Urgent Prayer Request

Please pray for a sweet little girl named Maia. Maia was born with spina bifida and has hydrocephalus as a result. This week she had a severe seizure and has been in the hospital since then. Friday morning she had brain surgery to place tubes to clear infection from her brain. She is one sick little girl. Please pray for the Mighty Physician to heal her and keep her safe in the palm of her hand. Also, please pray for her parents and her brother, Matthew, during this difficult time. You may check for updates on her family's blog at http://findingbabyhansen.blogspot.com.

I had the extreme privilege of meeting Maia's parents, Mark and Melanie Hansen, in Kiev the night before our SDA appointment when we received Elijah's referral. And as the Lord worked it out, we were able to meet up in Kiev at the end of our adoption processes too, so I got to meet Maia!  And...the Hansens went back to adopt Matthew about the same time we were in country adopting Jonathan. Fun, huh? :-) So, as you can imagine, the Hansens have a very special place in my heart. I humbly ask you to please PRAY for them all!

Stuck Saturday

Chubby little boys who are starting to become VERY mobile, tend to get stuck. Quite often.

'Foto Friday

When will it be my turn??

Thankful Thursday

We've been busy this week getting ready for our Jesus Style Rummage Sale, or Jesus Sale for short. It's Jesus Style, because everything is FREE!!! Nothing is priced (which makes setup 10x easier!), but we do accept free will donations which take care of the costs of managing our home school group each year (curriculum, snacks, etc). Our group does this sale every year, and we have hosted it for the past three years. 

Last year set-up was a lot more stressful because that was the same time we were running around doing all the paperwork for Jonathan's adoption!

Here are some pictures I went out and took of the garage today. Sorry some are a bit blurry, I wasn't bothering to take the time for professional photos. ;)

The clothes half of the garage

Little boys clothes

Teen boys... slim pickings! The other half of the table it the little girls.

Older girls (6/6x and up)

Dresses and other things that need to be hung

Men's clothes - these will be moved outside a few days before it starts once we get the big tents up

Women's cloths - these will be spread out where the men's clothes are now.

The junk everything besides clothes half

House Decor, and toys on the end towards the wall.

Craft stuff, and household goods.

Guy Stuff/Sporting Goods and I guess more home decor??

Coats

Shoes, and the boxes that I cut off at the top of the table are belts/ties/undies/socks/swimsuits.

The sale will be not this weekend, but the next weekend. Thursday the17th, from 9-5; Friday the 18th from 9-5; and Saturday the 19th from 9-1. If you are local, PLEASE come!! We have a lot of stuff to get rid of! :)

Also, if you are local and have stuff you would like to donate, please let us know! You can drop it off, or we can come pick it up.

So for Thankful Thursday, we are thankful for the opportunity to bless so many people in this way, and for all the people who have donating items thus far!

Wordless Wednesday

Help Set the Butterfly Free!!!

Below - from the heart of my daughter, Sarah. Please read and pray about how you can help. Feel free to repost anywhere and everywhere. Thanks! I would love to see Rachel get her birthday wish!




Somewhere on the other side of the world there is a beautiful butterfly just waiting for her cocoon to break open so she can be set free.

But she got stuck in her cocoon and wasn't able to come out the same time as most of the butterflies her age. She is soo beautiful on the inside, and just needs love to help her break free to the outside.

So here's where she needs your help. She needs you to help set her free from the cocoon (orphange/possibly institution) she is stuck in.

You can help set Lilly love free by sponsoring a piece of her puzzle!

Her butterfly puzzle! That's right we are doing a puzzle fundraiser!

After the puzzle is filled up, it will be glued and given to Lilly's future adoptive parents when they bring her home. One day, Lilly will be able to look at this butterfly and see all the many people who loved her and helped her break free!

To sponsor a puzzle piece: 
Donate just $5 (times whatever amount of puzzle pieces you want to sponsor if more than one) to Lilly's grant. You can donate by:
-Using the chip-in on our sidebar (which goes directly to RR, just we can see who has donated)
-Using Lilly's account directly on RR
-Sending a check to:
Reece's Rainbow
PO Box 4024
Gaithersburg, MD 20885
(BE SURE to specify in the memo line it's for 'Lilly 3G').

After you have donated, you have to email us telling us how many pieces you sponsored, what names you would like on them (we are just doing last initial), and what method you used to pay. Our email is handiworkforelijah (at) gmail (dot) com. If you do not email us, you will not get your names on the puzzle! You can sponsor a piece for every member of your family, or you can sponsor a piece in honor or loving memory of someone!

We already have a good start on it, since we have put the names of everyone who has ordered from us while we have been raising money for Lilly. There are 500 pieces, and only 37 have names on them. That leaves 463 left.

What we have filled in so far! The upper right wing.

My 9 yo sister gave $5 of her own money to get her name on puzzle piece, and $5 is a lot of money for a 9 yo! Can't you give too? PLEASE help us set her free!

But here's the catch. Our goal is to have it filled in little less than a month from now. In other words, we want to have it all filled in by midnight on May 28th. You know why May 28th? Because that is this girl's birthday:

Rachel. My other half, and best friend. Also Lilly's warrior, and the one who first fell in love with Lilly. I quite frankly, could not  keep this blog running without her help.

She's turning 16, and I can tell you for a fact without even confirming it with her, that there is nothing she wants more for her Sweet Sixteen then for Lilly to have a family. Nothing.

And you can help get Lilly one step closer to that goal by being a piece of the puzzle. Becoming part of her butterfly! Help set her free!

Please bless Rachel, but more importantly, help Lilly find a family by getting your name on a puzzle piece!

Think 463 a lot?? I don't think so! Not for God! Let's knock out that number, shall we? Thank you!!!

Happy 8th "Bird-day" Isaac!

Over the weekend, Isaac had his 8th birthday "Bird-day" party, complete with 6 of his friends and a rockin' Angry Birds theme! This was his first ever "friend" party, so we went WAY overboard all out with the fun theme and an AWESOME cake!

(Lest you think I'm creative enough to come up with all this stuff below on my own, I stole all the decorating ideas from this blog post which contains lots of links for free downloads.)

Dear Isaac,
I can't believe it has been 8 years since I first held you in my arms. The Lord appropriately led us to name you Isaac, which means "laughter". You love life and always have a smile for everyone. I'm especially impressed and encouraged by the compassion and love you show your brothers. You are patient with them, and will get whatever they need. You never complain they can't "play" with you in the way you might want them too, but Elijah certainly enjoys wrestling with you. :-) I can't wait to see how the Lord works in your life as you grow up into a godly young man. Your faith in the Lord is already starting to grow. I believe he has BIG things for you to do in this world. Jer. 29:11


Love you Buddy,
Mommy

+++++++++++
The CAKE!

This is one of the most phenomenal cakes I've ever seen. Claudia, the wife of one of Pat's co-workers, makes cakes out of her home. She is so VERY TALENTED! Just look at the detail. AMAZING! Everything was edible too (complete with a good sugar rush). If you are local and would like to see her work, you can find her on FB at El Postre Cakes & Sweets or email her here. I'm quite sure she could make whatever theme cake you wanted. :-) The cake was one of the best tasting I've ever had too. Thanks Claudia!

Yep, he loves it too!

++++++++++++
The Pinata!

Sarah made the whole thing herself and did a great job! She applied LOTS of layers so it would be really strong. :-)

Braden is winding up, sportin' his Angry Bird hat that Sarah made him last winter.

Anna (above) and Rebekah were "allowed" to participate too!

One last chance to finish it off!  The boys never did completely break it, just put a hole in one side. They eventually just dumped it out. :-) Nice work, Sarah! 

++++++++++
Games!

Pat did the games for the kids, which he is very good at! They had a blast! To go along with the Angry Bird theme, the three teams built structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks. The structure to hold the most weight (DVD cases) won!

The winning team!

++++++++++

Decorations!

A huge thank you to Sarah for cutting out all of the pieces for the balloons and cups! Cute, huh?

I actually won these treat bags on the Hidden Treasures Auction I posted about the beginning of April. What a fun donation and it worked out great for me (I could choose my theme). I loved that she even donated things to put in the bags too. Thanks Hollie!

At Isaac's request, we served spaghetti and meatballs.

Black and red tableware were easy and fun to complete the theme.

++++++++++
Gifts!

Since Braden and Andrew live over 30 miles away, his mom stayed the whole time with Baby Dax! Yay! The girls were fighting over who got to hold him. Even Rachel got her turn!
It was nice to have some company in the kitchen too while the party was rockin' outside. Thanks for coming Michelle!

What a wonderful celebration of Isaac's birthday. I hope you enjoyed, Isaac. You are so very blessed to be loved by so many!