Art for Adoption

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who participated in our Boston Butt Fundraiser at Hinds Community College!!! We haven't received the final dollar amount yet, but it looks like you helped us raise around $3000 toward Lily's adoption costs!!!!!

Now we are moving on toward our next fundraiser which is coming up SOON!

Our friend Michelle is spear-heading an Art for Adoption fundraiser coming up next Friday, May 9th, from 5pm-9pm at Cups Coffeehouse in Clinton.

Several amazing artists from the area have donated some INCREDIBLE pieces for us to sell at the event. 100% of the proceeds from the art sale will go towards Lily's adoption costs!!!

From now until the event, I'm going to showcase some of the pieces here on my blog. If you see something that grabs your eye, be sure to come by Cups and make a purchase! Or, if you don't live in the Jackson metro area, contact me and we can reserve your purchase.

Even if you don't end up buying any art, we'd absolutely LOVE for you to swing by the Art for Adoption Event - just to enjoy a cup of coffee, talk adoption or, of course, learn more about our sweet Lily!

Want a Butt?

A Boston Butt.

I'm talking about a pork roast, people!

And we're selling them to help raise money for our adoption!

{FYI - a Boston Butt is located on the shoulder of the pig. You'd think it would be at the other end, ya know?}

Our good friends at Hinds are donating time, energy and resources to help us out. They are going to cook Boston Butts and have them ready for pick up on April 17th - just in time for Easter dinner!

I'm actually pretty late to the game. I should have posted this last week when the sale began because these babies are sellin' like hot cakes! I had no idea pork roast would be a best seller!!!

Seriously - there are very few tickets left, so if you'd like to purchase one, contact Marcille or Terri. Their contact info is at the bottom of the flier.

Here we go, y'all…..Let the fundraising begin!!!!

Lily, we're gettin' closer, baby girl!!!

"She is very sweet"

I checked my email right before I backed out of our driveway to go pick Benaiah up from school.

When I read the short update I'd received about Lily, I hopped out of the van and ran back inside the house to tell Doug what I'd just read.

"They said, 'She is very sweet'!!!!"

I kissed Doug on the cheek, did the happy dance and said exclaimed again,

"Did you hear that?! She is very sweet!!!!"

I almost burst into tears out of sheer excitement!

It was a proud Mama moment.

They are words I use every day...

"Oh, so-and-so, is so sweet!"
"You are so sweet to do that!"
"She's the sweetest l'il thing!"

But when these are the first words you've ever heard about your little girl that actually describe something about her personality.....

about her countenance....

about her disposition....

about HER.

Not about her health problems.

Not about her physical abilities or disabilities.

But about LILY.

Let me tell ya....

It thrills a mama's soul.

These 4 little words have somehow helped me know her better.

Of course, I'd always assumed she was sweet...

But now it's confirmed :)

The little update we got about her was just that.

Little.

But the other thing we learned about her sooooo encouraging.

She has been at the medical care center for less than 2 weeks and has already gained a whole pound of weight!!!

Lily is very malnourished - She is 3 years old and only weighs 18.5lbs.

Make that 19.5lbs!!!!

Please continue to pray that the Lord will continue to move mountains on behalf of our VERY SWEET little girl!!!

Garden Party

Saturday we attended the annual Garden Party fundraiser at The Little Light House.

This is one of the school's four primary fundraisers.

Money is raised through ticket sales to the luncheon, raffle tickets for "baskets" and an auction.

All of the families at TLLH were put on teams to fill their baskets.

Ours was an "Outdoors Basket".

Doug literally spent an entire day going around to different businesses asking them to make donations to our basket.

He ended up coming home with A LOT of loot - gift certificates for deer processing and taxidermy, rifle scopes, and deer stands just to name a few things.

Our basket ended up being worth over $1000!

There were over 30 baskets being raffled.

The one we wanted to win was the "Grill Basket".

I somehow made everyone in our family believe that I'd use a grill if we had a gas grill {as opposed to our charcoal grill} Ha!

We were REALLY hopeful that someone in our family's name would be called.

Unfortunately, the "Grill Basket" was the most popular one, so we had some stiff competition.

Our name was not called.  Boooo :(

Doug says we "got hosed" - LOL

Although we didn't win the grill, we didn't walk away empty-handed.

You see - there was a Hat competition for the ladies and a Tie competition for the gentlemen.

I did NOT win the Hat competition.

You should have seen some of the hat-creations several ladies wore - a couple of them were at least 2 feet tall!

But guess who won the Overall Tie competition?!

My boys!!!

Yep! They were twinsies! :)

(I found these great daddy/son ties at www.myfavoritepal.com}

Benaiah loves it when his daddy shakes his arms up and down!

We were packed in like sardines, so getting my big camera out to take better pictures just wasn't happening. Instead, we relied on the ole iPhone camera :(

These are the best pictures we got of me and Benaiah:

Pitiful.

THANK YOU to EVERYONE who has financially contributed to The Little Light House on Benaiah's behalf.  

We have officially met our family's fundraising goal!!! YAY!!!!

Thank you!!!!

If...

So the recordable storybook we sent Lily for her birthday was SO PERFECT.

I was so fortunate to find it too!  I thought Hallmark was the only company who sold recordable books, so when I saw some at Books A Million I was pleasantly surprised....and was OVER THE MOON to see that they were on sale for $10!!!  This was a STEAL, people!!!

I want to share the book with you {which is probably against copyright laws but I'm hoping that since I'm putting the author's name, that will help me out in a court of law :-)}

IF

By Frank Boylan

I wish I was there. I wish I was with you.

I want to play the games we play and do the things we do.

I am not there now. This is just one of those days.

But know that we can be together in many different ways.

Think really hard, and imagine I am there.

Imagine I am holding your hand.

Imagine I am stroking your hair.

Imagine I am doing the things I really wish I could.

Know that I want to do them.

If I was there I would…

HUG YOU!

If I was there right now,

Do you know what I would do?

I would stretch my arms out really wide

And then wrap them tight around you.

TELL YOU I LOVE YOU!

If I was there right now,

Do you know what I would say?

I would say that we should be together every single day.

I would tell you that I love you,

And you make my heart feel light.

I would tell you that I love you,

Each and every single night.

SMILE!

If I was there right now,

Do you know what you would see?

You would see me smiling ear-to-ear,

Because you were smiling with me.

LAUGH!

If I was there right now,

Do you know how hard we would laugh?

We would laugh until our sides hurt,

Like we were going to split in half.

You would tell me funny stories,

And I would listen with both ears.

I would laugh until my eyes were wet

And filling up with tears.

DANCE!

If I was there right now,

Do know how wild we would dance?

We would dance like we were crazy people,

And wouldn’t even glance

To see who was watching us,

Or what those watchers might say.

We would dance until our worries flew off

And our cares just ran away.

SING!

If I was there right now,

Do you know how loud we would sing?

We would sing really loud and really long,

Like the birds all do in Spring.

We would sing the songs we like,

And the songs we love,

And the songs we hardly know.

And I would want to hold you tight

And never let you go.

I am not really there right now.

I’m in the pages of this book.

I hope in your mind that you can see me.

Close your eyes and look…

Do you see me…?

I see you…

~

PERFECTION, right?

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lily!!!

Dear Lily,

You are THREE years old today!!!

This morning when your brother woke up, I put him in the bed with me and your daddy and we sang "Happy Birthday" to you.

We are asking God that it be His will that you are home with us for your 4th birthday.....and many, many, many birthdays after that!

We've had your birthday banner hanging for a couple of weeks now.

And although we mailed your birthday present 2 weeks ago, it still hasn't made it to you yet :( I'm hoping it will get to you by the end of next week though.

We sent you...
- A photo pillow with a picture of your family on it. If it's safe, I hope it can stay in your crib with you so you can look at us every day and know that you have a family who loves you.
- A recordable book entitled "If..." that me and your Daddy read to you so that you can get used to hearing our voices
- 2 disposable cameras that your nannies can use to take pictures of you while we're working to come get you
- A rainbow birthday card that plays the song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
- Some lip balm. I noticed in a few of the pictures we have of you that your lips were a bit chapped. Every girl needs a little lipstick! :)
- A photo album with individual pictures of your family members and your new house. I labeled each picture in Chinese so that your nannies can better help you know who everyone is.
- A Dora the Explorer Light Spinner. One of Mommy's friends saw you a couple of months ago and noticed that you didn't track things very well with your eyes.  I said, "Not a problem. We got that one!" Your brother doesn't track things well either, so we use a lot of "light therapy" to help him.  He's using his eyes SO MUCH BETTER now, so we're hoping that this little light toy will help your eyes improve too!

Lily-pie, we will never know the details that surround your birth. But we give thanks to God today for the three years of life He has breathed into you; for your birth mom who chose to give you life; and for the individuals who have cared for you these 3 years. While we are still quite dependent on others to help us take care of you right now, we anticipate with great joy the day when we will have the gift of being able to love and care for you in person.

You are a treasure to us, sweet girl.

The Words You Thought You'd Never Hear From Me

I've.

Joined.

(gulp)

Facebook.

Don't everyone gasp at once!

I almost feel like a traitor to my faithful anti-facebook friends, but, alas.....

the things you do for your kids.

This one's for you, Lily.

Y'all can actually thank my friends Leslie and Marcille for convincing me that using Facebook to get the word out about Lily's adoption and our upcoming fundraisers was a good idea. ;)

Truthfully, I've had a fb account for several years because I had to "like" I.O. Metro in order to get a $125 discount off a chair we bought there. I think that even my anti-facebook cohorts would agree that saving $125 was a worthwhile reason to join.

The only other reason I've used the account since then was so my friend Michelle could easily send me pictures she'd taken of our family.  So Michelle has been my one and only "friend" for a while now.

Then Miss Lily came along.

While researching her orphanage in China, I came across a family's blog. This family was also adopting a little girl who had lived in Lily's orphanage. I contacted Kelly, the author of the blog, and she said she was a part of a fb group of mama's who had adopted/were adopting from Lily's orphanage, so she asked me to join the group.

I joined this beautiful fb group of ladies and, honestly, words can never express what a blessing these girls have been to me over the past 3 months.

{I plan to write a post (or several!) about these wonderful families so stay tuned!}

Now it's time to spread the fb love because, despite our current "standstill" with China over Lily's health, we want to move forward with fundraising.

I'm praying that fb will help us cast a wider net --- and not just to help us raise money but also help us raise awareness about the need there is for orphans to have forever families to love them.

I'm still a little wary of the whole fb thing, so if I don't know you, I probably won't be your friend...

But if you're already my friend in real life, go to fb and ask me to be your friend.

{That all sounds SO STUPID, by the way - HA!}

And for no reason at all, other than the fact that he's so utterly cute, I'm posting a pic of my li'l man :)

Practicing turning pages in my book

Mommy, you're so silly!

Love y'all!
Elaine