THE RESULTS!!!!!!

WE WON THE ORDINARY HERO GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU made us the #1 SELLER!!!!!

From Wednesday through Sunday you bought $1199.04 of merchandise, in which we received a commission (towards our adoption) of $479.62!!!!  That put us in the #1 spot (only $60 in sales above the next affiliate) earning us the $500 grant!!!!!  

I am BLOWN AWAY you guys!!!!!  I never actually thought it was possible for us to win that.  I thought I had already pestered the poo outta you with my shirts and headbands and that YOU had felt has "done" with this whole fundraising thing as I was.  But you guys responded in an INCREDIBLE way and lit a FIRE under my butt!!!!

Our goal before this weekend was to raise another $2000 so that we can be DONE fundraising...and you guys got us almost halfway there....IN JUST ONE WEEKEND!!!  So after you get all your fun new Ordinary Hero gear...come back for MORE - because O.H. is coming out with a new SPRING LINE!!!   (And I just KNOW you are going to love their comfy clothes as much as we do!)

AHHHHHH!!!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU

THANK YOU!!!!!

The Final Stretch!!!!

You guys have BLOWN us away with your generosity!  Thank you so much for supporting us in our fundraising efforts - you have put us in the top ten and WELL on our way to that number one spot to win the $500 grant!  We're nearing the end of the Ordinary Hero Fundraising Blitz (sale ends tonight @ midnight) and we need your help to push us into that number one spot!!! 

If you haven't purchased already - what is holding you back?  


Don't need anything for yourself?  Plenty of orphans in Africa are in need of shoes, blankets, and rain gear.  Purchase one, or buy this awesome bundle pack for $55.  May is the beginning of the rainy season in Ethiopia, so orphans directly benefit from your generosity, and we get one step closer to bringing our "T" home.  

Can't decide what to get?  Why not shop in advance for a baby shower with these adorable onesies - what expectant mother wouldn't LOVE to get this, knowing that her child will make a difference in more than just her world???

For those of you who's city restricts you from using plastic grocery bags (including ours)....I KNOW you all are still buying totes for your grocery shopping.  Why not get a cute and spacious O.H. tote AND support a cause?!?  

Have a heart for Haiti rather than Ethiopia?  Check out this adorable Haiti shirt that would work for men AND women...and YES - it still helps us reach our goal!!!
We SOOOOO badly want to win that $500 grant so SHOP SHOP SHOP and SPREAD THE WORD!  You have our permission to pass this on.  Email it to your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers!  Tell them all how THEY can become Ordinary Heroes as well!!!!  Blog it, tweet it, share it on FB!  And don't forget to tell them to select "Domesticated Diva" as the affiliate during checkout so we get the credit.

Last but not least, thank you Thank You THANK YOU from the BOTTOM of our HEARTS for helping us down this path!  Your support and friendship means the WORLD to us!!!!  We pray that through this, it will glorify the FATHER...because you know what?!?  It doesn't end after this weekend.  When you go out and wear your new Ordinary Hero gear...people are going to be asking the story behind it!  And YOU can share how YOU have become and Ordinary Hero and how God used YOU to help bring our daughter home.

Go out there and be a light - CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE!!!!!!

We love ya!!!

Fundraising Blitz

Dear Family and Friends,

From now until Sunday night I am going to light up email and facebook with plea's to help us fund our adoption. Ordinary Hero is having a SALE (20% off) through Sunday and 40% of what we sell goes directly towards our adoption trip costs! PLUS they are giving away $1000 this weekend to the top 3 sellers of items in their store! I so want to be one of the TOP 3!  I really want to be #1! This is the easist and FASTEST way I know to raise some much needed cash towards our adoption costs! They are selling jewelry, tshirts, sweatshirts, hats (kids and adult sizes). They are also selling blankets, raincoats and shoes for the kids who have so little In Africa - those purchases will go straight to the kids. Would you PLEASE consider helping us? Just check out their store and see how you might help!

Please be an Ordianry Hero and help us fund our adoption. When you purchase would you mind helping me by posting the OH store link to your Facebook and ask your friends to shop for us?  I dont know how much its gonna take to be the #1 seller (the #1 spot gets $500 in addition to our sales!) I am hoping to sell $1200 in merchandise in the next 3 days! Wow, isnt that crazy??  I know now you think we are really crazy, BUT, if we have JUST 25 friends spend $50 in the OH store we will meet our goal! With those sales I will earn $500 in commissions that goes straight to our adoption fees and a REALLY great shot at winning TOP seller and get the $500 bonus! Come on, please help us out!  Pretty please?? :)

There are Donation Combos in the store that are $55 and they include a warm fleece blanket, two raincoats, and a pair of aqua shoes for the kids in Africa! There are also cool hats, cool shirts, and African Jewelry for YOU! My favorite "I Heart Africa" shirt is only $34.95 and there are fabulous African necklaces (not many left) for $19.95!  Check it out today- and remember you have until Sunday at midnight to purchase and PLEASE make sure that you select our name (Domesticated Diva) from the affilaite box when you order so we get credit! Now get shopping!

Oh yeah, and more emails to follow over the next few days reminding you! I'm not trying to be a bother, I just dont want you to forget about the chance to be AN ORDINARY HERO! Thanks in advance to all of you! Tell your friends, tell your mom and tell anyone who will listen!  And don't forget to tell them a great big THANK YOU for our family!

Thanks for your help, thanks for your purchases and your prayers as we embark on this journey!

Here is the link to the store:

http://www.ordinaryhero.org/Ordinary_Hero/Store/Store.html

The eyes of all creatures look to you,

and you give them food at the proper time.

You open your hand,

and you satisfy the desire of every living thing. 

Psalm 145: 15-16

Another Grant Opportunity!!!

We feel so blessed at the support we have already received, but I'm excited to share with you another opportunity we have to win a $100 grant!

Ordinary Hero, who we are fundraising with, is offering $100 matching grant to the fundraising family with the highest commission on Friday, April 1st (that's tomorrow!)  We need to make at least $75 in commissions to qualify, but this is a great opportunity for us that we would like to snatch if at all possible!

If you remember, we get a 40% commission off of any merchandise purchased through the Ordinary Hero store when you choose "Domesticated Diva" as the affiliate (which is a drop down menu on the checkout page)!

There is some stiff competition out there, especially with the families just starting their fundraising.  I know we have asked a lot of you over the last 16+ months that we've been fundraising...and please know that we do appreciate EACH and EVERY ONE of you...but we can't stop until we've reached our goal!  We are confident God will provide every penny for this adoption.  He has done so thus far through amazing friends like YOU!

If you haven't done so already, would you please consider helping us in this way?

For Our T....


{UPDATE 04/02/11}
Here's an update on who won the grant {hint: it was not us}!  Thank you for your continued support you guys!

Update on OH Fundraiser

We did not win the $100 matching grant with Ordinary Hero....this time.  They have hinted at the possibility of a couple contests like this though, woohoo!!!  I wanted to say a HUGE thank you, though, to all who purchased from our fundraisers!  We feel so blessed to be supported by such a wonderful community!!!

Regardless of the grant, though, it was a GREAT day!!!  Why?  We received our COURT DATE!!!!  The Lord is good!  So all weekend we'll be pricing out flights to AFRICA {ahhhhh...did I really just write that??}...sheesh are those babies expensive!! =)  LOL!

Keep it coming you guys!  You are blowing me away with your love, encouragement, and support!  You have my permission to call yourself a ROCKSTAR! =)

Support us on MARCH 25!!!!!

OH {Ordinary Hero} just announced TODAY that they are giving a $100 grant to the first affiliate family to earn $100 in proceeds TOMORROW through their store!!!  Now, that's PROCEEDS not SALES {meaning the 40% we make off their items, not the sale price}.  BUT!!!!!  I think we can totally do it, but we need YOUR HELP!!!  

**Make sure the credit goes to us by choosing "Domesticated Diva" as the affiliate in the drop down menu during checkout**

In all honesty, this whole fundraising thing has exhausted me.  I hate that we KEEP having to ask for your help.  But we're so close...and seeing T's face, we can't give up now!  So please, you can DOUBLE our efforts by supporting us by purchasing through OH tomorrow.  Would you please consider going to their store and purchasing something under our affiliate name {"Domesticated Diva" - names kept private for our protection} and spreading the word!  

I am SO THANKFUL to each and every one of you for supporting us through this journey.  Regardless of what you decide, we are CONFIDENT God will provide every penny.  That's why we can't just drop it.  We need to take advantage of every opportunity we have to get our sweetie home!!!  Join us!!!!

Fundraising to the END!!! Launching WOTP & OH!!!

For those of you who DON'T follow our family blog...we are THRILLED to announce that we received our referral for a two-month-old baby girl!!!  She is tiny, and more beautiful than we could have ever imagined!  As I'm sure you can imagine, getting anything done around the house has seemed impossible in the last two weeks as I catch myself gazing at her beautiful face over and over and over again.  Even our two-year-old is smitten by her!  But now that the shock value of this life-changing event has worn off some, reality is clicking in. 

We are SO close to our fundraising goal, with only an estimated $2,500 left to raise.  Totally doable, am I right?!?!  Definitely seems a lot less scary than when we first started!!!  So WITH THAT...I'm really excited to announce our newest fundraising adventures with Worthy of the Prize and Ordinary Hero!!!  

First off....Worthy of the Prize - what a FITTING name considering we feel like we just won the lottery with our amazing little girl!!!  Although we feel far from "worthy of the prize" of being chosen to be T's parents, we will GLADLY take in on!!!

So what is Worthy of the Prize and how can you help??? 

Worthy of the Prize is helping us fundraise by giving us proceeds from several of their items:

1. Fit Bands: 

Fit bands are designed to wear during the workouts or for busy moms-on-the-go, like me, so that you don't lose your keys!  Although they are a fabulous, stylish, and functionable key chain...the original intent of the Fit Bands is to click the Fit Cards to them to fit in devotional time and scripture memorization during those workouts or playtime at the park with your kid!  How genious is THAT?!?  Well...this gets even more amazing...because Worthy of the Prize has created a "Chosen Child" band specifically for adoptive families and even Prayer Cards to pray us through the waiting phase of getting our daughter home!  Check out the beautiful design here!  You can purchase one (or several) of these Fit Bands on my side bar for only $10.75 and we will get HALF of the proceeds to put towards adoption expenses!!!  We just received ours {mine has pink webbing and my hubby's is the half loop with black} and they are SO cute and seriously so practical!!!  And if you are interested in a different design than the "Chosen Child" one, feel free to contact me {bringourangelhome@gmail.com}.

2. Chosen {Adoption Necklace}:

The Chosen necklaces have been designed for adoptive families {mothers}, but the word "chosen" can mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people.  Most importantly, I think it can represent being "chosen" by Christ.  For each necklace sold, Cap Creations will donate $10 to our adoption.  Find out more about these necklaces or what "chosen" could mean for YOU here.

3. Chosen Child {Tshirts}:

These tshirts can be custom designed...meaning you get to choose the fabric, the shirt, the colors - everything!  And we get $5 for each shirt sold.  To find out more about getting a custom shirt made for you, click here.

NEXT...{yes, we are feeling VERY blessed here!} we are also partnering with Ordinary Hero to bring our daughter home!!!  They are offering us 40% of their proceeds to ANY of the items in their store!  Just simply shop, click to check out, and under affiliates, choose "Domesticated Diva" {we kept our names private, as a protective measure} so we can get the credit!  They have SO much to choose from - from sweatshirts to tshirts to onesies to mugs....seriously a HUGE range of products.  And EACH and EVERY ONE help us get closer to bringing our sweetie home!

I love this pic....be an ORDINARY HERO!!!

You guys SERIOUSLY...these are small ways that you can help us in a HUGE way!!!  We're so close...and we know God has a plan to provide us with each penny.  Humbly we ask if you would consider helping us in one of these ways.  But MOST importantly, please keep our family in your prayers as we near the end of this journey and into a new journey as parents of TWO!  We are so thrilled and so thankful.

Baby Shower #2

No, not for me...yet! 

Another friend is having a baby (tis the season) so I had more custom onesies to make!  My dear friend Trish is having her first - a little girl!  It was so fun to break into those girly elements (even though I may have had a temper tantrum or two over my sewing machine) and gave me some fun ideas for when I have a lil' princess of my own!

Three onesies and two headbands - FUN!

The "K" is for her daugher's name

Fun little flower headband!

Heart on the diaper butt - 'cause it's fun!

 

Ruffles are a girl's best friend! =)

Just FUN, huh?

Matching flower on a brown sequined headband!

I think she likes it...what do you think??? =)

Custom Onesies ~ Made With LOVE!

{Niki}

I met my friend Niki through our agency's listserv {yahoo group} and we became fast friends, along with three other ladies and all of our families.  Throughout reading my blog(s) you will see pictures and hear mention of these ladies/families often.  We've become a very tight-knit group! 

Recently I had the joy of celebrating Niki's referral and anticipated arrival of her little Judah at her adoption baby shower!  It was so fun to connect with these fabulous ladies again, drool over pictures of Niki's new little man, and meet her gracious and lively family and friends!

 Showers can cause some mixed emotions in me...mainly stemming from the fact that gift-giving is my love language, and...as anyone in the adoption world knows {unless I'm alone here, which may very well be possible} ...the adoption budget = almost NO budget!  So I always have a hard time knowing what to do for gifts.  As much as I would love to buy a store out in preparation for this little one, I know that it's just not possible for us right now.  So in order to save a little money, I decided to design some clothes for this little man =)  Check out my work:

When she opened this first one, she had tears in her eyes {bless her heart}.  Any adoptive mama who has poured her love into fundraising for her unknown baby gets it.  These "Heart of Africa" onesies are what kicked off our fundraising efforts, so she mentioned how special it was to her to have one for her son.

This elephant was one of my favorites - so happy I had two coordinating fabrics, because that was just the icing on the cake!

This car was my son's favorite!  If I would have let him, he would have carried it around the house all week.

The star makes for an ADORABLE diaper butt!  =)

The giraffe was one of my personal favorites - just so sweet and cute!

And the "J" for JUDAH put a big smile on her face!

Again with the diaper butt...just too cute to resist! =)

If you would like a custom onesie designed for a special little one in your life, contact me at:

{ bringourangelhome@gmail.com }

I would love to help bring some couture into your child's closet...just one more way you can help BRING OUR ANGEL HOME!

For more information on my "Heart of Africa" onesies and shirts, please click {HERE}.

Get Into The CRAFTIN' Spirit!!!

...WHILE helping a family raise money for their adoption!!!

{Meet the B Family}

I have known Stephanie for quite some time.  She graduated from high school with my older brother, and we were both bridesmaid in his wedding!  Living in separate parts of the state, we didn't talk since until facebook reconnected us fairly recently. =)  Shortly after we came public with our adoption news, Steph emailed me with tons of questions.  She and her husband were researching adoption!  Seeing their announcement of their domestic adoption just a few months later put such a smile on my face!  This is such a beautiful family, inside and out - any child would be blessed to call their family their own. 

But enough from me!!!  Stephanie can tell you in her own words about her family's adoption journey:

TO OUR FAMILY & FRIENDS:
It is our pleasure to announce that our family has begun the journey of a domestic adoption.  It is one that we tried to ignore, but when teh Holy Spirit places a calling and conviction on your heart it soon becomes impossible to hide the possible. 
It really wasn't untill after we both read The Hole in Our Gospel, written by Richard Sterns president of World Vision, that we started hearing the cry of the orphans.  Both at different times and paces, but together we heard their cry.  We both tried to find reasons why adopting would not work for us: not enough money, not enough bedrooms, work schedules, kids too young, ect.  We also found that in everything we did, adoption was somehow connected to it.  Books read, movies watched, standing behind families bringing their child home for the first time at the airport, following other local families in their adoption process, ect.
It was then that the devastating earthquake struck Haiti and we found ourselves needing to do more then watch it unfold on TV.  We exhausted every possibility to bring a newly orphaned child home.  After having many closed doors we then started our research about local and national adoption agencies.  Now that we have found a local social worker, JoAnn Vesper from Agape Adoptions, we have begun the long process of bringing our chosen child home.  This includes filling out pages and pages of paperwork FBI fingerprinting, home visits, and waiting to get that phone call that a birthmother has chosen our family to love her baby.
Aside from our fundraisers, we ask that you participate with our family in prayer for not just our family but the family of a young mother who is so lost she is placing her baby up for adoption.  So often we think of only the family receiving teh child but, we ask that you pray for the grandparents releasing a grand baby to another family, a sibling not being able to be an Auntie or an Uncle, and a young women not being able to hear the words, "Mama" or watch her child sleep peacefully in her arms.  We ask that you pray for the lawyers reviewing our file, communication between us and our social worker to be open and honest, for our children to understand our hearts desire, and God's guidance and mighty Hand to be throughout our adoption journey.  We ask that you walk this journey with us as we take a closer step to bringing our baby home.
Thank you for your support and may God bless you and your family!
Tim & Stephanie

Steph has been so encouraging to me throughout this process, I can't NOT do what I can to help her (and her family) fundraise for this adoption.  Please...if you live in the area...consider going to this creative and amazing fundraiser!  I know we all aren't called to adopt, but God calls us ALL to care for the orphans.  One of the ways you can do this today is to support this family.

{click photo to enlarge}

Fun * Food * Fellowship * Fundraising

What more could you ask for???