A Lilla-Rose Giveaway/Fundraiser for Maxim

Remember him? You know I couldn't let you forget!

Just recently Reece's Rainbow has made it possible for the older children (6+) to have their own grant funds again. I was so excited about this for one main reason, and his name is Maxim. I plan to build his grant as high as I can so that when his mom and dad find him money won't be standing in their way. Thanks to a friend of mine I've been given my first opportunity to do that.

Linda Menke has recently started her own business with Lilla-Rose. They are the most beautiful hair clips I've seen in a while. I've already picked out this Celtic Knot clip for Liza. Linda has offered to donate 15% of all sales for the next two weeks to Maxim's grant fund. In addition to that she will be giving away one Lilla-Rose product each week by random drawing. To be entered into the giveaway see the bullet points below (cause, remember, I get confused).

• For one entry go to Linda's Lilla-Rose Facebook page and "LIKE" it. Leave a comment here on my blog to help us confirm.
• For another entry place an order of a product from Linda's Lilla-Rose website. Then leave a comment here. Remember 15% of all purchases will be donated to Maxim's grant fund.
• Or go to Linda's website and choose your favorite piece and leave a comment here telling us what it is.
• For one additional entry post to your own Facebook or Blog about this Fundraiser/Giveaway then come back here and comment with the link to your post.

Please make sure to leave a comment or comments HERE with every thing that you do that would  earn you an entry into the giveaway. Linda will be keeping track of the likes on her Facebook page and I'll be tracking comments and posts here, and we just don't want to miss anybody. Thanks!!

Cookie Monsters

Remember I was urging everyone to visit Charlie's Chocolate Factory? Well, we got our goodies from CCF, and let me tell you! They are just as amazing as everyone said, honestly.

Pictures speak a thousand words, right? So, I'll let them and Liza (the boys are anti-camera these days) tell the story.

First Bite.

You can't see her but the puppy is trying to snatch a bite.
Not happening!

Mmmmmm, that's pretty good!

Oh, you know what's about to happen, right?



Seriously, you can't guess what happened next?
...
...
...

Yep, Liza ate Austin's cookie!
(*This was NOT staged, I was just quick with
the camera for once!)

Pretty dadgum proud of myself right now,
if I do say so myself :)
Now, Austin - he's not so proud.
Better be looking out next time Brother!

Fundraiser Friday - Olga and the Abell Family

Jenn and Chris Abell are adopting the sweet girl above, her name is Olga. Isn't she just a cutie-pie? The first time I saw her photo I thought how much she reminded me of Liza - ok sure, it was probably just the blonde hair and fair skin, but then I read her description and it mentioned something about her being "determined" and that she liked to help the other children. Well, that really sounds like someone I know who happens to be cute, blonde, and a bit sassy. So, when I found out Olga had a family determined to come for her I was pretty excited for her and for them. Now, I have the privilege of sharing some of the fundraisers they are doing in order to raise the money needed to bring Olga home.

On July 16th they are hosting A Dinner for Olga in Port Orchard, Washington. They're serving pulled pork sandwiches along with some tasty side dishes and strawberry lemonade or sweet tea to drink. Sounds really good and if I didn't know they were all the way over in Washington I would think they were here in Virginia or a little further South judging by that menu (trust me, even here in "Northern" VA it's sometimes hard to find sweet tea!). If you're anywhere close to them and would like to actually attend Olga's Dinner you can purchase a ticket at their event page, and if you do go eat a little extra for me, ok? If you're out of town but want to donate you can go the event page purchase a ticket and then send Jenn an email letting her know you're not actually attending along with a message for Olga.

They also have a couple other fundraisers going on right now that you should check out. Jenn's friend, Stephanie, is hosting Christmas in July for Olga throughout July. She is calling it a "give-to" and here's how it works, she has these beautiful Christmas ornaments and for every $10 donation to the Abell's adoption fund she is giving an ornament to Olga along with a message sent by the contributor. Sounds like a great gift for Olga on her first Christmas with a family! Olga has also been chosen as the Jars of Hopes and Dreams child for the month of July. Who knew the change that could fill up a jar could be used to change the life of a child?

On top of all that the Abell's are sending everyone who contributes to any of these fundraisers a keychain to help you remember why you gave.

Front side

Back side

Please head over to the Abell Family's blog and help Olga come home to her family.

Speaking of Fundraising/Fundraiser Friday - Charlotte's Chocolate Factory

Since I let my heart fall out about families, orphans, and fundraising the other day I can't seem to stop thinking about it. I really believe in adoption fundraising and have decided I want to support those who are in the trenches, so to speak, like I was at one time - and who knows, may be again someday (and no, that's not some super secret announcement). If you or someone you know is fundraising for adoption please let me know so I can highlight them one week. Email me at hismissionmine at yahoo dot com.

So, Fundraiser Friday is starting today featuring friends I made not long after Liza came home and had the pleasure of meeting, ironically, at another family's adoption fundraiser.

Charlotte (aka Charlie)
Who wouldn't wanna spend some time with this cutie? :)

Kelly and Kyle Dirkes are adopting Charlie, a sweet little muffin with the same extra chromosome that Liza has. I met Kelly and Kyle not long after they committed to Charlie and have found Kelly to be a good friend ever since that night. She's helped me with computer and picture issues, and offered valuable advice on IEP navigating. I am really looking forward to meeting Miss Charlie when she comes home. 

Kelly is putting her love of baking to good use through Charlotte's Chocolate Factory for the next week and is inviting you all to indulge yourselves and help Sweet Charlie come home. I have been told these treats are delicious! I can't wait for mine to get here - I'm hoping I can hide them from Rick and the kids... lol

I mean, really! Even the packaging is pretty.

Go on over and visit Charlies Chocolate Factory and hook yourself up. You get some yummy treats and the satisfaction of knowing that you're helping bring Charlotte home. It's a win-win, seriously!

Winner of the Coach Purse

Rickydoodle decided to get in on the action and helped me draw the winner of the Coach purse just a few short minutes ago.

Here he is shakin' things up.

Drawing the Winning name....

And...... the ........

Winner is.........

Dianna B!

Dianna you won the really cute Coach purse. Please contact me through email (it's on the sidebar --->) with your address so I can get it shipped out to you. I hope you love it. I think you will :)

Thank you so much to everyone who donated and put the word out about this fundraiser. It helped get a little closer to where we need to be before we travel. We still need to raise about $2500 more, but I am confident that God is going to bring to completion that which He has begun.

Authentic Coach Purse Give-Away

Remember when I asked if anyone was interested in this purse? Well, I decided to take a leap and go ahead and offer a chance for every $20 donation to Liza’s Adoption Fund. In addition to that an extra chance will be given for sharing the link to this give-away on Facebook/Twitter and two extra chances for writing a blog post linking back to the Give-away. Just leave me a comment letting me know you've done these things.

We are about a month +/- away from going to get Liza and still need to raise about $3000 in order to know for sure that we will be covered the entire time we are there. Is anyone else as excited as I am that we are almost there?!

 Just to show that it really is an authentic Coach, I even took a pic of the leather Coach badge on the inside of the Bag. These are selling on e-b*y right now for about $230.

 *Please ignore the fingerprints on the edge of my door. Guess it's time to go around and clean all door jambs - AGAIN*

Some pics of the front of the Bag. This thing even has that nice leather smell to it. It is so nice.

I put some towels inside of it to fill it out. So, ignore the bits of blue peeking out in the pic of the back of the Bag. It is actually very roomy – I put a full size towel and a couple of hand-towels inside this Purse. Moms who hate having to carry that diaper bag around, this could hold your things and a couple of diapers, a pacifier, and a probably a small wipe holder too.

It has so many small but really cute details. The snaps on the side make it a little more roomy if needed and if not they give it a cute shape when snapped. (You can see what I mean in the hanging pics above.)

Look at these little "feet" on the bottom so it never directly lays flat on any surface you set it on.Love it!

It has three pockets – one for your cell, one for change/small wallet/lipstick etc., and a zippered pocket on the side with the leather Coach badge .

All donations will go directly to our FSP and will be tax-deductible through Reece’s Rainbow when you use the chip-in included in this post. This Give-Away will run until next Thursday, July 15th. Please share with as many people as you can and help us raise the Ransom for Liza's life. We are SO close!

Update on Pampered Chef

**Breaking News!! On Wednesday the 20th from 4-9PM EST all online orders will receive a free gift with their order. So, if you're on the fence about ordering or dragging your feet I suggest you get that order in then so you can get a little something extra for free. Come on, who doesn't like free? :)**
*If anyone still wants to order, the show will be open until Wednesday evening. Simply go to Rachel's Website and click SHOP NOW, then type LIZA in the host name box, and go shopping! Thanks*


Saturday was the Pampered Chef fundraiser and I think it did really well. Plus, it was fun and we ate yummy food. Caramel brownies and Garlic pull-apart bread, I'm drooling just thinking about it. I should've taken pictures so you could drool too. Ahh, hindsight.....

The most amazing thing that came out of it was three of my friends decided to host their own parties, which gets the Liza fund $10 each one, BUT on top of that they want their parties to be a continuation of this fundraiser! That means they will be hosting fundraiser parties with all the proceeds going to Liza's fund. I was so blessed by them that I couldn't even thank them without wanting to cry. I have really awesome friends who believe in what we are doing. How can you not praise God for that?! Thanks friends.

The other good thing that came out of this was the people who just wanted to donate but couldn't make it to the party. I guess I hadn't been as diligent in sharing what we were doing as I thought. So many said that they didn't even realize we were adopting and were willing to support us in some way. Those donations were an unexpected blessing, but so appreciated.

I don't know the totals from all the orders yet, we're keeping the party open for a few more days for anyone else who wants to order. I do know that just having that time to be surrounded by friends and know that we are supported in this was really good for me. It encouraged me to keep pushing through until Liza is here with us. Although, I'm now thinking I may have to fight off a bunch of women on Sunday mornings if I want to see my daughter. Ehh, could be worse I guess.....

One More Fundraiser - Pampered Chef

We are having one more fundraiser as we push towards the last little bit we need before it's time to go. We are looking at submitting our dossier in early February and still need about $5000 to go.  If you love Pampered Chef please order though Rachel's website and help us reach our goal. Thanks!

Help The Pampered Chef

Raise Money

for the Lorenz Family’s adoption of

Liza!

Come sample some delicious recipes and try high-quality kitchen tools while we raise money for the Lorenz family!

20% of all purchases will be donated to the Lorenz Family!
AND $10 will be donated for every show booked with Rachel Lazor!
(if you live near us and want to book a show let me know and I'll hook you up with Rachel)


When: Until Saturday, January 16th


If you aren’t able to make it, you can still support the fundraiser by placing your order on
Rachel's Pampered Chef Website

• Click on "Shop Online" in the LOWER LEFT CORNER OF THE HOME PAGE
• Enter LIZA in Box #1
• Shop, choose "Direct Delivery" (to have the order delivered to you via FedEx)
• Pay with a Debit/Credit Card


Please be sure to check out Reece’s Rainbow and the Lorenz sponsor page

Bracelet Fundraiser

* Only have TWO left! I've decided to keep this post at the top of the blog until I sell out of bracelets to make it easier to find them. I hope with Christmas coming I will sell the rest of what I have. The chip-in I originally had posted here expired but you can use the button on the sidebar for ordering bracelets. It all goes to the Liza fund, just designate $15 for each bracelet. Thanks!

Quilt Winner

Anybody remember this? When I first set it up I had the issue that came up with P*yp*l that threw a wrench in it for a day or two, but I did have two ladies who donated before that happened. Then I made a flyer and posted in a few places here in my community and had a couple folks donate because of that. All in all I guess it didn't do so bad. And believe me, every little bit helps get us closer to our goal.

Thanks to ALL who entered! And now on to the WINNER .

This is my trusty helper, Noah. Don't ask about the face, I have not a clue! But, it's cute :)

Here's his pick! Again with the weird faces.....

And The winner IS......

Natasha M! She actually works at the boys' school and is from Liza's country. On top of donating for a chance at the quilt she has also offered her services as a translator if I need them. I am so happy we got connected. I wish I had a quilt for everyone who donated, but am so grateful to everyone who did. Thank you all so much!!

And, of course, we do still have the bracelets for sale. I wear mine everyday and so does a friend of mine. Because they have so many colors in them they go with anything you wear but they're not overly bright or gaudy. If you knew me in real life you would know I DON'T do gaudy or loud. Check them out if you need an idea for a Christmas gift :)

Another Way to Help Liza

*The Fundraiser give-away for Liza is back on. This time all money donated goes straight to our Reece's Rainbow FSP. That makes it tax-deductible for anyone who donates. Suggested donation amount will remain the same as what I have below.

A friend of mine from church, Robyn, graciously made and donated a sweet toddler-size quilt to us. We hope to give it away to someone who donates to our adoption fund. She gave it to me before the issues came up with our home study and I hadn't sat down to put up this post yet.

Now, I think I know why. We heard from another psychologist who actually practices in our area and he is willing to meet with us and write the letter we would need to be able to proceed with the home study. He is only asking for $675, which is a heck of a lot better than the last one we talked to!

SO, getting back to the quilt! I am really hoping to put every bit of money we might receive towards this $675. Even though it's less than what we were quoted by the others it's still a good chunk of money that we weren't counting on. I really want to get a pretty good response to this and get in to see this psychologist much sooner rather than later. My girl has been waiting in that orphanage long enough!

I thought a suggested donation of $5 would be wonderful! Thanks!

This is a shot of the quilt folded in half.

I just couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing. Each square has a different type of dog in it. they are all adorable.

I wanted to show a close-up of the background here and how it looks against the front.

It's all little paw prints, really cute!

And this one is a close-up of one of the squares. My personal favorite, the dog and his bandanna. And don't you just love the little white paw prints running thru the black material? :)

Spa Day

Tomorrow at 10 am is when our first official live (i.e. not a bloggy one) fundraiser starts. I'm trying to figure out how it's possible to be excited about something that you dread all at the same time. Only Me!

I am pretty sure that I have ADD and have had it all my life. So it is really hard for me to organize things and see them thru to completion. I have the best of intentions and even some good ideas sometimes but I just get so darn distracted. I am so afraid that I have forgotten something or that this is gonna be a big flop; yet I have checked my mental lists a hundred times and I don't see anything missing. That gets me excited! I so want this to be a success.

Here are the details. I have a friend who has volunteered to do manicures, another doing massages, and another doing Mary Kay facials or make-overs. Each service will have it's own set price and people can choose what they would like to have done. I bought some nice cheeses and fruit for a fruit tray. We'll have spa music playing and lots of blue and green hydrangeas to decorate with. Plus pictures of some of the Reece's Rainbow cuties who are still waiting for their families to find them. I'm hoping they might be in the Spa Day crowd.

We start at 10 am and Spa Day is being held at Grace Church of Fredericksburg's Kairos Hall in Fredericksburg, VA. If anyone is in the area please feel free to drop by, even if it's only to say "Hi". Also, please pray that it will be a huge success. We are hoping to at least pay off the rest of the HS fees and set some aside for travel.

Touched By Adoption

A bunch of the Reece's Rainbow ladies got together recently and ordered some cute silicon bracelets that say "Touched by Adoption". The plan is to sell them to raise money for our adoptions.



I'm selling mine for $3.50 each. Just donate through the paypal button on the sidebar. They come in Aqua, Blue, and Pink. The colors of Reece's Rainbow. They are sizes large and medium so let me know if you prefer one over the other.

This shows a little detail of the words in the bracelets. I am a horrible photographer and this was the best I could get :) Don't you love the little hand prints on the sides?

Another Way to Help Bring Liza Home

I set up a magazine fundraiser to earn a little more of the funds we will need to get Liza home. I really don't like that we have to fundraise, but I love this little girl and can't wait to have her in my arms. The only thing standing in our way is a little bit of paperwork (ok, not so little. hehe) and about $24,000.

$24,000 looks like a lot, right? Well, think of it this way. We just celebrated Easter, which reminds us of the day that Jesus died on the cross to cover our sin. But, why did he have to do this? To pay our ransom. We were separated from God by our sin and in order for that separation to be bridged we had to be redeemed or ransomed. Jesus paid our ransom when he was nailed to that cross and died for us. Now, He has asked my family to pay the ransom for this child to be delivered out of the darkness and into the Light. If you don't think she's living in darkness I encourage you to google Ukrainian or Serbian mental institutions. This IS where she would be sometime after her fourth birthday which is only about eight months away. Instead, we hope to have her home with us and celebrating her "first" birthday surrounded by those who love her.

The Results Are In

I had my Trusty Assistant, AKA Awesome Austin, pull a name out of a hat ( literally) today to find the winner of Liza's Necklace Raffle.

And the winner is:

Jeremy Judd

Thanks to all who entered and supported us in our first fundraiser. It was very encouraging just to know that we are supported in this thing.

Last Day for Liza's Raffle!!

If you've been thinking about it, or planning on entering later, today is the LAST DAY. So, PLEASE enter and help us bring Liza home!

• Only $10 per entry! $20=2, $30=3, etc.......


• A chance to win a very nice sterling silver and jade necklace


• Passing the word gets you a free entry, after you enter at least once


• You get the chance to know you've helped make a difference in a little girl's life!

*Apparently I set the time wrong on my chipin widget :( So, if you still want to enter please do so by either clicking Liza's button and donating to our Family Sponsorship Page or using our Paypal button on the sidebar. I can't say in words how much we appreciate everyone who is standing with us in this! Thank You!!

Found a Giveaway.....

And it's for an adoption fundraiser!

The Jones', http://joneseeadoption.blogspot.com/, are adopting a little boy with Down Syndrome from Eastern Europe. They are giving away a $100 Toys R Us giftcard and a $200 Visa giftcard. For a $5 donation you get entered into both drawings. You can't beat that and I figured if I shared with everyone who pops in here I get to help them out and possibly you too. You'll be thanking me if you win, or at least I hope you will.

And the Dickinson's, http://www.thenewdickinsonfamily.com/, are giving away a Wii. Same concept. You donate $5 and your name goes into the drawing to help them bring home their little boy.

*For those of you reading me on google reader, I apologize if this posted three times due to me screwing up this post......THREE times! lol

Help Bring Noah Home

I thought I'd repost this in hopes that someone may see it and be interested in participating. Tami and Bobby are adopting Noah from Taiwan, you can see pictures of him and learn a little more at their blog. Tami's email address is TamiluvsBobby@aol.com.

We are trying to contact Christian performers ( singers, bands, dramatist,
etc) who might be interested in donating a performance to an Adoption benefit concert to help us bring our special needs baby boy Noah home. Noah has Fragile X Chromosome Syndrome. The concert will be April 11th in Shreveport, LA. We felt led to share this with EVERYONE we know in case they had a contact a Christian performer who might be willing to help us out and donate a performance. We are prayin to get as many performers as we can and to get to word out about the concert and ask for a love offereing to go towards Noah's Adoption. We are calling it A NIGHT OF PRAISE! :) Please pray for us that this night will be VERY VERY successful :) Also pray that God will send someone that is a known name that might help as well but either way we will have a wonderful night with local talent too :)

thanks and
God bless,