Happy Scrappy Quilt Giveaway!

Would you like to win this colorful happy scrappy quilt?

This happy scrappy was made with a fun mix of prints from Jennifer Paganelli's fabric collections.  It's approximately 67" x 90", 100% cotton.  We pieced this quilt ourselves, with lots of love!  And it's been machine quilted for extra durability... freshly laundered, too.  The flip-side of the quilt is pink Claire blocks, from Jennifer's Bell Bottom collection.

I saw this post on a blog that I follow and wanted to share it with you as well. The Long ladies are a lovely family of girls that sew and sew beautifully. You can see more of what they do and what they sell by going to their blog or website. I have bought material and patterns from them and they are great to do business with as well.

To enter go to their blog and follow the instructions. http://www.mariemadelinestudio.typepad.com/

Good Luck!

My World Vision House Party

Since I began applying to host House Parties, I entered every one that looked the slightest bit interesting to me. The Star Wars was the first one I was accepted for and it was a perfect fit for us. I loved hosting the party for my son and his friends and we had a great time. When I saw the World Vision party I almost didnt apply for it. Not because I am not interested in World Vision. I am very interested and I support what they do and I love it! But I didnt want to make my guests feel like they were being pressured into 'buying' something. With the other product parties, guests come and are served using the product and are introduced to the product. Whether or not they buy is totally up to them and I will never know what they do in their shopping later. The party is totally about having good fellowship and fun and there is no pressure at all. Just the thought of World Vision brings to mind that something will be required of us....of me, of my guest, of us all. So I resisted. Then, I was convicted. What if no one hosted the World Vision party for that reason? What if by hosting it one child was sponsored? What difference would that make in his life? What if by hosting it I planted seeds and even if no one came or no one sponsored a child this time, seeds were planted that grew later? How can I only host when it is easy for me and not when it really makes a difference in someone's life? So I applied and Surprise! I was chosen to host the party. Only now I feel different about it. I am honored to be a part of it. I am excited to share the vision. I hope it makes a difference in the lives of children around the world but it has already made a difference in my life. I invited everyone I know that is local to me and so far I have one person confirmed to come. It might be a small party :) we are not done yet.

http://www.houseparty.com/party/365862

One thing that was a lesson for us in planning for the party this week. We live in the country and have well water with an electric pump. We woke up yesterday morning and our water didn't work. We tried everything to fix it ourselves and after working on it all day and replacing several parts on the pump we had to call in a professional to replace the whole thing. We were without running water all day. It was a small taste of what these children we are sponsoring experience on a daily basis.  Showers couldnt be taken, toilets couldnt be flushed, hands couldnt be washed. The thought of children living each day without food and fresh water is one that pierces my heart and compels me to continue fighting not only for our adoption, but for children all around the world.  No child should have to go to bed hungry!

If anyone  is interested in sponsoring a child through World Vision, You can go to this link and choose a child to sponsor. You dont have to go to a party to do it :)

http://sn.im/12cgie

You can even pick  a child with your same birthday or the birthday of your child. We choose a child that has the same birthday as Jeffrey and they will get to be penpals through our sponsorship.

Star Wars Party pics

This is Jeffrey painting a backdrop for the party. It turned out nice.

Jeffrey ready for the guest to arrive.

Party shots.......

Everyone had a blast!

House Party everything you need for a great party FREE!!!

We signed up several months ago to host parties for House Party. I applied over and over and never got chosen until now.....

It is amazing the incredible opportunities they give people to introduce new products by throwing a party and sharing the products with their friends and family. 

We were chosen to host a Star Wars the Clone Wars 3 season premier  party and our son, Jeffrey is over the top excited!

This is the party pack they sent.......

We are going to have a great time and his friends are going to love the games and activities planned.

We have painted a space backdrop for the party and planned Star Wars themed foods. They will play the Hasbro Galactic Battle game and watch the season premier together. Everyone is coming in costume and it will be a blast.

I will post pictures after the party as well.

So much has been going on at our house trying to get the home study updated for domestic adoptions, meeting with social workers, talking with experts in the field and learning the system. We have found several sibling groups that we feel would fit into our family and are in the process of applying and hoping we are chosen in one of the cases.

Meanwhile, life goes on.....

Emotional Roller Coaster

The past six weeks or so of our adoption process have been a complete roller coaster ride for our family. Through the ups and downs we have had some major changes in our adoption. First off, We have exceeded our time frames for the China adoption and it seems that we have reached an impasse.  We will not be getting these two boys from China. That in itself was an emotional let down. Some where in China sit two little boys that have been a part of our life and thoughts and prayers for the past year. They dont even know it but they have a room here and a dresser full of clothes and tons of toys and decorations picked out just for them. They have been prayed for every day by us and our extended family as well. They have been named and thought of during family games and activities. They were truly a part of our family even though we never actually met them. They will never know that for the past year, they have had a family. Not being able to add them to our family is like having a miscarriage. It is heartbreaking and discouraging and even though we have had some down times and felt all these things we still have a peace and know that God is in control. For what ever reason this was not meant to be. Maybe our part was simply to pray for them every day for  this past year and we may never know what difference that may have made in their lives. As we have said before, our approach to adopting was simply to "take the next positive step that we knew to take".  While we grieve that we have reached an impasse for the China adoption, we rejoice that God is opening new doors.  To our surprise, the next positive step has brought us to exploring domestic adoptions.  Our homestudy is now complete for a domestic adoption and we are in the seeking phase.  We know God has kids out there somewhere that are to be a part of our family, our job now is to find them!  Pray for us as we take our next positive step!

July 4th family fun

Wow! What a busy week for us. We had 14 people and four dogs at our house for the 4th of July. Great fun with family! We dont get together like that nearly enough.
My sister and her two girls were up from Florida for the week leading up to the 4th. All our children were in at least for the weekend. My parents came down and my brother was here also.

When we do get together, we go all out and make some seriously fun memories. Every year we do a Mystery dinner and everyone dresses up in character and really gets into the game. This year the theme was Gone with the Wind. Looks like next year will be a roaring '20"s theme.

We also had a pig pickin' and family games and lots of fellowship and fun times.