I Choose You Necklaces

So I have some pretty amazing friends who would do anything for me!! One of them, Amy, helped me design these great necklaces that we are selling to raise money for our Russian adoption. I told her what I wanted, she helped me pick it out and then she oh so sweetly put them all together. They are so cute, the pictures do not do them justice I promise. Each of these is made using a wax pressed idea. The double heart symbol in the center is so sweet and since these are done one at a time, no two are alike!! You can get them in plain silver, or they can have a stain of color added to them. The outer circle has five beads representing the 5 members of our family as we wait to add one more!!! The lady that makes the pendants is awesome and does great job. The price is $25 and over half of that will go to helping pay for our trip to go get our Russian Princess!!!! Let me know if you want to order one. You can email me, facebook message me or check out my etsy store! Thanks in advance for all your support. Oh yeah, the tees are being printed!!!:)

Pre-order your adoption tees

Well, our awesome friend Eric Hawthorne has done another great designing our adoption tees that will go up for sale in the next few weeks. We are currently taking pre-orders, so if you want one (the pricing is still up in the air, but it won't break the bank), shoot me an email.....morgan@ocgreenwood.com! I cannot wait to get these out to our friends and family! So cute!!!

"I Choose You"

I have been racking my brain trying to come up with ideas for our adoption "title". We have been over and over ideas and slogans to get our adoption news out there so that we can begin our fund raising efforts. I ran across this really neat lady on Etsy who makes wax seal jewelry. I contacted her to see if she could design a pendant for us and allow us to sell the necklaces to raise money. She immediately agreed and now I have some really awesome jewelry in the making!!! I called my mom this morning to ask her to think of a title for our cause. Since she is so creative, she came up with the idea of "I Choose You", based off the book I'd choose you by John Trent. It is this really sweet story that helps a child learn self expectance. The main part of the story that drew me to the title was this quote....

And if I could teach her each day that she is God's special gift, especially on those days when she doesn't get picked...Guess which one I'd choose every time? I'd choose YOU!"

This quote did it for me. So now we are on Etsy, check us out and support our cause!!!! More items will be posted in the near future! Help us to bring our little russian princess home!

Adoption Update

Just an update on how things are going! We go to Aiken tomorrow for our final home study meeting. If you ever adopt, and need a home study, so with Adoption Advocacy out of Greenville. They get things done, no breaks. I am so thankful they were the first folks I got on the phone, they have made this process a whole lot easier. After tomorrow is finished, then we will get back to getting the dossier completed, hopefully by the end of the month we can turn that in. Among other things, we have all been very busy hanging out together at the lake and enjoying summer vacation. It will end soon, BOO, so we have to cherish every moment we get. Brooks has really enjoyed reading some chapter books this summer, and is very thankful for his library card! Luke has found a new love, his BIKE!!! He rides all the time. CG's new thing is being Miss Independent. She doesn't want any help getting dressed anymore. I think yesterday's outfit consisted of stripe shorts, purple top (on backwards), and cowgirl boots (on the wrong feet). She was straight stylin"!!! Today we took the kids to the YMCA in Anderson...who knew they had a water park??? They were playing some pretty awesome music and then "Love Shack" came on. Nate(my nephew) started breaking it down and I'm not even lying, I was right there with him. That boy has got some moves!!!! I am so very thankful for each one of these crazy kiddos! They are certainly a blessing! Cannot wait to add another to the bunch and give her a forever family!

All 3 kids fell asleep in our bed a few nights ago. Notice the cat A.K.A "the spawn of Satan"....yeah this is prior to him being put outside for good!!! Seriously, that cat was not nice all the time!!!

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Home Study

We have been in a huge whirlwind around here for the past 2 weeks. Aside from normal everyday events like, eating, sleeping, summer bridge work with the boys, my master's work, we have been redoing the house and are in the process of getting ready for our home study. This is the first BIG event that we are going to encounter for this adoption process. We know that the agency is NOT really concerned about our house all that much, BUT mostly the focus will be on us as a family. However, me being the overly worried russian mother to be, I want me house to look good and feel like a home. So I have worked Curt and his help to the bone getting this house in order. It is an ongoing job that will continue over the next year or so.

The home study process will take about 6 weeks to complete, that is if we get all the paperwork completed in time. I am hoping to be on top of things and organized so that we can move on to the next step which is completing the dossier a.k.a becoming "paper pregnant". So, we are asking for you guys to remember us as we look on to Tuesday morning! Such an exciting meeting, but so nerve racking.

P.S. Eclipse at midnight on tuesday.......I am so excited! Have a great week!

Random pics and accepted!

We were accepted to the Russia program this past week, so we will continue with that for the next......well, I don't know how long! Our next step is a home study, which we have already begun! More on that later, just excited to see it unfold. I am excited to say that I have started making little girls dresses and if I get good enough I plan on selling them and using the profits to bring home our little girl from overseas. Curt told me the other day that we need to stop doing this so slowly!! I was a little shocked because he is the one who is normally so laid back. He said it is time to get her, his cinderella number 2!!!! People ask us if we are sure, can we handle it? There isn't anything to say but she is our child. Our life is busy and complicated yes, but God has never promised us a laid back and easy life. This is just simply the next step fro our family. God has called and we are going to answer! We are always going to serve God and when He says take care of my orphans, well, we have heard that request and are trying to follow through! I want my own children to learn to love unconditionally, not seeing races or color! It is time!!!

Clay night at LCP

First Grade awards night

CG at Luke's Graduation

Things can change in an instant

Two weeks ago, after mailing in our first of many payments to the adoption agency, we received a call saying that Kazakhstan has closed the door and frozen all adoptions until further notice. We were needless to say a little sad, but we just trust that this is God's way of saying "Trust Me". Since then, we have been praying specifically about two different countries. Both Rwanda and Russia are great choices, but Rwanda is a new program and is a little iffy right now. So, we are currently in the application process "AGAIN" for the Russia program. I am so excited about this country, very close to the one we wanted before! I'll keep ya'll posted!