April Birthdays - Part 1

This April we had 2 special Birthdays! Our sweet Owen turned 3 and my Hubby turned.... (well he had a birthday ;) )  It was easy to choose a birthday theme for our Owen... RACE CARS! Every single day he plays with his cars. They go shooting across our floor constantly, he sleeps with them, and takes them everywhere! 

So the planning began, the pins were pinned, and supplies were gathered (mostly last minute, and thank you to the friends who came through in the crunch! lol)

This is the pic we used for Owen's invite :) Did I mention he LOVES cars? 

Then on to the party decor and most importantly food!!!!

The Race Car cupcakes were gone fast..... 

Fuel was on hand....

Tools were standing by....

And enough food for a small army :) ...

We had a "drive in" that was showing Cars and serving hot popcorn...

The kids ran and raced all over...

Presents were opened.....

And all were happy!!!!

It was a fun party full of crazy kids (thanks to the sugar), wonderful friends, and lots of LOVE!  

We can't believe our little man is 3, but he is sure happy about it, and tells everyone we see that "He is 3!"

As if I haven't posted enough pictures on this post I also wanted to include the outdoor track we made Owen for his present from us - 

It will be a nice edition to our summer days outside! 

So that about wraps it up for our little man and His 3rd birthday!!! 

I'll be posting some daddy birthday pics next and also an Adoption update!

As Always - Prayers and Blessings, Dawn

tis life...

Of course as soon as I decide to be a more dedicated blogger life gets away from me! I really feel like "life happened to me" last week.

I was thinking about the phrase "Life Happens" and thought - I really don't want to live just letting life happen, I want to "happen to life"

I don't want to be in control of life, I want the Lord to be in control. But I don't want to be a back seat passenger. I want to see the road the Lord has for us and rev up our engine and race after His good plans! I want to start our Monday excited about the week, excited for what God has in store, and excited how God will use us!

After feeling like I was a back seat passenger in my life last week just getting slung along for the ride I did some thinking of how to have a better week and guard our life from silly "busyness"

To achieve that, here are some things I am making sure to do to keep our days open to the Lord and not overwhelmed by the "world"

- I made sure we started the week with a clean house, clean laundry, and food in the fridge (for us when these things are taken care of then I don't get bogged down with them throughout the week)

- I double checked our schedule to make sure we weren't double or over booked anywhere!

- I am working to keep my to do list to a minimum (honestly do I need to have an ever growing list?)

- I am sitting and playing with the kids (sounds silly but often my to do list trumps my kid time - sounds crazy as a stay at home mom but lets be honest. so this week kids trump to do list! really that is how it should always be right?) our kids would much rather me play tea party, race cars, and puzzles then make them something cute for their room, or even do their laundry (there will be time for that later)

All that said... Its Monday night, I am about to head to bed and I feel excited for the rest of the week. Excited how God is blessing us, excited how God will bless these days, and excited for what is around the corner and right in front of my face!!!!

So this week - MAKE LIFE HAPPEN!!!!

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

I Know Nothing!!!!!!!!!!!

I really enjoy blogging.
I know that I'm not that good at it.
I don't have great grammar "skills" (thank you high school English teacher).
I know that the "insightful" things I write may be elementary.
I even realize that not many may even be reading.

But...

I do LOVE the Lord and love sharing what He is doing in my/our life!
I love showing you cute pics of our kids!
I love sharing about our adoption and other family adventures.
And I love documenting what is happening in my heart and home.

So...

If something intrigues you on this blog, talk to the Lord about it, see what He says :)
If something annoys you or puts you off, offer Grace :)
If you Love (or even like) something I write feel free to share our blog.

In Closing...

I hope you continue to read.
I hope you learn more about our family and our life through this blog
And most of all I hope this blog screams God's Love, Mercy and Grace!!!

Blessings and Prayers - Dawn

WAIT... just because I really love Francis Chan, check out this video. 

Impromptu Fundraiser!

Today I got an unexpected message from a family member, she said "hey I'm doing a little fundraiser for your adoption!" I about cried when I read that message! The blessing of someone wanting to help us with our adoption gets me every time. From people buying t shirts, donating towards our auction, donating money, and offering prayer. It is overwhelming to us (in a good way).  We can't wait for the day when we are helping others (family, friends, and strangers) with their adoption journey!

We have been praying these last 2 weeks for God to show us some ways to raise funds for our next fee payment. Like I posted before we have about a $7,000 payment coming up soon for our Dossier and other program fees. We are working on filing for grants, have a little garage sale planned, and using the funds from our Home Business and Crafted in Grace towards this as well!  So to be in the middle of prayer for this very thing and get an unexpected message was/is wonderful!

All that being said let me tell you about the quick little fundraiser and how you can participate (if you wish).

Our sweet family member Jennifer had a trunk show with the Noonday Collection, and the party will be open as an online catalog party until April 8th.  The products themselves already benefit a wonderful cause, you can read more about that here. Along with the wonderful cause is a way to have a portion donated to our adoption! Sounds like a win-win-win to me :)  So here are the simple instructions -

1- Go to this site - http://www.keriwalker.noondaycollection.com/

2 - At the checkout, choose Keri Walker in the drop down menu as your Ambassador

3 - and at the very bottom of checkout, where it says "Trunk Show" please write (in order to earn the 10% for the adoption, it has to have this important, exact detail) :  Jennifer Downs

So there you have it, easy enough! Please make sure to follow the instructions so that everything works out! If you have any questions just comment or email me - dawn_prather@yahoo.com

I went to the site to pick out some of my favorite things and had a hard time choosing. Here are a few (well more then a few) of my favorites!

I think these products are beautiful!

As always you can like our facebook page to follow our adoption journey beyond this blog.

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

Pray for Who?

Over the next few weeks I hope to blog more. I have  A LOT stirring in my heart and on my mind that I would love to share with you. Whether one of you or a hundred of you are reading, my prayer is that something that is stirring in me, may also be stirring in you and the words (while often messy) that are typed here will bring common ground. Common ground to pray, to take action, to understand more together!

At the beginning of this year I felt the Lord say that this would be a year of Education. A year of education for myself, my children, and my family. And man has it been crazy and overwhelming in just the first few months. God has thrown a wide variety of subjects at me:

* fully worshiping Him
* joy in marriage (long standing)
* adoption crisis
* africa
* home school
* government (corruption and greed?)
* food (the good/bad/and ugly)
* wealth (and what God says)
* charismatic spiritual gifts (baptism in the holy spirit?)
* trafficking
* and more coming all the time...

So surely some of you will relate to wanting to know more, or feeling called to know more about one of those subjects??? I sure hope so because I plan to take some time to blog about each of them, and more as God drops them in my life as the days go on. My hope is that in writing out my thoughts on this journey so far, I can move forward, and see what God has for me beyond knowledge in these areas. And also I hope that I can touch something in some of you to do the same!

Today I want to briefly write/share on TRAFFICKING!
Here are a few facts -

*An estimated 2 million children (most of them girls) are sexually exploited in this industry

*Two children are sold into slavery every two minutes somewhere in the world. In the United states 1 out of 3 children who are kicked out or run away from home to escape the horror of sexual molestation or other abuse are forced into sexual slavery within 48 hours.

*50-60 percent of the trafficked children are under the age of 16

*An estimated $9.5 billion is generated in annual revenue from all trafficking activities, with at least 4 billion from the brothel industry.

*There are more "slaves" with-in the trafficking world today then "slaves" in any other time of our history.

These are just a few of the horrific facts about trafficking. This is another good document with more trafficking knowledge.

So why am I writing about this? I actually don't feel that it is "my" calling to go after this ministry. I do have some wonderful friends who have a strong heart for this ministry. One has a blog HERE that you can check out. But regardless if this is my area of ministry, I do know God calls us to care about these issues, to PRAY for these issues, and to DO something !!!  I have a few links at the bottom where you can find ways you can support some trafficking ministries.

Today though I am going to ask you to PRAY and to pray for some very specific things -

1- to pray for the innocent girls, the ones who have been trafficked and are stuck in this environment  and the ones that are in danger of being trafficked. Pray for their protection, and that they would have an encounter with the Holy God who loves them so dearly. 

2 - Pray for those who are working hard in this area of ministry. That God would open doors, pour out favor, and give supernatural powers to make changes in this area. 

3 - This is a prayer request that is deeply on my heart - And that is to pray for the "pimps and the john's".  I know some of you may be repulsed by these men that are bringing these girls into trafficking, and even worse purchasing these girls for sexual acts, but ... these are lost souls too... lost souls that can only be transformed with an encounter with our Lord and Savior.  Here is my thought - if we can save a girl from trafficking then that is wonderful, we have saved a girl and changed her life.  The unfortunate fact is that she will probably quickly be replaced by another girl. Not much skin of the "pimp's" back.  But if we can transform the heart and life of a "pimp or john" then there is a potential to save 100's of girls. If there is no "demand", then there is no need for a "supply". So if you are thinking PRAY FOR WHO? I urge you to really join me in praying for these lost souls.

It is an awkward feeling of compassion that I have for these "pimps and john's" as I have been a victim of abuse. A form of compassion that can only be explained as something from the Lord. But I do feel very strongly that this is a piece of the puzzle in this ministry that is missing. We must reach these (mostly) men, they must be transformed and this awful world of trafficking MUST STOP!!!

Please join me in prayer for these 3 specific things!

Check out the links below for just a few ways to support a Trafficking Ministry!

END IT NOW
A21 CAMPAIGN
TRAFFICK911
31 BITS
PARTNERS FOR JUST TRADE
CALL AND RESPONSE

And feel free to comment with more trafficking ministry options that you know of!

I will post later about the world of trafficking that is not related to brothel's. I will feature some great ways to buy "Fair Trade" and find out what grocery store products may use trafficked children as employees!

Prayers and Blessings Friends - Dawn