Exciting news around here!!

Hey all! I have some exciting news to tell you! We have some big things happening at Give1Save1! Give1Save1 is merging! Way back the beginning, Give1Save1 started out as one big blog. As Give1Save1 grew, it branched out and became Give1Africa, Give1Asia, Give1Europe, Give1Caribbean, and Give1Europe. That is a lot of blogs to run by a lot of volunteers! And a lot of families! The exciting news is we are going back to one big blog!

Here is why this is fantastic: 

• More Financial Support for Families - All the readers from all the blogs will be united, which will hopefully increase the amount of support we are able to give each week to our featured families!

• Better Pre-Adoption Research for Families - It will help families who are just in the beginning of their adoption journey to research adoption. They can go to one blog and read about all different countries, get connected with lots of families, and hopefully, get lots of questions answered!

• Better Quality Service for Our Readers & Simplified Work Load for Our Volunteers - Having 1 blog will be less work for our team of volunteers. We had a lot of volunteers burn out after a year or so of working with Give1Save1. We hope that by joining forces, we can lighten all of our volunteers work load, while offering a better service to the adoption community!

What you need to know: 

• Although Give1Save1 is making some changes, we are keeping the same purpose. At our heart, we are the same Give1Save1! We will continue to support adoptive families and help them raise funds to bring their child home! By uniting to one blog, we hope to do it even better!

• We are also combining our Facebook pages. We will be using what is currently the Africa page as our official page since it has the most likes. I suggest you go ahead and like it so you can keep up to date!

• Give1 Save1 had a gazillion emails! Now we have 1! Our new email is giveonesaveone (at) gmail (dot) com. 

• We have a new application here :https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1tJqTnuP0wS9uP0cwxsa00emXQTKYOgfA-GcN92WEg3I/viewform

Q & A:

When will these changes take place and the new blog be started?

No changes for a few more weeks! I wanted to tell you ahead of time. The plans to merge have been in the works for over a month now! We are keeping all the blogs going until we are ready to roll out the new blog! Our volunteer designer is working hard to get the new blog ready! I don't have a specific date, but we hope the new blog will be ready in 2-3 weeks.

How will families be chosen to be featured?

We will choose featured families the way we always have. Families must be truly adopting to qualify to be featured (we verify this with their agency.) That being said a lot of families qualify, and not all families may be chosen. Since the beginning, we have always given priority to families who are traveling soonest. We will continue to do that. We will also try to rotate through different parts of the world. Every month, we will try to feature a family adopting from Africa, Asia, Europe, Domestic, and Caribbean.

Have more questions? Feel free to comment with them and I will try my best to answer them!

Just Love 127

This blog post was written by Katie, who blogs over on our Give1Save1 Asia page! Did y'all know we had an Asia page?! Well, now ya do. Everyone say "Hey Katie!" Well, she wrote this awesome write up about a super fun Etsy shop and I wanted to share it with you all. Enjoy!

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

There is this store on etsy that I love. LOVE.

Not only does the owner make and sell some of the most

amazing things, but she does it for the sake of the orphans!

Just love 127

             

      Just love 127 is a shop owned and operated by an adoptive momma. 

She is in the process of speeding back for their third adoption.

Third. 

3.

Did you catch that?

Go read their amazing journey on their blog!

Faith, hope and love flow freely from the lips of this lady.

She is walking this path with faith and praying with fervent hope

and she is full of love for a little boy that this world left behind.

Her little boy, Myles, came to her by way of a list of special needs children.

My heart soared when I read that. Children with significant special needs

hold an oh-so-dear place in my heart.

She is defying this world and claiming this boy as royalty.

Because he is. He will fill her life with glimpses of the King of Kings,

this King that calls him son.

He is royalty.

Since they found him so early this process is speeding by SO quickly.

They need to raise their funds fast ya'll. Super fast.

Hallelujah for an adoption process that gets these kids home quickly. 

I promise you if you go visit her shop you will not make it out without something in your cart.

See what I mean?

Head on over to her shop and pick something out! You'll also help by bringing an orphan home, it really is a win win ;) 

Thanks again Katie for the write up on this awesome shop! 

My Favorite Book

Have you met our Family of the Week?  Go click over and meet the Foster's and end your Friday by blessing them with $1!

When we started the adoption process, I happened to be working as a long term sub at a local school.  It was a unique school set up due to the students that were enrolled there, so there ended up being 3 programs in one big room (the old library).  One of the programs was run by an adoptive mother.  She had a beautiful little girl, and an open adoption.

The friendship we developed over those 12 weeks has stuck around.  She helped me navigate the adoption questionnaires, gave advice on our profile book, and let me chat her ear off.  She also bought a whole bunch of books for our future child.  One of them was
"God Found Us You" by Lisa Tawn Bergren. 

 

It is probably one of my favorite books in our home, but doesn't get read that often, simply because every time I read it aloud, I end up crying. 

 

Isaac has just begun to understand emotions, and thinks that if there are tears, then you're sad.  The last time I read it to him, I finished the book, and he looked at me and said, "Momma, sad?".

 

I smiled and gave him a hug, reassuring him that no, Momma wasn't sad, but just like Momma Fox in the book, I was the "happiest Momma in the whole world."

 

Feature Family of the Week: The Foster's

The Fosters are a great family full of giggles and fun!  They have five children, and are excited to add more love into the mix with a new baby!  The Foster's have a great video showing the love and fun that you can find under their roof. 




They have some neat fundraisers on their blog too, go check them out at http://frogmama.blogspot.com/. 

 

As we kick summer off, lets KICK START their fundraising!  You know what to do!! Click the link below to back their adoption fund, send them $1!

The Rust's- Check them out, AGAIN!

Have you checked out our feature family, the Rust's video?

Feature Family of the week: The Rust's

They are awesome people, and I know a lot of you have seen and shared their video!

We had an issue with their link to paypal (my fault sorry!) so if you wanted to donate to this awesome family, but couldn't TRY AGAIN!  Everything is fixed now!

Featured Family: The Rust's!

I'd like to introduce you to Eric and Nicole Rust as our featured family this week.  They are wanting to adopt a newborn or sibling group.  They have raised two amazing children Courtney and Mitchell, but feel like they still have so much more love to give.  They have a great story of how they were each convicted about growing their family through adoption, while they were 4,000 miles apart.


Seriously, check out this video, it will make you smile and make your heart happy! 

You can check out their blog here, http://nicolerust.wordpress.com/



The Rust's are still waiting for their match, so please share their information!

Www.Lifetime adoption.com 

1-800-923-6784

http://www.lifetimeadoption.com/families/detail.php?ID=814



Donate to this amazing family here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthmother's Day

The Saturday before Mother's Day traditionally is Birthmother's Day.  A day to recognize that special woman, who looked beyond her own pain, and made a choice to make an adoption plan.  Often, it's because of this choice that many of us were able to celebrate our first Mother's Day, I know that was the case for me.

Today I think of Isaac's birthmother, I wonder how she's doing, if anyone is recognizing her today.  Hugging her, telling her they love, her, honoring the love that she had for a little boy she never held.  I hope so.  I know that our family is thinking of her, praying for her, loving her from afar.