I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child. -Mother Teresa

Did you know that November is National Adoption Month?

Adoption is something that tugs at my heart strings. Actually, it pulls like a tow truck. I remember reading the quote that titles this post when I was in high school. It's from a speech that Mother Teresa gave about ending abortion in our country. It reflects my thoughts exactly. I'm not ready to adopt at this point in my life, but I hope to some day. I tell my friends that I'll take adopt one from each continent, including Antarctica - even if it's a penguin! For now though, I just support those who are working hard to make a home for a little boy or girl that wasn't initially theirs, but will be for eternity.

I'd like to invite you to help, too.

My favorite charity is called Show Hope. It was founded by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth. You can go to their website to read all about it and how you can help. Here's a video of him talking about their choice to adopt.



There are a lot of families who have gotten creative in their endeavor to raise funds. This blog post has an entire list of families that you can support by buying something from their Etsy shop.

Another awesome site is SixSeeds.tv They are currently having adoptive families tell their stories, and for every comment made on the story until the end of the month, they are donating $2 to their adoption fund. All you have to do is comment!

I'm sure each of the families would appreciate your prayer as well. James 1:27 says that true religion is taking care of widows and orphans. What are you doing to help?

:j

Mud Room Episode 6

I'm dealing with party aftermath by blogging right now. My kitchen looks like this, so I should be cleaning and putting away food, but instead I'm watching last week's Office episode and blogging. Don't judge me Internet.

We had a surprise birthday party for my friend, Raylene. She didn't see it coming at all, so it was perfect. The best part (of course besides her face when she realized we were all hiding in my kitchen) was this banner that I whipped up with pre-sized scrap book paper and Starbucks coffee sleeves.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the best part of the party, but I just wanted to show it off. I'm done being braggy. Now it's time for me to show off the mud room. A lot has changed since last episode. 

First, the steps. A couple of weeks ago I went to a flea market on a mission to find yard sticks. Thankfully, I found what I needed, so my steps now look like this.

Next, I added a few jars above my washing machine. (Okay 11 jars is a bit more than a few.)

See that thing in the corner of the first jar photo? That's what we're working on now. It's a giant vinyl rub-on that says "I gave Him my old tattered garment; He gave me a robe of pure white." I'm waiting for dad to help me level it before finishing it.

Hopefully I only have 1 episode left. In that episode you'll get to see the vinyl finished, and the new work table instead of the sewing machine. On top of that, I'm hoping to have it all organized and pretty. Hopefully it works out for me. Until then here are a couple of different views.

It's coming together - slow and steady wins the race!

:j

P.S. Just so you know, while the photos were uploading I cleaned my kitchen, so it no longer is a hot mess like you saw above.

The future is something which everyone reaches at 60 minutes an hour no matter who he is or what he does. - C.S. Lewis

Mail Time!

:j

"Son of man, can these bones live?" -Ezekiel 37:3

Skeletons have always creeped me out a little. I never liked clothing with skulls on it or jewelry that referenced bones. I always thought those things were weird and a bit demented. I still do, but you might be surprised that one of my current-over-the-top-repeated-song on my itunes right now is called "Skeleton Bones."

It's not about cross bones, though.

Have you ever read the story of Ezekiel and the dry bones in the Bible? When I was little, I fell asleep listening to Bible stories on a cassette tape. Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones was one of my favorite stories on the tapes. I would lie in bed and listen to the retelling of Ezekiel standing in a valley of bones. A dessert of death. Then he witnessed the bones become layered in muscle and tissue and tendons and skin. Ezekiel heard God breathe into the forms to make them human. I could recite back to you exactly what happened in the story (as well as almost any story in the Bible thanks to the tapes!), but I didn't really realize what it meant. I was just a child.

I have come to learn (and continue to learn) just how much I've lost my child like faith. I've become a thinker. Ideas need to make sense to me. I reason my way out of believing for the sake of believing. The thing is, the gospel and God's way of doing things just doesn't make sense to my earthly mind. This story -even though I loved it-never really made sense to me until now.

I was but a skeleton - nothing but dry bones left in a valley. That is until God decided to come to my skeleton and say, "I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am Lord." (Ezk. 37:6) It amazes me. I used to be that thing that I find so creepy, but by the love of God, I get to have life. A life that I don't deserve. A life that I wouldn't have unless God had made the choice to put His Spirit in me, so I could live. Just something I've been pondering lately.

Here's the song if you want to hear it.

:j

For marriage to be a success the man and the woman need their own bathroom. -Catherine Zeta Jones

I wrote about my bathroom remodel last year, but I'm posting again for Kelly's Korner's Show Us Your Life.

When I bought my house, nothing in it had changed much since 1952 including the bathrooms. It actually had 2 bathrooms, which was twice as many as most houses I was looking at in my price range. The problem is, one of the bathrooms looked something like this:

 (To be fair, this photo was taken in the midst of tearing out the wall around the bathroom.)

That bathroom no longer exists. With the mud room remodel, the entire room was re-configured. It will include a bathroom, but right now it's just a random room with no floor or sheetrock. Hopefully it will look more like a bathroom by the end of the month.

In the mean time, my hall bath looked like this when I bought my house.

There wasn't a shower head, just a bath.

We tore off all the tile, demolished the closet in the corner, pulled up the floor, re-sheet rocked, painted, etc, etc, etc, to end up with this.

My dad's friend built a custom vanity for me, then dad spray painted it (with a spray gun, not a million bottles of spray paint. That would have taken forever.) Dad also made the top with formica and a sink I found a Home Depot. The facet came from gma's basement. She got it at a garage sale for $5.

 The new shower with glass tiles from Home Depot. The built ins on the left are filled with glass tile.

My favorite thing about the custom vanity is the size of the drawers. The bottom one is deep enough for my hair spray and stuff to stand up straight. They're also wide enough for a couple of baskets to fit side by side.

I thought I had a photo of my shower curtain, but I can't find it, so I'm using this one that I took after I had 12 inches of my hair cut off for Locks of Love.

 I had the C custom embrodiered onto a shower curtain that my mom found at a garage sale. 

I also painted this sign to hang above the toilet. It's actually a bit different than this because I ended up repainting the entire thing, but I can't find that photo either! I need to organize my house photos apparently. :) Oh well, you get the gist!

Can't wait to see all the other bathrooms - maybe I'll get some inspiration for my mud room bath.

:j

You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. -Ted Turner

I won. I am officially a winner. All these years I have tried and tried and tried to win contests and failed miserably, but not anymore. Now I am in the winner's bracket.

What did I win?

Only the most adorable print from Studio Mela. It's perfect for my mud room remodel! I can't wait to find an adorable vintage frame, and paint it all cute, then put this in it.

I have to give thanks to Meg for picking me as the winner. It was a giveaway on her rock star blog. Go check it out, and be inspired.

:j