fun evening!

We went to a super fun fundraiser at church last night!

A sweet little mom and her daughters are getting ready to go full-time

onto the mission field...and we were delighted to help

them raise some money for their God-size adventure!

The highlight of the night for my little kiddos was most definitely the face-painting.

The gal who did it is AMAZINGLY talented!

(Seriously, she did the faces of about 100 children and they all turned out so adorable.  If you are

local and are needing someone for a fun kid-party..let me know & I'll hook you up!)

Look how darling Lucy and her adorable friend Allie are!

And Isaiah...with his dragon-face!

Super cool.

But the highlight of MY evening was when K-Man was dragged onto the

stage during the T. Texas Terry Wild West show.

Oh my.

I nearly had fell out of my chair laughing.

But he was SUCH a good sport.

So much so that someone afterwards asked him if it was all pre-planned.

(There he is on the left in the cow-skirt and hat.)

He's just a natural show-guy, I tell ya.

We are standing by the phone waiting for Hollywood to call.

Such a fun-filled evening!!

blogger cookbook

Hey, guys!

There is a family I know of who is doing a fundraiser

by selling cookbooks,

which contain a collection of recipes from bloggers!

And guess what? A few of my recipes are included.  Hooray!

How fun, right?!

They are adopting two kiddos from China, one of which needs urgent

care because she has cancer.

:(

So PLEASE hurry on over to their site to help out by buying one of

their cookbooks, okay?

Check out the Harrisons' blog for all the details!

my friend, kristy!

Hey guys!

Do me a favor, would ya?

Swing over to my friend Kristy's blog

and prayerfully consider contributing to their

adoption fundraiser.

I've known Kristy since our first adoption (Lucy),

and she's been a dear sweet friend ever since.

They are getting down to the wire to raise

funds for the adoption of their

little guy, Nate.

They could really use your help, big or small!

Click HERE to go take a peek!  

solomon islands {missionaries!}

Hello, friends!

Look at this amazingly gorgeous necklace

that my friend Gayly's daughter made!

She is selling them to raise

money for a missionary

family who serve in

the Solomon Islands, translating the Bible

into their language.

Isn't that GREAT?!

Please hope over to

Gayly's blog for all

the details!

gorgeous!

Isn't that a gorgeous necklace?

My friend Gayly is making them!

And right now, if you buy one by November 17,
some of proceeds go to help
my friend Connie.

Go to their sites to get all the details!
(Click on their names)

Buy one for yourself...and do some Christmas shopping
while you're at it.

Enjoy!


But hurry cause they're selling fast!

you'll want to check these out!!

I would sure love it if you'd
swing by my friend
Mandi's blog!

She's got a super cool giveaway going on!
*hint*hint*
The latest iPad, ya'll!



And for sure go over to Stefanie's blog.
She never lets us down with her amazing ideas
in giveaways!
(Click on the link below)



Get in NOW on these great
opportunities to help out these
adoptive families!!

gift card giveaway {winner!!}

Oh I'm so excited!!

I just did the drawing for the gift card bundle
and my sweet friend in Durango
won!

Congratulations, JR!!

And the coolest thing is...she won't find out until Tuesday
because she is in Mexico on a missions trip!

How cool is that?

I love that gal!!

deadline extended

Hey, you guys!

I haven't forgotten about the drawing for my
gift card giveaway being today!!

Actually, I did forget.
Until this morning in the shower.

But I wondered...would mind too terribly much
if we extended the deadline to THIS Sunday, Feb. 20???

I'd really like to churn up a few more entries.
Plus, I've had a crazy week.
Our schedule for one...but also my heart has been emotionally
elsewhere as a dear friend of mine is having a hard time.
My energy has not been in getting ready for
my fundraiser.

I hope that makes sense.

So...if you would be so gracious,
let's plan on the drawing being on Sunday, OK?

Thank ya!

don't forget

Please don't forget about the amazing
fundraiser that Sharla is doing
for us!

She just posted some incredibly beautiful new pieces of jewelry
that I know you'll just love.

Remember, all orders placed in February gives us
a generous portion of the sale!

Thanks!

a chance to give

A great big giant

THANK YOU

to all of you who have donated to our gift card giveaway fundraiser!

I can't tell you how grateful we are!!

There is still time left so be sure to get in on the
action if you haven't already!

Click HERE to find out all the details!

************

But you'll also want to get in on the fun over
at my friend Connie's blog!

Just look at what she's giving away to raise money for
her next adoption!


AND....
another fabulous prize is being given away
by Janet to raise money for their adoptions!


Now go get in on all the action, ya'll!!

Great chances to win some serious stuff...

but more importantly, a chance to HELP these families
bring their children home!

gift card giveaway!!

Warm up your Paypal accounts and get a load of this!

I'm launching the first of a few adoption fundraisers
with this whopper of a giveaway!

The winner gets a fun bundle of
gift cards!

Check it out....


$100

$50

$50

$40

$10

Did you get all that?
All of the above could be yours...
For you and your honey to go on one whopper of
a date!

All for helping out with raising money for our adoptions.
:)


Here's all you need to do:


*One entry for every $10 donated.
(just click on Chipin button at the top of my blog)
*One entry for plugging this on your blog and/or Facebook.

It's as simple as that.

Drawing will be held on February 16.

THANK YOU!!!

*Winner can choose another restaurant card
if the one above isn't in your area.

blizzardy!

No, you weren't seeing things...
you haven't lost your mind...
(although if you want to get in on the funny farm in Maui deal
I'm working out with my fellow adoptive moms of teenagers,
we may be able to get a group discount, so let me know).....
but yes, I took the giveaway down.
I had a quick change of heart and felt I needed to wait so
I wanted to remove it quick before anyone donated.


Moving on.

It's so blizzardy out right now!
I'm so excited!

As I'm typing this Lucy and I are snuggled up in bed
watching Dora while the snow is
piling up outside.

Lucy just asked me to turn on the electric blanket.
She's such a princess.

And I have a hacking cough and a pounding head.
Poor husband is out braving the weather
to buy me some meds.
(Don't worry, he's loving any excuse to get out and play in the snow)
Before he left he said,
"So...I need to find something for germ-spreading coughing, headache, fever,
and grumpy?"

Oh, that's nice.
Love you too, dear.

a generous fundraiser {gorgeous jewelry}

I've made an executive decision.

Yes, I've given myself that authority.

After all, I'm CEO of Household Management...
and that enables me to pull the trigger
on many things.

So, I decided to post pics publicly of our new boys.
If our agency asks me to remove them,
well fine.
I will.

Most of you have already seen our fellas already
but here you go...

Isaiah Jack.
4 years old.

Elijah Andrew
12 years old.
He's the one on the left.
And this is an older pic of him but I love it so much.

And something else
super big to announce to you,

my dear friend Sharla is doing an amazingly generous
fundraiser for us.

Gasp!

I'll never get over the extreme generosity of the adoption
community.

She designs and creates the most stunningly gorgeous
jewelry.

Please go visit her site!

And to make it even more interesting,
Sharla's aunt spent some precious time in Macy and Elijah's orphanage
ministering to the kids there.
Love that!

adoption update

Well, I don't have a whole lot to report to you,
in fact,
all I can say is that we are still waiting on our LOA
for Little Mister
(Isaiah Jack)
(Already have it for our big boy)
(Elijah Andrew)

Sigh.

Our agency thought for sure it would come right away and
that our process would only be slowed down
by a few weeks.

Sigh.

It's looking like it will be longer.

We so wanted to get the boys in March.
Now I'm praying for April.

April would be good, yes?

I'm also praying for God's provision.
Adoption is expensive, as you know.
And two?
Ummm, wow.

But God!!

I plan to do some sort of fundraiser but not sure what yet.

But if by chance you are itching to donate,
Who am I to stop you?
:)

You can donate via Paypal and use my email address:
loriatjoyunspeakable@yahoo.com

If you want to.

And don't you worry.
If you do donate, I'll be sure to get you in on any future
giveaways or whatever I end up doing.

You guys are the best.

Now go have yourself a happy Monday!!

Be blessed and be a blessing!!

the winner {oh the irony}

Well, I'm totally cracking up because of who
won my little Starbucks gift card giveaway.

I swear to ya,
every one of you had an equal chance at winning...

but Nick randomly picked

Patty!

The reason it's funny is, I just won a Starbucks card from
her in a giveaway she did last week.

I'm not even sure why we are both contributing to
each other's adoption fundraisers...
we're basically just exchanging money (and prizes)
back and forth.

Oh and for added fun,
I posted a pic (taken very recently) of our boys together
on my other blog.

dashing {show hope style}

I'm gonna shoot it to you straight.

We've got 37 Show HOPE t-shirts left to sell.

We really need to move these bad boys out of here!

So here is an inventory of what's left:

Small: 6
Medium: 10
Large: 16
Extra Large: 5

If you've already bought one, perhaps you would be so kind
as to leave a comment raving about how wonderful
it is!

And if you haven't...

maybe you are in the mood for Christmas shopping.
I'll bet there is someone on your list
who would love, love, love one.

Or maybe you need to treat yourself to one.
Really, you deserve it.

They are really great quality and fit wonderfully.
They maintain their size & shape after
many washings.

And best of all,
it helps our adoption AND the wonderful ministry of
Show HOPE!

So, please.

Buy one....or 37.

Would you?

I can pretty much guarantee that you and yours will look
every bit as dashing as we do.

come on, show some HOPE!

Now come on, ya'll.

Doesn't your entire family need a Show Hope tee?

Yes, indeed it does.

I'll even work out a bulk rate for you.


I'm nothing if I'm not flexible.

i heart faithfulness

I am simply giddy over my new
candle.

Giddy.

My dear (and I do mean dear) friend Connie
is making these to raise funds for their
latest adoption.

Definitely swing by her site and place an order.

Think Christmas.

I highly recommend Faithfulness.

In more ways than one.

It's a very good thing.

Even my rough & tough husband loves it.


Enjoy!

forever family designs

I'm telling you what.

The adoption community is more generous than any other.

And just when I think it's reached its peak...
Mandi goes and creates this huge project where
100% of her proceeds go
to help adoptive families who are raising funds.

Don't you need a blog make-over?

Yes, I think you do.
:)

Go check it out!

garage sale success

Where to begin?

Our garage sale was nothing short of exhausting,
adrenaline-rushing, FUN, boring, FUN, moments of time standing still,
FUN, oh and it was a complete
SUCCESS!!

We made $644.54!!

I gotta tell ya, I was a little unsure of what the outcome would
be because even though we had a few big items...we mostly had
little things (.10 here, .25 there).

But boy oh boy, did it add up!

And we were so stinkin' busy most of the day that I had
zero time to snap any pics.

But here are a few from Thursday afternoon
when my mom and I went out looking for political sign frames
that were only going to be mowed over anyway.
So we did a community service and took a few out of the
way for the nice people to make our
garage sale signs out of.
It's called recycling.
We're very earth-friendly.
And cheap.

=)

And here is my mom being the stealthy gal that she is...
(and I'm in the get-away car)

Mom, HURRY!!

And here is a quick shot of part of our treasures before
we put the finishing touches on our "boutique" format.We ended up having so much more stuff after I took this pic!


And here's Lucy helping make signs.
Ahem.

Once again,

I THANK, WITH ALL MY HEART,

my MOM and SISTER
for pouring so much of their time into this with me.

There is simply NO WAY I could have done it without them.

I'm so grateful that it's over,
but truly, it was a lot of FUN!!

But my house has been completely neglected for the last few
days so now I need to get it looking snazzy again.

Thanks for praying!!!

Bye for now.

Have a super weekend!!