeare I and II in college (both with A's, I might add), without ever having fully read one of his plays. (Confession: I have since read LOTS of his plays, and LOVE them dearly. But I was taking way too many English questions and reading way too many things in college, so Willy Shake had to wait. Don't judge). 

I think it's pretty awesome that I can remember everything....when we met, what you were wearing, what we talked about, and the name of your dog. Seriously, I have  crazy scary memory. I have to reel it in from time to time to keep from looking like a total stalker. I ALWAYS remember more about a person than he or she remembers about me. 

Maybe I'm just not all that memorable;

 I prefer to think that my memory is just extra-ordinary. 

I think it's awesome that I've been hit by a car....twice...with no broken bones or major injuries....

and lived to tell about it. 

I even think it's awesome that I can juggle....a lot.... and I'm not talking about the clown kind of juggling.

 I'm talking about my time management skills.

 They border on awesome sometimes....until my plate gets so full that I get totally overwhelmed 

and all the balls coming falling down around me. 

But, for brief periods of time, they are pretty awesome.

However, I don't think that me following God's call to take care of His daughter makes me awesome.

 I DO think it makes me obedient.

 But awesome? 

Not so much. 

We are all called to do different things.

 We all have different gifts. 

And just because what God has called me to do makes some people a little uncomfortable, 

this doesn't make me any awesome-er than anyone else. 

And it's a scary, dangerous thing believing that people have to be AWESOME to adopt any child, 

black white or otherwise. 

If we all sitting around waiting until we feel awesome to take action, 

absolutely nothing will ever get done. 

I can't help but wonder how many couples are sitting in their dens right now,

 talking about adoption, feeling the call, and convincing themselves that they are inadequate. 

More importantly, I can't help but think about those children sitting in orphanages waiting for families...

who are sitting at home not feeling awesome enough to adopt them. 

Want to know what I do think is awesome? 

The fact that out of all the women in the whole wide world, God picked little ole' me to be Emily's mom. 

Now that, my friends, is so awesome that I can't stop smiling and haven't slept well since we announced our adoption. It has nothing to do with being overwhelmed or stressed, and everything to do with being so stinkin' excited to be right where God wants me to be. 

It doesn't get much more awesome than that. 

Don't Say No

Did you know that at one point very early on in our adoption process 

(like two years ago when we were still just getting used to this idea and starting to talk about it), 

we said no. 

The $30,000 price tag seemed impossible and very overwhelming. 

Thankfully, God doesn't care about a number,

 and He worked over and over and over again to reveal His call for our family to grow through adoption. 

This happens a lot. 

People are called. 

They know God has placed adoption on their hearts, and yet they say no. 

It's too scary. 

It's takes too long. 

It's too hard. 

It's too expensive. 

But what if in saying NO, we are missing out on one of the biggest blessings God has in store for us? 

What if instead of saying no, all of these people said YES? 

Today I'd like you to take a minute to watch my dear friend Wynne's story. 

She's the girl who introduced me to Noonday and who stirred my heart even more for adoption as I followed her adoption story. 

She also may be the only person I know who loves Africa more than I do...maybe.

Her story is beautiful. 

God is good. 

And His love for us is nothing short of overwhelming. 

Fotolanthropy Film: "Gloriously Ruined" from Fotolanthropy on Vimeo.

30 in my 30's: #27 and how I've changed

So, when I turned thirty-one I compiled a list of things I'd hoped to accomplish in my thirties. 

Ironic how things work out sometimes because very shortly after I made this list and published it for all the world to see (and by that I mean the handful of faithful blog followers I've somehow convinced to come back to my blog on a regular basis, my mom, and the umpteen billion people who flock to my cake batter dip recipe) that God opened my eyes and I fell head-over-heels in love with Africa and all that that entails.

 And thus comes my problem: today when I look at my list, I'm kinda embarrassed. 

Where were my priorities? 

Were these things really the best I could come up with 

in terms of what I wanted to accomplish in a decade of my life? 

Seriously, tans and good fitting jeans were the best I could come up with? 

So, now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 I could change my list, updating it to align with who I am today and where my priorities lie. 

OR, I could leave it as a reminder of who I was and hope to never be again. 

It's not that I was terrible or awful or a heathen, but I was not living the life God wanted for me.

 I wasn't putting Him and His desires about my own. 

I wasn't living to serve Him and others. 

To sum it up in one heavy word, I was selfish.

 So, in an effort to both remind myself of who I was and hope to never be again AND challenge myself to live a life I can be proud of, I won't change it.

 However, I will perhaps put a new spin on it, starting with #27:  

Write something and have it published.  

Writing has always been something I've loved to do. However, my goals in writing have changed.

 I'm no longer writing simply with the hopes of entertaining or wooing others with my way with words. Instead, when I write these days it's with the hopes of inspiring others to step out of their comfort zones in an attempt to be the best versions of themselves. So, while my initial intention when making this one of my goals was to write something funny and creative and clever (that was also probably relatively meaningless), I am so very happy that God had other plans. 

And thus, I give you my published piece: 

See that fuzzy girl to the far right? That's me. 

And see that paragraph under the picture? 

I wrote that. 

This is the Noonday lookbook that we have used this past season to not only market the current Noonday Collection but also to help us advocate for our artisans and inform women across the country that their purchases matter and that even something that seems small, like buying a new swanky pair of earrings, can make a difference in the life of another. 

In it, I talk about how God has given me a desire to serve others, especially those in Africa. 

It's not what I intended when I set this goal for myself. 

No one will even probably remember that it was written, except for my mom, of course (hi, Mom). 

It's not at all what I had planned when I wrote set this goal. 

No, it's much, much better. 

Because, if nothing else, God is using this season in my life to teach me time and time again

 this one simple lesson: 

It's 

not

 about

 me. 

And that, my friends, is a goal worth investing in for a decade. 

He is preparing their hearts.

They talk about her. 

They draw pictures of her. 

They fight over where she will sleep and who will be her favorite sister. 

They pray for her by name morning, noon, and night. 

Instead of pretending to go to the store, my three-year-old pretends to go to Africa. 

And my eight-year-old won second grade president this year after giving her speech that included things like making sure each kid in Africa has clean water and a roof for their church. 

Not only is God preparing my heart for my daughter to come home, but He is preparing my biological kiddos' hearts as well. 

Seeing them get excited about Emily is probably the sweetest thing I've ever seen. 

God is giving me a front row seat to watch them come to understand how He shows His love for us through adoption. 

My littles get it without any hesitation. 

They don't think about the fact that she isn't growing in my belly. 

They aren't bothered by the idea that she will look differently than they do. 

They don't worry about how people will accept her or what people may think about our decision.

They just love her. 

And that's exactly the way I think it should be. 

Juggling and Dropping and Guest Posting.... OH MY

Hey, friends. 

This morning (by that I really mean this week), I'm feeling like one of those clowns at the circles, who in an attempt to juggle about twelve different things, drops them all on his head on his head. Yup, that's me...juggling and dropping and feeling a tad overwhelmed with all the adoption and family visiting and crazy kiddos who can't play outside because it's raining. None of these are terrible, but the combo is not working for me today...like pizza and peanut butter. Apart? Delish. Together? Not so much. 

So, I'm taking a little blogging break today and bringing you some words from my friend Laura. 

She blogs here and is happily awaiting the arrival of her first son next week. 

He will join their family via domestic adoption, and I'm waiting to see his little face like I'm waiting on the premier of the new season of Parenthood. 

Here are some words from Laura. 

Check out her blog. 

She's funny. 

Adoption: Not for Control Freaks...Or is it?

As McCall recently said... Adoption is hard, y'all.

I'm going to go ahead and admit something right here:  I am a control FREAK.

Anyone that I knows me is probably throwing some Hallelujah Hands up. 

It's true though. I tend to be very particular, and I like things to go according to plan. My plan, preferably. I like my ducks in a row, my eggs counted, and my socks in the dirty hamper. (Do you hear that, husband?) I think this is probably my reaction to some pretty life altering events: growing up with someone with a mental illness, my mother's death, even my house burning down a few years ago. The more things that "went wrong," the more I tried to control everything else.

Adoption was a wake up call. 

My husband and I have known for years that we wanted to adopt, regardless of our fertility status. It was something we felt called to. We always assumed it would be international. Wrong. We also assumed that we'd have the luxury of time to prepare. Wrong.

Let me just say that God was working here. 

We finally decided one day a few months ago that this was the time to get our "house in order." We were going to start putting money back and find an agency. The best laid plans, y'all.

That night, we received a phone call about an expectant mother wanting an open adoption. What?!  I didn't hesitate to say yes.  A week later, we were in an open adoption plan for a baby boy to be born a short 120-odd days later. We had no adoption savings built up, no baby things, nothing! We had been taking for granted that our calling was International Adoption and a long wait. But we heard God calling for this immediate need. This baby needed us. This situation needed us.

This entire journey has been a lesson in releasing control, enjoying the experience, and trusting the Lord. He, literally, brought us to it, and He, definitely, is bringing us through it. We are overjoyed at how it has been fitted together, knowing completely that domestic open adoption is a perfect fit for us right now. 

So if you think, "Gosh, I could never do that..."  Think again. If you feel the calling, jump in with both feet. The time may never be perfect. The money may not be right there. But God is.

Grow Your Blog Giveaway: The Inside Scoop

First of all, I simply cannot say THANK YOU 

enough to every single person who donated and shared about the Grow Your Blog Giveaway. 

It exceeded my every expectation and my every hope. 

The number one thing I will take away from last week? 

There are some amazing people out there. 

It makes me wish our world was smaller. 

There are so many amazing women out there that I wish were my friends and neighbors. 

So many awesome, inspiring stories I'd love to hear over cups of coffee on my back patio. 

So many people who already love my girl. 

And for the sake of being transparent (and for the several of you who asked),

 let's talk for a minute about the details of this giveaway. 

I have been thinking about our adoption and planning out ways to raise funds for about two years now. 

Doing research, reading blogs, asking others. 

To clarify, I am a planner. I love making lists. I love schedules. 

And of all the things I'd planned out for our adoption, this was not one of them. 

This idea came to me on the couch last month...watching 'New Girl' reruns on Netflix...looking at Instagram on my phone....thinking about how if only MY blog were bigger I could maybe sell some more t-shirts (which you can order here, btw. This mama ain't too proud to beg.). 

And then it just came to me, the idea that others out there want to grow their blogs as well.

 So, I made a little list (it's what I do best...seriously. I make a mean list.) of a few of my favorite bloggers. This part was easy, as these are bloggers I've loved for a long time...I may even sometimes forget that I don't know them in real life. After I had my list, I hopped on the computer, quickly found their e-mail addresses, and sent them a message telling them what I was hoping to do 

and asking if they'd be willing to donate ad. space. 

The funny part? 

They all said yes...some within the first thirty minutes.

And I cried. 

Then I headed over to Etsy to see if I could round up a few additional prizes. 

They all said yes too. 

Moral of the story: DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK!

 You just never know!

 And what's the worst that could happen? 

They'll say no or won't respond. 

If I had a penny for every time I've been told NO in my life, 

well, let's just say I wouldn't be so worried about selling t-shirts to bring Emily home. 

And my girl is worth putting myself out there and stretching my comfort zone.

After that, the rest was easy, I simply headed over to picmonkey and made some images for Instagram (this is because my phone is one step away from being considered museum worthy and officially labeled an antique. Those of you with newer phones could skip this step.).

I created this one for Pinterest: 

And these (plus two more, but you get the idea) for Instagram, facebook, and Twitter: 

After that, all I really did was share on social media. 

I will say that I am so very thankful for Twitter, and facebook, and Instagram, and Pinterest, and the amazing Blog world, and so in awe of people who fundraised pre-social media. 

Not only did I help raise some much needed funds to bring my girl home, but I have 'met' some of the most WONDERFUL people this past week!

And I cried some more. 

I am so humbled by all of the people I don't know who donated for Emily. 

I am even more humbled by the people who are ALSO currently fundraising to bring their own kiddos home. 

You donated and shared and donated and shared, 

and we are now

$1200

closer to having our girl HOME with us!  

$1200 in one week from people I don't know, people I may never know. 

My heart is humbled; my God is good. 

And now I'm off to e-mail miss Stephanie Clark and tell her just how very happy I am for her!