Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my precious friends. We have so much to be thankful for...do we not?!?! I am most thankful that MY GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!!!

We are off to visit family in Arizona. It will be a super fast trip but I'll post pictures when we get back! HUGS to each of you!!

Bi-Racial Hair Care

I was recently asked advice on how to care for bi-racial hair and below was my response. I thought a few of you might find it helpful. After $100's and $100's we finally found what works for "Tr's" hair. If you have any other tricks, let me know :) "Tr's" hair does require lots of care but it's worth it and we have a blast trying all kinds of new things.
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Hair Products (in order of my favorites...we pretty much only use Paul Mitchell at this point):
1. Paul Mitchell Shampoo and Conditioner AND Leave-In Condition
2. Mixed Chicks shampoo and Conditioner http://www.mixedchicks.net/index.html
3. Pantene for women of color - shampoo and conditioner

Other products we use daily:
1. Just for Me spray detangler (Wal-Mart or Target)
2. V05 leave-in conditioning dressing (Wal-Mart..in tube or jar) This stuff is fabulous...only need a small amount

Hair tips for bi-racial children:
1. Only wash hair with shampoo 1x a week but use a conditioner at least 2x a week (let the conditioner sit for at least 5 minutes before rinsing) Also, use large tooth comb to comb conditioner through hair before rinsing
2. Have child sleep with satin cap
3. Have child sleep with a satin pillow case (cotton pulls the moisturizers out of the hair and satin does not)
4. Use a leave-in conditioner daily (only need a small amount)
5. Comb hair with large tooth comb and comb from the ends up towards the roots
6. YouTube has a ton of neat braiding videos...we have lots of fun with these :)
7. Never use rubber..rubber bands..use the cloth covered ones. Bi-racial is very fragile and can break easily. Treat it like you would a delicate silk blouse ;)

Our daily routine:
1. Wet hair with Just for Me spray detangler
2. Comb
3. Add Paul Mitchell leave-in condition (small amount)
4. Then add V05 leave-in conditioning dressing (small amount)
5. Comb again
6. Finish styling hair and we are good to go :)
(again, I shampoo once a week and use a rinse conditioner at least twice a week)

Another option is to use a gentle relaxer on her hair (if you are nervous about doing this yourself, I highly recommend having it done by a professional). I recently used the Just for Me relaxer on "Tr's" hair and it worked beautifully! She has long, loose, spiral curls right now and she loves it! It's very gentle on the hair and made for children & it's inexpensive (Wal_Mart or Target). If the directions are followed properly, the hair comes out great!

Hmmmm, I think that's about it. I hope this is helpful. Bi-Racial hair is tricky because it can have so many textures. The above works for "Tr's" hair because her hair is NOT coarse but dry and extremely curly. A lot will depend on your child's hair.

Adoption commercials

My friend, Debbie, posted some neat adoption commercials on her blog. This one really touched me...okay, I'll say it like it is...it definitely made me cry...
(oh yeah...pause the site music at the bottom)


"There are no unwanted children, just un-found parents"

Thanks for sharing these Debbie!

It's mine...muwahaha...all mine!!

I have successfully been able to pry my blog out of my hubby's hands. He had a little too much fun posting about my shoe quirk addiction collection. I have a sick feeling that he will be hijacking my blog sometime soon :) He thoroughly enjoyed your comments and has yet to let me live this down.

Prayer and spread the word!

Please be praying for this precious little girl and family AND pass this on!!
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Blanket permission to post. Please pass the following information to your groups or if you think you maybe able to help this woman please contact me privately. lavonned@mail.com


My daughter Lydia was adopted from Guangdong Province China on July 5, 2004. In August 2008, she was diagnosed with AML, a very pernicious and deadly form of leukemia. With the help of her Chinese-born doctor, we were able to locate her birthparents and some of her siblings in China that her family kept. We know she had at least two sisters older than she (born somewhere between 1993 and 2002) who were also abandoned. The birthparents have refused to assist with her bone marrow transplant, even though two of her already found siblings were a match. We are now looking for these other potential siblings to see if they were adopted and might also be a match. Lydia is part of the Hakka ethnic group, and so a match from someone other than a relative is unlikely because of her unique, almost bi-racial typing. Lydia has classic Hakka features: "Brooke Shields" eyebrows, and rather full lips and a round face. I will have my husband post photos of Lydia and her birthfamily. I cannot do so at this time, because I am in the hospital with Lydia and the internet connection here is too slow and rather poor. Thank you for any assistance you may be able to lend.


Blessings,
Monica Miyashita
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lydialimeieikomiyashita or
http://www.caringbridge.org%20cut/
enter: lydialimeieikomiyashita
(photo's of family and Lydia are now posted on caringbridge)

UPDATE:
Hi All,Last night I posted regarding the little girl, Lydia, who is very ill and her mother is desparately trying to find her 2 sisters. Tonight a plea is being made in asking for your help. Lydia must find a donor. We urge you to please allow your child to be tested, cheek swab, for a possible donor match.Lydia is Hakka Chinese. The Hakka are concentrated in Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Fujian, Hong Kong and Hunan. There are small numbers in Sichuan and Hunan Provninces. Source: Operation China 2000.Please, if you are interested in testing please contact me directly. Jl_rms@yahoo. comIf you are a member of Guangdong or Hunan sib find, just enter your information in the database section of the group.Thank you,Julie

Surrounded by 2 Huge fires

Please be praying for the fire fighters that are battling these HUGE fires that are burning out of control. We have 2 huge fires burning very close to us...we should be safe but there are so many of our friends who have been evacuated. There are over 100 homes that have already been destroyed. The winds are still blowing strong and hard. The smoke and ash is very thick.

These are pictures I took in our front yard!

UPDATE 9:00pm Saturday: Please continue to pray...the 2 major fires by our house are 0% contained and are 1/2mile away from combing into one HUGE fire. The winds are still blowing strong and typically kick up even more at night.

UPDATE 11:30pm Sunday: The winds have died down and the fire shifted north this morning. Thankfully many of our friends were recently allowed back into their homes. One of our friends came home to their backyard scorched but their house untouched...thank you, Jesus! Many are still evacuated and other cities are still in danger. If the winds pick up again, the fire could very easily shift back this way. Once those hot embers get in the air, they can nail houses miles away....this is what's been happening. Please continue to pray as this fire is massive and only 19% contained.

UPDATE Wednesday: Thank you guys for your prayers. We are all good and pretty much smoke free. The fires are fully contained and it appears that all of our friends houses were spared. What a crazy time. You can check one of our sweet friend's blog, Julee...she took these pictures as they were evacuating their house (this was hours before a mandatory evacuation was announced...can only imagine what it looked like then)

Shoes

Hello, this is Paul. As I was reading my lovely wife's post on '7 quirky things' I just had to respond to one of them in particular; her shoe problem - er 'quirk', right, quirk :P. (By the way, she was tagged 4 times, so don't let her get away with just 9 quirky things, she owes you guys 28!). You may not have noticed, but she devoted more words to the shoe quirk than any other; I'll see if I can help you to understand the magnitude of her quirk, lol.


Shortly after I first met her, she got a job at Patrini's shoe store. I should have known I was in trouble when I saw her spend 90% of each paycheck on shoes (and if I remember correctly, she got a store discount!). It's not clear to me if she had this 'quirk' before I met her or if she just quickly developed it while working at the shoe store, but it was very clear that she had it bad.


Do you guys remember Imelda Marcos? A while back she was in the news for having 1000's of pairs of shoes. I remember looking at Stacy and thinking Mrs. Marcos was crazy and before I could say anything she said with a big grin on her face, "Wow, that's so cool!" If you ask Stacy about the fight between Cinderella and her stepsisters I'm certain that she would tell you it was not about the prince at all, but about that incredible pair of shoes!


I was just commenting the other day on how many shoes we had in the house and she said it wasn't that bad and that she had just went thru and 'weeded out' the shoes we didn't need. After I finished laughing about it, I asked the kids if they thought we could fill our whole living room with our shoes. They didn't think so (oh no, I may have multiple family members with this quirk :S), so we just had to try it out and see. If I counted correctly, there are over 100 pairs of shoes in this picture!

"Mom"....

...."even if #8 doesn't pass, I'm still gonna marry a boy and T is still gonna marry a girl"...this from my 7yr. old daughter. Now, tell me they don't know what's going on!!

I am floored that these words are even coming out of my baby's mouth...completely floored!

PRAY..VOTE..PRAY..VOTE!!!!!!!

We are less than 24hours away from the most important election in history. I urge you to be on your knees praying for our nation as the election is coming to an end & get your hiney out to vote!!!! Lord, your will be done!!!!

CALIFORNIANS...Vote YES on Prop. 8 to secure the legal definition of marriage, as God designed, between a man & woman.

OUTSIDE of California...be Praying because the outcome of Prop. 8 WILL indeed effect your state.

Yesterday we had a peaceful church demonstration...we had over 400 people. It was sure exciting to have all the honks and thumbs-up of support...now to get them to the polls!!! We also had some not-so-nice gestures but I was proud that everyone continued to wave back and praise our Lord even when some were shouting nasty things. It's just a reminder of how fallen our world truly is...I still can't believe we are having to vote on this...it's unbelievable!!

Your vote DOES count...what are you going to do with it? Will the Lord be pleased with what you did with it?

I AM COUNTING ON MY GOD...no matter what He chooses to allow!!

Hallelujah Party

Our Halloween alternative...HALLELUJAH PARTY!!!

2 Very excited girls...1 VERY sick daddy & a happy little boy!! 'S' was a little excited about the candy :) I do have to explain the sucker picture...'C' gave 'S' her sucker while she drank water...when 'C' wasn't looking, 'S' started sucking on it...'C' tried to get her sucker back and 'S' was not giving it back for nothin'...needless to say 'C' was NOT a happy girl!