Guest Post

Hey Everyone - it has been a busy week getting back home and having a fun guest (more to come on all that) but in between it all I was asked to do a fun mommy interview for a local mommy blogger! She has started a great blog from mommies in our area to connect and be aware of family friendly stuff happening in our area! Check out her blog and my guest post, and if you live in the area you should follow her blog! Fun stuff I tell ya ;)

http://www.mommiesofthevalley.com/2012/05/21/483/

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

little garden

We have our fist little (I do mean little) garden, actually a "deck garden".  As a family we would love to be eating all organic, farm raised meat/dairy, etc etc.. And it would be really nice if we could grow fruits and veggies that we knew how they grew and could walk out on the deck to get some yummy stuff for dinner!! BUT in the mean time we are making baby steps with our little potted plants!

I am pretty sure this is where we will spend the majority of our summer evenings! We eat dinner out here when we can and can't wait to have some friends over to enjoy the deck and the view with!

So since we don't have much room we researched what would grow well in buckets.

We have planted - onions, peppers, cherry tomatoes, spinach, snap peas, strawberries, and herbs.

believe it or not they are growing!!!

We are also using our fun Nutriplant on our plants - which is basically vitamins/probiotics for your plants. We are excited to experience the good effects that this wonderful product will have on our plants. If you would like more info on this for your garden or farm please email us!

And really ... we can't complain about the view!!!

I'll keep you posted on our little garden and summer deck adventures! What do you like to do in the summer?

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

My sister's "new" room!

I recently took a trip with our kiddos back to the Midwest to visit family and friends. We enjoyed a lot of adventures (more to come on that soon) - but one thing I did while visiting was fixing up my little sister's room. She had been wanting to move her room from upstairs to down stairs where she could have more space, her own bathroom, and a walk in closet. So that's what we did! 

My mom wasn't too sure about the colors when we suggested this, but she was happy with the results. My sister worked hard and painted her little life away with me for two days!

I think she was very happy with the results (my mom and sister)!

This was the finished product of her room!

and then her own bathroom -

and lastly... every girls' dream - 

A personal dressing room! 

with a couch and all!!!!

Overall it was a fun project to help with and hope my sister enjoys her new space.

More blogging on our cross country adventure soon!

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

On the road again...

This has been a familiar face over the last week and a half! We have been traveling through the midwest visiting family and friends. The kids have done amazing driving all over the country, watching movies, snacking, looking at the scenery, and sleeping!  I am very thankful for adaptable kids who are tolerant of my crazy adventures! We are having  a great trip and have just a few days left before we head home. The time has been great and spent seeing everyone that we don't get to see often now that we live in VA, But I am so ready to be home and with my other half. It reminds me of college again and enduring the long distance relationship before we could reunite again! So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we head back East in the next few days! And if we didn't get to see you on this trip we hope to catch up with you next time!!!! 

Love and Prayers - and Happy Mother's Day
Dawn

Hope T-shirts

Friends and Family -

Well we are diving in with both feet and starting our adoption fundraising! Our goal is to raise $10,000 for our adoption (overall cost estimated to be $25,000) and $10,000 to donate to an African orphanage.  One way we are fundraising is by selling t shirts. We decided to start with these fun shirts, for not just adoption fundraiser but for adoption awareness.

The front of the shirt says "4 million minus 1" because we are adopting from Ethiopia and there are 4 million orphans located in just Ethiopia alone. And while one less may not seem like a lot, it takes caring for one at a time!

Lastly we wanted to include this verse - "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.  John 14:18" 

T shirts can be purchased by emailing us at dawn_prather@yahoo.com. Shirts are $12 for adult sizes and $10 for youth shirts. There is a $2 shipping fee for anyone outside the Harrisionburg VA, California MO, and Jefferson City MO areas. We accept Check, Cash, and Pay Pal payment forms. Please include an address, sizes, quantities, and payment plans in your email. 

If you were to feel led to give a donation to our adoption there is a tax deductible form through America World Adoption Agency. You can follow this link https://www.awaa.org/forms/payment.aspx click the donation tab and put our full name in the notes.

We are excited for the child God has for us and thank you for going on this journey with us.  We know it will be a long road and are thankful to have all of you to go on the journey with us!

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

One more step....

These were the words we were so ready to hear and we heard (read) them yesterday!

Dear Todd & Dawn ~

Congratulations on your acceptance into the Ethiopia program!

It was strange yesterday because I was feeling anxious all day hoping that we would hear from the agency. I kept checking my email throughout the day and we received their email at 5:30pm! I feel like this is how the whole process will be - get stuff done and then hurry up and WAIT! 

So now we have PILES of paperwork to fill out, be assigned a social worker to start our home study, and take some informative classes! We are looking forward to all these steps but also know it will continue to be a "hurry up and wait" experience for the next 18-24 months! Please pray for us that we will have wisdom as we move forward in all things and God will keep us wrapped in his love as we work on our patience (well mostly my patience.. lol)

Lastly I do have a favor from all of you reading.... I really need some feedback from all of you. We have been praying about doing some fundraising for our adoption. Our adoption is estimated to be about $25,000 from start to finish. We are aware of some tax write offs at the end of the process (about $10,000) and will be able to get some help from Todd's work since they are adoption advocates ($5,000 per adoption). Which leaves us $10,000 to come up with. I don't know about you all but $10,000 is a lot for us! Plus we hope that this will be one of several adoptions we complete.  We know that God will provide which is why we have stepped out in the process without an extra $10,000 in the bank, but with all that said - we are considering fundraising with the idea that our Christian brother's and sisters will come together with us in prayer and support to bring orphans to a loving family. BUT - we worry that this could be "sticky" that while we have heard from many adoptive parents that their fundraising experiences were received well, we have also hear from a few that it was not received so well :(  So what all do you think? Our fundraising ideas include:

* A t shirt sale that will not just be specific to our adoption but to raise adoption awareness in general

* A 5k and/or a golf tournament. We have thought that these events could be where a portion of the proceeds go to our adoption and a portion to an orphanage.

So that's what on our heart - excitement - and planning for the next steps!!  We look forward to hearing your thoughts as well as going through this journey with all of you!!!!! 

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to  you" John 14:18

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn