Be The Difference

Tired of wasting time?

I don't know about you, but I waste A LOT of time online. I browse Facebook at least 5 times a day. Don't even get me started on Pinterest. OH.MY.GOSH. A half hour "just checking in" turns into a lot of late night recipe and craft ideas that most likely will never come to fruition.

Take a break and do something truly life changing. It's a contest from Cultivate.com. 
They are awarding $50,000 to the most voted for charity. And one of the "worthy causes"? PROJECT HOPEFUL!  Project Hopeful is a wonderful non-profit that specializes in finding children with HIV/AIDS families. Wow.... When I think about that it just makes my eyes tear up. I feel this is the ultimate demonstration of love. Project HOPEFUL exists to educate, encourage, and enable families and individuals to advocate for and adopt children with HIV/AIDS.  And with your help, you can donate $50,000 to their agency. Wow.

It literally takes 3 seconds a day. So stop Facebooking, Pinning, Tweeting, whatever for 3 seconds everyday and VOTE. Please. They are currently in the lead, but only by 1000 votes. We just need to HOLD ONTO our position. 9 more days. $50,000. You can do this!

GO HERE and vote. Everyday for the next 9 days. While you are on the page and think to yourself "Self, not only do you have 3 seconds to spare, but 10 seconds to spare" please consider re-posting the link to your facebook, twitter, pinterest for others to share the word. It's right there on the voting page. If you are a blogger PLEASE re-post and get the word out! $50,000 for these precious children is well within our reach.

Another brillant use for nose suckers.....

Jack vs. the nose sucker. Personally, I don't think there is anything funnier than a belly laughing baby. :)

Happy Re-Adoption Day!

This pretty much sums up the day

Me and my Dada

With Baba and Dada

Gettin' my shrimp fix

All this Court stuff makes me tired

Today was Charlie's re-adoption day. We started out the day with Chad driving through the night from a youth trip in Tennessee to come back for Court. Poor guy got in at 4:00am, slept till 10:00am, went to Court and got back on the road to drive 4 hours back. Yuck. Sorry Chad. When they asked me if any dates weren't good I was thinking more like "Is Monday better than Wednesday?" kinda thing. Not, are you going to be out of town at some point? Ooops.
Well we got to the courthouse at 11:30 for our 12:00 hearing. You may remember in a moment of bravery insanity, I decided to represent us in Court without an attorney. We waited in the lobby until 11:55 and then the Bailiff appeared with the Judge's assistant. She called me over, with a huge file in her hands. And said...."Uh, the Judge has been reviewing your file...." At that point I was honestly waiting for her to say...."And it's all wrong". But instead she told us the Judge had reviewed our file, already signed an Order and we didn't even need to appear before him. Well, that was anti-climatic. I am soooo glad I stayed up half the night drafting my own Order, ironing 3 pairs of dress pants, and 3 dress shirts (including two miniature sets of clothes, that let me tell you is a real domestic challenge.) I think I had totally psyched out to be the attorney, you are the attorney....It was kinda showing up with your game face on for the big game and the other team forfeits.
On the other hand, it was wonderful to get in, get out. Mission accomplished. No nerves, no judge, no hoopla.
And it wasn't a total bust. Charlie got to see prisoners being escorted in shackles to jail. He talked about it ALL.DAY.LONG. We talked about why you shouldn't steal/hurt people and always listen to your Mama. Perfect.
The other bit of good news is that we were under the impression that all of Charlie's Russian documents would be sealed, as in, without a Court Order we would never even see his Russian birth certificate again. And you all know how sensitive about my boys documents. As if a little part of his heritage would be sealed away with it.
BUT they never asked for it and I never volunteered it. The clocked and stamped and signed and we walked ran out the door. Documents intact. Woooo-Hooo.....
And Charlie got a shrimp lunch and toy out of the deal since we told him if he spoke to the Judge and was polite in Court. He got out easy....and so did I.
Now both my boys will have birth certificates from the good ol' USA and both from the same State to boot.
So now we have another huge notch in our adoption belt. Two more baby steps to go. Home studies in February 2013 and February 2014. And then we are DONE baby!!!

Resource Giveaway

I've been doing a little spring summer cleaning and have come across some GREAT resources we used in Charlie's adoption. Some were "pre-adoption" preparation, some were "in-country" language guides and a few have been "once you're home" kinda stuff. Only 3 out of the 7 are geared towards Russia specifically, the others cover a broad spectrum of adoption information and topics.
I would really LOVE to give these away to a family who needs them or could use them. We've certainly found them helpful! I personally wish we had the "Little Pim" language videos BEFORE we went to Russia because they are geared towards 0-5 year olds learning Russian and that's about the language skill level I operate on :)
Anyway, just leave me a comment telling me which "prize pack" you are interested in. I'll pick a winner on Random.org. on June 21st. I'm dividing the drawing into 3 categories because I realize you may be in a different place in the adoption process. If you would like to enter all three categories when please leave three separate comments.
Please feel free to share this on your blog or social media too- I realize I may not have many "Potential Adoptive Parents" as readers any more. Also, maybe you could win them for a friend? Someone thinking about adoption?
Prize Pack #1 "Thinking about Adoption"

The Complete Book of International Adoption by Dawn Davenport
The Complete Adoption Book by Laura & Raymond Godwin

Prize Pack #2 "In the Process or Post Adoption"
The Whole Life Adoption Book by Jayne Schooler & Thomas Atwood
Adoption Parenting (mandatory Christian World Adoption reading, BUT full of useful information) EMK publishing, edited by Jean MacLeod & Sheena Macrae

Prize Pack #3 "The Russian Prize"
Little Pim Video Series, Videos 1: "Eating and Drinking" 2: "Wake up smiling" and 3: "Playtime"
Simple Language for Adoptive Families C.D. Russian by Amy Kendall.
Russian Dictionary and Phrasebook by Erika Haber

 Good luck! As always, if you have ANY questions about International or Domestic adoption, please feel free to contact me! By no means am I an expert, but I know how challenging each can be. At the very least I could offer you encouragement, a listening ear and prayer!