Birthday, Sick One and Christmas Eve

First of all my amazing, cute, wonderful, cute hubby turned a whopping 34 today. He made sure to let the kids know that he was still way younger than mommy.

When I was a teenager I dreamed of getting married to an Italian one day. I even remember listening to Carmen one day on the radio and telling my mom I was going to marry an Italian even if I have to go to Italy to find one. Little did I know my Italian only lived 10 miles away at the time and would one day tow my car off of a rock for me (that's how we met).

Isn't he the cutest Italian you have ever seen?

The girls had soooo much fun decorating daddy's cake for him. Jaxson was too sick to help.

This is our little sick one who could use some prayer for sure. Poor little Jaxson has had the flu for 4 days and is not keeping much at all down. Please pray he gets better very soon or we will be heading to the ER this weekend. Jaxson is just too tiny to lose anymore weight than he already has. I also want him to be able to enjoy Christmas in the morning.

We are already for Santa to come with milk and cookies waiting. Are you all ready?

I can't wait until morning!

We Are Almost Ready For New Homes

The babies are almost ready to go to new homes. I haven't advertised much yet but will be very soon. I found out from a friend that I can ship them anywhere in the USA as long as the temperature is above 10 degrees so if these babies need shipped we can probably work it out.

Do you need a little bundle of joy in your home or know someone that does?

Caden (also known as the favorite around here) is the littlest of them all. Caden is so very precious and he is a little cuddle bug. Caden also doesn't realize he is a dog and hops around like a bunny. Caden also stands on the box all the time so he doesn't miss anything happening in the house.

Bella is our quiet one. Bella is so gentle but a couple of times a day she does have to pick on her brother and sister. Bella will enjoy spending time on her new owners lap I'm sure. Bella is also know for standing in the food and water bowl.

Reece is our playful one. Reece is very active and loves to play with toys. Reece would be great with a family with kids to keep her busy and active.

You can find out more about them and about adopting them by clicking here.

Amount of Fish Oil

OK, I am not a Dr. and I am not telling you how much to give your child. We personally are making sure she gets 400-600MG a day along with a multi-vitamin. Hope that helps :)

I can't even begin to tell you how much smoother things are going around here with her taking the fish oil.

This doesn't work for every child but it's sure worth a try before putting them on ADHD medication.

A Little Of This and A Little Of That

We have been celebrating Advent this year as a family. This has truly been a wonderful family project to do together. I ordered a book written by an adoptive mom raising money to bring their child home. I can't even tell you all that our kids have learned in celebrating Advent.

Last night we decided as an Advent activity to go on the search for baby Jesus (nativity scenes). In 2 hours of driving we saw only 4 nativity scenes and not one of them was at a church. I really hadn't taken the time before to really look for them or let alone put a nativity scene out in our front yard. The longer we drove the more my heart hurt that we couldn't hardly find any. What really broke my heart was the number of churches we drove by and didn't see any. Next year it is my goal to have a nativity scene in our front yard.

You can check out the book we are doing here (it is an amazing book and I wrote the author begging her to write a regular family devotional).


The second thing I want to tell you about is the amazing little capsule filled with fish oil.


We were at our Dr. last week with our daughter that suffers from asthma. We talked to him about natural approaches to healing her asthma and he was sooooo excited that we were willing to try a natural approach because he said most people aren't willing to and they would rather pop a pill.

We then talked to him about our child with ADHD (not diagnosed but anyone around this child would be able to tell). The Dr. got even more excited and told us he has really researched this and found that a lot of kids suffering from ADHD are lacking in DHA found in fish oil. The Dr. gave us some samples to try and let me tell you what happened within just a couple of days:

No morning meltdowns (this is huge)

No crashing after school (this is HUGE)

The child was able to stay focused on a project for over an hour (unbelievable)

This child sat down for the first time EVER and watched an entire movie!!! Actually sat down, no jumping, no wiggling, no standing, no running after this or that but sat down for the ENTIRE movie.

I am totally amazed and I wish I would have known about this a very long time ago. I wanted to share because it is so easy to do and it's so much better than ADHD drugs if this will take care of the problem. Please do your research online though as to how much to give your child because the Dr. said if the amount isn't enough it won't help much at all.


Now for the third thing I wanted to share. I just read a very cool blog post about Christmas gifts and I thought you might enjoy it too. You can click here to read about it.

Will You Help Me?

See this beautiful face?

We would love nothing more than to bring this beautiful little one home. The problem is that we don't have the insurance to bring him home right now. Sooooo if we can't bring him home I would love to help him find a family. I can't believe someone hasn't grabbed this cutie up yet.

I had a fundraiser scheduled in my shop today that the person decided not to do. My shop is set and ready to go for a fundraiser so I was trying to think of a family that might need one and then I thought "why not have one to help with Jayson's grant fund".

Will you help Jayson find a family by shopping in my Etsy shop to help build his grant fund up? Will you please blog, Facebook, twitter telling people for every pendant sold in my shop from now until Christmas will help this beautiful child find a family.

Not only will it help raise his grant fund but the more we get his picture out the better chance he has of finding a family.

Please help me fight for this child! I want him to spend next Christmas being loved on, hugged and kissed more than he can stand, learning about baby Jesus, opening gifts. Please help me spread the word!

You can learn more about Jayson by clicking here and you can shop to help raise his grant fund here.

Pendants make great teacher gifts, stocking stuffers, teen/tween gifts, little girl gifts, hairdresser and so much more.

I ship fast so if you order by next Monday it should be no problem getting to you by Christmas unless it is being mailed internationally.

Thank you!

Vegetarian Help

Sooo we are going to try to do a major food makeover in our house. God has been teaching Chris and I some truths about food and my friend Jill Samter is also teaching me a ton.

We would have never thought in a million years that we would become vegetarian but we strongly feel this is what God is asking us to do right now. I know some of you are now going to think we are crazy. It will take a while I'm sure to make the transition 100% but for now we are going to do the best we can in our home.

Anyway, I would love some help from any of you that are vegetarian. Can you please share recipes, blogs, hints or anything else you can to help make this transition easier for us?

If you have changed to eating this way and seen a difference with asthma, ADHD or other health issues can you tell me about it?

If you want to learn some hidden truths about food check out my friend Jill's blog.

Christmas Shopping?

I am offering FREE SHIPPING in my Etsy shop all weekend. I will refund you through Paypal for any shipping you pay. This offer is for my international friends too. As an added BONUS if you buy 3 or more pendants I will throw in a surprise pendant!

Have a great weekend!

Our Tree

So I know I'm a little behind in posting this. The day after Thanksgiving the kids convinced us to go out in the freezing cold to find our tree (who could resist such excitement). We have a wonderful tree farm we go to every year and the kids and daddy get to cut the tree down.

We found a beautiful 8 foot tree and it fits just perfect in our foyer. It was so much fun decorating because the kids are getting a little older and getting much more excited. No one is allowed to leave me a comment saying it will change when they are teenagers, OK!

In my last post someone left a comment saying how big Jaxson is looking. Two and a half years ago we brought home this teeny, tiny, 21 pound toddler. At 2 1/2 Jaxon only wore a size 12-18 month clothes. After many, many long months he moved to a size 2 that he wore FOREVER. Finally last summer at age 4 1/2 he moved up to a size 4 but he could still wear a lot of 2's.

Jaxson is now a size 5 and he is not even 5 years old for a few more weeks!!! He is sooooo excited that he is in a size bigger than the age he is. The growth isn't coming in weight at all but all in height. If you look in the picture above he is getting almost as tall as his "twin" sister who is 7 months older.

Now if we can just get a little weight on the boy. As much as he eats you would think he would weigh as much as an adult.

Too Funny!

The other day I was working to get ready for a craft show and Jaxson was in the livingroom talking away to me at a million miles a minute. All of the sudden Jaxson got very quiet and this is what I found.

Who Is Your Faith In?

After I watched the video I posted yesterday I decided to search for more videos from the guy that made that one. As I started watching the video below I stopped it and called Chris in to watch. Chris was as blown away as I was.

Do you ever have that one thing you just can't seem to hand over to God? Watch this!

Please Watch

My friend Jill shared this on Facebook and I wanted to share it here. I honestly have no words, please just watch.

David Nevue

Many, many months ago I went to visit a blog that had the most peaceful music I had ever heard on it. I didn't think much about it at the time other than everytime I visited that blog a calmness just came over me.

With life being so crazy and many challenges over the last month I went on the search for who played the music I had heard on that blog. The artists name is David Nevue and he plays amazing, Christian piano that just brings calmness to your soul.

Now when I have times of feeling overwhelmed, of kids screaming, of challenges I turn this music on and suddenly I am relaxed and I remember God say "Be still and know that I am GOD". It reminds me to focus on God and not everything going on around me. In the business of our lives we forget to stop, breathe, and put our focus on God.

I added a playlist to my blog and hopefully when you visit my blog you can feel some of that calmness.

My Favorite Ones!

OK, I know I am doing this a little backwords but oh well. I will post about the tree hunting later this week.

As we were hanging ornaments on the tree last night I looked at how many useless ornaments we have. You know birdhouses, snowmen, ones I have no idea where they came from but then we have some VERY, VERY special ones. What a joy it was to get to talk to the kids as we hung these special ones about the meaning behind them.

The first one is precious little Duncan that I was his Christmas Warrior for last year through Reece's Rainbow. Duncan is now home with his forever family.

This next one is the little one that has totally stolen the hearts of all 5 of us. This is the little one we sponsored this year from the Angel Tree at Reece's Rainbow. Praying that next year this little bundle of cuteness will have his forever family. You only have until December 15th to get your ornament by sponsoring a child.

This beautiful star ornament was made by a girl that was working very hard to bring her sister home. That little one came home to her forever family the same year Jaxson did.

Maybe someday we will have a tree full of ornaments that show faces of children that now have forever families. Maybe God will bless us with more little feet, fingerprints all over everything, more dirty clothes, more giggles, more "I love you's". I may have my hands full, my plate may be overflowing but CHILDREN OUR A BLESSING FROM GOD!

OK, so this is changing the subject a little bit but I wanted to share this video with you. It is almost 12 minutes long so you may choose to watch it on youtube where you can see it better but I wanted to share it with you. We have a very powerful Sunday School class and yesterday our leader shared this video. I honestly about lost it right there but I held back most of the tears. This video was not intended for the purpose that God laid on my heart watching this but to me it represented the passion of my heart.

You Have To Watch This!

BIG SALE IN MY SHOP!!!

Check out my Facebook fan page for a HUGE sale. You can get a coupon code for 25% off and their is a bonus sale included you can read about on Facebook. Check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122525784444662

Do You Have An Aaron?

I really don't want to write this post, I have tried to get out of writing this post but God won't let me. God told me about 3 weeks ago I needed to write this and I have been fighting it like crazy. I even asked a friend to pray with me about this post.

You know sometimes it is hard to be real on here because I have family reading this. It is much easier to be real when it is complete strangers but I have many people close to me that read this blog. I did not start this blog though to let people in on our daily lives, I started it as a ministry to share my passion, my journey and to share things about our family. I love being able to blog because it makes it much easier for a shy person like me to be a voice for God.

OK, here is goes. About 3-4 weeks ago I had many, many good things happening. In a 2 week time I had 3 fundraisers, Amaya's project and I was in charge of the shoeboxes at church. Well, the evil one does not like it when you are doing things for the orphan. Spiritual warfare is real! Every single time I do a fundraiser I can about bet it is going to be a battle that day. A couple of weeks ago though I had way much more than just a fundraiser going on.

Satan started attacking from every angle possible. I'm not going to share those things because it doesn't matter and everything is pretty much good now. I cried, cried and cried for days but only a few people knew this because I did my best to hide it. I am not one to cry much at all but I was being beat up.

One day I went to take Chris lunch and I honestly could hardly stand up. Chris asked me what was wrong and I told him that I was in a battle against Satan and I was being beat up. I physically felt BEAT UP. This is so hard to explain but I know there have to be other people going through the same thing and that's why I believe God wants me to share this. I have an amazing husband and right then he took me, held me and prayed over me.

Chris did not want me to go home because he was worried about me but I told him I needed to be home. I had emailed a friend earlier in the day asking her for prayer because I somehow knew it was going to take prayer big time to fight this battle.

My friend wrote me back and said something like this: "Sarah, I would love to be your Aaron." My friend explained that when Moses couldn't hold the staff up any longer that God used Aaron to hold it up for him. My friend was telling me that even though I was beaten up to the point of not even being able to open my eyes, even though she didn't live close to me, she was willing to be my Aaron and hold me up in prayer and help me fight this battle.


I also had a few other prayer warriors holding me up. Do you know that within a very short time I could actually physically feel something holding me up so that I could continue to fight for the orphan, continue to let Amaya do her project and continue to let God use me for Operation Christmas Child.

Spiritual warfare is REAL!

Those couple weeks were very, very hard but through that God did some amazing things not only in the projects that were going on but in many other ways.

I am so thankful I had friends to carry me through in prayer during those couple of weeks.

Do you have an Aaron? Are you willing to be someones Aaron? If you feel beaten, PLEASE ask some prayer warriors to be your Aaron. If you know someone being beaten up spiritually, PLEASE be their Aaron.


Exodus 17:12
12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

Memorial Box Monday (on Tuesday) - Praying Out Of The Box

I have been praying and praying about how to write this post and Linny (click on the button above) asked for people to do Memorial Box Monday post today and so I thought this would be the perfect time to do this post.

One reason I have been praying and praying over this post is because I really felt God asking me to write this but at the same time I felt a little weird about doing it. You see Chris and I have a passion of giving. We don't usually let people in on what we give but this time I think God really wants me to share the way he has blessed us by giving us the chance to give.

A couple of years ago Chris and I asked God for something very specific and he answered. We were very tight on money at the time but with our tax check that year we took $500 out and put it in a checking account that we called "God's money" because we specifically set this amount of money aside asking God to multiply it. We also agreed that a portion of the money made from this amount of money would go to care for orphans or support adopting families. Little did we know how much God would multiply that money.

Do we now have thousands in a bank account? NO! Better yet is that God took our prayer, gave us ideas to be creative, and now that $500 has been invested in many things that keep making money and keep helping families bring kids home or to care for orphans.



This is what happened:

We started going to storage unit auctions and buying units full of trash that people had not paid their rent on but many, many times we found hidden treasures inside that we were able to sell at yard sales or Craig*list. It's a very dirty job and a lot of work but it's a great way to make some extra money.

We then had money to buy broken cars. Chris is a very good auto technician that loves challenges so we started buying cars that people couldn't afford to get fixed or that technicians couldn't figure out how to fix and Chris would fix them and we would sell them at a low price.

Then came our dogs. Our kids had been wanting a dog really bad so we decided if we were going to get a dog we were going to get a dog we could breed and multiply the money with. We looked and looked for a special girl dog but God gave us a boy. As we prayed for a girl we knew that God had a very special purpose for the first puppy sold from every litter. I will share that with you below. God then gave us our girl who's puppies would have a very special purpose.

One night Chris was working in the garage and I asked him if I could have $300 of our "God money" to start making pendants. Chris said he didn't care because he trusted that I could make it work. As I was getting my shop ready God made it very clear to me that this shop was to help families fundraise for adoptions or missions for orphan care. Let me just say that that $300 has now helped well over 40 families help bring their kids home.

It is also because of that "God money" that Chris was able to start his own business.

Do you remember the dog story? I knew from the time we brought Kai Kai home that the first puppy of every litter sold was God's and not ours. It didn't matter if she had 1 puppy or 7 or how much the first puppy sold for. After we bred Kai Kai there were 2 times that I was sure she had lost her puppies. I cried out to God not because we were going to lose the money from the puppies but mostly because I knew there was a family that needed this puppy to help bring their child home. We honestly didn't even know until 3 weeks before she had them that she was pregnant.

Kai Kai has 3 beautiful, beautiful puppies and oh I will have a hard time letting them go to their new homes.

I prayed and prayed over which family would receive the money from this first puppy. I was kind of pushing a friend to start an adoption and get them to take it but I knew that wasn't right. I then prayed and prayed about giving it to some good friend of ours that are adopting but every time I tried to make plans for this puppy God kept putting another family on my mind. I can't even begin to tell you how many times God put this family in my head letting me know the puppy was to help bring their son home.

I wrote the mom one day and I told her that I couldn't believe I was telling her this because I wasn't going to say anything until we had the money to give them but I felt God wanted me to tell her. The mom wrote me back an amazing letter that clearly showed why I was to tell her and that we had the right family.

I wasn't going to share the family on here but I want to because I would love for you to read their amazing story on their blog. This is a family that stepped out in COMPLETE faith, and God is moving mountain after mountain for them to get this beautiful little boy home who just happens to have a limb difference like Jaxson. Click here to read there story.

I wrote this because I want people to know that if God has given you a passion for something or a desire to adopt don't be afraid to ask God for creative ways to make things happen. Don't be afraid to ask God to multiply your money to do good things, your family or even your boundaries. Ask God to help you think out of the box and get creative.

Little did we know when we prayed over that $500 what God had planned for us. We really didn't know how many gifts God would give us out of that $500.

Want An Update On The Puppies?

Click here!

Found Any Hidden Treasures Lately?

So have you found any treasure lately shopping for Christmas, digging in your back yard? Are you looking for treasures in the furniture store, the mall, or maybe the stock market? If those are places you are looking for treasure I want to just let you know that your map is wrong because oh have I found some treasure.

If you go to www.reecesrainbow.org you will find God's precious treasures just waiting for someone to find them.

Treasures are usually something that is rare right?

Since 90% of babies with down syndrome are aborted I would call these precious angels rare.

Treasures are things that only few find and are blessed with or they wouldn't be called treasures.

What if you had the map to show you exactly where these treasures are?

What if treasure is not really found in a fancy house, nice furniture, a car, the stock market?

What if true treasure is found in a child that has not been cursed with a special need but blessed with a special need.

Want to go find some hidden treasure at the risk of having your socks blessed off. Maybe the risk of zillions of kisses and hugs a day, hearing "I love you momma", fingerprints all over everything, getting to tuck a precious little one into bed at night.

Want the chance to say "yes God, I'm listening and I am ready to answer your call"?

Trust me not only do I advocate for these little ones but we pray that someday (hopefully soon)God sets everything into place that we can bring one of these treasure homes.

What are you waiting for, go look, pray and you might just get your socks blessed off.

www.reecesrainbow.org

The Puppies Have Their Own Blog

The puppies have their own blog now :)

If you or someone you know is interested in one of them, or you just want to watch them get cuter and cuter by the day, you can click here to follow their blog.

Caden is a little stinker and won't let me get a good picture of him. He likes to be a little wiggle worm.

Amaya's 7th Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Amaya's 7th Birthday. Amaya's birthday is always a reminder to me of miracles because we never thought we would have a biological child. If you don't know her story Amaya was a miracle after 4 years of infertility, thousands of dollars on fertility treatments, us giving up on the chance of ever having a baby and then through prayer and fasting from my mom (I honestly didn't have the strength anymore) this little miracle came to be.

We celebrated at a restaurant this time because Kai Kai isn't wanting anyone other than us around her precious babies right now.

I found these silly glasses for 10 cents so I got a pair for each of the 8 cousins (2 live too far away to come).

They all have sooooo much fun getting together and playing. How much fun that they each have sooooo many cousins to be their very best friends! Next year hopefully we will have one more to add through adoption ;) and it's not us adopting.

Have I told you lately how much adoption can bless your socks off?

We Have Some Winners!!!

Thank you soooo much for all the names! This was so much fun and we had a blast as a family voting on names (just so you know Paige thought every name was the best name).

Are you ready to hear the names?

OK, before we get started on names let me tell you that all the puppies will be for sale. I have been asked many times now if they are for sale and they are. Please understand these are pure bred Cavalier's even though we are pricing them at the lower end of the going rate they are still not cheap (I know it stinks). I just wanted to throw that in because I think I have shocked a couple people by what these little babies are worth. If you are interested in one though I would be more than happy to talk to you if you leave me your email.

The cool thing is one of these precious little puppies has a very special purpose. When we first decided to start breeding we knew that the first puppy sold of every litter would have the very special purpose of helping an adopting family bring home their precious son or daughter. Sometime I want to do a post on creative ways to care for orphans. By the way I have prayed and prayed about the family that one of these puppies has that special purpose for and I will be contacting them soon.

OK, now are you ready???

Puppy #1 - Caden (boy) Sorry but Jaxson won this one, it's his best friends name


Puppy #2 - Reece (girl) winner is Rett (Rett please let me know who in your family chose this name)

Puppy #3 - Bella (girl) the winner is Molette (please leave me your email address)

Thank you everyone!

PS Winners, I need just a little bit to figure out what your prize will be so it may be a couple of weeks :)

Name Our Puppies Contest - ONLY 24 HOURS!!!

When Kai Kai came home we had soooo much fun having a name contest to name her. The winner was a little boy with the biggest heart ever and I was sooo excited he won and it really wasn't just because he is so stinkin cute.

Anyway here are the rules:

Give us name ideas for our puppies. The more name ideas the more chances you have at winning.

Leave me your email address if I don't have it in case you are the winner.

Tomorrow night around this time we will sit as a family and choose 3 names.

If you are a winner I will send you something special. I don't know what it will be yet because it depends if a kid wins or an adult.

If you need to see the puppies to get a better idea on names then click here.

OK, start commenting with names!!!

Oops!

I forgot to tell you what they are (if you don't know what I'm talking about see post below).

pup #1 - boy

pup #2 - girl

pup #3 - girl

Want To Meet The New Family?

We had a very exciting morning in our home this morning. A day we have been waiting for since the day we brought the new mommy and daddy home.

Below is pictures of our new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Family.

This is a picture of dad watching his babies being born. I was cracking up because he was just sitting watching every move but new better than to move himself or momma Kai Kai wouldn't be happy.

This is pup number 1.

#2

and number 3.

Aren't they sooooooo cute?

Anyone have any ideas for names?

How will I ever be able to let these go to new homes?

Look What's Happening Here Today!!!

Guess How Many Boxes???

37!


37 very excited children


37 chances of children learning about Christ


37 times a child who may have nothing will now have a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap not to mention all the other goodies

ONE 6 year olds (soon to be 7) heart affected for the rest of her life because she had a dream, a goal and many, many people helped her reach her goal.

Not only did she sell enough ornaments to cover the cost of the boxes but enough people donated over the price of the ornament to cover the cost of the $7 donation that needs to go with every box.




If you want to make a box you still have time. Please visit Operation Christmas Child Today by clicking here.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Look What We've Been Doing Today

See the whelping box in the background? We have beautiful Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies coming very, very soon :)

31 boxes so far and still more to make!!!

You can read here about what happens with the shoeboxes.

To Be Like A Child

Last night after Amaya hit her goal I was talking to my mom and she said how I was such a cool mom to do something like this with Amaya. I told mom that I really didn't want to because it scared me because I have seen that when God uses children it's usually big. My mom said "Isn't that like a child to not think about the stress involved but only the outcome?"

How many times in life as adults would we have thought about the time it would take to make 100 ornaments? The time it would take to make a very special note to go with each order?

What if we could have the eyes of a child and only see the prize at the end and not the pain to get to the prize?

How many blessings do you think we are missing out on because we don't want to mess with the stress, the money, the pain? How many times do we just see the long journey and forget about the prize at the end?


Matthew 18:2-6

2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Please Lord...not only do I want you to break my heart for what breaks yours...but please also give me the heart of a child and let me be focused on the prize at the end.

SHE DID IT!!!

More later but SHE DID IT!!!

Thanks to all you amazing people out there God was able to use one very precious child to raise $500 to make shoeboxes for children around the world.


100 ORNAMENTS SOLD!!!



THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

WOW! Look What Came In The Mail

Do you remember this post about the lady that made over 12,000 shoeboxes this year and she bought one of Amaya's ornaments?

Well...this amazing lady sent Amaya a package.

This box is FULL of goodies for Amaya to fill boxes with.

It also has bracelets, buttons and bumper stickers for Amaya to spread the word even more about her special project.

THANK YOU KATHY!!!

She still needs to sell 3 more to get to her goal but we are shopping tonight :)

Click here to read more about Amaya's project.