Goin' Crazy for Solomon Beads

A very precious mom of many is doing a crazy cool thing to help spread awareness of fundraisers for families adopting. Linny has the most amazing heart for the orphan...hop on over to her blog "A Place called Simplicity" and check out her crazy love and enjoy learning all about this godly family!!

We are honored to be part of her CRAZY LOVE CHALLENGE!

As a family, we are thoroughly enjoying crafting our amazing Solomon Beads! We are selling these gorgeous necklaces, bracelets, & earrings as a FUNDRAISER to help bring Solomon home. Each product is HANDMADE by Solomon's family!! EACH bead is cut, hand-rolled, lacquered, & strung with lots of love while we dream of the day our sweet brother will be home! YES, WE ARE MAKING EACH BEAD OURSELVES...from beginning to end!!!!!!!!!! :)

The stories that being told from those who have already purchased our beads are so crazy awesome! Stories of families praying for our sweet son whenever they see our beads, stories of people being able to witness to others by sharing about our family and what the Lord is doing, stories of raising awareness about the orphan crisis in our world....sooooo amazing!

Here are a few samples of what we are doing....you can leave me a comment and we can custom make whatever your heart can dream up :)

Pricing:

~16" necklace $16

~18" necklace $20

~38" necklace $25

~to add a pendant to any necklace add $10

~Bracelet $10

~Double Bracelet $20

~to add a charm to any bracelet add $3

~Earrings $7+

I can definitely send more pictures of samples upon request. Blessings!

My Lifesong...

Do you have a song that just rocks you to the deepest part of your soul? I think this one is it! I never tire of hearing it, signing it, crying it to my Lord! My GREATEST desire is that my lifesong pleases my Lord! That every action, every word, every heartbeat gives glory to my Father...that I willingly follow His call...that I obey Him in every way...in every thought...with my WHOLE life!!!!!!

**Here's a challenge to YOUR LIFESONG...God's heart is CLEARLY that we as Christians care for the orphan...Here's YOUR CHANCE...

~Be praying that precious Zhu's forever family is found

~Help spread the word

~Seriously and boldly pray for his sweet life

~Ask God if maybe YOU are his mama & daddy!!

There's still time for our Solomon Beads giveaway...Please help us find Zhu's forever family!! DON'T MISS OUT!!**

Just look at those precious eyes and give me 1 reason why you can't help advocate for him? We are talking about advocating for a child to have a family. You just never know who the Lord has called to be his family and you might be the person who God is going to use...how cool would that be??

Appendicitis???

So Baby C gave us a huge scare yesterday!! She started screaming about her tummy hurting around 1pm and continued to scream so off to the drs. we went!!

Here's how the craziness went down:

~took Cana to her pediatrician...both peds. said it was her appendix & sent us straight to ER

~Both ER drs. said it was her appendix...they ordered blood tests and ct scan just to confirm

~Let's just say she is VERY strong & did NOT like getting IV one bit... surprised the drs. with her strength :)

~They started prepping her for surgery & ordered the operating room as we waited for the test results to come back

~Blood tests came back okay...her white blood cell count were high but at the top of the normal range

~CT scan came back kind of funny...funny in the sense that they couldn't see her appendix

~they say that if it was ready to rupture it would have shown on the ct scan but they "can't rule out the appendix, yet"

~sooo, they sent us home with a very drugged up baby...with everyone scratching their heads as to why she is in so much pain....basically, they still think it could be her appendix but it would be at the beginning stage if sooooo

~we have to go back in 24 hours to re-do her blood tests

She fell asleep groaning in pain and woke up perfectly normal today! She is still guarding her right side but she say nothing hurts. She's eating & playing just fine. So, we'll continue to watch our peanut closely and praise our Lord for healing her body!!

We were so relieved that she didn't need surgery. The last time she was under general, she stopped breathing and they had to perform cpr to revive her...very, very scary!!!!!! God's peace was such a comfort as I rocked my crying baby in ER yesterday. Knowing He was in complete control helped me to remain calm but my heart was breaking with every painful moan.

I started to think about our little Solomon. His sn is a complicated one and we know he will be subject to many yucky, painful tests once he's home and it's highly likely he will need surgery. I am really struggling with how difficult it's going to be on him! Cana has had almost 3 years to bond to us and to trust us completely. Solomon will only be home a short while once all his medical stuff will begin. Oh my sweet boy, we love you so much and are praying for God's healing hand!!!

**There's still time for our Solomon Beads giveaway...Please help us find Zhu's forever family!! DON'T MISS OUT!!**

Give me a....

Yahoo...we are DTC (our dossier is flying to China)...this is a HUGE, HUGE step closer to our baby boy!!!

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!!!!