Personalized Adoption Canvas

It's true - I have adoption on the brain :)  It's hard to think about much else these days!  I find myself daydreaming and imagining another little one running around here.  I long for that day!

I've been working on some new canvases for the Etsy store and here is the first: a personalized adoption canvas!  It can be made in any color scheme, for any country!  At the bottom of the canvas I can add your child's name and "Home Forever" date.  For me, this verse sums it all up: I prayed for each of my precious children, and He answered!

Check out the link below the picture if you are interested in more info :)

One Little Canvas

She Turned Two

Our littlest had a birthday this week.  Across the world, she turned two.  We talked about her all day long, wondering what she was doing, if her foster family celebrated with her, hoping she is happy.  We look forward to the birthdays to come when we will celebrate with hugs and kisses and smiles.  But this one...it went by quietly.  I'm not going to lie - it was a hard one.  I've never missed a second birthday before.  The last couple of weeks, I've been feeling that ache so much more.  I'm ready to have her here with me.  I'm ready to get started on the adventure of four.  I want her home.

But we're not there yet.  We have been at a standstill with getting our home study finished.  It has been beyond frustrating for me and I think has been the most difficult time of all four adoptions.  I actually feel pretty blessed to have made it to our fourth international adoption before experiencing any real difficulties!  Everything is getting worked out and we hope that our home study will be finished by the end of this week or early next week.  I will breathe a sigh of relief when that is done!

My heart feels heavy tonight.  It's hard to write about this.  Sometimes adoption just feels heavy.  I realize that out of everyone, I get the easy part.  I get to be mom to these amazing kids.  But there is so much more to adoption.  There are birth parents who don't get to celebrate these birthdays with their kids.  There are foster families who know this is the last birthday they will celebrate with a child they love.  There are kids who have questions that cannot be answered, who have hurts inside of them that cannot always be seen.  There are birth parents who have had to face situations and decisions I literally cannot imagine having to make.  Adoption is a beautiful, amazing thing.  But I cannot forget that it is born out of loss.  As my little ones grow, I am more and more aware of this truth.

I'm blabbering.  But these are the thoughts on my heart this week, as we celebrate Olivia and look forward to having her with us as our very own.  There are others thinking about this precious little girl, too.  She is such a treasure!

Fall Photo Overload :)

So prepare yourself for an overload of cute kid photos :)  This is the best time of year and my favorite activity to enjoy with my family in the Fall is walking.  Its so simple,  I just love being outside, with no agenda, no phones, no noise (well, apart from the kids...that noise follows us everywhere!!).  We found a beautiful local park that someone had told us about that had these really cool bridges and lots of room to run and play.  It was perfect.

One Little Canvas {Hand-Stamped Necklaces}

I am so thrilled to be able to share my latest creations!

I have been wanting to learn how to hand-stamp jewelry for a long time

and I finally found the time!

Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I have to say

it is so much fun!

Here are a few necklaces that I added to my Etsy store today:

Each circular pendant is hand-stamped on shiny stainless steel

and comes with an 18 inch ball chain.

Cost is $18 (plus shipping)

New designs will be added soon!

Every purchase goes towards our adoption fund - 

click below to visit my store!

One Little Canvas

One Little Canvas {Update}

I have been so surprised by how much I've enjoyed creating some different and special order canvases for my Etsy store.  I think sometimes it is easy to get so focused on being a wife, mother, cook, cleaner and all that good stuff that my more creative side is left behind.  I have really loved having this chance to learn new things, take a chance, and create something!

A few recent creations:

I can't wait to share something else I have been working on.  I've been learning a new skill, working on a different sort of canvas entirely ;)  It's something I've wanted to do for a while and it has been so much fun branching out in this way.  New items will be added to the store soon!  Click below to visit the store!

One Little Canvas

Making Room

So we're not moving.  And we are adding another child.  Hmmmm.....

This information led to lots of discussion around our house!  We are very blessed with a finished basement with space in it.  We plan to put an additional bedroom and hopefully bath (or half bath) down there in the coming years.  But for right now, well....our kiddos are still little!  I don't want them down there without me at night, and I don't want to be down there with them upstairs.  We talked and prayed and then - A GREAT IDEA!

It was not actually our idea, it came from my brother-in-law.  I am SO glad he had this idea!

We had this weird open closet in the living room (because there used to be a third bedroom there before we moved in) and he suggested we close it up and open up the space on the other side of the wall - in the kids bedroom!  It wasn't a ton of extra space but it was just enough for us to be able to get another set of bunks in there!  This will hold us over as we work on getting another bedroom built in the basement.

In true Brad fashion, he got right to work!

This is the extra space that was opened up in the bedroom:

Hannah has been {still} struggling with sleep and we wondered if a bigger bed would help her.  We got another set of bunks and Brad had them put together in no time!  The kids were so very excited.  

I have to admit that seeing all these beds brought on a slight panic attack :)  Four kids is a LOT!  But three of the beds are already filled and we are surviving just fine, so I'm hopeful that adding one more won't do me in!

We are enjoying our house more than ever as we find more and more ways to make good use of the space we have.  We continue to purge and get rid of the ridiculous amount of stuff we have accumulated over the years.  There really just is no need for all the toys and clothes and stuff.  So off it goes!  It is freeing!  We can make this work...and on the bright side, maybe our kids will find camp and college easier because they are used to close quarters!