This picture was taken approximately 11 years, two husbands, handfuls of children (bless), thousands of miles and one left turn ago. Not only is it rare because of it's age ... but we are at Wrigley. And if you know me, you know I only go there for very special occasions. Or free tickets. But I digress. Both of these ladies have generously supported us in our journey to meet Mr. T. And that beautiful lady in the middle is the winner of the Target gift card give-a-way!
Our formal request to Mr. T's country was sent and the wheels are in motion to get all the paperwork in order for Mr. T to come visit - this includes his passport, visa, and plane ticket. And while I wish I could jut sit back and relax and let the magic happen, I just can't. There is so much that goes into hosting. We are collecting clothing, bedding, and recipes from his home country and attending trainings. And I would like to invite you to join with us as we work to collect the last of the fees we need for the hosting program.
We are hosting a Give-a-Way - with the winner getting a $50 gift card to Target!
Entering is easy -
You can get one free entry for sharing our blog on Facebook and you can get another free entry for commenting below (a positive comment!).
Then we will give you ten entries for each $10 donation to our YouCaring page.
You can let me know of your donation by leaving your name on YouCaring or sending me a message.
Monetary donations made through our YourCaring page are tax deductible. We can't award entries for donations made outside of our YouCaring page.
There is a limit of two free entries per person.
We will be selecting a winner on Friday, October 30.
Winner will be chosen at random using an online number generating tool.
This sweepstake is limited to
residents of the U.S. Winners must be 18 as of the first day the
sweepstakes opens.
Since Dylan was born, Brad and I have tried several scheduling options to get the most time together while also still working some very full days. For a season, we made it a point to get bagels on Fridays with the girls before taking them to school and before Brad and I headed in to our offices. It is what our family did ... and we still so sometimes.
Over the last couple of months, we have been able to help a few other families out through Safe Families for Children (you should really check them out here http://www.safe-families.org/). I picked the girls up from school one afternoon and shared with them that there was a family that needed help, and one thing we could do was to have the children stay with our family while their mama did what she needed to do. Dylan's eyes glimmered a bit - the kind of spark that comes when something clicks - and she said, "oh, so she needs help - and we will help her - because that is what our family does."
That is exactly right sweetheart. That is exactly what our family does.
After some deliberations between both me and Brad and me and God and Brad and God - we have signed up to host a little boy currently living in an orphanage in a Eastern European country. We will be a family of five for four weeks. We will be going on adventures and staying home and trying new foods and celebrating Christmas four times (because that is what our family does). Our visitor, Mr. T, is a nine year old boy who is in the third grade. He likes playing cars, Minecraft, and running around. Aubrey has already pulled out a tooth brush for him, and is proudly telling everyone that soon there will be five people in our family. Hopefully I can get in front of that before people start looking at my belly for signs of life.
We know that this Christmas will be awesome. We also know it will be crazy hard. Mr. T is in for a wild ride - as are Miss D and Miss A. If you are the praying type - we would love if you would join us in praying for our time together - that we would get used to each other quickly, that we would have patience as deep as the ocean, and that we focus on loving and serving and making the day great - because that is what our family does.
There are many factors that feed into Mr. T coming here - if you would like to help us in this journey - that would be awesome!
If you have gently used boys clothes in size 8 - we will take them! Mr. T will need a winter coat when he returns home, as well as the other warm and cozy things like sweaters and pants.
We are hosting a garage sale to help raise funds for Mr. T's program costs (travel, visa, insurance). If you are local and have some stuff you would like to donate some stuff with the proceeds going to Mr.T - please let me know!
