Need an affordable Christmas gift idea???...

I am finally following through and posting pictures of the Ugandan bead necklaces we are selling in the ornament globes.

Aren't they pretty?  They have some white tinsel on the bottom of the globe, which is hard to see in this picture.  The top of the ornament comes right off so you can simply pull the necklace out after Christmas to wear it!  I also have some with the bow smaller, not as a hanger.  We are selling these ornaments for $30.  They would make a fun teacher gift and also great for an ornament exchange!


We can wrap them up for you like this!

We also have lots of the necklaces on their own for $25.  They all come with a tag that tells the story of the woman that make these beads. These women were making a living through prostitution or picking trash, but Amazima Ministries has helped them form a community and taught them this trade.  They now make a sustainable income making the necklaces.  147 Million Orphans purchases the necklaces from the women and helps sell them all over the world.  They have a special ministry to adoptive families like ours, helping us use these necklaces to raise funds to help us make our adoption possible.  So a portion of your purchase goes back to the women that make the necklaces and the rest goes to our adoption fund.

We have also found another pretty way to display the necklaces like this:

You can purchase these for $28.  We also are selling these starfish ornaments for $8.  

When we first decided to adopt we remembered the story of the man that was walking on the beach and saw hundreds of starfish washed up on shore and he saw a little boy throwing them back into the ocean one by one.  The man told the little boy that he might as well stop because it didn't matter and he wasn't going to save enough of the starfish.  But the little boy continued and said, "It matters to this one!"

That seems to sum up the way we feel about James 1:27 and our role as believers in fulfilling the call to help the widows and the orphans.  We can't adopt or help ALL the 147 million orphans.  But we can do what we ARE ABLE to do.  That might be adopt one, or sponsor a Compassion child or send an Operation Christmas Child shoebox or help with an adoption yard sale or cut the grass for a widow or buy a necklace or ornament....but it is still making a difference for one.  We are called to do for one what we wish we could do for all.

The starfish ornament also comes with a card attached that shares the story of the little boy and the starfish.  They can be hung on a tree or displayed for Christmas.

These really do make fun, unique gifts that have a story, a purpose and an opportunity to give back.  Let me know if you are interested in buying one!  You can email me at erikachapman74@gmail.com or leave a comment below!  Thank you!

Check out these tees!!

We have had WONDERFUL success selling the Ugandan necklaces.  We actually should receive another order of them any day now.  So THANK YOU!!  And thank you to everyone that has purchased coffee through Just Love Coffee Roasters as well.  We have received a check each month from those purchases:) 

We recently found out we received approval to fund raise by selling Wild Olive t-shirts!!  If you know me well at all you have seen me wearing these t-shirts, so I am over the top excited:)  I love these shirts!!  They have Scripture on them without being cheesy and they are comfortable and soft and trendy....they are simply great!

We still hope to offer, at some point on this journey, a t-shirt specific to our adoption from Africa but for the next few weeks every time you purchase a Wild Olive tee from this page...we receive a portion of the profit! At checkout you click on coupon code and then put this code, CHAPMAN0518, in the space for coupon code, and then we will receive credit and a portion of the proceeds.  The more shirts we sell, the greater portion we receive!!  We can only fund raise through Wild Olive until the end of June so think ahead and purchase for birthdays and Christmas!  I love getting these shirts on my birthday:)

The shirts are $30 each and there are 11 styles to choose from!  So go here to check out your options and don't forget to put in the code CHAPMAN0518. Thank you ahead of time, and as always let us know if you have any questions!!

You are a blessing and thank you for joining us on this journey!!

Just Love Coffee

I (Erika) only started drinking coffee about a year ago... and I am sorry to say I am addicted:)  Getting up early mornings with the kids for school, especially when it is cold outside, sends me looking for some warm caffeine!  Mark actually has a more refined taste in coffee because he drinks it black.  I have a little coffee with a lot of cream and sugar:)

So we are always looking for ways to order our addiction while feeling like we are doing something with the money we are drinking down...so we like to order fair trade coffee. What is fair trade coffee? It is coffee which is purchased directly from the growers for a higher price than standard coffee.  The purpose of fair trade is to promote healthier working conditions and greater economic incentive for producers.

We recently discovered Just Love Coffee .  They not only sell excellent fair trade coffee but work with families that are adopting.  They help families raise funds to go toward their adoption.  So if you click on the nifty little link to the left:) and purchase some coffee from our "store" we will earn $5 per bag of coffee!!  We bought several different kinds of their coffee so far and have really, really enjoyed it.  They sell whole bean or already ground and ours came within 4 days of ordering it!

So if you want to try some new coffee, help out some fair trade farmers and help us bring our little girl home...then click and shop please!!!  Thank you ahead of time if you decide to grab a cup of java:) They make great gifts too!!

God provides and Seeing Heroes in action

Mark: Genesis 22:14 says, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided." Abraham proclaimed this after God provided a ram to be sacrificed in place of his son Isaac. Erika and I have seen time and time again God's provision and this past month as been no different. Erika will go into more detail below.
I have seen Heroes in action. Since this journey began Erika and I have been humbled by the financial generosity of those who want to see us bring our "baby girl" home as quickly as possible. Once again Erika goes into more detail below, but because of the efforts and gifts from many of you we are able to go further, faster. We are ahead of the curve with our process and paperwork because money has not slowed us down. Thank you for being our Hero!!

Erika: We've had LOTS going on in the last week or so!! We sent in our homestudy application and a majority of the required paperwork.  We received an email about a week later that said they received it and would contact us soon to set up an appointment for a social worker to come and interview us.  That was huge!!

We also went on Monday to apply for our passports.  I knew the cost for the application and for the pictures but didn't realize we also had to pay other processing fees.  It went very smoothly and quickly but I was a little surprised at how much that whole process cost!  The amazing thing though is that each step as we face new needs and as we find out how each piece of paperwork seems to come with a new cost...God is ahead of us already providing. One family sent a check to Nightlight with our homestudy paperwork.  God provided!

Another family has donated money each month for the last 3 months.  Each time that donation arrived it was JUST as we were having to pay for 16 birth certificates from 3 different states...or finding out Mark needed to go back to Columbia again to order 6 more marriage certificates...or right as we received an email from Nightlight announcing that Ugandan lawyer fees went up in price another $1500.  So this journey is definitely already a bit of a roller coaster ride, but God is saying hang on!!  He is definitely in charge:)

We have some dear friends, Chris and Cookie Cawthon, that have been such an encouragement to us in this adoption process.  Their two girls, Carson and Campbell, had a cookie and lemonade stand a few months ago and raised over $32.00 toward our adoption!  Chris decided he was going to run the Myrtle Beach Half-Marathon to help us raise funds toward our adoption.  Well, Chris is highly motivated and I've never met a person that doesn't think he is great!!  We knew he would be successful at whatever he put his hand (or foot) to...but we have been blown away at his success.

We spent the night at the beach and Mark spent the morning of the race following Chris from point to point as much as possible.  Chris did a great job running and finished the 13.1 mile race in 2 hrs 12 minutes.  Even more impressive is that Chris' friendship and influence and efforts raised over $2500 toward our adoption!!!  Isn't that so cool??!!  We are so grateful for people like the Cawthons and other friends and family that are helping us reach our goal!!  Our God provides!!

So next steps are:
1. Working on our dossier which is essentially all the paperwork that goes through the US Government's hands and then into the Ugandan officials' hands.  Lots and lots of notarized stuff!
2. Waiting to meet with and be interviewed by a social worker from Nightlight as part of our homestudy.
3. Taking an online class and doing lots of reading and research to fulfill our education requirements for our homestudy.

I will also try to blog soon about the neat ways God has been preparing our boys' hearts for their little sister.  We have prayed that the Lord would already begin bonding their hearts with this new sibling and God is answering that prayer!