Two Years Ago...

Two years ago I had cried my eyes out with joy as I held my daughter and learned how to be her mommy.  She was such a fragile little girl with no hair.  I remember getting off of the plane and our friends wondering if we really brought her home from Africa because of her fair skin.

Today, I still cry with joy as I remember the journey that led us to Marley. She is a tough girl who wrestles with her big brother…and can hold her own!  She has a head full of curly hair that I LOVE to braid!  And she has blended perfectly in our colorful family.

Two years ago, Miles finally became the big brother we had been talking about for over three years.  He held her carefully and made silly faces waiting for her to laugh at him.

Today, Miles is still careful with her and still makes silly faces.  He also gets frustrated with his baby sister beating him up.  They tickle each other and scream when they get mad.  Today, they are brother and sister!

Two years ago, this little Ethiopian princess joined our family and her life was forever changed.  The language, the smells, the food and the routines were all different from what she knew.  She studied us.  She was hesitant to get too close.

Today, she knows no different.  She knows that somehow "Ethiopia" and "Marley" go together, and when we say who is from Ethiopia she says, "Me!"  She imitates us and wants to be as close as she can get to her forever family!

Two years ago seems so distant from today.

The Mission Your on Makes You a Missionary

I have never really thought of myself as a missionary, although I am.  I am on a mission to achieve great things for the Kingdom of God.  Or at least I am striving to.  I have a deep deep passion for many things.  Some might say I have a soft heart for those in need, but I see it as a God given calling.  It as if He put that ache in me to want to do something about it.

I love this video!


What makes your heart break and your fists clenge?

Whoooo Hoooo!!!

Y'all read about my love hate relationship I have with extreme couponing.  I saw both sides last night at the midnight walgreens sale, but…all I have right now is a LOVE LOVE LOVE relationship with it!

Walgreens is, by far, my favorite place to coupon.  They lure you in with phenomenal deals, expecting you the consumer to buy other items while you are there for the "free" ones.  Extreme couponers know these marketing ploys and only buy the deals of the week and save tremendous amounts of money.

At midnight last night, Walgreens Black Friday sales started.  I had studied their add about a week or two before and collected the neccessary coupons to make my transactions practically free.  And here is my loot!!!


ALL FOR  $6.14, and a savings of $411.81!!!!  This includes a $14 bottle of wine, two packages of Huggies Slip On diapers, three Revelon lip glosses,  two Venus razor start up kits and much much more!

If you are not familiar with Walgreens, you MUST educate yourself…or don't…and leave all the deals for me…lol!  I planned out 12 transactions at two different Walgreens stores and spent a total of $35.54 cash and I still have $15 Register Rewards (Walgreens Cash), and 12 free Redbox coupons!  When I take the value of the Register Rewards and the Redbox coupons, I spent $6.14 cash on all of this GREAT stuff!

WIN A MISSON TRIP!

This is for real!  My girl Kari with My Crazy Adoption is partnering up with Visiting Orphans to give away a mission trip!  For every T-Shirt that you buy you get an entry into a drawing for a FREE mission trip!

What a great way to give and get at the same time!  And yes…I have a shameless plug!  I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN MY JULY 2012 UGANDA TEAM!!!!

So head on over here to get your T-Shirt and get entered in the drawing for a FREE mission trip!

My Babies

I have some pretty cute kids!  I love them dearly and am very thankful that I am a mom to not just one, but two earthly angels.  

Miles just turned seven…seven!  I can't believe I have a child that old!  He is such a sweet boy and is going to make an amazing man, husband and father one day.  He still likes to cuddle with us and wants me to hold him when he has had a bad day.  I LOVE IT!

Marley…well she's just a big ham!  For one, she KNOWS she's cute, and uses it to her advantage.  She just learned how to say Paweeeeeeaaaassseeee, when she wants something really really bad.  I'm sure the eye batting will be coming next.  When she is not playing mommy with her baby dolls, she is dressing up in her tutu's and jewlery!  A very fashionable and loving mommy she will make one day.

It just amazes me that in just a few weeks, we will be celebrating our Family Day!  On November 29th, Marley will have been home for two years!  

Adoption is such an amazing thing.  In the beginning, it is exciting, challenging, frustrating, painful.  Then is becomes exciting again, and then challenging, frustrating and painful all over again.  But once they are home and they are yours, all the difficult times just seem to fade away, and become a distant memory. 

For us, after two years, the topic of adoption mostly only comes up when someone else brings it up.  It's not that we are avoiding the topic, it's just that it's not as important of a topic anymore.  Marley is our daughter.  Yes, she came to us through adoption, and we celebrate that.  But she is our daughter, just as Miles is our son.  We forget a lot of times that she was not born of my body.  

Adoption will forever be a part of our family and a part of Marley's "story."  But it will not define WHO Marley is, just how she came to us.  We talk about Ethiopia often.  It's so amazing how a two year old can begin to learn her story at such a young age.  She points to the many many Africa t-shirts we have and says "me!"  I love it!  And we celebrate it!  

I love my two babies.  One born of the body, and one born of the heart.  

Extreme Couponing

I have a love hate relationship with extreme couponing…the show! I have been a couponer for many years now. Because of TLC's Extreme Couponing, I have sparked an interest in jumping up my game and dabbling in a little of extreme couponing myself.

 I have learned that I will NEVER EVER pay for toothpaste, body wash, deodorant, pasta and over the counter medications again! And I will never pay over a dollar for paper towels, toilet paper, many canned goods, household cleaners and more! Basically, I am not impressed until I have saved over 50% of my bill at check out.

 So thank you TLC for bringing me this show to help me to learn how to step it up! I LOVE extreme couponing! What I don't love it the flack a lot of couponers are getting in response to this TV show. I have been accused of stuffing my paper with extra coupons before checking out. I have been told I can not use coupons that are in Spanish. I have been limited to only using 4 of the same coupon per transaction. I have watched some of my favorite stores change their coupon policy…all because of this TV show.

 It is giving couponers a bad name! Everyone thinks we are shelf clearing, hoarding, neurotic ladies that would give the birthrights of our next born for that $2.00 Olay Body Wash coupon. Okay, so maybe some of us are a little neurotic! But, we are not all shelf clearing hoarders, so please stop treating us like we are…hah!