Sunshine's party and a plea for Alea

When thinking about celebrating Sunshine's 2nd birthday - her first one home with us, we wanted to make it really special with a small Chinese-themed party.  We were so honored that our family and close friends wanted to celebrate with us and suggested that instead of gifts, they consider a monetary donation to help orphans, or a donation of items to be mailed to her orphanage for the children left behind.  We were so blessed by everyone's generosity.  Not only did we collect several awesome bags filled with socks, blankets, coloring books, crayons, markers, play-doh, bubbles, puzzles and more, we also raised $405!  Are our family and friends not totally amazing?!?  What a fantastic, spectacular, terrific way to celebrate Sunshine's first birthday home with us ... giving back to the beautiful orphans left behind in the country she came to us from!

I have to admit, we didn't know exactly where the monetary donation would go in China.  We wanted to wait until we knew the amount, and then decide what the best course would be.  We do the majority of our charitable giving in China through Love Without Boundaries and I had kind of assumed that the donations would filter through their awesome organization.  But I knew that no matter how the $405 made its way to China, God would get it to the place it needed to be most urgently.  And boy did He!

Last night, I clicked on Kelly's most recent blog post ... and I met this gorgeous baby girl:

Meet Alea.  She was born in China on September 28, 2011 and arrived at New Day Foster Home on February 22, 2012.  She was born with biliary atresia and needs a liver transplant to survive.  Like now.  Apparently organ transplants are so rare in China that they basically don't happen.  At all.  They are also really expensive.  $65,000 expensive.  So, New Day needs help.  First they need PRAYER for Alea, that a liver donor is found soon and that she stays strong.  And then, well they need financial help to make this surgery happen.

When we read about their Red Envelope Fundraiser for Alea, we knew exactly where the $405 from Sunshine's birthday was going.  Envelope #405.  See, I knew God would use these donations in the most needed way possible!  We are so honored to be a part of Alea's story.  And I know our family and friends that helped to make this donation possible will be thrilled to be a part of it too.

Will you also please, please, please consider popping over to the Hope for Alea website?  And after you read about Alea's zeal for life and the fundraiser to save her life, pray about helping this precious little treasure financially.  ANY amount is helpful - if all 500 envelopes are spoken for, Alea's liver transplant will be fully funded.  Fully funded, friends.  Our God CAN make this happen.  But He needs us - you and me - to be his hands and feet for it to be possible.  NO amount is too small!  Please give this baby girl a chance at life!

And if you truly cannot help financially but still want to help, PRAY and pass on the information about the fundraiser.  Not only will doing that get this out to other people, you'll also get a chance to win a cool Wild Olive tee!

Thank you so much for your consideration in helping this precious child of God, and for your PRAYER!

Been waiting for this day!

Yes it's true.  I have, in fact, been waiting for this day for about a year.  It's the day that we could celebrate a birthday WITH Sunshine instead of FOR her.  You may remember the hysterics of an attempted group picture last year for her first birthday?  Man looking back at those pictures brings back a flood of memories and different feelings!

Although her "technical" birthday is still a week away, we celebrated her 2nd birthday Chinese-style on Saturday - complete with fruit-topped cake and yummy Chinese food!  Sunshine wasn't nearly as thrilled about the cake as everyone else was though.  I predicted she wouldn't want to dig in because of her disdain for being dirty, but I truly believe a cake smash is a rite of passage that all little ones must endure, um I mean, have the pleasure of experiencing :-)  She ate a few pieces of the fruit off and then was up and on her merry way, despite Angel's and Daddy's best attempts otherwise.

It was quite funny to see Sunshine taking everything in ... although she obviously knew we had family and some friends over to our home, she had no idea they were there for HER.  Watching her watch the cake and everyone staring and singing at her was priceless.  Totally clueless!

Of all things at the party, I think Sunshine enjoyed her balloon art the most (more on that in another post - Stanley the Magician was a HUGE hit with the kids AND adults!).  But she also enjoyed all the attention too, a major first for her!  What a change we witnessed on Saturday, compared to any other parties or functions we've hosted OR been to.  Sunshine was up in the mix with everyone and interacted with friends she never would have in the past.  It was quite a transformation, amazing what (almost) a year home will do!  She was passed around from family member to friend, back to family member, back to friend again ... the whole day!  Many different people fed her off their plates, although she was especially fond of Melissa and Ryan (thanks you two!).  It made this mama's heart feel good to see how well she did ... all of the love and hard work has paid off!  I know the rest of you adoptive mamas can relate :-)  What a beautiful, priceless change to witness.  God is so good!

PS - I apologize, I am not a very good event photographer at all ... especially when the event is MINE.  So although I was able to document some of the day ... well there were many wonderful, spectacular moments that went un-photographed :-(  During these times, I much prefer to live in the moment than behind my lens!  Thanks to our dear friend, Arnold, for snapping a few pictures of us with our girl!


(Come find me on Facebook!  And if you have been blessed by my blog, would you mind taking just a few seconds of your time and click on the 2 links below?  You don't need to do anything except click each button once (you can click once a day!).  Each click is a "vote" that allows my blog to be seen by other homeschool and adoptive families so I can help them too!  Thank you so much for blessing me with your help, may God bless your day!)

The many faces

I got some one-on-one time with my little Lovebug tonight after the girls were in bed.  He loves to play Wii and has gotten pretty darn good at playing Mario Bros.  Talk about memories of my childhood!  LOL.

While I was watching him play, he was making the best facial expressions ... so I asked him if I could grab my camera and he was happy to oblige.

This next shot was right as he was losing his last life.

And then his response after the game was over.  LOL.

No worries though, a new game will fix that right up.

I love this sweet smile!

Oh and his passionately over-the-top laugh.

Wow, I love this kid.  And I adore sitting with him and just soaking him in.

Good luck hugs for Daddy

Girlfriend gives some seriously awesome hugs, lemme tell ya!  Daddy was heading off to his softball game and Sunshine just had to get in on the goodbye action :-)  What's so awesome about her hugs is the passion ... I shot a quick one (of course I missed the focus! ugh!) to show how tight she's squeezing - see how hard her right fingers are pressing on Daddy's neck?  LOL.  Affection has definitely never been an issue for this girl!  So sweet!

Wordless Wednesday