HAPPY YEAR OF THE TIGER!!!

We getting ready to head to Chinese New Year celebration in an hour at a local Chinese Church!! Should be a lot of fun!! Our Chinese Princess is ready to go!

Black and White Wednesday

I cant believe it is Wednesday already!! It is time for B&W photo sharing. I'm going to take the next few Wednesday's and post some of my hubby's photos. He has a love for the camera and has taken many great pictures over the years.

This is one of my favorites!! It is a picture of Mt. Hood, this beautiful majestic mountain graced us with her beauty every day in Portland, OR; during the more than 10 years I lived there. (that is when it was not raining. ha)

The beauty that surrounded this mountain when the sun was shining was amazing!! You could be anywhere in the city and there it was as big as life!!

I will have to say I don't miss the NW at all. Yes, it is beautiful and green but there is a reason for that, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN and MUD, MUD, MUD!! The mud everywhere and with 4 boys that wanted to play outside I was not a happy Mama when they came back in and to add a 100 pound German Shepard that came in and out too!! Our basement was not a pretty site! ha

I do miss having water everywhere with the ocean and rivers and lakes. It is hard being land locked now but you cant have everything you want and somethings have to give. I'm just glad I have SUNSHINE now!

Too see the rest of the B&W's go to Lisa's Blog!

We are 1/2 way there!!!!

Just a little post to point out we are 1/2 way to our goal to

"Bring Home Gemma"!!

The total right now is $5,623.00!!! (this is Chipin + snail mail donations) How awesome is that??!!

So as of right now each of the charities listed will get a check for $1,405.00!!!

How cool is that??!!

But what we really want to see is each of those checks being $2,500.00.

Please help us to bring Gemma home!! Every little bit helps! We will probably need to pay the dossier fee and country fee in the next few days.

Thanks so much to all of you that have donated!! It means so much to our family and we are forever grateful!!!

Today is our daughters 9th Birthday! (In China)

Hubby and I enjoyed a Molton Lava cake in celebration of Gemma's 9th Birthday tonight. The kids will all be making Coke floats!!

I wonder if she knows there is a family in American waiting for her, preparing for her?? We will have missed 9 Birthdays. :-( I was really hoping to be LID by her Birthday so we could send her a care package and be communicating with her. I guess God has other plans right now and things are moving slowly. I need to practice patience and Im not very good at that.

There is also birth mother in China somewhere thinking about her baby girl that she left 9 years ago. O how her heart must ache too!!

I wonder what Gemma did today with her foster family? I pray she had a wonderful fun filled day and she knows in her heart her forever family is coming soon to get her. I pray that her heart will be opened to her new life in American and her new family. That our transition will go better than the fears I sometimes have.

We love you Gemma and Mommy and Daddy will be there soon!!!

Thankful Thursdays

(Just love this picture with her cheeks full of food!!)

Im Thankful that God puts people in your path to make some things easier!!

My hubby and I try and have lunch together about once a month or so. He works from home when he is not on a plane. We had not been out for lunch together for a long time. So today when we were out and about running dossier paperwork to be certified and turning in our i800a, we decided to eat at a new little Asian Fusion place in our small little town. We had dinner there with some friends on New Years and knew it was awesome food. The couple that owns it is so sweet and they just adore Ava to pieces. They will take Ava back to the kitchen and let her watch the amazing chef from Hong Kong. They also sneak her candy too!!

While we were in there today Linda, the owner, had a friend there having lunch. She introduced us to her and told us she was from Guangzhou. Her name is Jie Liu and she was so sweet. Linda told Jie Liu that we were bringing home an older daughter from Guangzhou this year. Jie Liu gave us her phone number and said she would love to be a translator for us when we bring Gemma home, she speaks Cantonese!! Praise God!! We had met many people that spoke Mandarin but not Cantonese. The best part is they live just a couple miles from us and she has a daughter that is a year younger than Gemma! Her daughter speaks fluent Cantonese too and just learned English last year.

This is such a load off. Having this connection and friendship before bringing Gemma home is just a miracle!! I hope it helps ease the transition for Gemma and also gives her a friend her age that speaks her native language. This will also make it so much easier for Gemma to keep her Cantonese and be able to continue to communicate with her foster family and friends once she is home with us.

Okay time to go back to working on my jewelry to raise more funds to bring Gemma home!!

Black and White Wednesday

Joining Lisa's B&W Wednesday wagon again!!

My husband took this picture of me about 4 years ago, walking down the shoreline in Oahu, Hawaii. He had a 4 day business trip and I got to sneak away with him and my Mom watched our kiddos. (I was not going to let him go to Hawaii without me! ha)

We did not get to spend a whole lot of time together because he was working but we did sneak away a couple times for some snorkeling and site seeing. It was heavenly to have some down time and R&R. We had also just made the decision to adopt and started looking at agencies.

**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!!

**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!!