Back to Africa Necklace Giveaway!

Hey everyone! If you know me, you know I love Heart of the Bride/Back to Africa and you know I love adoption. Well..... I'm super excited to introduce to you a beautiful new necklace that Back to Africa has come out with. Its the "Heart for Adoption Necklace" It is so named because the proceeds from this necklace go to fund the new Heart of the Bride Adoption Aid Ministry. The focus of this arm of Heart of the Bride is to provide assistance grants for adoptive families, whether adoption internationally or domestically. These hearts are being sourced from Kenya through a Back to Africa work group, so your purchase will also support our desire to provide long term employment to those in our work programs.

How awesome is that!?!?!?!  You can purchase a beautiful piece of jewlery and your purchase gives back in HUGE ways!! Isn't it great when you purchase things and you know that it is directly helping others? So maybe you are looking for a gift for a friend, teacher, daughter, or a valentines' gift...this would be PERFECT!

I love this necklace so much that I'm going to do my first "give-away"/name-drawing" from my blog and its super easy to enter! Here is how it works.... To be entered into the drawing, you need to post the link from the necklace either on your blog or facebook page and tell me that you did so (either comment here on the blog or on the Facebook link that I posted.) Here is the link:

http://backtoafrica.myshopify.com/collections/favorites/products/new-heart-for-adoption-necklace

You can only be entered once. I will draw a name this Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. to see who won the necklace!

The heart pendant comes on a brown leather cord and is approximately 16-18 inches in length, available in blue or rose, and is hand made and kiln fired twice. The design imprint is courtesy of Inkadinkado, with our thanks!

For more information on Heart of the Bride's Adoption Aid Program visit www.heartofthebride.org/adopt

Thanks guys! Happy sharing! :)

"Our" projects.

For a much "lighter" weekend post, I decided that I would update the blog with the past years' projects. If you remember, last year I asked for a saw, hammer, and some other weird shop tools that I still can't remember the name of. You can read about how that adventure started here . C and I had fun sitting in the freezing garage last winter building "beginner" projects together while the kids slept away. Little by the little though, a funny pattern developed...

Me:" Hmm, I would like to build yada yada..."
C: "Okay, lets find some plans."

Me- Search Internet- Ana-white.com (AMAZING!!) find what I want, print.... hand over to C.


A couple hours later, viola! It was all done, and I didn't break a nail (no pun intended).

I really did have good intentions to help, but with two toddlers.... you know how it goes. Luckily, my wonderful husband actually really LOVES to build things. He grew up in hick-ville...ahmm.. the country where fishing, four-wheeling, squirrel hunting (do NOT ask) and building projects were a regular thing. His dad can build a house from the ground up (literally) so C had lots of practice. All that to say... he now asks me what he can build when hes bored so it all works out nicely and I must say, he does a fabulous job!

After finding ana-white.com and realizing how inexpensive building your own furniture is, I will never, ever pay full price for furniture again!!

The first piece is one of my favorites. We didn't have a dining room table, I looked and looked, everything was so expensive for the table, chairs etc. I loved the look the Farm House Table
- but $1900 for just the table. No way Jose!

 So we looked around and found the plans on ana-white.com and in about 5 hours (C and his Dad) created this masterpiece....

We decided to keep the wood natural and added a clear top coat for spills. I L.O.V.E it. Can't wait until one day we can fill all of those seats up! ;)

It can fit 8 comfortably, but for Thanksgiving we had 10.
Total price for table: $70.00
Bench: $25.00
Chairs: Free (thanks Dave!:)
$105.00 for a solid wood table, bench, and chairs is not bad, not bad at all.


Instead of the classic "China Cabinet" he made a "Ladder Shelf" - plans also from ana-white.com

Also on the list, move J out of a toddler bed to a twin size bed. Found the plans again at ana-white.com

Before stain


After Stain

Last but not least.... scrap wood? What about initial door hangers?

Oh and don't underestimate what sanding and a coat of paint can do. I woke up to find my husband going through some one's trash... for these...

Before:

After:

Who doesn't love "Free!" ? :)

So there you have it, "our" year in review DIY projects.


Thank you honey! ;)

The W word

 If I could choose a word that I can not stand to hear, a word that is like nails on a chalk board, a word that evokes so many conflicting feelings within me it would be the word "wait." I think I'm most likely one of the most impatient people there is around. If you looked up the word "impatient" in the dictionary there you would find my picture! :) I don't like to wait, I don't like being patient and when I'm forced to do it, I fail and I fail at it miserably. Ironically enough when I look back on my life, I find that word- wait, waiting, patience or any other form of it to be a continual "theme" of my life. I've gotten to practice a lot at it and I think that over the course of time I've gotten a little bit better but still need lots of work in that area!

As much as I can't stand to wait, I'm a firm believer in God's perfect timing- yes ironic, I know. I do believe that God is Sovereign and that after all is said and done we will look back and say..."ah, that's why it happened this way or that." Sometimes we don't always get to see the reasoning on this side of eternity, but I don't want to look past the moment that even though God's timing is perfect and we can trust in Him that doesn't always make the waiting easy, sometimes it very painful.

As I've been reflecting on this season of waiting in my life, although short as it is compared to others', I'm reminded of a couple of things in scripture that always make me sit back and ponder the WHYS of the waiting.

I think back to Hannah and Abraham- the things they longed for and how long God had them wait- Why? because the timing to begin the line of Christ was not ripe yet.

 I think about the coming then of Christ Himself- In a study I'm doing right now (Jesus the One and Only) It opens up at the last book of the Old Testament and then to the Matthew. Do you know how much time was in between the Old and New Testament? about 400 years. 400 years of silence from God. Talk about waiting. And this kind of waiting was a silent waiting. The Israelites has turned their ears from God so He stopped speaking. But God did not abandon His people, His timing is indeed perfect and that season was used by Him and as Beth Moore points out in the study- "The time didn't go. It Came!... God used a famine to serve His purpose until the fullness of time. He used the witholdings of His words to prepare for the revealing of The Word- His Living Word Jesus in human flesh."

And as we wait again for His second coming I know that there is so much He is fulfilling and when the timing is just perfect, He will come again.

Just as these are truths in scripture, so are they truth for my life. God doesn't just have a plan- He has a purpose. There are things, people, events that He is all using together in harmony to carry out His will. My particular circumstances also effect others.

I know so many who are waiting right now, some of them have been waiting weeks, some of them years, waiting for many different things. I pray for the strength to lean on Christ and trust in His plan and in the painful moments when the wait seems unbearable that He will show them His grace, mercy, and truth in the wait.

Blessings.