And the winner is...

Jennifer Flynn from Boulder City, NV. I used a third party to do the drawing. My great-nephew Isaac loaned his train conductor hat for the mission and here is my great-niece Corene proudly displaying the winner's name, which she drew.

Congratulations, Jennifer! And sorry to those whose names weren't picked out of the hat!
Thank you so much to all who bought raffle entries. We ended up with $250, which is great! We just paid the VISA bill for all of our hotels and food in China, so this is very helpful. Blessings!

Last Chance for the AWESOME Bracelet Raffle - COME ON!!!

Ok, we conclude our adoption fundraising raffle on Monday, August 31! Don't you want to have a chance to win this great customized bracelet? Your photos inside and your choice of fabric for the outside. For you or for your wife, your mom, a friend...Let's get 'er done! We only have 6 entries after 6 weeks! (CORRECTION - I MEANT 6 PEOPLE ENTERED, NOT ACTUAL ENTRIES). I know we have more readers than that...and come on, how many trips to Starbucks have you made in 6 weeks? One entry is only $5!

Click HERE to learn how it works. Good luck!

Yo. Check it out.

Here's another fundraiser that you are going to LOVE. My friend Tiffany makes these beautiful bracelets and she offered to donate one for a raffle.

Here's a description from Tiffany's website, Legacy Bracelets:

Intended to be more than a beautiful piece of jewelry, each bracelet celebrates family and friendships. They are crafted to be worn either design side out or inverted to display your pictures.

I promise you that you will get compliments and questions about this bracelet everywhere you go!

What a great way to always have pictures of your kids so you're never caught without the opportunity to show off! :) Also a great gift idea. I don't know a mom or grandma who wouldn't love this bracelet!

Here's the way it's going to work:

$5 for 1 entry (1 chance to win)
$20 for 5 entries (5 chances to win)
$50 for 12 entries (12 chances to win)

You can purchase your raffle entries via Paypal using the "ChipIn" button on the right-hand side of the blog. Please leave a comment if you've purchased raffle entries and let us know how many you purchased.

The drawing will take place on Sunday, July 26 August 31.

The winner will be able to choose any design, any Bible verse or phrase (as long as there is space for it to fit), even Chinese characters, and pictures for a custom-made bracelet!

Look through the website for more details and to see all the available patterns!

Retail value is $50, so this is a great opportunity. Hope you win!

I love me some thriftin'

With this unbelievable economy, there has never been a better time to hit the thrift stores. I love thriftin' - but it has to be a good deal. I am amazed lately at some of the prices I have seen. $4.99 for a used kids' t-shirt? Ummm, this is a THRIFT store. Give me a break. I can buy a NEW shirt for $4.99. At the "Underground Target" I can a buy new clothes for $3.00. Upstairs, at the "normal" Salvation Army, on Fridays and Saturdays, kids clothes are $1.00. Sometimes there is nothing whatsoever that I would want to purchase. Sometimes there are great finds. Here are some of the things I have gotten the past few visits. Again, all of these items cost $1.00 each.

I dropped this down on the floor and it landed just like this, and then Abby laid down next to it :)

For Olivia, a like-new snowsuit, Target brand

a Tommy Hilfiger sweater
For Patricia, a GAP sweater

and a fleece pullover
For Philippe, a Ralph Lauren Chaps sweater

and a really nice lined rainjacket from GAP

My advice to novice thrifters is check for stains, holes, tears in seams. You never know why that item ended up there in the first place. My mom loves to do mending (!!), so if I do find something that needs mending, I still get it, but if you don't sew or know someone who does, I wouldn't. My mom can even fix pretty bad holes in knit sweaters, so that is helpful, too. I don't know how she does that...

My other bit of advice is to learn what days are the "right" days to go. Tuesday is senior discount day at SAVERS and so my mom and I go together and I pay her back for the purchases. Some stores have other pricing discounts like "today all yellow tags are 50% off" so you look for items with yellow tags. Nearly all the clothes the kids wore while we were in Haiti were from the thrift store and I even bought some items for Lee and I so we had things to wear that weren't "favorites" since we knew we'd be spraying bug spray all over, sitting on the floor, etc.

If you are a reader, stop going to Borders and Barnes and Noble. There are ALWAYS tons of books for all ages. I have stopped shopping at the thrift stores who forgot that they are thrift stores. I know the ones who often have good things at THRIFT store prices and I go there. And when I feel the desire to "shop", I head there instead of the mall. It is way more exciting to pay a $1 per item, especially when times are so tough and money is so tight. Have fun! Let me know if you find any goodies!

Weary on the Journey...

I don't mean to exclude my non-adopting pals, but really, you have to be an adoptive parent to totally, fully understand how this process wears you out, financially, physically, mentally, spiritually, psychologically, and every other "ally". We are close with China, which is great, but we just found out that we have to have DNA testing done for Philippe and their bio father. You know who pays for that, too. You do. So I don't need to tell you! Just tired. Tired of invoices. Tired of waiting. Tired of stupid things like fingerprints EXPIRING. Just plain weary and tired. So. THERE.

I'm Kinda Glad It Happened...

Of course I am not glad that people are losing their homes. I am not thrilled AT ALL that I know SIX people who, in the past two months, have lost their jobs. I am not excited about the bail outs, to be quite honest with you. But when I see a preview for Oprah for a show that discusses "How to say no to your kids for the first time", (it is the FIRST TIME that rings in my ears) and I hear certain friends constantly say, "I can't afford it" when they are dining out all the time and buying expensive bags, shoes, etc. I am kind of glad that we are waking up. We, as a nation, need to STOP SPENDING so much money!! Parents who don't say no to their kids are raising children who are expecting to get what they want, and when they don't get what they want, what happens? When they graduate, what are they going to live on? Your money? Their credit cards? Credit card debt STINKS. It STINKS. And so many people are there. It is so hard to get out from underneath that weight. We did it though, and even though we owe my parents for adoption fees, we have no credit card debt. It is not always easy to do, but we pay it off every month.

Aside from the obvious regarding the state of our economy, here is how I know we are a country out of control. I ordered some clothes from a certain website for Patricia early on for another visiting family to take to Haiti. In my giddiness, I put her name on it, so when the package arrived it said "Patricia Shelton". Guess who just got her first credit card application? Patricia Shelton. From ONE order in her name.

Ok, I shall climb down from one soapbox and climb upon another. My thrift store soap box. I used to watch a child for free who had a single mom. Once when the mom came to pick up the child, she fell apart on my couch, crying about her financial situation. She clothed her child almost exclusively in Gap Kids (down to the socks and underwear). I challenged her to avoid the mall (this girl loves to shop!) I said that her going to the mall was like an alcoholic going to the bar. I challenged her to decide if her 4-year-old could have Target underwear instead of Gap underwear. And I said, have you gone to the thrift stores? She wrinkled her nose up at me. She was not interested. Well, for those of you who are, read on:

We need clothes for the kids for our trip to Haiti. Since we don't know exactly what sizes to get, we need to bring a few different things. In order to do that on a budget, I hit the thrift stores. This is my loot from Savers. Here is what I got for Patricia (ok, some of it is for when she comes home): two skirts; jean shorts; pink blouse; three sundresses; a denim jumper; and two pairs of pjs. For Philippe: two swimsuits (we get to take them to the pool at the hotel); two pairs of jean shorts; a pair of camo shorts, and a pair of slippers. I paid $33.00 for all of this. That averages out to about $2.00 per item. All items are in excellent shape, and some were brand new. Some of the brand names purchased: Old Navy; Children's Place; Osh Kosh B'Gosh; Carter's; Columbia Sportswear; Tommy Hilfiger and Kenneth Cole Reaction. The rest was Target brands.



Here is what I got at Salvation Army. For Patricia: six tops, a pair of capris, a skirt and a pair of slippers. For Philippe, three t-shirts. The total for these was about $37.00, which averages out to be about $3.15 per item. Eleven of these items were brand new from Target and one was a Gap polo.


Many thrift stores have brand new items. My favorite Salvation Army has what we affectionately call "Underground Target" because the downstairs is almost entirely merchandise from Target. I have found brand new toys, games, sporting goods for kids, cute jewelry, hand wipes, cleaning supplies, artwork (for Philippe's room!) and below you will see that I found brand new sleeping bags for the older two for $10 each.


You do have to be willing to look through things, but time at the thrift stores can be translated into great finds and extra dollar signs! Check it out!