Don't Forget!

Don't forget that tomorrow is the Random Acts Of Kindness challenge. If you do not take do this challenge you are really missing out on being blessed yourself. Just think of how much fun it would be if you were the one receiving the act of kindness.

You can copy and print this card out and leave it with whatever you do or you can just do the act of kindness and leave nothing.

Here are some idea I found on the internet to make it easy for you:



Pick up a small vase at a thrift store or yard sale and buy wrapped flowers to put in it. Open the local phone book, pick a name and deliver them to their doorstep, early in the morning before everyone is awake.


Take some coloring books ( you can get these at dollar stores) and crayons and take to a local shelter.


Buy a bouquet of flowers or balloons and have it delivered to the hospital asking the nurses to give it to someone who needs it.


Send a 'Thank you' card or note 'from local citizen' to the officers at your local police station. Rarely are these people ever thanked for the protection they give or the risks they take.


Go to the post office and buy a book of stamps. Ask the person working at the counter to give it to the next person that comes in.


Hold the door for someone.


Pay for a small child's candy at a convenient store.


Tape a quarter to a pay phone with a note welcoming anyone who needs it to use it.


The next time someone begs for money offer to buy them a meal or cup of soup instead...and sit with them. You'd be surprised at how like us they once were.


OK, so you get the idea. Please leave me a comment if you took the challenge and let me know how it went.

Just Some Cute Pictures Of The Kiddos

Random Acts Of Kindness Day - July 1st

Love Without Boundaries blog A Life of Giving had put out an awesome challenge. They are challenging everyone to have a Random Acts of Kindness day on July first in honer of the orphans around the world. You can click here to read more about it.

I know not some of you reading this might not want to do it the way they are challenging so if you don't want to do it that way how about doing it in honor of GOD.

I did this back in January with my church and even though it put me out of my comfort zone it was so much fun when I finally did it.

So here are some ideas for things you could do:

Take $5 in quarters to a laundry mat and give to someone there.

Take a snack to a fire station.

Buy lunch for that person at work that isn't well liked.

Pay for the person behind in you in the drive-thru (can you imagine how fun it would be if you were that person behind you).

Take a cold drink or some lunch to that person that is always begging for money at the corner and you always talk bad about them.

Take some flowers to a nursing home to give to one of the residents there. I worked at a nursing home and it is so sad that these people who were moms, dads, teachers, people who fought wars they are put in there and forgot about.

What about offering to babysit for a single mom or someone that has a special needs child.

OK, you get the idea. Let me tell you that you will be the one that gets blessed!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:



Lemons, I love lemon anything!



I am thankful that Chris and I both love the simple life. Don't get me wrong there are times we get jealous (I know it's one of our many downfalls) of people that have nicer things than we do. I am very thankful though that it doesn't take much for us to feel satisfied and not need the best clothes, text on our phones (I know Rett you really want us to get this), a fancy house or be able to travel the world. OK, if I could travel the world we would probably be bringing home a child from everywhere. We really do love living simple.



I am thankful that even though we are not rich that God gives us enough to provide our needs and at the same time be able to give to help others. Nothing makes my day more than being able to give.

Speaking of giving go check out the Love Without Boundaries blog. They are challenging everyone to have a random acts of kindness day on July 1st in honor of the orphans around the world. Go check out the blog and I hope you'll take the challenge. Even if you don't do it how they recommend I encourage you to do something nice for a stranger that day. We did it as a church in January and it was soooo much fun.

Aprons For Africa and Etsy Finds

First off I want to talk a little about Aprons For Africa. Because of the Feed The Forgotten challenge I learned about a program called Aprons For Africa (thanks Brandi for leaving it in my comments). Brandi's mother-in-law makes the prettiest aprons to raise money for orphans in Africa. Please go check out the blog at www.apronsforafrica.com. This would make a great Christmas or Birthday present for a little girl or any woman, plus you get to help some of God's beautiful children while buying a gift for someone else.

OK now about my Etsy finds. Since posting about Etsy the other day I have been going crazy looking through Etsy. Honestly I feel like I have been missing out on some incredible art and talent shopping at the big chain stores all the time. I am not a shopper so I go get what I need and that's all. I have even had Chris look at some of the stuff and he couldn't believe how cool some of the things were.

So this is some of the really cool things I have found:

My very, very favorite find was this art studio called JMJStudio (you can do a search for it on Etsy). I am not an art person but I fell in love with these beautiful pieces of art and I have to have one someday (I wish I could have all of them). I am never one to ask for anything that's not practical but I told Chris last night I want one of these. The coolest thing about it is when I went to pull it up a little bit ago to get the info to put on here I saw one painting that really caught my eye because it was so beautiful. I decided to read about it and guess what? The painting is a BRAILLE painting that says love in braille. So you need to go check these amazing paintings out.

I Spy games is my second coolest find. These things are AWESOME and would make a great game for kids to do in the car. Just do a search for them because there are tons of choices on Etsy for them.

JBows Boutique has some beautiful, beautiful hair bows for little girls.

One other cool find was reusable sandwich bags and snack bags that you can just throw in the washer.

I can't wait to start my Christmas shopping now!

Consider Doing This

One of the blogs I follow Joy Unspeakable had a post on it the other day about how it is hard for small businesses right now. Most of us do have to shop at large chain stores simply because they are cheaper most the time. Lori though posted asking people to consider buying products that are homeade or from small businesses when you buy gifts for people. Is that not a wonderful idea?



So you get to buy a wonderful handmade item that is not like something you would find in the store and you are helping a "normal" person make some money. Coming from a family that has 2 parents that own their own businesses I know how important this is to help these people out.



So I would like to encourage you to try doing this. This is the time of year I start thinking about Christmas (we have a large family) and doing our shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse.



If you have never been to Etsy go check them out at http://www.etsy.com/ . Etsy is a site where people sell the homemade products and antiques. There are very, very cool things on the site. There is even a place on the homepage that will show you stores that haven't had a sale yet. How cool would it be to make someone's day and be their first sale? A lot of people trying to raise money for adoptions sell things on this site too.



If you know of someone that sells on Etsy or anywhere else on the web that makes homemade products can you leave a link in the comments for my readers to check out and for me?



I would also encourage you to click on Lori's name and go read the post she wrote.

Check Out My Hot Hubby!

He finally did it! Chris has been thinning out for awhile now. We noticed last week that his hair-do was turning into a mohawk on top. My cutie pie hubby decided it was time to finally shave it off.

He is so darn cute isn't he? I know this should be a Father's Day post but I had to post a picture of his new do.

If you haven't checked out our last post make sure you go look at our new baby below.

HAPPY FATHER"S DAY!

She's Home!

Finally our baby Kia-Lan is home. It has seemed like forever waiting on her but she is finally here and oh is she loved and spoiled already.

We only let the kids hold her for a couple of minutes today since it was a big day for her but they took in every second we let them have.

Snickers wasn't too sure about her at first but tonight he has become very protective of her. When she first came home she thought Snicker's was her mom and she tried to nurse because Snicker's is the same color as her mom.

Tonight Snickers came to check on her every time she moved and was trying to show her how to drink her water. It is so cute watching him take care of her like that.

Well, it's been a long busy day and this momma is tired.

PS Little Miss Kai Kai has not had an accident in the house yet (I love this breed of dog!).

Safety Village

Amaya just graduated from a 2 week course called Safety Village. This is an Excellent program for kids going into kindergarten or the first grade and it just happens to be taught by my dear friend Rett pictured below.

They have a mini village set up and Rett along with police officers and firemen taught the course. They teach things like stranger safety, fire safety, good touch/bad touch, electrical safety, gun safety, street safety, bicycle safety and much more.

Amaya has learned so much and I am so thankful she had the chance to take this program.

Yesterday they even took them on a field trip to practice what they have learned out in the real town.

Below is a picture of Amaya with her favorite teacher (sorry Rett but she did love you too). This is Chief and Amaya just thought he was the greatest.

She is going to miss this class but I am sooooo glad we had the chance of sending her to something like this before she goes off to school.

Thankful Thursday

I have something very strange to be thankful for this Thankful Thursday. I'm sure a lot of you have been hearing on the news this week about a over-the-counter drug that has caused people to lose their sense of smell. Well, a couple of years ago I lost my sense of smell, not because of this drug but because of a severe sinus infection.

Smell is something I always took for granted until I know longer had it. Along with losing my sense of smell I lost my sense of taste because like 90% of your taste comes from smell. It scared me because I couldn't smell even bad things like smoke or gas.

In the last year my smell has been coming back slowly which I am so thankful for because the Dr. told me that the chances of it ever coming back were slim to none. I don't always smell things in the right way like peanut butter and hot dogs (actually these makes me very sick to smell) but I am so thankful that I am getting some of it back.

It might not be a bad thing I can't stand peanut butter anymore because that was one of my favorite foods before.

What are you thankful for today?

Tattoo Fun!

Aunt Lisa bought Paige a kids body tattoo kit for her birthday. The kids are in to those little tattoos that come off in a couple of days. Anyway the kit had some tattoo markers in it.

We thought the kids were in the bathroom playing Barbies in the sink but this is what they were really doing.

What Would Happen

This question has been going through my mind all week. What would happen if every Christian would say "YES" to God instead of making a list of reasons to say no. What would happen if I said "YES" everytime God asked? What if we set fear aside and chose to walk, talk and breathe Christ. I'm not talking about adoption, I'm talking about anything God asks of you.

I saw this video today and it really shows what can happen when just 1 person says "YES" to God.

Is something holding you back from saying "YES"?

Red Letters

OK, this is not something I do a lot because I honestly don't read books a lot. Thanks to my friend Jeanette letting me know about the Feed the Forgotten challenge I learned about the book Red Letters by Tom Davis.

I bought this book and I haven't been able to put it down. I have a very hard time reading and I have almost finished the book in 1 day.

I am highly, highly recommending this book for you to read. That's all I'm going to say about it, just go read this book.

Stranger Safety

What do you do to teach your kids about stranger safety? I had never thought about this too much having all small children until last year when we lost Amaya at a fair for about 10 minutes (the scariest 10 minutes of my life).



After that I ordered a video to watch with the kids to teach them about it. I also ordered these bracelets for them to wear when we go places that have a lot of people that have emergency information on it.



Today we went to an auction in a very rural community that you just don't worry that much to be honest. I am always cautious but not as much as in other places. We were sitting in some chairs and Amaya was next to a lady that we didn't know. The lady ask her her name (OK, small warning light here but I was watching closely). Next thing I know the lady started playing with her hair. I ask the lady to stop and she said "she is just so pretty".

I then took all 3 kids and had a talk to them about stranger safety. No it was not the first time that I have done this but it was a great time to teach them that touch like that is even wrong when the person is not a "safe person".

Please, please don't think your children are too young to learn stranger safety!

Very Cool Giveaway

Hey,
One of the blogs I follow is having a very cool giveaway. They are working to bring home their teen daughter from Ch*na. Lori has made some very, very cool stuff to give away so go check out her blog here. This is also a fun blog to follow.

Thankful Thursday Part 2

I HAVE HIGH SPEED NOW!!!

Oh my goodness am I thankful!

Thankful Thursday

Today's Thankful Thursday will be short but it is something I am very, very thankful for.

I am thankful for NAP TIME and I'm even more thankful when I get a nap too.

Goodnight!

Best Friends

Awesome Antique Finds

Some very dear friends of ours had a yard sale fundraiser this weekend for their adoption. The country they are adopting from is very, very costly but they didn't let that stop them and when God said "GO" they said "OK". They are still trying to raise $27,000 to hopefully travel to bring home their daughter this fall. You can check out their blog here.

Anyway my mom and I went to their yard sale this weekend just to see them and did I find some very cool things. If I had a place to put these things I would be keeping them but with our house for sale I just bought them to re-sell. We are going to take them to a antique show tomorrow night and possibly sell some or all of them. If you want any of these make an offer quick.

Here they are:

This is a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera from about the 50's Chris is guessing.

This is a very cool View-Master from about the 40's or 50's.

This is my very favorite find. This is a Kodak 1A Jr. camera from about 1917. When I found this we had no idea what it was but the case was so cool I took it anyway. When I got home, Chris figured out how to open it and he found this AWESOME camera inside.

I got 2 very cool typewriters like this (I don't know what happened to my other picture) from the 40's - 60's.

This is an antique wood saw.

This is a Falcon camera from about the 50's. This also comes in a very cool leather case.

Then these are very cool too. These are 2 antique milk boxes that the milk man used to drop off milk in at people's houses. They had one milk box that I didn't get that still had a note in it telling the milk man what they wanted.

So even though we don't plan on keeping them they have been fun to play around with and look at. Chris has been having a blast with them.

Challenge Alert!!!

A couple of weeks ago my darling 5 year old thought she was starving. All I heard all day long for several days was "Mommy I am starving". In no way is our darling daughter starving. I decided she is old enough to know what true starving is. I took her to the internet and had a talk with her and showed her what starving is. I showed her pictures like this.

It's heartbreaking isn't it? What if this was your child you were holding? What if this were Jesus? This is a picture of Christ and I'll prove it.

Matthew 25:31-46

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

I saw on my friend Jeanette's blog this morning that she had this challenge and I went to the link she posted. I could not believe it when I saw that this challenge was from my favorite author. Those of you that know me know that I don't read many books because I have a hard time concentrating. This man though wrote a book called The Fields Of The Fatherless and it is truly one of the best books I have ever read. This is NOT an adoption book but a book every Christian should read. Did I say EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD READ?

Chris and I read this challenge and knew right away we had to take part in this challenge and I hope you feel the same way. What can you give up so that a mother doesn't have to hold a baby that looks like that? What if it were you child?

Please click here and find out about this challenge!

Thankful Thursday

OK, you are not going to believe what I'm thankful for this Thankful Thursday. This week I am thankful for one telemarketer that just made us a very good deal.
Thanks to this one (I do not normally like them) though very, very soon I will have high speed internet. We are coming out of the dark ages and actually lowering our phone bill thanks to this one telemarketer.

I have been so frustrated lately because I have not been able to leave comments on most of your blogs. Those of you that I follow sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to open your blog.

So I am very excited and thankful that soon I will become even more of an internet addict. You Tube her I come! I have wanted to watch so many orphan videos and I couldn't.

Can you tell I'm excited???

Dear Anonymous,

Well, first of all let me say that if you don't agree with things I put on my blog then don't read it. Second if you want to tell me you don't agree with it then be brave enough to tell me who you are.

Do I think adoption is the best thing for a child? NO! The best situation for a child is to live in a sin free world. The best situation for a child is to be with their birth parents in a happy, loving family.

Guess what? We live in a fallen world. We live in a world of 143 + million orphans. A world where children are starving, a world where children suffer major, major problems from living in orphanages and being tossed around in foster care systems or worse yet lay dying because they were abandoned or live in countries that there is just no where to go.

If I'm going to read something and make it change the way I do things then I prefer the Bible and not what someone thinks or some study they do. God commands us to take care of the orphans, to advocate for the orphans, to feed them, give them clothes, give them a place to live.

I will never be a perfect parent for my bio kids or my adopted kids but no one is perfect. I will though without a doubt teach my kids it is their responsibility to speak up for orphans, fight for orphans and take care of them.

GO!

Chris and I read this on another blog and it just really stood out to us:


Go!" That was a direct order to Ananias. If God tells you to move, don't stand around asking what you're supposed to do. Don't waste time looking for the right moment to act. Don't wait for other people to open the door for you. Don't let a lack of motivation slow you down. Just go! You have the authority to act. You're an instrument of God, a personal emissary of the ruler of all things. If you're being faithful to his will, no one can safely oppose you or stand in your way. In fact, the only person who can stop you is. . . you.

Has God told you GO? What are you waiting for?

We Have A Winner

I am very excited to announce we have a winner of our name contest for our precious little girl. I have to say that I was very impressed with all the awesome names but there was only one name that all 5 of us agreed on.

So the winner is a precious little boy from Ch*na. Josiah you did it, you came up with the winning name!!! The winning name is Kai-lan. I cannot tell you how excited I am that Josiah won. You know I'm a little crazy about these Ch*na boys.

So Holly can you please email me at cslatello @ aol and give me your address? Also can you give me an idea of what that precious child of yours is interested in.

Thank you so much everyone!

ONE MORE DAY!

OK friends, I'm giving you one more day to come up with a name for our puppy before we pick a winner for the giveaway.

You guys are awesome and have given us some very good choices to choose from. I can't wait to announce a winner because this is just so much fun. So get busy and leave me a comment with your ideas.

I have no idea what I'm giving away yet so if you are a guy you will get a guy gift, if your a woman you will get a girly gift and if you are a kid you will get a kid gift.

Make sure you check back to see if your the winner.