Sunday...

Good Morning and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group!

Good Morning! I'm not a quick typer right now, so bear with me. Amy and Michael are in China to bring LynnMarie home. Robin should be home with Mia Hope.

THE SAT CHAT IS NOW CLOSED.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Broken Radius

I was in a car accident yesterday on my way to be fingerprinted for the third time and the radius in my arm is broken. It's my right arm (of course), so I am reduced to hunting and pecking on my keyboard. My arm is in a splint up past my elbow and will be casted next Thursday.

We called immigration to see if we could re-schedule but the woman said she did not know. So, after I was released from ER. Tim and I went to be fingerprinted. I was a sight let me tell you...big run in my black hose, arm in a sling. airbag burns up my other arm. I wasn't in much pain though. I can't write left handed, so one of the women filled out my forms for me. I had to get on my knees for the prints of my right hand....but we got it done.

I tell you..who breaks their arm at forty??? I'm thinking I'll get the hot pink cast and see if my creative friend Kim Kenward can hot glue some rhinestones on it :)

I hope I get the cast off before I go to China!

Ask A Question...

I have never done one of these posts before and thought that this may be a good time. I'm an open book type of person. I'm not easily embarassed...so go ahead and ask if there is anything you would like to know about me.

Great Love...

I really need to acknowledge the wonderful things that are happening for us and our daughter. The wonderful things you are doing. Thank you.
We are the recipients of great love right now. I cried at my mailbox yesterday for the second time. I have to thank everyone who has sent in a donation to our adoption fund.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to the auction. I cannot believe the beautiful items you have given.
Thank you to everyone who bids...especially those of you who have absolutely no use for what you are bidding on...I know your 4 year old can't wear that size 18 month dress :)
Thank you to the baby shower planners who patiently wait for info from me.
Thank you for your cards, phone calls and e-mails.
I am so deeply touched by your love.

Sunday...

Good Morning and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group!

Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group! It's been pretty warm up here in Michigan. The lake is thawing and we're supposed to have a lot of rain today. I'm planning on getting together Sophia's package for us to send to her orphanage this weekend. I am also nesting big time. I have been sending bags to Goodwill and Spring Cleaning. It's really sinking in that my girl is coming.


Amy and Michael are leaving for China to bring home LynnMarie this week. You are going to want to follow their journey and give them all of the support you can. Their adoption blog is 'When Love Takes You In'.


Robin is still in China bringing home Mia Hope and it seems like things are really going well. Mia Hope was grieving quite a bit for the first couple of days which is to be expected, but she has been smiling and opening up to her new family more and more each day.


Thank you so much for supporting the auction to raise funds for Sophia Jane. I am receiving some amazing donations. Quite a few items are going to come off this week though, so if you have anything hiding in a closet that you would like to donate, please let me know. Also, if you would like to place the sidebar graphic on your blog, that would be wonderful too!

**THE SAT CHAT HAS NOW CLOSED, HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Thank You...

On behalf of my family and myself, I want to say THANK YOU. Thank you to everyone who has left a kind word from the heart congratulating us on the newest member of our family. Thank you to everyone who has donated to our fundraiser. Thank you to everyone who is making things and donating things to our auction for Sophia. Thank you to everyone who sent cards and left voicemails. Thank you to the ladies who are planning showers.

Thank you to my Dad who retired a little early and is coming here to help cover our bills while I am on FMLA leave from work with Sophia.

I am truly just overwhelmed by your kindness. When we accepted Sophia's referral, our agency gave us three days to pay $1050.00, we didn't have it right on hand. You all came forward and we had the money on time. I cannot thank you enough. I cried at my mailbox yesterday when I saw Sophia's shower invitation. This is such an emotional time for me and I just want you all to know that I really appreciate your efforts and your friendships and I am taking to heart everything.

Congratulations Nancy!

I snatched this photo from Kelly's blog. But here we are....Kelly, Nancy, Steffie and me. We all had dinner together over a year ago. None of us had our babes at that time, but now we are all finally matched. Kelly's little Ella is home. Steffie, Nancy and I have been matched over the past two months.
Nancy actually was just matched last week! Her blog is 'Asennd', it's private. She has waited such a long time. I'm so happy for you girl!

A Thank You From Amanda at the Starfish Foster & Cleft Homes...

I am in contact with Kimberley and Daleea often through email and so when I got word that there was a great need at the orphanage and once I made the decision that I wanted to take on the babies, I needed to fund raise to support my "addiction". The two of them were some of the first people I contacted.

They accepted my plea for help and went to work helping me to contact the many people who read their blogs and who support orphan care. Within no time they had a list of sponsors and a way set up to allow donations to be made directly to Starfish Children's Services. They worked tirelessly for days, through personal tragedy even, to allow me the blessing of welcoming nine little people into my home. My addiction to take care of the children had been satisfied for now anyway.

I want to publicly thank them so much for all of their help and extend my most grateful thanks to you who heeded the call to help. May God Bless you abundantly because you were willing to save the life of a child in a far away country.

The work here is never done and I am already looking toward getting more babies and filling up the cleft home, got to satisfy that addiction. Thank you so much for allowing me the financial freedom to bless the lives of the children that I find and to fulfil the purpose that I am here in China for. We all share in various ways in living the mandate we are given to take care of the fatherless and the orphans of the world. I hope that we will be exemplary in living this Christ-like quality.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China

Sunday...

Matilda Jane Trunk Show Sunday, March 1st...On Ivy's Blog

HELLO EVERYONE!

Welcome to my Matilda Jane Virtual Catalog Show

MATILDA JANE HAS DONE IT AGAIN, ANOTHER WONDERFUL SEASON OF DARLING CLOTHES HAS JUST ARRIVED IN TIME FOR SPRING.

Ivy's blog is: Hunan Spice

Matilda Jane Virtual Catalog Show

Hosted by Ivy Shaffer

Sunday, March 1, 2009 at 10am EST

Opening Day of the Matilda Jane Spring Season!

This is the fun part... All you have to do is view the collection online at www.matildajaneclothing.com beginning March 1^st * and put your wish list together. Then contact my trunk keeper for help with sizing to place your order. Beckie is a sweetheart and is helping to put this whole show together. Also let Beckie know you are ordering from my virtual show. She will be available to answer any questions throughout the day, just leave a message if needed and she'll get back to you promptly.

Beckie Winston

801.583.8381/801.573.3110

beckiewinston@aol.com

Show will close at 8p.m. Sunday Night.

*The collection could be online as early as February 28^th, please keep checking the website and the Matilda Jane Blog for more information. You may be able to view some of the new line on the MJ blog, they are simply darling!

* I have set up a Sophia Jane gift registry with Beckie and Ivy.

Good Morning and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group!

Good Morning Everyone and welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group! There is quite a bit to talk about this week.

All 9 of the new babies at the Starfish Cleft Home are fully sponsored.

I will post a letter that Amanda asked me to put on the blog tomorrow. She has capacity for more in the home. She is now making plans to bring in more cleft children and bring the home up to capacity. She will continue to need our support as new children are brought in. I will share information with you as it comes to me, or you can always visit the Cleft Home Blog. The link is on my sidebar. I cannot thank everyone enough for their amazing support.

MARCH 1ST - We leave for China.

MARCH 2nd - We meet Mia Hope!!!

MARCH 7th - Mia Hope turns 3!

MARCH 11TH - Consulate appointment

MARCH 13TH - Homeward bound.

Robin is leaving this week to bring Mia Hope home. I am so happy for my dear friend!

**The Sat Chat is now closed. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Please Help Us Bring Sophia Jane Home...The Auction & Donation Site

All Roads Lead To You

Some big bills are coming at us quickly now, so we have decided to have an auction to help raise funds to cover our adoption fees. Please visit the site and see if there is anything you would like to bid on. Also, if you would like a sidebar graphic to help support the auction, just let me know and I will get the html code to you right away.

If you would like to donate something, that would be absolutely wonderful. If you sew, make blogs, make hair bows or paint pictures and have something you would be willing to have on the auction, please let me know.

Thank you so much to Daleea for designing this beautiful site. From the bottom of my heart...thank you.

We Have A Daughter...Sophia Jane and her Red Maryjanes

We have a daughter. I am still kind of in a daze I think. But yes...we have found Sophia Jane. We accepted her referral on Friday morning. She is absolutely beautiful and I wish I could show you her face, but our agency is very conservative, so it will probably be a couple of weeks before I can post her entirely. But I do have permission to post her little feet and imagine my surprise when I opened her referral photo and saw her wearing these :) I had prayed and prayed that God would give me a sign and show me which child was ours. I just couldn't believe it when I saw these little red maryjanes on her feet.
Sophia is three and a half years old. She is in Beijing. I just can't stop looking at her pictures. Eli has her little photo in a frame beside his bed, the older boys are anxious to have her home. We are over the moon!

Welcome to Amy's Baby Shower!!

Welcome to Amy's Baby Shower for Lynn Marie! If you would like her gift list and address, please rsvp by leaving a comment or send me an e-mail at timnkim@gmail.com.
We are chatting in the comments, so feel free to leave a comment and talk with all of us.

Amy is registered at BRU, Target and Amazon.

Each 5th person to rsvp wins a shower prize!

Christy is our first winner!

Amy's shower is over, but please leave a comment or send an e-mail if you would like her address and wish list :)

Good Morning and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group!

Good Morning Everyone! Today is Amy's Baby Shower, so I hope you all can attend after the Chat Group.

There are still babies at the new Starfish Cleft Home who need sponsors. If you would like to help, please send me an e-mail. The information on the post below with the babies photos is accurate, so you can see which babies still need help.

THE SAT CHAT IS CLOSED SO EVERYONE CAN JOIN US AT AMY'S BABY SHOWER!

Amy's Baby Shower for LynnMarie! Please Spread the Word!

This Saturday is Amy's Babyshower for LynnMarie here at the Seventh Diamond. The shower will take place after the Saturday Morning Chat Group from 12 noon to 2 pm.
If you are unable to attend but would like receive her gift list and address, please leave me a comment with your e-mail address or e-mail me at timnkim@gmail.com. Amy's blog is 'When Love Takes You' and 'Amy's Random Thoughts'.

Starfish Sponsors

I am updating sponsor information regularly, so this is accurate, as well as the information below the pictures of the babies on the prior post. We still have children who need sponsors. Please help if you can.

I want to thank everyone for their support. Your response has been overwhelming. I have 25 sponsor families right now. I need 10 more for all of the children to be sponsored for this upcoming year. If you are interested in sponsoring one of the babies, please e-mail me at timnkim@gmail.com.

Also, if you are a sponsor family, please e-mail your address to me and how you have arranged payment for your sponsorship. I know that most of you had made arrangements on the Starfish Groundspring site. I am working with Patrick who is on the Starfish board and tracks the donations that come in. I need to supply him with a list of sponsor families, their addresses and method of payments.

Starfish Donations....Thank you Nicole!

Thank you Nicole for your wonderful donations to Starfish! All of the little outfits are just darling.

Starfish Donations....Thank you Jill!

Jill, thank you so much for these donations for Starfish! With two homes now running, she's really going to need these! Jill's blog is 'Waala's House of Fun'

I am Home...

We arrived home late last night. Today I am going in to work. I so need the normalcy of being there. I truly cannot wait to sit at my desk and have a cup of coffee.
The past 8 days have been the worst in my life. The great loss of my Grandmother and other losses too made it just unbearable for me.
It is true...there is no place like home. Especially after what we have all been through.

Thank you for your wonderful comments and cards. They really do help you get through these kinds of things.

My Grandmother Has Passed On...

My Grandmother passed away yesterday. I had been hoping and praying that she would find the peace she needed and be able to let go and move on into the light. But when the moment came and I was beside her watching her labored breathing and I realized that there wasn't going to be another breath...I just wanted to yell 'come back'.

I just want you all to know.

I am in Kansas City. I have been here since I received a call to come home because my Grandmother is passing on. She is losing her battle with lung cancer and I am home to be with her for her final days.
Right now I am focusing on sitting with my Grandmother, holding her hand and sleeping with her. My family is together and we are cherishing this time.

I am still very dedicated to the Starfish project as I know that it is very important. Please keep the sponsorships coming. We are so grateful for everyone's help, but we still have quite a ways to go. So please keep the e-mails coming. They are a bright spot for me in a very difficult time.

Please understand if I do not respond as quickly as normal, I am checking only once a day right now. I want to devote all I can to my Grandmother.

9 Starfish Cleft Home Babies Have Arrived...4 Are Due to Arrive Soon...Aren't they Darling???

These 9 babies at the Starfish Cleft Home are fully sponsored. Thank you so much to everyone who came forward to support these children.

Woo HOO! Our blog is up and running! http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com/

Tina is fully sponsored.

Tim is fully sponsored.

Stella is fully sponsored.

Nick is fully sponsored.

Karl is fully sponsored.

Jasmine is fully sponsored.

Clara is fully sponsored.

Bryan is fully sponsored.

Antonia is fully sponsored.

The Starfish Cleft Palate Home...A Leap of Faith

Amanda was contacted a couple of days ago by the Director of the orphanage in her area. There has been a large group of infants left, many with cleft palate issues and the orphanage has no room to take them in. There are 12 who are due to be released from the local hospital in the next couple of days with nowhere to go.
Amanda has been planning to open a Cleft Palate Home in the distant future when funds were in place, but because of these 12 little ones, she is converting the volunteer quarters into a the Cleft Palate Home and will take in these 12 babies.
She only has funds to support them for 3 months, so this is where we come in. We need approximately 72 families to come forward who are willing to sponsor a child for $25.00 a month. It costs approx. $150.00 a month for Amanda to feed and care for each child, so it it will take 6 families to step forward for each child. Or if a family is willing to contribute more, that would lessen the number of families needed. This would be a year commitment. Amanda will send out updates to the families and photos of the sponsored babies.

The amount is totally tax deductible and the donations will go through the STARFISH CHILDREN'S SERVICES and the tax number is 20-4682816

If you are part of a woman's prayer group, or work with a youth group, perhaps you would consider having your group sponsor one child for a year.

If you are willing to come forward as a sponsor family or group, please leave a comment below or e-mail me at timnkim@gmail.com

A new blog is being created for the home and we will have all of the details to you soon. But we need sponsors quickly, because these children are being released to Amanda in a couple of days if we can get everything together.

If you have ever sat in your living room and wondered how you could make an impact, this is it. Amanda is moving forward not knowing where the money will come from. These 12 children need a place to heal and grow. I need help finding approx. 72 families who are willing to contribute $25.00 monthly to support these children. I don't know that many people, so if you all could help spread the word about this project, it would be wonderful.

14 families have come forward to sponsor children...thank you!

5 out of the 12 children are completely sponsored.

The Starfish Supply Raiser is On Hold....

The Starfish Supply Raiser is currently being placed on hold. Amanda contacted me today and would like us to shift our focus to raising support for the new Starfish Cleft Palate Home. If you have already made your purchases, please go ahead and ship them to me. Everything collected will still be sent to Starfish.
Please keep Starfish in your prayers. God is good and there are wonderful things coming on the horizon for these children and others too.

Amy's Baby Shower for LynnMarie! Please Spread the Word!

Please mark your calendar's for Amy's Babyshower for LynnMarie being held on February 21st here at the Seventh Diamond. If you are unable to attend and would like the gift list and Amy's address to send your special items and good wishes, please leave a comment with your e-mail address or e-mail me at timnkim@gmail.com. Amy's blog is 'When Love Takes You In'.
A special thank you to Daleea for this darling graphic!

Good Morning and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group!

Good morning everyone! There is quite a bit going on right now. I hope you all had a wonderful Chinese New Year! The Starfish Supply Raiser is off to a wonderful start. Thank you all so much for your e-mails and participation.


Kim at 'Isabella Bison' is having a Scentsy party on-line, so head on over to her blog and register to attend!


Also, Holly at 'Purpose Driven Family' is doing a Pampered Chef fundraiser. This families blog is private, but if you follow along and know their situation, I am sure you will do whatever you can to help.

If you’d like to help, it’s easy with online ordering! Here are the instructions:

1. Go to www.pamperedchef.biz/mcdaneld
2. Click on ‘Our Products’
3. Under organization name, type: McDaneld Legal Fees
4. You can have the order sent to your home for an extra charge, or you can have it sent with the group order to my home here in Fayetteville NC for $4.25 and I will deliver it to you. (please don't chose this option if you life outside of the Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg area! Sadly, many of you...my blog readers do NOT!)
Thank you for helping us in our time of need! May you be blessed richly in return!

IF YOU ARE NEW AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THE CHAT, JUST RIGHT CLICK ON THE WORDS 'COMMENTS FROM A FRIEND' LIKE YOU ARE GOING TO LEAVE ONE AND THEN CLICK ON 'OPEN LINK IN NEW WINDOW' AND YOUR SCREEN WILL OPEN AND JUST TALK WITH US IN COMMENTS, IF YOU HIT REFRESH AT THE TOP OF YOUR SCREEN YOU WILL SEE EVERYONE'S NEW COMMENTS APPEAR AND THAT IS HOW WE TALK WITH EACH OTHER.

**The chatroom is now closed, have a wonderful weekend!**

The First Box Has Arrived...Thank You Desiree!

The first box for Starfish arrived today. Thank you so much Desiree for these darling clothes and baby supplies. I know that Amanda is going to love them! Desiree's blog is 'Our Happily Ever After Story'.

So Many Wonderful Responses...We're Off to a Great Start!

First I want to say thank you to Desiree who designed our sidebar graphic. I have never met her before and she sent me an e-mail offering to help. I am so grateful...thank you!

I have received so many wonderful e-mails from people who want to send donations again this year. I think that is particularly incredible because we are in a recession and I know that money has become tighter for everyone. You are such amazing women.

I had some ladies ask about the things that Amanda needs. She needs clothing in sizes preemie to 4t for both girls and boys. Coats, shoes and boots. (she does not need anymore of the infant full body coats, we sent her plenty last year). She needs children's/infant's tylenol and motrin, teething tablets, infants liquid vitamins, little nose's decongestant. She uses playtex bottles with the liners.

Truly, she told me to tell you all to follow your hearts. But the children still love Craisins and eat them for breakfast whenever they can.

What is listed at the bottom of the last post is what we sent last year. I hope we do well this year too. It seems like a lot, but 18 babies go through 126 sleepers a week and that's if no one spits up or gets dirty.

Amanda brings home the babies who are most in need, the ones who it is feared will not survive if they remain in the main orphanage. She spends her time trying to stabilize the new babies and arranging for their medical care. For the older children who have been healed, she prepares their adoption paperwork and prays that a family will choose them.

The goal of this drive is to help supply her with the things she needs. Last year, she truly was amazed by the beautiful clothes that you all donated. She said that when the children went out, people wouldn't believe that they were orphans and she loved that.

I know that many of you were touched when you saw the children wearing outfits you had sent. It really was an amazing experience and I'm so glad that you all are helping me out again this year...thank you.

**ALSO, many of you sent cards and letters for Amanda last year, and I put them right into the boxes and sent them off to her. If you would like to send items for Amanda, I think that would be wonderful. She's a woman who lives with 18 children, so as you can imagine she has little for herself. I know that she is always looking for a good book to take with her when she travels to hospitals for the babies' surgeries. I think I'm going to buy some Bath and Body Works and send it along to her, that always makes me feel great. I also know that she wears crocs in a size 10, wide if they have them.

The Second Annual Starfish Supply Raiser!

I am excited to say that it is time for the Second Annual Starfish Supply Raiser to begin. Last year was such an amazing experience. I hope that this year is just as successful. I have been talking with Amanda and she wanted me to tell you all to follow your hearts in giving this year. She has infants who are needing very small preemie clothing and children wearing sizes all of the way up to 4T. She has both boys and girls at the foster home. Gently used clothing is wonderful.

If you are interested in participating, send me an e-mail at timnkim@gmail.com and I will get my address to you. All you need to do is send your Starfish purchases here to me and I will box them up with other donations and send them on to Amanda.

I will have Tim work on setting up the paypal for the postage donations.

Desiree has made a wonderful sidebar graphic, thank you so much!
I love the photo above because I recognize so many of the outfits on the children as being ones that you all sent last year. Below is a tally of what we sent last year. ALSO, I will need some spacebags, so if you have any laying around...they are wonderful for sending the coats.

*PLEASE DO WHAT YOU CAN TO SPREAD THE WORD THAT WE ARE COLLECTING AGAIN FOR STARFISH. I WOULD REALLY LOVE TO SEE THE NEW SIDEBAR GRAPHIC ON AS MANY BLOGS AS POSSIBLE AND HAVE IT LINK PEOPLE BACK TO HERE.


Vicks 5
Tylenol 10
Motrin 17
Sunscreen 2
Oatmeal 20
Craisins 12
Teething Tablets 4
Onesies 21 (there are more than this because I counted packages as one)
Shoes 35
Boots 3
Pants 3
Coats 17
Shorts 18
Sleepers 106
Girls Outfits 88
Sheet 1
Bottles 6
Boys Outfits 48
Sweaters 15
Gloves 3
Booties 6
Socks 35 (there are more because I counted packages as one)
Sun Hats 9
Bibs 17 (there are more because I counted packages as one)
Baby Hats 19
Hats 3
Shirts 58
T-Shirts 22
Sweats 16

**UPDATE** Amanda wanted me to let everyone know that she has plenty of infant bag-style winter coats. She received quite a few of them from us last year and she is all set with those.

She does need: infant liquid vitamins and teething tablets, along with the infant tylenol and motrin

The Friends Love Award...

I received this award from Jody at 'Jody's Cottage'/aka mommy2gabby. It really is one of the sweetest awards and I am happy to be passing it along. Thank you so much Jody!

Getting this award means the following:


"These blogs are exceedingly charming.
These kind bloggers aim to find friends and be friends.
They are not interested in self-aggrandizement.
Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated.
Please give more attention to these writers.
Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly- written text into the body of their award."


Here are my 8!

Robin at 'Red Thread Stitches'. I cannot tell you how many times she raised my spirits and kept me going.

Daleea at 'Jewels of My Heart'. Thank you for always listening and helping me with all of my blog projects. I appreciate your friendship so much.

Lea at 'Oh My 6'. She is pricesless.

Amy at 'When Love Takes You In' is always there to support anyone who needs it. And she always comes to my Sat Chat and that's amazing since she's a nurse who works nights.

Denise at 'Tucked Inside My Heart' is one of the kindest ladies in blogland. I wish she lived next door!

Felicity at 'Fliss and Mike' I love her! She calls me from time to time and I love hearing her stories!

Meredith/can I tell your real name? at 'A Mother Singing' talks to my soul. We share many of the same joys and pains.

Ford and Alyson at 'Imagine Alyzabeth An/ yes, I love them both and if you blog with them..you know it's a great package deal. They always have a kind word and seem to know when you need a little more than that.

Sunday...