Get Your Kids to Read AND Support Our Adoption

How is that not a Win Win situation?  I have this amazing, incredibly talented, life-long friend by the name of Annie Tipton.  In addition to her many notable attributes, she is the author of a series of kids' books called Diary of a Real Payne.  I have read books 1 and 2 and they are awesome with a great message.  Book 3 just released this week.

Here is what Amazon has to say about the series:
"Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Best Children’s Book for 2013.  True Story! . . . These pages from EJ Payne’s diary will have you ROTFL as you witness her spunky personality and well-meant-but-often-misunderstood antics. You’ll fall in love with this first release in the Diary of a Real Payne series as EJ records her thoughts and feelings about living in little old Spooner, Wisconsin (snooze!), eventually leaving her hometown to do big things when she’s all grown up (oh glorious day!), and having to star in the role of lead angel in the Vine Street Christmas pageant (are you kidding me?). This colossal-fun series is overflowing with humor and memorable life lessons." 


Annie has oh so generously donated copies of her first two books to our family to help us fund raise for our adoption.  Did I mention she's awesome?   


These books are geared for readers age 8-12.  They make a great gift as well!  

If you are interested, I am offering each book for $6 or the set of 2 for $10.  Buyer covers shipping if needed.  This is the ONE item I don't want you to get on Amazon because if you purchase directly through me, we receive ALL of the proceeds.  Please call, email, FB, text or leave a comment here if you are interested.  

Mrs. Long Goes to Washington

My fellow DRC Families and I are headed to Washington, D.C. to advocate for our kids who need to be home with their families.   

Here's what this boils down to:  

These are kids who don't have permanent, stable families who have been legally adopted into a willing forever family and those families are being denied the ability to parent those children. 

Virtually all of these families are pouring every penny they have into completing their families. If you are able, please consider making even a small donation to help cover the cost of this trip. I know folks that could use airline miles and hotel points as well. I've watched people squeeze blood from turnips to make this trip and fight for their kids. Please consider blessing their efforts  

http://www.gofundme.com/a6cl5k

There's a whole lot going on in the world of international adoptions right now. I can't share most of it and don't want to talk about the rest of it, but please just keep praying for this process. Hopefully I can share more soon.

In the mean time, we really need to get back to fundraising. We have been sooooo incredibly blessed by some amazing friends who are sharing their gifts in some way with us.

My dear friend and kindred spirit, Stephanie, is hosting a garage sale for us in Iowa this weekend, which is just awesome.  If any of our nonIndiana friends feel compelled to follow suit, we won't stop you :)  Praying for a big turnout! 

Also, our very crafty friend Allison is donating proceeds from some of her wares for our adoption as well! 

This is how I know Allison is awesome - she sews rice bags that you can microwave and use as muscle relaxing, warming, snuggly objects. (And when my dog ate the rice bag, she happily made me another. Twice.) That's not a great description, but trust me, they're lovely.  

She also sells these very pretty candles that she swears by and is donating any proceeds from those as well.

I gave my mom, MIL, SIL, and sis a rice bag last year for Christmas and everybody likes candles.  These are clearly items you need AND you can gift.  And you could put them together and make a nice therapeutic, relacing combo...just sayin'.

So you can check her out here :http://www.evesemporium.net/long-family.hatml

Happy Mother's Day to my own amazing mama and all the incredible mothers I am surrounded by.

This Mother's Day is a little different for me.  This is the first year where I have really felt this:

And for all the stupid, ignorant comments that I field on why sometimes kids need a permanent family...or maybe why MY specific kids need a permanent family: 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/mothers-day-2014-congo-worst-place-be-mother-1442176

Yes.

You never know the day your life is going to change.  You wake up thinking it's just a normal Saturday and you are going to do normal Saturday things. And life is going to carry on like normal as it always does.  On this particular Saturday, we were slated to attend an annual gathering of many of our adoption friends.  I love this party and love getting to see so many people that I typically only interact with through cyberspace.  This would also be the first time I would see two families that were with me in Africa.  The first time that I finally got to take my own African princess to the party instead of staring enviously at the families around me whose kids were home.

On this particular Saturday my world was going to be flipped upside down.  All the things that I had accepted regarding Harper's past life were shattered.  Instead I found myself hearing some of the most astonishing news I could ever fathom.  Things that are far too personal to be blogging about.  Most of which I really haven't processed fully yet.

Fast Forward 6 weeks.

Six weeks filled with gut wrenching decisions, sleepless nights, jam packed days, tears, questions, piles of paperwork, unfathomable joy, flickers of hope and a sense of wonderment about how life just makes sense sometimes.

So it is with great pleasure that the Long family is announcing that 

we will be expanding one more time.  

Because our family wasn't quite complete, we just didn't know it yet.

Apparently Madeline knew.  About 3 days before this all happened, she spent dinner one night asking us when we would be getting a baby brother.  We chuckled and informed her that our family was wonderful just the way it was.  As she has a strong argumentative streak, she continued to press about why we needed a baby brother.  Silly child....

As it turns out, Harper has a biological brother. Over there of course.  And he is also in need of a forever family.  And like I said, it turns out our family wasn't quite complete yet.  So Long, party of 5 is in the works. 

Honestly, this is going to be hard. 

WAY harder than last time. 

WAY longer than last time.

We weren't thinking about it. Or talking about it.  We were making other plans. Big life plans.  

We weren't ready.  We weren't prepared.  

But when God calls your name, you answer.  You change your plans. You change your heart.  And you say yes.   

STUCK

Over 6 months ago, a particular government office in the home country of our youngest daughter (don't you love the vagueness of all of this?), suspended issuing exit permits for adopted children.  Many families who were told they would still get an exit permit are still waiting.  Families I traveled with.. In July.  It's DEVASTATING to see the number of kids that are being impacted by this.  The number of kids who have been legally adopted but are unable to unite with their forever families.  The number of parents that are unable to effectively parent their children because of this situation.  While I absolutely respect this country, this decision is putting families in a very very sticky situation to the detriment of already delicate children.

Both Ends Burning is an organization dedicated to helping children who are STUCK in sticky political situations in international adoption unite with their forever families.  Both Ends Burning is working probono with the families of this country to resolve the situation.  The sad reality is that the U.S. government and State Department have done little to nothing to resolve this situation, which includes even having a clue about just how many families are impacted by this.  In conjunction with Both Ends Burning, I am working with a small army of families with a vested interest in seeing this resolved.

Please take a few minutes to sign this petition, which will go to your respective representatives.  For $3 you can have a paper copy sent.  Let your reps know that this matters to ALL of us.

http://www.petition2congress.com/14960/please-help-resolve-pending-adoptions-from-democratic-republic-co/

Feel free to share as well.  In 3 hours we have sent over 10,000 letters!

Stitch Fix

On to something fun that I've been meaning to write about for a while.  I hate shopping.  Loathe it really.  Especially clothes shopping.  If I had a uniform for work, I think I would be perfectly content.  However, last summer it started to occur to me that I hadn't really bought clothes since I started at my current job (nearly 7 years ago!) and I've lived some life since then...bore a child, you know that sort of thing.  So it might be time to revamp the wardrobe just a tad.  One of my adoption buddies had recently tried a service called Stitch Fix and blogged about it and I had to say I was intrigued.  Essentially you fill out a VERY in depth questionnaire about yourself including style preferences, sizes, if you need work or play clothes, etc.  And for a mere $25, they will have a stylist handpick 5 items for you and ship them to you.  Each article of clothing comes with a little style card of ways to wear the piece, which is OH so helpful.  You get 3 days to try them on with your existing wardrobe and then a handy prepaid mailer to send back anything you don't want. The initial $25 styling fee can be applied to anything you purchase too so there's very little risk.  I was completely skeptical that this could work at all. After all, I can't even pick clothes for the body I've had for 30+ years - how is somebody who has never met me OR seen me going to do it?  However, during the longest wait last spring/summer, I decided to splurge a bit.

Oh my.  So I did have to adjust my sizing the first two times as things were a bit big.  However, I have scored SO many awesome clothes from this and even a few pieces of jewelry.  Every time I wear something from Stitch Fix, I snag compliments about what I'm wearing and how I look.  Also, most of what I've bought are items that I never would have tried on in a store. I would have written them off as not my style.  But get them in my closet where I can mix and match with what I already own (with the help of the little style card) and my mind has been swayed.  Really this company does an amazing job.   They are completely open to my suggestions on what I want or don't want, it's super convenient, delightfully fun, and you can schedule a fix as often as you choose.  I've had a couple of friends sign up and they've fallen in love as well.

I would post pictures of some of my goods here, but I don't have the energy to upload them.  Plus my style is probably different than yours so I don't want to taint your view that perhaps they only cater to my style - not true!  But if you are looking for a refreshing way to shop, you are more than welcome to use my referral link and give it a try. I really feel confident that you won't be disappointed.

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/3113818

Family Photo

I have been trying so hard to get into blogger mode.  It has been so hard for so many reasons, but I'm trying really hard to break out of the rut.  It has occurred to me that I have never EVER posted a picture of our amazing family since we've all been together for 8+ months.  So let's start there.

There's an amazing organization out there called Red Thread Photography.  It is comprised of professional photographers that donate their time and skills to capture newly adoptive families.  How incredible is that? We were lucky to team up with the incredible Heather Harris of Heather Harris Photography.  And here's a few of the many amazing shots she took for us:

 How much do I love these two beautiful sweethearts? I just can't help but steal hugs and kisses and tickle them because their laughs make my heart happy.  

And for the record, our Christmas cards/Harper's homecoming announcement have been sitting in a box on my dryer since November.  Yep.  We'll talk about that more later. 

In the mean time, keep the Long family in your prayers because we've got ALL sorts of news to share coming soon....