Our Adoption Shirts

We started the adoption process thinking we would do a ton of fundraising, send out letters, ask our friends to jump into our crazy adventure....

and then God stepped in and quieted my heart. There is no doubt that we are on a journey to Africa to adopt possibly 2 children (another area where God has changed our hearts). This journey will be somewhat of a quiet one. We will sell shirts, do a garage sale and I will work (as in a job) faithfully to get my children home. God has given me great peace in those few things. We feel peace in knowing without a doubt that God will provide what we need.

The Shirts

A friend of mine, who happens to be a fellow doula, home birth mama and is a sweet family in the pursuit of a child in Africa, has designed this shirt for our family (well her talented husband did the design). We will be selling the shirts for donations towards our adoption. Adults are $25.00, Organic is $27, Recycled is $30 and children's are $18. You can purchase them on our blog http://onemoreclapper.blogspot.com/ or by contacting us. They may not be ready until late April, because of printing. The shipping time will be fast after that.

They are designed to be on a brown shirt, but I think eggplant may look good to, so I will look into that. Africa and the lettering stay the some color, but I can pretty much print them on any color.

How you can get one or more for free... Run or walk for us at any local racing event. We will offer a free shirt and fund raiser sheets to anyone willing to run/walk to help us raise money.

• Raise $50 and you will get a free shirt
• raise $150 and we will pay for your entry fee into the race of your choice (under $30 please)
• raise $300 and we will pay for any entry fee
• raise $500 and we will throw in 2 more shirts or help cover some other costs of the run ( example..gas, one night in a hotel, food).
• All people that donate over $50 to your race will also receive a shirt.

I think our adoption agency offers tax receipts, but I will need to check into how that will work with the shirts.

The back of the shirt

This will be on the back of shirt and speaks to the heart of why we feel led to adopt.

"Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow."

One last note

We ask that you pray with us on this journey. Please join us on this journey as God leads you. Pray with us, pray for our child/ren, pray for the Ethiopian government, pray that our journey filled with peace.

Thank you for being great friends and family!!

Lemonade

There were clues when we pulled in the driveway.. A paper laying on the sidewalk, a shinny quarter laying underneath it. I picked up the paper to figure out what the kids had left on the driveway, while we are on our date. The writing told me it was Josh. On the top it said, "Save a Child" there was a picture of a lemon. The bottom said, "Lemonade for $.50" I walked in the house to find all the kids were all lined up on the bed watching a movie. I held up the sign and asked if they did a lemonade stand. (Normally they would have been in trouble for doing one while we were gone.) They said they were doing a lemonade stand to raise money for the adoption. They made the lemonade with some other neighborhood kids and sold it door to door and on the street corner. Telling their customers that we were adopting from Ethiopia, which brought in more than just $.50 per cup :). The adoption jug now has a lot more dollars and quarters in it.

It makes it so much easier to know that our kids are excited about their new sibling/s. There are a million reasons people choose to adopt. One of our reasons is that we hope it builds character in our children. We want them to see the joy in helping others and beauty of a multicultural family. I hope and pray the excitement continues for a long time. I hope we teach them that all children are precious to God. I am excited that we get to ride along in this journey together.