Fundraiser for sweet baby Brynn in China!

One of my teammates is adopting a baby and will be bringing her home from China at the end of the year sometime.  Below is a post from her blog that gives each of us an opportunity to support them in bringing Brynn home.  You can check out how cute Brynn is and the story of her adoption here.

Did you know there are hundreds of millions of children worldwide who have lost one or both parents.

Every 14 seconds an AIDS death leaves another child orphaned.

Approximately 88 million orphans live in Asia.

Approximately 45 million orphans live in Africa.

Approximately 14 million orphans live in Latin America & the Caribbean.

Approximately 1 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe

More than 800,000 children pass through America’s foster care system each year.

These statistics do not even include the UNKNOWN children living orphaned both here and abroad that go uncounted, unnoticed and unloved.

Quoted from the girls at 147millionOrphans

In a few short months there will be ONE LESS orphan!  

 Brynn Olivia Ai Xin will be a daughter and sister, she will be the loved member of a family.

Please join with us in our first fundraiser to help bring Brynn home!

All of the proceeds will be going towards our "mandatory orphanage donation fee".  The week before we leave to get Brynn, we are required to wire $6,000 to the Pingdingshan City Social Welfare Institute.  This money is required and will go towards Brynn's past care expenses and towards the babies who remain behind.

Fundraiser Details

We were selected to be a part of the Hip Mom Jewelry Adoption Fundraiser.

Click here to order your necklace today!

You have to enter our family code MCINTIRE10 for us to receive the credit.

The code needs to go in the area that says "discount coupon". It will take $1 off the order and then you will know it worked. You can also put it in the comments section.

Please help us spread the word by posting this information on your blogs and facebook pages, forward it to your email list, and tell all your friends!  We are praying that God will use this fundraiser to help us bring Brynn home!

http://hipmomjewelry.com/    The fundraiser only applys to necklaces ordered under the Adoption link.

Back to the Grind and catchup

Today was my first day back and surprisingly getting up at 6:20 am was not too difficult.  I can attribute that to my wonderful children who have kept me on schedule ALL summer long though.  It was a good day back and fun to see all my co-workers.

Today, I finally found a new dance studio for Caitlyn.  We have been fortunate to have a dance teacher come to the daycare during the day and teach her but now that she is going to Kindergarten we have to find another place.  I had no idea how hard it would be to find an open spot at a good time in a good area that I wouldn't have to drive all over town for!  Today I finally found it!!  She will dance 45 minutes every Monday.  Now we have to buy new shoes (ballet and tap) and I'm sure she has out grown her tights too.  She keeps getting soooo tall.

Our precious Sadie (chocolate female lab puppy) is home now and doing so good.  Brent keeps saying, "She's adorable."  We have started feeling her teeth more and Brent is a big fan of that though.  It is cute to see Sadie attacking Brent because I know she isn't hurting him.  He is laughing so hard, not sure if he likes it or not.  She is breaking us in good with all her puppy accidents!  Caitlyn keeps bringing her toys from her room and saying that she doesn't like them anymore and Sadie can have it.  She is so sweet!

Caitlyn and I have been reading a chapter book together, Ramona and Beezus.  It brings me so much joy to know that she can comprehend and finds enjoyment in reading.

Caitlyn lost her tooth.  My baby!  She is 5-1/2.  I can't believe it.  I will have to tell more about it because what she wants to do with her tooth fairy money is a post in itself!

Sadie's Charming Fate

We brought our new puppy home yesterday at 7 weeks.  We are so excited because she is the cutest, spunkiest little thing.  She was born on June 27th and is chocolate.

Sadie was the first pick of the litter

Her name is special.  On AKC papers a dog must has 3 names (Sadie's Charming Fate).  One of Jeff's best friends growing up had a yellow lab named Sadie and he learned a lot about training and hunting dogs from Scott and Sadie.  Sadie and Chauncey (our first lab) got to hunt together too.

Her middle name Charming, was in Chauncey's full name Sir Charming Chauncey.  Fate is important too but I won't make it public on this blog.

Every time she kisses Brent it is the cutest thing because he says, Momma she sdoes (love)s me. Caitlyn was determined to call the puppy Chauncey when we brought her home, but she has forgotten and become completely smitten with the new puppy.

This is night we picked her out

Our first night went surprising well, she slept until 6 am until she started whining like crazy.  Whew, I forgot about that!!   I just got to clean up her first accident and she is running around like a spaz, but did I mention she was super cute?

Good, real good

I always look forward to the summer because I desperately need a break and I long to spend uninterrupted time with my children.   But the adjustment period at the beginning of the summer is always so tough. 

It always takes us about 2-3 weeks to work out all the kinks and get used to being around each other 24/7 again and throw in a couple vacations and that gets us into July. Now out of nowhere they've called me up and tell me I have to be at school in one week.  What's up with this?  I just got my act together, we are in the best groove and I'm loving this life. 

We have gone to the water park almost each Thursday, to a secluded neat park in the early (for me) morning hours, eaten lunch with dad, played and shopped with our neighbors everyday, had picnics in my classroom, played choo-choo trains, dressed up, read chapter books, played Barbies, tossed footballs, rode bikes, swam and swam and swam some more.  It has been the absolute best summer. 

This summer we have finally potty trained Brent and Caitlyn has her first loose tooth.  Jeff has taken both kids to the deer lease TWICE by himself!  And they will go back again during hunting season!!  This is all big stuff baby!

When I first held my Caitlyn and Brent I fell in love and I just couldn't imagine that each day I would fall in love more and more.  It just keeps getting more and more fun.  WOW!

It is sad to see this summer come to a close but it has been good, real good!