"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

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

Our Family

Our Family

Thursday, May 26, 2011

New Ugandan Bead Earrings & Africa Shirts!

Thanks to all of you who helped or shopped at our yardsale. We raised over $1100! So far all of our fundraising efforts have raised over $10,000 but with two children, the total expenses will be between $35,000 - $40,000 so we still have much more to raise. We appreciate your continued support.

We have been selling the Ugandan beads for a while now but now we have a few lovely new additions. We have a limited number of beads in solid red in commeration of the Red Dirt Road that is heavily traveled in Uganda. These beads are identical to the traditional colored beads but they are completely red. They are beautiful and a bit more dressy - they'd go great with a business suit or dress.



In addition, we also have Ugandan Bead Earrings. These are colorful hoop earrings and they're incredibly light weight and match everything. They are a perfect match with the necklaces.



We are also taking orders for customized Africa shirts. We have a variety of material/patterns for you to pick from and you can choose your shirt size and color, short or long-sleeve, scoop or vneck style. Sizes range from 3-6 months to 3XL. Please email me at v_elaine@yahoo.com if you'd like a shirt and I can email a picture of the various available fabric choices and take down your specifications.

Please see the right blog column for prices on all these items. The best part is if you order 2 or more items, you can take $5 off your total. That means you can have the whole outfit including necklace, earrings, shirt and bracelet cuff for only $60 and all of your money goes towards two wonderful causes, our adoption fund and the people of Uganda in Africa. All of the earrings and necklaces come gift wrapped in a pretty bag with a bow and a tag that tells how they are made and the Ugandan story. These make perfect gifts!





Here are a few pictures of some of the shirts we've done thus far.

Flowers with Gray Background

Pokadots

Lime & Turquoise Paisley

Red

Stripes

Black & Gray Plaid

Peace Sign Print


Blessings,
Valerie

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

HUGE Yardsale to Benefit Our Adoption THIS WEEKEND May 14 8am-1pm

Please come out and shop at our neighborhood yardsale this Saturday. Our home is participating and we have some GREAT stuff! Just to name a few things, we have housewares, rugs, lamps, toys, clothes, children items, carseat, t.v. with built in DVD, stereo system with speakers, Air Hockey/Fussball table, Dora Castle Playhouse, and much much more.

Still no word on our court date yet but we know it's coming soon and we're trying to raise funds for our airfare so come shop til you drop :-)

Blessings,
Valerie

A Few Answered Prayers

I had mentioned in a previous post that our agency director was traveling to Ethiopia and she might be able to visit the girls and take presents. A few days later, we received about 15 pictures of them opening the gifts! It was so exciting to see their smiles over all their new goodies and I had a blast shopping for them. Chris said I'd never be able to get all that stuff in a 2 gallon ziplock as is required but I told him, where there's a Momma's Will, there's a way! They each got a new outfit, markers, books, coloring books, sidewalk chalk, cheeze-its, teddy grahams, starburst, lifesavers, plastic bracelets, rings, and necklace set, hair bows, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, a babydoll with accessories, and most importantly a photo book with 36 pictures of our family, our dog and our home. In the pictures of them looking at the photos, they are smiling from ear to ear. It made my heart so happy to know that now across thousands of miles, my girls finally know what their Mommy and Daddy and siblings look like. They finally know the faces that pray daily and pine for them to come home soon. And they're smiling as we do when we look at their pictures too. Even Abekeya is smiling - these are the first pictures we've received of her smiling and what a knockout she is. It's amazing how transformed her little face is when she smiles. Abekeya is well too. It appears her pneumonia is now gone - Praise the Lord! I can hardly wait until those little faces and the faces of my other precious children can be captured all together in the same photos. How is it possible to love and miss someone so much when you've never met them? I really don't know but somehow God makes it so.

Here are a few photos to share (due to the kind of camera used, some of them won't rotate vertically - sorry). I can't wait until I don't have to hide those sweet smiles behinds hearts anymore.