**February GIVEAWAY**

**And the lucky WINNER for my GIVEAWAY IS #15, Sheila @

"And China Makes four"

CONGRATS!!! I will be contacting you to get your mailing info!!

So I have decided to do a GIVEAWAY every month until we bring home Gemma.

This months GIVEAWAY comes from a sweet girl that always has a smile on her face every time I walk into my Chiropractor & Ava's Cranial Sacral Therapy office. She works the front desk and is always a joy to chat with. Last week she told that she makes candles with her sister and they have a little side business. She wanted to donate a set of candles for a our drawing we will be having at the end of February.

(We will be picking random names from everyone that has donated to our adoption fund for Gemma.)

So I thought I would GIVEAWAY one of her candles this week. I have a really sensitive nose and get headaches easily from scents. So I don't keep candles around the house usually. These candles are amazing I could sniff them all day long!!!!

The candle are a soy based candle, they don't have it on their website yet but it will be there soon!

They have the cutest name for their company! "of the SAME MOLD", how fun is that??! You can click here to visit their site!

So a little about Krista's and Cori's candles:

All-natural aromatherapy soy candles

These candles are made using natural eco-friendly ingredients and are specifically blended to help ease common ailments from everyday life.

BE COOL: Lavender and Clary Sage help with anxiety and when feeling run-down both physically and emotionally.

BE UPLIFTED: Bergamot, Clary Sage, and Lavender help with depression and loneliness and bring about cheerful attitude.

BE AWAKE: Rosemary, Bergamot, Cedarwood, and Cypress help restore vitality and are good for mental and emotional resolve.

BE CONFIDENT: Grapefruit, Bergamot, Cedarwood, and Cypress help ease fear and clear the mind.

BE MINDFUL: Rosemary and Lemon help with mental clarity, memory and concentration.

BE STILL: Clary Sage, Lemon and Lavender encourage stillness and tranquility, ease stress and helps with headaches and insomnia.

WE ARE PROUD TO OFFER RECYCLED GLASS JARS, 100% PURE, TOP QUALITY ESSENTIAL OILS, COTTON CORE WICKS AND ECOSOYA TM SOY WAX!!

The GIVEAWAY will be for the BE UPLIFTED candle!! Have I said how incredibly these candles smell?. Seriously I could to sit with them to my nose and smell them all day!! This candle comes in a beautiful pink recycled glass jar.

I will leave the drawing open until Wednesday evening 5:00pm Mountain time!

**please leave a comment and become a Follower of my blog to WIN**

(on the sidebar)

From a Mama of 5 soon to be 6 I need something that will help me BE COOL, UPLIFTED, AWAKE, CONFIDENT, MINDFUL AND STILL!! I think these candles will do the trick!

I cant wait to read all the comments, I think this is the best part about a GIVEAWAY. I love everyone coming out and saying hello and meeting so many beautiful families.

BLESSINGS!!

I got a blogger award!!!

Sweet Jodi Sue from Heads Up Seven Up gave me a blogger award!! Thank you so much for thinking of me. Jodi has a beautiful family and I love reading her blog please stop by and give her a visit. So with this award I'm suppose to say seven random things about myself. This is the most difficult part.

1) My parents were foster parents growing up and we would have sometimes up to 10 foster kids in the house not including me and my two younger brothers. Many of the kids they took in were the hard to place kids.

2) I'm a night owl and don't look forward to early mornings. I like to have my quiet time at night when all the little ones are sleeping.

3) My favorite drink is a Green Tea Latte with soy and no sweetener

4) I married my high school sweetheart. We will be celebrated 18 years coming up in a couple of months!!

5) The only time I have ever been out of the country was to adopt Ava but I have been to almost all 50 states!! I think I still have 5 more I need to visit.

6) I love where we live now so much more than the Northwest, where we were for over 15 years. The gray was horrible. The downside is there is no family here and I miss them so much!! Not having that support when raising a big family is hard and my children do not get to hang out with their grandparents. I would love to be close to family but it is not an option at this time in our lives. I also miss all my wonderful friends in OR, you ladies are amazing!! :-(

7) I'm a jeans, T-shirt/sweatshirt, converse wearing kind of girl. No high maintenance here!!

8) Im going to add one more- Im the worst speller in the world, so please read my blog at your own risk. ha

Black and White Wednesday

Someone turned 3 years old the other day and I have not had time to post about it. We have not had an official party yet because Daddy has been traveling a lot!!

Ava did have fun going to preschool in her Tutu and Birthday shirt. She also kept practicing holding three fingers up and showed anyone who would look!!

I still cant believe my baby is 3 years old!

I have decided to do a GIVEAWAY every month until we bring Gemma home. I will post it the first week of every month. So stay tuned in a few days for the next GIVEAWAY!!

Wordless Wednesdays

Black and White Wednesday

I decided to join the wagon on this one to help me post more and get the camera out often. I have slowed down on picture taking and I dont want that to happen. Lisa at The Long Road to China has started this to get herself motivated about filling her empty wall in her house. I cant wait to see all her amazing photos, she has so much talent!!

I just love little Miss Ava to pieces and like I have said before she is lucky she is cute! ha Ava does not stop during the day and is still into everything. If it is quiet then you better go searching quickly because she is into something! The amount of energy she has just blows me away.

I know it is really Thursday but I did not finish this last night like I wanted to. I still have so much to learn about photography but I really need a hands on class. I just cant read a book to figure it out. One of the many things on my list for this year!

The Winner is comment 31!!!!

Tami @ www.tillGodbringsthemhome.blogspot.com

Congrats Tami!!

I can honestly say I was brought to tears from all the comments and suggestions about making necklaces as a fundraiser. Thank you all so much for all your kind words and words of encouragement. When you have a hobby sometimes you wonder if other people would even like it. :-)

I have decided to make 3 necklaces for sale to start. Im not sure on the price yet. I will figure that out tonight when I add up the materials. Please let me know if you are interested. I would also like to make each one a little different. I want them to be an original piece. If you have ideas on how you would like to personalize yours let me know or you can just let me do it and surprise you. I can do leather, just chain, beads and chain or all beads like in this GIVEAWAY piece.

I also have had the wheels turning on other styles that will be more towards adoption in general, so it would reach a wider range of families.

Please keep checking in and keep on eye out for an etsy site or jewelry blog coming soon. I also love to do mothers bracelets and necklaces too and can customize!! I will try and gather pictures to share of past pieces.

Thanks again for all your comments and it was so nice to meet you all. I look forward to reading your blogs and stopping by and saying HELLO.

BLESSINGS!!

**GIVEAWAY** **GIVEAWAY**

** I will be using Random.org at 12:00pm pacific to pick the winner!! Stay tuned!!

Im so excited to have my first GIVEAWAY!

In my spare time, who am I kidding! (Ha) But seriously when I do have time I love to make jewelry. I have been doing it for years. A couple years ago I came across these sterling silver ladybug charms and finally decided to make something with one of them.

This necklace is made of red seed beads, red coral, and all the metal is sterling silver. The charm on the side of the necklace says "HOPE" which represents every orphan and their hope and longing for a forever family, and our hope to finally have them in our arms. The heart charm on the back of the necklace represents an adopted child being born in our heart. The ladybug is a symbol of good luck and love.

Put it all together and you have;

"The Red Thread Ladybug of Hope" necklace made by me.

I don't really know what I would retail it for. I have never sold anything I have made. I usually just give them away.

So I will leave this GIVEAWAY open until 12:00pm Jan. 6th! Please leave a comment with this post and one lucky winner will win this necklace!!

I know not everyone that reads always comments so this is your chance to come out and say HI and let me know you read my blog. Can't wait to meet everyone!!

"I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you." ~John 14:18

BRING ON 2010!!!!!

Here is too a Happy and Healthy 2010. I cant wait to see what the year will bring, especially adding a new daughter to our family!

**I will put the GIVEAWAY up tomorrow sometime**

The last couple of days have been busy and I did not get a chance to blog.

The ladybug ornament in the background was purchased during the start of our paperchase for Ava, almost 4 years ago

So beautiful, I wish she did not stick that pillow in front of her face at the last second! ha