Miles of Love....an Aerial Snapshot as of July 31st

A friend of mine, Melissa, left me a comment the other week that we needed to start a map showing the geographical locations of where our adoptions have been arriving.  I thought about this some months ago but never made it happen so when she said that, I knew I had to jump all over it.  It only made sense because I'm just so amazed at how God uses others to bless us.

So here we go.  I thought it would be fitting to kick off our 5000 for 5 campaign by showing where the 5000 transactions are originating.  Now, I won't put ours on the map so I'm hoping we'll get some other Marylanders to jump on board in this second leg of saving money and raising funds towards our adoption.  (Please note that we did have donations/sales from other states in our first half of fundraising from places like Maryland, Georgia, a few other states, and even London and Qatar!  Those contributions/sales were definitely instrumental in getting us to our first part of the adoption goal.  You should have also received a thank you in the mail from our sweet little boys.)  This go round, we're putting our contributors on the map in the hopes of also saving on a little postage cost also.  (smile)

So "C" and I worked last night on going through our PayPal account to see where donations have come from since we kicked off our 5000 for 5 campaign on July 14th.  So here's an aerial snapshot of our map and a close-up of which states have showed us love from miles away.....woo hoo!!!!

This is absolutely wonderful!!!  What's great is that some don't even know us personally.  Either someone told them about our family or they found out about us through a blog.  Amazing!  (Now please note, as "C" was putting the pins on the map, I didn't want to be anal and ask him to put the pin on the right city too!  I told him just put the pin anywhere on the state....otherwise, he would have had a cow!)

So for every $5 in your transaction (excluding shipping charges for products), the boys will take one pin and put your state on the map.  I wonder which state will end up dominating?  (okay, sorry.  I'm competitive at home especially with games....my family loves me anyway...smile)

Okay, my hometown, (Washington, DC and Maryland), please start representing before these other states take over...smile!  Yes, I know this is a serious thing that we're doing in terms of bringing our daughter home but I already told you that I'm a competitor at heart (my Facebook friends can tell you about my new obsession with Family Feud...thanks Delilah....ugh!!!)

If you'd like to help move us closer in our adoption journey, help my boys get better in geography, or if you just have a competitive spirit (smile), please consider donating here:

**International donations will all be pinned on the globe in the bottom right hand corner.

If you are able to donate $5 towards bringing baby girl home, please click here:

If you are able to donate more than $5 to bring baby girl home, you will be able to write in that amount by clicking here:

If you would prefer to send a check or money order to us, please feel free to send your check made payable to Michelle and Anthony McKinney to our PO Box address:

Michelle  & Anthony McKinney

P.O. Box 4965

Largo, MD  20775-4965

Many hugs and thanks to ya!

We're at 175 (out of 5000) sooo.....We Submitted Our USCIS I-600A!!!

Remember that I-600A form in the post over here, well guess what???  We mailed it along with the $830 fee that was due at the time of its submission!  This is huge.....I mean COLOSSAL!  Why?  I simply thought in that recent blog post that we would surely need several more weeks to save these funds.  Along with our saving even more aggressively, it was your generosity in donating $5 here and $10 there and purchasing necklaces that put us at that mark!  It's a amazing what we can do together when we stand with one another.  Simply amazing!

In that last post, I said that we were wrapping up saving for our passports.  I decided that since our passports weren't needed prior to the USCIS approval, that we would put that money towards the USCIS I-600A form and then work towards the passports.  I thought that would be wiser and I'm thrilled for that decision!

Thanks again for your generosity in giving to our family.  It is not a small thing to us.  You are helping to get us closer to being able to see our daughter for the first time.  I believe in our 5000 for 5 financial strategy in making this huge financial goal much more manageable.  We're cutting and saving where we can as a family but your hand in giving towards our adoption, speaks volume of LOVE to us.  Now, while we are waiting for approval from the US Government, we get to work on saving the $7700 towards our dossier!  Can you believe it?!?!  Remember the dossier is the large packet that will be sent to the Ethiopian government.  Once that's submitted, we play the waiting game for our little girl to be placed with our family!!!!  We're getting closer.

THANK YOU! We've moved up to 175 out of 5000!!!  

WOW, God!  Your love is so extravagant.

We Met Our Goal Earlier Thanks to You!!!

Remember that I-600A form in the post over here, well guess what???  We mailed it along with the $830 fee that was due at the time of its submission!  This is huge.....I mean COLOSSAL!  Why?  I simply thought in that recent blog post that we would surely need several more weeks to save these funds.  Along with our saving even more aggressively, it was your generosity in donating $5 here and $10 there and purchasing necklaces that put us at that mark!  It's a amazing what we can do together when we stand with one another.  Simply amazing!

In that last post, I said that we were wrapping up saving for our passports.  I decided that since our passports weren't needed prior to the USCIS approval, that we would put that money towards the USCIS I-600A form and then work towards the passports.  I thought that would be wiser and I'm thrilled for that decision!

Thanks again for your generosity in giving to our family.  It is not a small thing to us.  You are helping to get us closer to being able to see our daughter for the first time.  I believe in our 5000 for 5 financial strategy in making this huge financial goal much more manageable.  We're cutting and saving where we can as a family but your hand in giving towards our adoption, speaks volume of LOVE to us.  Now, while we are waiting for approval from the US Government, we get to work on saving the $7700 towards our dossier!  Can you believe it?!?!  Remember the dossier is the large packet that will be sent to the Ethiopian government.  Once that's submitted, we play the waiting game for our little girl to be placed with our family!!!!  We're getting closer.

THANK YOU!  God, you simply blow my mind!

We've Made Lots of Progress....

We've made tons of progress and I look forward to posting tomorrow about our new numbers.  I'm tallying things up and will have a GREAT number tomorrow!

Thank you so much for your generosity, care, and loving on our family!  You all are amazing.

Meet the Amaro Family: You'll Laugh, Smile & Cry

By now, you all know that I just adore finding out about families who are adopting, right?  Well, here's a family I discovered while digging deep in the recesses of the internet....(yes, I actually enjoy kicking back and enjoy researching adoption videos, documentaries and the such).  Upon my diggin', I found a family that is probably as cool and fun as the Whitakers! (Remember them from my blog post a little while back?)

Meet the Amaro Family:

The Amaros adopted little miss cutie, Violet, from Ethiopia.  They also have an adorable little boy named Daniel and trust me when you dive into their blog, you'll get lost for hours!

So let's take a sneak peak into their adoption journey via video to bring their Ethiopian princess, Violet, home:
Here's the song written and performed by Violet's parents, Fernando and Carrie...absolutely beautiful.  This song pretty much sums up every adoptive parents thoughts...(um Fernando & Carrie....think I may have to use this song...smile).  Grab your heart because this family's love will take you on an amazing ride.  Enjoy....

...and of course it's all good when 'big brother' Daniel is excited about his baby sister coming home soon....

....and finally they journey to meet Violet....

....and now they're headed back home, the plane lands and Violet gets to meets the FULLNESS OF FAMILY & FRIENDS anxiously awaiting her arrival at the airport....

...and finally, a family full of life and IN A HAPPY PLACE!....you'll see.  :-)

This is what I love about adoption....a family's love that binds them deeper than the blood that runs through their veins....now that's love and that's family!  I heart you Amaro family.

Check out their adoption blog at http://www.amarobaby.blogspot.com/
...and for lots of mommy moments, see http://www.allfordaniel.blogspot.com/

See Carrie's photography website and blog here:
http://www.carriefayphotography.com
http://www.carriefayphotography.blogspot.com

What did you think, aren't they the sweetest family?!?!?
 
Peace and love,

Adoption Myth#1: I Won't Love Him/Her Like My Own Biological Children

Based on my post from yesterday, I want to start talking about Adoption Myths.  Periodically, I'll share a myth and where the fear in that myth is grounded, then the truth of real life stories from families who are adopting/have adopted.  So let's take 'em one at a time and keep going.  So in no particular order.....

Myth #1:  I won't love him/her like my own biological children.

I totally get this.  I remember when I had our first son, "C", I honestly had a fear about would I/could I love another child as much as I love "C".  I mean I REALLY LOVED that boy so how in the world could I have even more love to share....but you know what I did and I can't explain how my heart was able to expand to give out more love....it just did.

While both of my boys in this example are my 'biological' children, I really believe something about the power of CHOOSING to love.  When we choose to love and I mean REALLY love, there is something powerful that happens in our heart because BIG LOVE and FEAR can in no way co-exist.  When you love someone in fear --whether its fear of rejection, disappointment, or whatever -- it's difficult to allow love to take you to a place that you can never imagine.

If you're married or have been in a relationship, think about your spouse.  They are NOT your blood.  You simply chose to take a RISK in loving that person and being vulnerable to that person.  How much do you love your spouse?  They're not your blood but you love him/her as you love yourself, right?  Why?  You CHOSE love. 

I love the story that Steven Curtis Chapman shares about his wife, Mary Beth, when she had doubts whether or not she could really love an adopted child the same way that she loves her biological children....and since that time, they've adopted multiple times.  Let's hear about it in Steven's words:



Let's talk about it.  What are you thinking?

$830.....our current focus!

So we've just about saved the money to have both of our passports processed...the stinky part was that we missed the deadline for the old price and will have to partake in the new price hike.  :-(

So what's next?  We're working really hard to save and sell items to pay for the submission of our I-600A form.  The total cost is $830.  What's the purpose of the I-600A form?

In order to adopt internationally, each family must be approved through USCIS (United States Citizenship Immigration Services).  The approval (I-171H/797C) allows families to bring a child born overseas into the United States and is a required step for a child to gain US Citizenship.

Yep, so that's our focus right now!  In the meantime to reach this goal, I'll continue to sell necklaces in our new adoption Etsy store (click here) and offer t-shirts through our link here.....AND as always, your straight-out donations are always warmly accepted (you guessed it you can click HERE for that...smile).

This is a lot of work but whoever said that love was easy?  But ya know what, the rewards of love totally outweigh the labor.

Much love!

I Dare You

I dare you to watch this and not be moved....

Honestly, what stands in the way of you saying YES?  Really, I want to know not because I want to get on my soapbox and criticize you.  I'm not interested in that.  I want to know so that I continue to be the voice for orphans.  If I know the reasons, as I become an advocate for better resources and information, it helps me to possibly move someone to change their NO to a maybe or their Maybe to a YES. 

• Is it the lack of financing the adoption?
• Is it that you'd like to get better financially stable?
• Is it your age?
• Is it because you're single?
• Is it you're afraid of what your family and friends will think?
• Is it you're afraid of the unknown of what the child will be like?
• Are there other reasons?

And because I believe ultimately, every single person may truly be in a position not to adopt, I want to take this further.  What do you think stands in the way of you becoming an advocate for better family support so that children won't have to be relinquished?  Or, what stands in your way of supporting credible agencies who support and care for orphans in your country or abroad?  Or, what stands in your way of supporting families who can potentially say yes.....did you know $1, $5, $20, $100 and on and on makes a big difference in becoming a partner with a family?

Please tell me.  I want to know.  Even if you'd like to reply anonymously, I want to know BUT please keep it clean and friendly here.  (Please don't use all caps --aka screaming-- or attack anyone verbally here or it will be deleted.)  Please share this blog post via twitter, facebook, e-mail, or heck even Paul Revere (smile).  I'd just like to find out from anyone that will answer, what keeps you from adopting so that I can keep advocating.

Thanks so much!

We're Open for Business!!!

I am soooooooo thrilled to announce that our Etsy shop is now open for business!!!  Woo hoo!  Right now, it features our one-of-a-kind adoption necklaces but my mind will be racing adding additional items so please be sure to check us out and don't keep it to yourself.  Pass this word!  Thanks much!

Click here to visit our store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LifeABitSweeter

Childhood Games....what did you play???

Growing up, I remember lots of games that we played in the yard to pass time away.  Do you remember any of these:  Shake it Senorita, Red Light/Green Light, Simon Says, or hand clapping games like Miss Mary Mack?  Whatever your game of choice back then, I often now think that it is such a tragedy that our children miss out on this backyard creativity and fun because of the replacement of video games and electronics.  So when I saw this fun-filled game with Ethiopian children entertaining one another and the flecks of joys in their eyes and smiles as they sang in unison, my heart was captivated.  Take a look....



What about you?  What games stole your heart as a child that you absolutely loved playing with your family or friends?

(Double dutch image/greeting card available for purchase at this artist's website:  http://www.zazzle.com.au/double_dutch_card-137205208947887382)

Speed Limit 55....say what?!?!

Speed limit 55???  Yeah, right!  My friends and I are zooming right past that marker!  I'm thrilled to announce that we're moving up on our thermometer again!  Yesterday we were at 51....well today, ladies and gents, because you're trying to help us bring our daughter home....as I type this we are at number 59!!!  Yep, I'm collecting all that change in between our couch, curbing our daily spending, and relishing in your generosity!

Since we've started our 5000 for 5 savings campaign, a big thanks to our friends in the following cities for their donations.  They're putting us on the map!  Woo hoo! 5000 here we come!

Plant City, FL

Marion, IA

Blanchard, TX

....and I've heard from a little birdie that a precious family will be pledging a monthly amount towards our goal.  WOW!

If you'd like to help move us one or more steps closer, please consider donating here:

If you are able to donate $5 towards bringing baby girl home, please click here:

If you are able to donate more than $5 to bring baby girl home, you will be able to write in that amount by clicking here:

If you would prefer to send a check or money order to us, please feel free to send your check made payable to Michelle and Anthony McKinney to our PO Box address:

Michelle & Anthony McKinney

P.O. Box 4965

Largo, MD  20775-4965

Many hugs and thanks to ya!

Lifesong for Orphans: Helping the Widow & the Orphan

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after 

orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27

Since Rick Warren came out with the book The Purpose Driven Life, I think many of us have become familiar with the phrase - it's not about me.  With our adoption journey, of course it's important to know that this is no different.  As we continue to raise funds for our adoption, I'm really excited about the paperwork that I dropped off at the Post Office today.  All weekend, I've been working on an application to Lifesong for Orphan's Both Hands project.  The application process was pretty intense but so worth it.  It takes about 6-8 weeks for the application to be considered so we'll wait and see if this is the direction that God would have us go.  If I had my choice, I'm hoping for a YES, YES, YES!

The awesome thing about the Both Hands project is that it not only benefits our family's adoption but it also benefits a widow.  Take a look at this amazing project and please pray with us that we'll be added to the list of amazing families that can take a part of something so remarkable.

So long 12......HELLO 51!!!

Normally most people celebrate as they do a countdown....well in our adoption journey we CELEBRATE when we do a countUP!  Check out why....

http://5000for5.blogspot.com/2010/07/51what-beautiful-number.html

51......What A Beautiful Number!

When we started this blog to chronicle our financial journey of meeting the costs of our adoption, we were at #12 (that is $5 x 12 =$60)...of course, this was on top of the $5249 that we had already saved towards adoption costs.  Well our thermometer over on the left hand side has been steadily moving up and we are at....

Might not sound like much but to me that means that instead of 5000 steps away, we are now 4949 steps away from our baby girl!  Now that's something to celebrate!

If you'd like to help move us one or more steps closer, please consider donating here:

If you are able to donate $5 towards bringing baby girl home, please click here:

If you are able to donate more than $5 to bring baby girl home, you will be able to write in that amount by clicking here:

If you would prefer to send a check or money order to us, please feel free to send your check made payable to Michelle and Anthony McKinney to our PO Box address:

Michelle & Anthony McKinney

P.O. Box 4965

Largo, MD  20775-4965

Many hugs and thanks to ya!

A Friend's Cool T-Shirt Giveaway

Not too long ago, I shared with you my fondness for t-shirts from adopting families.  The one challenge I sometimes have is the cut because my frame is smaller so boxy t-shirts tend to swallow me so I sometimes have to do a little bit of alterations to make them work....(boo hoo......I know what a problem to have yet guess what I'm really self-conscious about that....ya know, my own worst enemy)......well anyway....enter the Marquez family.  My friend Debb, just announced that their t-shirts are coming and they are doing a giveaway.

Please check out their blog because the shirts are simply AMAZING...beautiful vibrant colors and they offer a WOMEN'S FITTED TEE!!!!  Well it gets no better than that.  There are a couple of ways you can win but by all means, please stop over and let her know that you found her giveaway through our blog.

http://marquezfamilyjourney.blogspot.com/2010/07/t-shirt-giveaway.html

Thanks for checking out a great adopting family.

Many hugs to you and yours tonight!

Here's the Big News and the BIG REVEAL....

The Big Announcement from LifeABitSweeter on Vimeo.


(sorry for the blurry video...I'll switch equipment if I decide to do another video post again....bear with me! )

Head on over to our blog spin-off....  www.5000for5.blogspot.com

Welcome to 5000 for 5...a spin-off of A Life A Bit Sweeter

Thanks for stopping by!  So in case you didn't get a chance to watch the video with our announcements, I'll share them here:

1. Our medical reports are complete and in order and have been APPROVED by our adoption agency (in terms of being complete).
2. Our homestudy has been FINALIZED!!!!  That is huge news!  We are now ready to move on to the next step of obtaining United States Government approval!  Woo hoo!!!!

All of this means that we now have to really start moving aggressively with saving the remainder of the funds needed to finance our adoption costs which includes our travel to Ethiopia twice -- ($25,000).

The purpose of this blog spin-off (jump off from www.lifeabitsweeter.blogspot.com) is to share the specifics of how we are doing in continuing to save to finance our adoption.  It's also an excellent opportunity for individuals like you to consider donating towards our adoption until we reach our savings/funding goal of 5000 transactions for $5 each (our way of breaking this huge goal up into smaller bite-size chunks so that we don't get overwhelmed).  To learn more about how easy it is to donate, click here.

Take a look through the posts and tabs/pages in this blog site.  You'll find information from our bio to why we are adopting internationally and even information about Ethiopia.

Thanks for following along in this journey and we hope to see you over here at this new blog that focuses on our financial progress and at our original blog (www.lifeabitsweeter.blogspot.com) to follow our day-to-day journey.

BIG THANKS to Becky over at http://www.adoptafrica.blogspot.com/ for working with me in designing this blog.  Becky is designing blogs to benefit her adoption so be sure to go over to her website and check her out!

Thanks for reading!

Tell Us About You

We've introduced ourselves over here, now tell us a little about you and what you're up to!

(Share who you are in the comments section below...)

Something new is coming.....I can't wait to share!

Something New is Coming.....stay tuned. from LifeABitSweeter on Vimeo.

Can you guess what it is?

Brotherly Love...and a little competition

One of the great things about our boys is that they truly love one another and are great friends, yet they are fiercely competitive with one another in the sports arena.

Exhibit A:

Every day without fail, no matter how tired Tony is after work and on the weekends, he and the boys are either in our game room or outside patio doing b-ball drills, a game of horse, or some other competitive game.  Well, last night, I told the boys I would come downstairs in the game room with them and daddy during last night's competition.  "C" asked me to be a judge but ya know, no mom ever wants to judge the performance of her two children up against each other so I bowed out gracefully from that role.  He piped right back up and asked me to be a cheerleader....now that I can do.  So with camera in hand, I ran downstairs to capture what would be the night's "Dunking Contest"....and man was it fun.....take a peek:


Boys Slam Dunk Clipped Video-Desktop from LifeABitSweeter on Vimeo.

While I enjoyed my lone role as the cheerleader, I can't wait until maybe next year this time when our little girl arrives and we'll both sit together on the sidelines cheering the fellas on....maybe we'll even dress up! fun!

Now while the Dunking Contest brought me tons of laughs, it's moments like the one here in EXHIBIT B that make me laugh but ultimately melt my heart.  For the 4th of July weekend, we went to Alabama to Tony's Family Reunion.  We had a ball!  To conclude the event, my father-in-law and his brother hired a fireman to set-off fireworks at 9pm over the acres of land that they inherited from their parents.  Now the history of "C" and "MJ" is that while they like the 'look' of the fireworks, they have always hated loud noises.  Now I'm thinking, fireworks over a house, this is going to scare the daylights out of the boys.  But, of course, the boys wanted to be tough guys and told their dad that they weren't afraid of the noise and would watch the fireworks.  Well....they started off on the back porch swing but as soon as things really got going with the fireworks, they ended up inside the house in a back bedroom with my iPhone to record the fireworks.  Let's just say, they weren't recording the fireworks for the purpose of 'sharing in the beauty of the event'...they recorded the fireworks to prove to their dad that they did in fact 'watch' the fireworks as they promised they would....LOL....listen carefully.

Boys Watching Fireworks Inside House-Desktop from LifeABitSweeter on Vimeo.

Love them boys!  It will be interesting to see what a girl throws into the mix.

More Needles.....please pray!

We have been so back and forth with our medical reports.  I can't begin to tell you how many times we've had to go back to the doctor since our initial visit to chase down papers, get stuck with needles, or pee in a cup (yes, I said it...smile).  Our doctor has been great though because I know this amount of detail is so new to her but she and her assistant have been real troopers.  This morning, we need to go back to the lab because our blood work was mixed up.  Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, this is the last piece.  PLEASE PRAY that we do not experience any complications with this last piece of lab work.  Please pray for our health. 

We'll keep ya updated!  Even with this little mountain to climb, we're so excited for progress.  It just means we're one step closer to our daughter.

An Interview about Our Adoption Process....what a blessing!!!

Recently, I had the privilege of being invited to speak on the topic of adoption on our church's daily prayer line. Minister Katana Dixon-Simmons, one of the hosts of the daily prayer call, asked if I could dial into the call on the day before Father's Day to talk about adoption. Katana is a bit of a visionary and has a great heart for people and has an amazing prayer life. Every SINGLE morning at 6am, our prayer team and others fellowship together through a devotion, praise reports, and prayer requests. It's open to anyone, in fact, there are some callers on the line who are not members or attenders of Zion Church.

Take a listen at our dialogue (sorry I had to cut it short because of the limited space available to upload the audio file). You may need to turn down your speaker volume just a little in the beginning but then you can turn it back up as the discussion progresses. Thanks!

During that call and afterwards, it's been wonderful to find out about others who feel God is stirring their hearts for orphans and adoption.

If you were wondering about how to connect with Zion Church's prayer line one morning (and it's totally anonymous in that you do not have to talk), at 6am daily, feel free to call:
(712)432-0175
Access code is 719479#

If that's a bit too early for you, you can listen to that day's recorded message anytime by dialing:
(712)432-0179
Access code is 719479#.

(Please note that long distance charges may apply...I use my cell phone plan since it's free long distance.)