Jamberry Nails: Raising Funds To Bring Them Home

Y'all, I took the plunge! A plunge I NEVER thought I would take. I watched a friend wear her Jamberry nail wraps and be very successful with her business. So, Nick and I discussed it and prayed about it. I dove right in!

Yep, I'm an independent consultant for Jamberry Nails! Don't know what Jamberry is?? Here's some info for you!

We figured this was a good way to share the fun with others and also make some additional funds to go towards our adoption. I get to interact with other women, make new friends, share a bit about our adoption journey, and raise awareness about orphans around the world and right here at home!! 

Like what you see? Let's have a party! Seriously! It's as easy as you inviting people to a Facebook event and showing up to comment/participate in giveaway entries. I do the work and you walk away with some awesome product at the end of the party. OR we can have even more fun and invite all the girls over for some snacks, fellowship, and pampering! What I earn becomes part of our adoption fund. When we need to write our next check to the adoption agency we use this money to do so.You end up blessing us by having fun with friends and family and earning some awesome product in the process!!

Let's do this! Contact me! Ask about finding a date that will work for you, we'll have lots of fun, and you'll earn some amazing free product! You can email/call if you have my info or you can in touch with me via my page at www.facebook.com/EmilyBJamberryNails. While you're at it, can you like and share my page? This gets the word out about the business and, as you can already guess, helps grow our adoption fund!

I've also been blessed to do a few fundraisers for friends who are also adopting. The Lord has laid it on our hearts to use this business as a means to bless others, too. If you know of anyone else who is adopting and could use funds to bring their child(ren) home, PLEASE share this with them as well:

Thanks!

From Where I Stand: {Christmas Traditions, Old & New}

Nick & had the privilege to attend Together for Adoption in October. While there we met another young couple who live very near where I grew up. We've had the privilege of building a relationship with them and are blessed to see them every so often as we all walk this long road of adoption together. Stephanie had the brilliant idea of starting a circle blog and this would be the first post I am writing for From Where I Stand. 

We're still in the newlywed phase of life. This will be our third Christmas together, but only our second in the new house, so we are still very much in the process of creating and making new traditions during the holidays.

We each brought our own favorite childhood Christmas traditions into our marriage. I liked decorating the tree and re-living memories as we got out our ornaments and remembered who had given them to us or what grade we were in when we made it. Nick's favorite tradition growing up was listening to his dad read The Shoemaker's Christmas just before opening one gift on Christmas Eve. He also grew up baking Christmas cookies to send to relatives & making gingerbread houses. As an engineer, he takes this seriously and plans out his design before ever even baking his pieces. It may look messy when finished, but each piece has been graphed and carefully designed.

My most fondly remembered tradition of my growing up years was spending the night at my grandma's house after celebrating Christmas with my dad's entire side of the family. My great-grandmother would have all of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren over. It was big gathering and I was a shy kiddo who didn't know everyone, but there was always this anxious anticipation for dinner to wrap-up, Santa to come and go (not a Santa person, sorry), and the gifts to get passed out.

My great-grandmother lovingly crafted new pajamas for each of us kiddos. Soft, warm, flannel nightgowns for us girls and a shirt/pant set for the boys. I was always so excited to see what material she would had chosen, what style she'd made, and it was as if I was holding my breath, waiting to see if she had done it again this year...

My younger sister and I in our pajamas.

She ALWAYS, without fail, made them as if we had stood in her sewing room for multiple fittings. The arms would be just the right length, the hem would stop right at our ankles, and we could always spin and twirl in them and see the fabric balloon out around us much to our delight. She never once asked for measurements. We saw her at Easter and often Thanksgiving, but even with those short and spread out visits she always got it just right, for everyone, the dozens of us great-grandchildren. It was such a special, loving tradition that has provided wonderful memories to this day. 

I'm not a little girl anymore and Grandma Slade is in Heaven, so those nightgowns are a memory, a tradition that has passed, but that still makes me smile every Christmas. I wonder if I'll ever do something so thoughtful for those in my life with each passing year. Time will tell.

As we have been establishing our own traditions in our marriage and new house we often find it is too easy to let the hustle & bustle of the season and the demands of being at this gathering and that gathering take over. It's hard to carve out time to just be.

We're starting a new tradition this year of really being mindful of this advent season. I bought The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts & blogger at A Holy Experience. I'm desperately anticipating opening the book later today and being refreshed. I'm excited to do the reading, printing and hanging of the advent ornaments from our fireplace mantel, and the remembering as we live these days leading up to Christmas. We're excited to really focus on THE meaning of the season this year- Christ come to earth as a baby only to grow into a man who would one day take away our sins.

We will build our traditional gingerbread houses. We'll watch White Christmas on Christmas Eve night with only the tree lights on, open gifts on Christmas morning and spend the day with family. But it will be that slowing down and meditating on the real meaning of the season that will be my favorite tradition this year (and hopefully for years to come).

What is your favorite Christmas tradition? New or old? How do you celebrate this advent season? 

Thanks for visiting and reading about our favorite Christmas traditions! Please check out my friend Julia's blog to read more about her favorite traditions at Christmas while living and serving in Germany.

When Thank You Isn't Enough

I'm not sure there is any myriad of feelings/emotions that compare to this week's. Up, down, up and down at the same time. Numb. Ecstatic. Ready to throw the towel in. Confident and determined. Adoption is a roller coaster, folks. On the up side, we had some really unexpected blessings this week.

This week we were handed a very generous amount of cash. How does one even begin to describe the emotions that seem to be bursting forth and competing with each other? AND how do you even respond to such a gift? I was so taken aback since it was our first gift, and I was not expecting it (really are we ever?). After receiving the gift and stumbling over words and a response I shut the front door and immediately felt the tears start rolling down my cheeks while the emotions began banging around in my heart, colliding, and streaming down my face in the form of tears. There is NOTHING to prepare you for this. Nothing to explain how it feels to be on the receiving end of such a gift. Is it about the money? No. It's about the generous heart behind it, the support & sacrifice of a loved one, and about someone coming along beside you and saying 'Hey, I love you. I value what you're doing. I'm helping to bring your kiddos home. I support you.' It's a lot, but that one generous act says that and so much more.

After a few hard weeks this was very much a healing gift for me. Nick (who was not sure what had just happened, but saw my tears and waited for me to explain) reminded me that there will be moments like this all throughout this journey. He's right. I forget. I think it's all going to be hard. I can be too much of a 'realist' sometimes. I can forget to take delight in the journey. 

Then this afternoon we logged onto our Pure Charity account for the first time in a few weeks and were again blown away (and yes, I was again in tears) at seeing that someone else had backed us with a very generous one-time gift and signed up to donate monthly. This is someone I have talked to twice, maybe three times. And yet, there it was again, "Hey, I'm behind you. I value what you're doing. I'm going to help bring your kiddos home. You've got my support.'

Now, I recognize that support comes in all different forms, and I am in NO way am saying that the only way someone supports us is by giving financially. Not at all. In fact, I would argue your prayers are needed most. It is just that this has been so hugely felt due to the difficulty of the last few weeks.

How does one express gratitude for such generous hearts and actions? Thank you isn't even adequate. It fails to really convey the depth of gratitude... and yet there isn't anything that can really be said other than that. Words fail, but they are about all we have. So, if you're reading this, you know who you are... It isn't enough, but THANK YOU!!

Adoption As A Paper Pregnancy

Before we began this process I had heard the term 'paper pregnancy' over and over. I thought I understood what they meant, but it hasn't taken long to figure out I didn't fully grasp it and probably still don't.

I didn't know that as soon as we announced our plans there would be a line drawn in the sand. No longer were we just saving, like we had been for the last 2 years, but we were official. Paperwork was being filled out. This was happening. We were officially beginning our 'paper pregnancy'.

When someone gets pregnant they have their own wait times. They wait for their first ultrasound, the first time they feel the baby move, the ultrasound that will reveal the gender, and of course delivery day. While they wait for these firsts there is also preparation for bringing baby home. They know they will be pregnant and have about 9 months to get ready.

When you begin your paperwork pregnancy all you know is you will wait. And wait. God knows the timing, not us humans. There is the application, the homestudy, the submission of a dossier, the referral of a child (or children), and then the travel date. You could have longer than 9 months to get ready. But I also think of a friend I know whose entire process took 4 months from application to 'gotcha day'.

All of that may crawl or parts may happen overnight. It is not uncommon to hear of a family that is notified and has less than 24 hours to board a plane. It is also not uncommon to have a referral and wait months, even years to bring that child home.

I'm finding pregnancy would elicit a YES! response from people. They would know right along with us that we have 9 months to go. They would relate stories from their own pregnancies. Yet, adoption is a whole new ball game. None of us know how long we have to wait. Most people don't have adoption stories to share.

The referral of a child/children will be a HUGE moment for us- probably the ultimate until we board a plane and go meet them and bring them home. We'll be able to tell people about them, show pictures, and even decide on names. We'll find out what special needs our child/children has and research and learn how best to care for them and how it will impact our daily lives. We'll get to know them from afar and watch them grow before we can even touch them. We'll meet people who have walked this road before us. We'll learn patience as we wait. But we will also relieve the highs during milestones such a completed dossier, when the referral comes, and when travel happens.

So, this 'pregnancy' has begun. We may not know how many months we have, but we are announcing that we have children somewhere out there. (Yes, given the ages we are requesting they are most likely alive and waiting even now). We may not have names or genders or ages for you, but much like when someone announces they are pregnant, we are announcing we are going to be bringing home a child or children!! We have to wait for that gender reveal just like parents do who have biological children. We have to wait to decide on names. We have to wait to bring them home, probably more than 9 months, but we can tell you we have children we are preparing for, already loving, and fighting to get home. How awesome (and humbling) is that?!