Fact Friday! Did you know?

Did you know that the median age in Ethiopia is 16.8 years old?
Did you know that only 42% of Ethiopians are literate?
Did you know Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world?
Did you know my child's birth family lives there? :)

Have a great Labor Day weekend people!

Something Not Related To Adoption :)

I made a super cool phone/money wallet! 

Of course I sewed a tiny Africa on it :)

It's made from an old tie. I folded it over hemmed where I needed to on the raw edge, and top stitched it to finish! (The handle is attached by the tie tag sewed in a loop when I top stitched)

So easy and cost maybe .75 to make!

No Second Hand Stores For You

I wish we wouldn't have decided on just boys from Ethiopia, because now allll I want to do is buy little boy clothes, toys, and stuff. I know we have 2 years (or more possibly) but every time I see an adorable onesie or a really cute diaper pattern I wanna snatch it up! It is so hard resisting myself and some times I just don't and buy whatever it is that I find adorable that day. I have banned myself from second hand stores because of outfits like this:

Second Hand Stores Are Dangerous!

Incredibly cute, yes, however I have no idea if this will even fit the child we get. But, I just couldn't help myself. Plus, it was only 6 bucks for all of it! I think that if we were on both the girl and boy waiting list that I would buy much less but I am probably wrong. I am now looking for tops that go well with this shirt for family pictures (I have a problem) for Howie and I. Hoping our little one is in 12 month clothes or smaller when he comes home! Cause that is what I have started doing, only collecting 12 month and up clothes. I am pretty safe (or so I tell myself) because we want to adopt a boy under 1 year.

I also have to watch myself on the internets, especially sites like this one and this one where I know I will be shopping like mad in a few years but for now I can only browse and dream.

That was my rant for the day. I am going to hang this outfit up in our boys bedroom so whenever I am working in there I can remember who will be rolling around on the carpet I am cleaning, or who will be sleeping in the crib I am setting up. My favorite is every night I go to bed thinking about how awesome that first time I see him will be. It helps me sleep, like a rock. AND have dreams about him having red hair (ridiculous I know but that is what I dreamt), and being so small he fits in my palm (again, I know, but thats how I dream! LOL). I do have some crazy dreams about our little guy! I also dreamt recently about going to Honduras to get our second child, that was a fun dream. It had all my Honduran friends in it and I woke up so hopeful that I will see all of them someday again :).

Anyways, just thought I would post a little something about this. We still have our homestudy to do. I think we have the slowest adoption ever. Most people apply and have their homestudy like a month later. We're on the longer track because of having to raise the money first. Oh well, it's been a crazy ride! Can't wait for some pit stops along the way!!!

Sew Many Opportunities!

I know, the title is really cheesy. But, it's the truth! There are  soooo many opportunities to help bring an orphan home to us that it's hard for me to keep track! SO, for confusion sake I am going to post all of the current opportunities right here! I encourage you to check out each thing and see if it is something you want to do!

I'll start with our Meylah store! We have T-shirts, Duct Tape Couture, bibs, and our latest edition CLOTH DIAPERS! Made all by yours truly (my mom is working on some things to be added soon!) each item has the continent of Africa on it so that everytime you use it you think about Africa and the millions of orphans going to bed without a mom and dad. You can find the Meylah store HERE!

Next would be our Just Love Coffee fund raiser! You get your morning joe, we get $5. It's a win win. You can find that HERE! 

Then we have our fill a bottle campaign. We are encouraging everyone we know, barely know, never met, to fill up a baby bottle with spare change and donate it to our adoption (rest assured we are not using the bottles to feed the baby!). So, get digging in the couch, or go cash only like we did and save all the change you get! Either way, go buy you a baby bottle and fill it up!

We are doing a cornhole tournament on September 8th. $10/person, half goes to a prize half to our adoption. It should be a great time for everyone! We will have food there for a suggested donation. Water bottles for a dollar and tap water is free! So if you are interested in this RSVP closes Sept 1st so message me or comment if you want to come!

That's it for now! We have another garage sale in the works for this fall so stay tuned for that! If something up there interests you get to it! Our deadline for $9,013 is October 16th!

How many orphans?

FACT FRIDAY!

I will start with the basics. These can be found  here on our agency's site. Of the 75 million people in Ethiopia 4.3 million are orphans. To give perspective, there are 311 million people in the US and only around 100,000 orphans here. Just to show you the need of adoption from Ethiopia. That is crazy to think about. I am sure the poverty of the country is felt the most by these orphans. One in 6 Ethiopian children die before their 5th birthday. My friend's little girl is having her 6th birthday in Sept. To think she could have never had this last year is heart wrenching to me. So pray for the orphans in Ethiopia (and around the world) and consider stepping up and supporting one. Or even going out on a limb and starting an adoption. I know of some great agencies if you are interested!

Ways to cut spending

Check out this site "How To Cut You Spending By $400 Bucks A Month" it has all kinds of great ways to cut your spending!

So what will yo do with that extra $400?

We're going to put it in a baby bottle!

We're already started on our Baby Bottle Campaign! Ask me how you can help!

Fact Fridays!

On Friday's I will be posting a little fact morsel about Ethiopia, adoption, or whatever it is I find interesting that day! So stay tuned on FRIDAY for some fun (or not so fun) facts!

On an unrelated note, be praying that I don't become a "ball of insane"... Emotions have been going CRAZY the last few days!