Giveaway time...Solomon Beads for Zhu!!!

Here is your chance to get yourself some Solomon Beads and help an orphan find his forever family! We are giving away 2 bracelets and 2 pairs of earrings. So, that's FOUR chances to win Solomon Beads!!!!

My hearts deepest desire is to find sweet Zhu's forever family and I need your help to raise awareness. Here is my post about why this sweet one has caught our heart!

You earn 1 entry for each of the below tasks.

1. Help advocate for Zhu on your blog

2. Advocate for Zhu on your facebook

3. Advocate for Zhu by emailing all of your friends

4. Become a follower of my blog (if you are already a follower, just let me know :)

***Do all 4 for 6, yes...SIX entries!!!

***Leave me a comment telling me which one's you did (include a link if possible) and how many entries you get.

The drawing will be held on Monday, May 3rd at noon (pst). We will use an on-line randomizer to select the winners.

Plea for Solomon's Best friend!

My baby has a best friend and he NEEDS his FOREVER FAMILY!!!!! The most recent pictures I received of our boy has Solomon and Zhu standing next to each other. The realization that Zhu will be left behind once Solomon comes home has just broken my heart...the impact of him loosing his best friend to adoption will be so devastating to him. After a little bit in searching, I found out that Zhu is AVAILABLE for adoption on the share sn's list soooooooooooooo, we are determined to help find him a home. I fear his time on the list is short and there is no way of knowing if he'll ever become available for adoption again. Once these kiddos have been on the list several times, they will be deemed un-adoptble...can you fathom any child being labelled un-adoptable?!?

There are approximately 1500 waiting children on the share sn's list...1500 WAITING children...they are waiting for a family...can you graspe that? Each of us have some form of a family...a family that cares about us...a family that loves us...these babies NEED families. Why Zhu...why are we advocating for Zhu...he is our baby's best friend...he is very special to us and we feel very strongly that we already know the people that are suppose to be his family, now just to find them :)

(wish I could show his whole sweet face but out of protection for Zhu, I can't)

Sweet, sweet Zhu just turned 4 years old in March. His special need is listed as: "valgus deformity of lower left limb, the rest is normal." From the picture of his leg it appears that from his knee down to his foot, the shin bows back in a arch...from his pictures and little video he is running, jumping, and moving beautifully! His little personality is precious...he is so happy and engaged in his preschool.

Would you please join us in praying this sweet boy home? Oh the thought that he could have a FOREVER family is so exciting!! A mama to hold him, sing to him, comfort him, feed him, love him...A daddy to wrestle with, grow up to be like, to be protected by...A family that cares specifically about him, to teach him all about his Savior...a precious boy who will go from being a statistic to a precious son!!!!

Please email me if you have any questions!!! wearechinabound @ gmail .com (remove spaces)

Wanna experience God love on a new and deeper way? Check out my hubby's post! Love your spouse, love your kids, adopt a child and learn more about the love that God has for you and you will grow in your relationship with Him. ~paul

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD and help us find his family!!! God's CRYSTAL CLEAR call to the Christian is to CARE FOR THE ORPHAN...some are called to adopt, some are called to minister, some are called to pray, some are called to financially support...How is God calling you to minister to the orphan? IS HE CALLING YOU TO ADOPT A CHILD WITHOUT A FAMILY???

"Where's my bruder?"

Things have been crazy busy...I will update you all on that in my next post :)

Last Thursday, we were blessed to hold a fundraising play day at Seascape Kids Fun. The precious owner, Abby, gave all the proceeds from that event to our adoption fund. We had over 60 kids and raised $360...how cool is that...we also sold $240 in Solomon Beads at this event!

Anyways...our baby S must have been a little bit confused because the second we entered the play area, she started running around and kept saying, "Mama, where's Solomon...where's my bruder...where is he?" Of course, I was instantly in tears. Oh, she was soooo sad that he wasn't there! She wants her "bruder" home soooo bad!

Honestly, how do we ever survive this wait! You'd think by peanut #6 I would have figured out how to wait better than this. The bottom-line is that my sweet, precious boy is waiting for his mama & daddy to come! He doesn't know he's waiting on us but we know he is waiting and every day that goes by...every delay in the process pulls on the deepest parts of my heart. The reality that right NOW my son is on the other side of the world and I can't get to him is so difficult!

Okay...I need to stop or I'll be a sobbing mess. We love you baby boy and can't wait to finally hold you in our arms!! How about a peek at a new picture we just got of him...look at his sweet face!! Praying for favor in China...that they'd process our paperwork super fast :)

Another Giveaway...

Today is a day to be blessed...here is another fabulous GIVEAWAY...go love on this family and you could win a blog makeover! Help then bring their sweet girl, waiting in China, home!

Giveaway....

Check out our very dear friends blog!! They are hosting a phenomenal GIVEAWAY and you don't want to miss out!!!! Talk about a very precious, precious family. Join us in praying their baby girl home!

Are you attached to God?

(you all are in for a treat because my sweet hubby is posting today :) I LOVE this profound truth)

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God makes comparisons between our relationship with Him and our relationships with those around us. One example of this is our relationship to our family. Jesus talks about God as our Father in heaven (Mat 6, 23). The husband is told to love his wife just as Christ loved the church (Eph 5). And our salvation into God’s family is compared to adoption (Eph 1). I believe that these analogies are useful to help us to better understand our relationship with God.

This last weekend Stacy and I took a class for our adoption. In this class, they described a cycle that children need to learn to go thru in order to become attached to their parents. The cycle was basically this: 1) Need, 2) Signal, 3) Gratification, and 4) Trust. Think of a baby that is hungry. He knows he has a need and so signals this need to those around him by crying. The parent meets the need by feeding him and as this cycle is repeated a trust develops between the child and the parent. When this trust is established, the child is said to be “attached” to the parent.

The problem for a child that has been in an orphanage for most or all of his life is that this cycle has not been completed and the trust is not built between the child and any consistent caregiver. When a child is adopted into a family some effort is needed to overcome the pattern of self-gratification and non-trust that has been established so that the child can attach to his new parents.

Are you attached to God? It’s possible to be a Christian but not to have established a pattern of expressing your needs to God, watching Him meet those needs, and building a proper trust for Him. Pour yourself out to God and build up that relationship and trust with Him that He wants to have with you and experience a depth in your walk that you may have never known you could have.

For some, this may be hard to understand. I think families that have adopted will have an easier time relating to this analogy because they have personally experienced it. I still remember 12 years ago when my son was born the realization of the depth of love that God my Father had for me. There was no way I could have intellectually understood it without experiencing it personally. Love your spouse, love your kids, adopt a child and learn more about the love that God has for you and you will grow in your relationship with Him.

~paul

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Plain and simply...love your spouse, love your kids, adopt a child and learn MORE about the LOVE that God HAS FOR YOU and you will grow in your relationship with Him...LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!!

Sisters and their mama!!!

Oh, the true joy of having sisters. Never could I have ever dreamed of having such an amazing relationship with my sisters. We have always been close but the beauty of our friendship since we've become adults is amazing! Ohhh, the fun we have...they are too much!!

And then there is our mama...our beautiful, precious mom! She is amazing...who would have thought you could be best friends with your mom! She is the first one to listen, cry with me, laugh with me, and support me. She is always ready to give her mama advice but is very respectful of my thoughts. She is a phenomenal grandma to her grandbabies (our papa isn't too bad either but that's another post for another day...today it's about the girls :).

The bond that the 4 of us have is very deep and unshakable. I love these girls so much and my life would not be complete without them. They inspire me to be a better mother and wife...they are my safe place (outside of my Jesus & my hubby). I love you guys so much...you are a precious gift, a beautiful treasure!

Do this...

So, a couple of months ago we were taking one of our agency classes for our homestudy and we did this fabulous exercise. Now, we've taken this class before and we've done this same exercise but this was before baby C was home. Let's just say I was very emotional doing it this time...I was relating it to baby C and our sweet Solomon.

Here's what you do:

1st- Make a list of the 10 MOST important things in your life (in any order).

(scroll down to see what you do next)

There has just been a disaster and you LOSE HALF of the things on your list....cross FIVE things off of your list.

~As you are crossing those things off, what are your emotions as you 'lose' those important things?? What are your thoughts...hmmm, okay...I could live without this or that....could I live without this person or that freedom? I mean, who needs clothes anyways?? :)

(scroll down to see what you do next)

OH NO, there has been huge disaster and you have lost EVERYTHING but ONE thing on your list....cross ALL but ONE item off of your list.

~At this point, I am crossing off the most precious things in my life...my husband, my children, my family and I am trying so hard not to completely lose it in the class. I have been hit at my very core realizing/remembering this is what our baby girl lost and this is what our baby boy is about to lose! This wasn't an exercise for her...this was REALITY! This will be my son's reality very soon. This reality is something they will live with for the rest of their lives! It's a necessary reality for them to come home to their forever family but it just devastates my heart!

Our instructor told us then to crumple our paper & throw it away because we have now lost everything. She then carries on with talking about the loss our children experience from the moment they become orphans. Well, my #1 left on my sheet was God and NO ONE can take my God away from me! But you get the point of the exercise.

I don't know about you but I find this exercise very powerful and a fabulous thing to share with your family.

So disappointed

Not that I have a whole lot of respect for Disney but I have to say that I am extremely disappointed with them! I sat down to watch The Princess and the Frog with my kiddos tonight and I was so sad. It's an awful, awful movie. The black magic and voodoo is horrific...I honestly can't believe what I just watched. Gggrrrr...I was so excited that Disney finally made a movie with a black princess. My little girl was so excited that there was a Disney princess that looked like her. Honestly, was any of that necessary??? It could have been done so well.....

Okay, I'm done venting...for now anyways. Oh, I'm so irritated that they would produce a movie like that. I recognize that MANY of the Disney movies have an element of magic...some worse than others but this is by far the worst I've ever seen...it's so dark...so of the ENEMY!!!! Okay, I'm really done now......

Resurrection Day!

What joy it is to celebrate Resurrection Day when your children are old enough to truly understand WHY we celebrate! What a gift to listen to my baby C explain why Jesus had to die on the cross and why He rose...'all so I could live in heaven with Him mama'...the thought that she may have never experienced the real truth if she was still in the orphanage is so amazing to me. Such a gift!!!!

Next Resurrection Day our baby boy will be home and he will learn all about what his Jesus did for him....YAY...CAN'T WAIT!