Fundraiser Friday!

Each Friday, I am going to share a fundraiser(s) that profits a cause near and dear to my heart. It will likely mostly be adoption/Africa related but maybe sometimes not too. Sometimes I will share about things our family is doing to bring our baby home, sometimes friends, and sometimes strangers. So without further ado, welcome to our first fundraiser Friday!

Today I want to showcase 2 dear families who are in the process of adopting and both rather close to recieving referrals (which means large sums of money will be due).

First our friends Stuart and Jenny are in the process of adopting 2 sweet babies from dr Congo! They have biological twins who will be 3 in December. And they will be awesome big brother and sister!!

Stuart and Jenny and doing a tshirt blitz right now! They have several sizes available for $15 (they were originally $20). So please, follow their blog link above and help bring s & k's younger siblings home!!

Next I want to share with you Jason and Dwan who are in the process of bringing home a little boy from Ethiopia! Jason and Dwan have 4 biological children (one of which is a boy) and they are some of the sweetest siblings you will ever see! The Graham's are stepping out in obedience to God's call to care for the fatherless by bringing one more into their home.

On Saturday, August 20 they will be having a pancake breakfast at Applebees in Bowling Green. Tickets are $6 and $5 of those dollars will go directly to bringing their sweet boy home! I am telling you about this delicious fundraiser now because they are pre-selling tickets and will not have tickets available at the door! So click on their blog link above and contact Dwan by next Friday August 5 to reserve your tickets!!!

Thank you for joining us in our first ever fundraiser Friday!!! And thank you for caring for the fatherless by supporting these families!

things are changing

I have been challenged lately to really focus on my priorities and shift them to match what God desires them to look like. I am thankful.

One of my priorities is being a blessing to our family financially. I am responsible for grocery shopping in our home and I am doing my best to get great deals by shopping sales and couponing. I have gotten some bargains in the past couple of months including free pasta, free canned tomatoes, free BBQ sauce, free dish soap, free toothpaste, nearly free shampoo and body wash as well as many other items. Well today I got some deals for my new business! That's right, another way I am hoping to bless our family financially is by being a thirty-one consultant! (my website is mythirtyonetoday.com/emilyjochim) I am so so excited about this opportunity and will blog more about it soon! But now for my deals!

First I went to walgreens. Here you see 10 folders, 1 box of 24 crayons, an index card holder and 2 packs of 10 pens. I got all of this for 1.87. (pens and folders are for business).

Next stop was staples! You see 10 folders, a 7 pack of pens, 2 2 packs of sharpies, a 500 pack printer paper, and a sliding pencil case. My total after sales and rebates was 1.60!!! Talk about a deal!

Expect some other fun new things here at jochimsjoys coming soon!

Repurposing

Upon discovering two awesome blogs this week, I got the sewing itch!

The first project I discovered was a denim skirt made from a men's button up shirt. I recalled one that Adam had gotten from work and never worn and after asking his permission, I cut in! It's a cute little skirt but I want to replace the buttons and would really like to try it with a men's khaki shirt.

Next I found a tutorial for a jersey skirt. I changed a few details of it but kept it mostly the same.

After 2 skirts I wanted to tackle a top so into my closet I went. I found a long sleeved shirt that I got from target years ago and cut the sleeves off. Then I followed the instructions to turn the sleeves into a ruffle. I love this top!

Finally I repurposed a tshirt and a strapless dress into a cutie ruffle top dress with a red belt! I even had Adam take a corny picture of me modeling it :)

***the 2 blogs are madebylex.com and rufflesandstuff.com

****I need to take before pictures too!

Thirty One Gifts Fundraiser!

We are having a Thirty One fundraiser! A very generous friend has volunteered to donate her profits to our adoption fund! You can shopt for birthdays, plan ahead for Christmas gifts, and just treat yourself to something pretty! They really have something for everyone!

And the special this month is AWESOME!!! For every 31 dollars you spend, you can get a large utility tote (regularly 30 dollars) for only NINE DOLLARS! That is one awesome deal that you can get while helping us bring our sweet baby home!!!

Want to participate but can't make it to the party?! You can see me to place an order, or you can order online here! Click "place an order" at the top of the page and follow the prompts. Our fundraiser is currently the only one listed, so you should see it! :)

Please make plans to attend/participate!! And as always, thank you for your support!

25 years!

happy 25th birthday to hubby! so thankful that he was born 25 years ago today...because we get a break on our car insurance! ha! just kidding. here are 25 reasons that i love my hubby.

1. he loves Jesus first.
2. he loves family (mine, his) and spending time with them.
3. the way he loves our baby girl. it really is beautiful.
4. the way he wanted to pursue adoption NOW rather than later (he initiated.)
5. that he will rinse poopie diapers for me when the day has been crazy (and when the day hasn't been crazy.
6. the way he provides for our family (even when he doesn't love what he does.)
7. how he supports me in my endeavors (sewing, baking, whatever other thing i want to do.)
8. that he is so stinking good at running (seriously, he could not train for a year and still run 5 miles!)
9. that he loves to try new things (train for a triathlon, anyone!?)
10. that he shares my love for ikea :)
11. his heart.
12. his beautiful blue eyes.
13. that he is so quick to give me a break when he gets home from work even though i know he has had a long day himself.
14. that he loves to serve.
15. the he works so hard so i can stay home with our babies (and would work 3 jobs if he had to so i could stay home.)
16. that he is always ready and willing to hang with boo so i can have a girls night with small group or mops or whatever it is!
17. that he is willing to wake up with boo when she wakes up.
18. he loves me unconditionally.
19. that he loves sports and knows whats going on with his teams even though we don't have the channels that show the games (and never once complains about not having those channels.)
20. that he is so outdoorsy (remember part of the reason i fell for him is because he was taking a kayaking class :)!)
21. that he is willing to be a dog sitting family just for a little extra money (i always get us roped into dog sitting! its great!!!)
22. that he is willing to go where God leads us, no matter what.
23. that he is so committed and loyal to his friends.
24. that he will drive to the store down the road to get me a sprite when i get a craving.
25. that he wants to have lots of babies with me!

happy birthday sweet husband. thank you for all you do for us. we are so thankful for all 25 years of you!!!! we love you!!

one piece at a time

sweet friends, i am very excited to share with you another way that you can help bring our sweet baby home...one piece at a time.

we have purchased the world map puzzle above. it is a 100 piece puzzle. we are putting each piece of the puzzle up for sponsorship. when you sponsor a piece of this puzzle, you will have the chance to put a message to our sweet child on the back of the puzzle piece. (if you have children, you may want to sponsor multiple puzzle pieces so they can write a message to baby jochim too!) it is our hope that, when finished, we will be able to put the puzzle together and have a back full of messages to our sweet baby, before he/she even comes home! we will modpodge the puzzle together and hang it in his/her room as a reminder of God's faithfulness in providing a way to his/her forever family. it is our hope that our sweet baby will one day look at the messages from friends and family and see that he/she was loved even before we had seen his/her face.

the suggested donation for sponsorship is $10 per puzzle piece. please consider joining us, and helping us meet our second child face to face.

if you would like to sponsor, email us at thejochims@gmail.com or write me on facebook. thank you again for traveling this road with us.

adoption update

i've been a slacker blogger lately! partially due to laziness, partially due to lots of playing with my girl, cleaning, baking, and getting paper work together for our home study!

so here is a little update of what is going on in our little world. we are still doing crafts for congo (but it has slowed WAY down!) we completed our 2 mini photo session fundraisers. and we have a few other fundraisers in the works. but with just those 2 fundraisers, we have our first agency fee!!! that is a HUGE step forward, but we still have a long road ahead of us, and a lot of money to raise! (of course, you will be able to hear about all of our fundraising endeavors, right here!)

we had our first home study meeting last week and it was wonderful! we were only a little nervous going in, but it went off without a hitch. our social worker is FANTASTIC (as we heard she would be!) and we are very excited to say that our final home study meeting will be may 24 at 530 pm! so in the meantime we are gathering lots and lots of paperwork. once we send our agency fee in, we will gather even more paperwork to compile our dossier-which will eventually be sent to the congo. we are making progress here, people!

if you have questions about our adoption process, please ask! we will be as real and honest as we know how to be. here are a few questions that we have heard a lot of!

Q: how old will your child be?
A: we have requested that our child be younger than bella joy (born after march 15, 2010). our home study will be written for a baby 14 months old or younger.

Q: why does your sister already know she is getting a girl? are you getting a girl or a boy?
A: lara and nathan requested a girl. we are very excited about having another niece and meeting sweet lydia face to face!! we did not request a specific gender. so we could have a boy or a girl. it will be a surprise upon referral! :) (i had a dream about our baby the other night, and in that dream, it was a boy...not that i'm a prophet or anything).

Q: what are you going to name your baby? will you keep his or her name the same?
A: we are not opposed to letting our baby keep his or her african name. we will always be open and honest with him/her about where he/she came from. the adoption will not be a secret (obviously--i mean, you can't really hide it when your skin is a different color!) so the idea of keeping the african name is kind of fun to us. however, we do not want our child to go through life with everyone mispronouncing his/her name. so we will likely give them a first name and possibly keep the african name for a middle name. if our baby is a boy, his name will be micah timothy and if it is a girl her name will be...well, thats still up in the air. (we like cora and eliana...but we'll see :)).

Q: so, is it really expensive?
A: adoption is a long and costly process. we are not buying a child, we are paying for the services of the agency staff/country staff. if you are interested in adopting, i would love to give you more info! if you are just being nosy...well you can honestly find this info on your own by looking on any adoption agency's website. but yes, its expensive. no, we aren't buying a baby.

what else ya got?

please keep praying for our journey, for our baby, for our baby's biological family. and thank you so so much for your support so far! lets bring this baby home!