Essential Oils adoption fundraiser. Its a WIN WIN people! :)

So I am super pumped UP about what we have decided to do for our adoption fundraiser. I have been a believer for months now in essential oils & even sat through an awesome informative course and was totally sold on the whole concept. However, with our life and adoption and ya know me quitting my full time job and having twins, one that keeps racking up medical bills, I couldn't swing the $150.00 to get the kit! But I have been praying and praying for God to provide a way for me to use oils with our family.

My little Nora struggles with chronic skin issues due to her vast array of food allergies and my little Zoe struggles with ear infections, and lets be real, that girl struggles with teeth coming in, an ant bite on her foot, any little issues and Zoe comes undone! Poor angel!

As I dose my girlies up night after night for what sometimes seems like weeks on end with tylenol to ease teeth pain, or start Zoe on yet ANOTHER round of antibiotics for ear infections resulting is awful yeast infections because the good bacteria is just flat gone in her little gut, I have often thought back to what I learned about oils and wished I could dig up that $150.00 for my sweet girls and for Lance and I!

Well, a sweet fellow adoptive mommy was introduced to me (thanks to the wonderful world of blogging) and she is also adopting from Ethiopia and actively uses oils in her home. She came up with a grand plan to help multiple mommies in our shoes raise funds for our adoptions while truly helping others. I cringe at the saleswoman aspect of anything like this, and have no desire to SELL you anything! I have a desire to see healing in my family and in yours and to raise money to bring my precious third daughter home. Period.

Who's excited!?

We are still waiting for our oils to come in the mail. I am so excited and can't wait to share our journey. I am not an expert and am learning as I go. But I believe in this and believe it can help you too! I mentioned on facebook that I would like to feature families that purchase oils from us on my blog, because in my heart I feel like this is going to be an awesome story of healing and health for many families. I can't wait to see what God has in store and how fun will it be to see how the things that God created from this earth can keep us healthy!?

And disclaimer, we do believe in Western medicine. Believe me! But now I believe there is more and I can't wait to share it with you!

If you would like to purchase oils please feel free to visit my page. 100% of ALL profits will go directly to our adoption. This means airfare, referral fees, medical fees and so forth. If God provides us with more than we need, because He can do big things like that, then we will put it towards adoption in some capacity. Whether it is helping another family, supporting local foster care or maaaaybe saving for our next adoption. Its never to early to start saving up for the next adoption right!? Kidding...for now. ;)

Here is our site:

www.mydoterra.com/oilsforethiopia

                                                                      (made me LOL)

Go look through and see what you think and follow along as we start this journey! :)

Love,
Lance, Kayla, Zoe & Nora

Phone dump

In honor of my new iPhone, and the ease at which in can upload to blogger, here is a quick phone dump post of our week post Vacay! Actual Vacay post in the works!

Crib silly time!

Love those horsies!

Zoes new "glare"

See!? 

Sweet pea on her horsie playing a few tunes.

Grapes are our fav!

Sissy is finally up.....thank goodness, mommy is boring!

Cool chicks! 

Lounging.

Dinner this particular night was a lesson in dipping chips in guacamole! Hence the blanket & only bc mommy was already in nasty scrubs! 

 This is why I can't give up this night time bottle! Precious, perfect moments. But I WILL this month!! Their toes stick out of the sleep sacs too. I think it's time we shed some baby garb. Tear. 

Because some nights I sneak in and take pictures.

I just can't help it!

Nora being quirky & Zoe demanding "nanas"! Love!!

Late night bedtime stalling!

Worth it? Yes! 

While mommy looks away for.....

6 seconds! 

"Hi there little babies!" 

She got this red face syndrome from mommy.

Because they love each other!!

On our way to mops... My sweet pea!

That face. 

In the time it took me to load Zoe. Don't worry these naked vagabonds weren't getting out of the car. 

Trying to make mommy react by doing things she knows annoy me! Oh Zoe....life may be hard for you! :)

There's our week!

Always an adventure!! 

"Me time"

After becoming a mommy I heard a lot of this term. "Me time". I guess when you become a mom it becomes apparent that this sacred alone time is pretty much gone. When I worked, I didn't have much "me time" until 5pm, and then I suppose it was all about me until I walked into my office the next day. However, as this mommy thing goes on I have some thoughts on this whole..."I just need some me time" thing.

My days with the girls are so full. So fun. So wonderful. Things are kind of crazy and my house is a bit atrocious, for real. But I have found that I feel fulfilled and content with this mommy job. I have been so blessed by adopting this new idea that "me time" doesn't necessarily have to mean time away from the girls. It doesn't have to be a daily search to find a minute away from them or a girls night out every week. These things are good and necessary. I mean, I will NOT pass up a margarita and bowl of queso with friends if I get the chance and will sprint out this door and not look back. Let me assure you.

But I have been feeling convicted lately that I can include them in my "me time". We can find things to do together that make us all happy. They are only 15 months old, so I know what you are thinking. But I am talking about handing them a book and practicing all the animal sounds while we all drive through starbucks, or finding the children's story that lines up with what we are studying in our small group and reading it to them or singing songs and dancing to iTunes while I cook and they munch on grapes.

Now that I am looking for things that make us all happy, I am finding I am less stressed and worn out at the end of the day. It's not all about them but it's not all about me either. In this season of life it is about "us" and I am so happy it is! I think as mommies it is so easy to get so bogged down in the daily grind. The diapers, and fussing, and crying, and finances, and runny noses and trips to the doctor.

But I am noticing that when I am making a conscious effort to look at our days together, look at what makes us ALL happy, and try my best to not just survive mickey mouse club house, and cooking and cleaning, but actually enjoy it, I can go to bed and smile thinking about the day to come as opposed to wanting to curl up in a ball and wish a magical fairy would swoop in and be mommy for a day.

Just my thoughts today. :)

Gone are the days where I sat propped up dictating recipes to people to cook for me, water on my belly, remote next to me! But maybe I can find a happy median in this whole "me time" thing! Ha!

(found this and had to post....I was one SPOLIED pregnant person!! And, whoa there are lots of patterns happening in this pic!)

Baby selfies

How did I live 28 years without this little selfie loving face! Love that little mug!

Third & final homestudy.

'Today we updated our homestudy and as I suspected, it was no big deal. Aside from the lovely check that always seems to accompany any adoption related endeavor. 

The girls were perfect. Like, strangely perfect. They were just bouncing from inside to outside flashing big smiles and waving. They would come in sit in our laps and just smile and munch on snacks and then hop down and play on the floor. They weren't scared of the social worker and weren't trying to get her to leave assuming she was a babysitter. The women complimented them several times and even said, "Wow you are very blessed!" Yep, yes I am. 

I now have a to do list this week that involves updating fingerprints, background checks, ordering the girls birth certificates (pretty sure we should have those but we don't), physicals, and notarizing about 10 things. But man, this is NOTHING compared to the pile of stuff we had to do first time around! However, I'm pretty sure it's going to be quite a week trying to get this all done. If you would like to come and watch my children this week I will welcome you with open arms and even order you a pizza. And if you like ice cream I'll buy your favorite. With hot fudge! ;) 

So once we get this homestudy finished and my week of "to-do's" behind me, we are just waiting on our immigration appointments to have those fingerprints redone....so many fingerprints....and then we are just waiting. We are pretty much just waiting now, since they know we are about to have everything updated so I think if the perfect baby for our family came through we would get the call. So we just wait. I suppose it could be in a week or 6 months. 

Curazy!! But so exciting. Below I linked a song that came on the radio a few months ago when we were really trying to decide when we would go through with the adoption and it touches me so much and spoke SO much truth! We are by no means changing the world here, but we are trying our bests to be a light where it's needed and be like Jesus. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3IrwujyAJ4&sns=em

And because what's a post without pictures, enjoy these of the girls today! 

Zoe at the Girods riding away on her little car! 

Nora was LOVING being Sully. She stayed in this forever until she was finally sweating so much we had to take it off her! She loves a good head covering! 

Family selfie after the social worker left. I think the girls are thrilled!! But really, I believe God was with us today because I have never seen them be so nice to a stranger in our home!

Nora's new favorite thing is to lay in the baby stroller and have us swing her around! 

They will crawl onto anything! Before we knew it they were both IN the water table soaked head to toe in their beautiful little outfits. I had to snap a shot as Lance rushed over to keep anyone from busting their heads open! 

Oh girls...you keep us on our toes!! :) 

Just a typical day

Lately the girls have been a handful of fun! They are exploding with language and are just little fellow humans living in the house with me all day. They are so sweet and getting along so well, unless they are tired and then they are borderline abusive to each other, and our days are sweet! 

Here is a glimpse into our fun filled, exhausting days! 

6:30am

Little Zoe woke up with a cold she had been trying to get for a few days. She was a pathetic little, sweet soul. We wait another 30 minutes and Nora joins the fun. We have their fav, sausage and grapes for breakfast! 

7:30a.m. 

Nora enjoying her new toy. She has a current passion for building blocks! 

8:30 A.M- drive to weight watchers and shudder as I step on the scale after a week that included the eating of hotdogs, cheesecake, and a couple margaritas. Only lost .2 pounds...but at least I didn't gain right!?

10am

Playing on the couch cushions with a moment of fit throwing...not sure the cause!?

Best buddies :) 

10:30 a.m- head to work for a couple hours....time for a quick breakfast in the car & a second of calm. 

1p.m

Snackin on the banana muffin badder. They love a good bowl to lick...don't worry no raw stuff in there! 

3:30p.m quick trip to sonic for happy hour to grab a gigantic drink! Always a good end of day treat! 

4:30p.m 

Finally in the bath after more days of no bathing that I'd like to admit! 

5p.m dinner for the little monsters while I cook breakfast for the morning 

6p.m

Now time to wait for Daddy to come home and pray he doesn't care that he is literally walking over couch cushions and piles of gluten free muffins that for some reason didn't rise and the girls just crumbled all over creation. 

7-8p.m

Bedtime, diapers, teeth brushing, which is usually a breeze but our poor little sickie had trouble breathing and took lots of rocking 

8:30p.m 

Dinner for us and then a good once over of the mess that we spent the day creating! 

9p.m

Ahhhh......sitting on the couch with the rest of my diet coke and a big glass of water while I watch DVR'd movies!! 

May seem like a long day & it totally is. But so TOTALLY worth it. I wouldn't have my days ANY other way!! I really can't help but stop about 100x a day and thank God for this beautiful life!!!  

And bonus....tomorrow is Saturday and I get to do it with Lance which means much less mess and a lot more rest!! 

Great news!

Not much to post today except for the BEST news ever!! Lance got word today that he will be transferred BACK to Houston for work effective the first week of September!! If you could have only seen my face when I got this text! Not only is this a new job & opportunity for Lance (within the same company) it gives us our Daddy/husband back for at least 3 more hours a day, gives Lance MUCH more sleep and gives me more time with my hubby & more day to day help....sorry Lance! 

Thanking God for answering our prayers regarding Lance's job! I think we were both about done with the whole thing so this news couldn't have come any sooner! 

**And remember our one criteria to be fully ready to embrace the adoption? Yep, Lances job! Bring it on! I think I need a few more crumbs on my floor and another baby to snuggle all day!! 

Yippee!! :) 

Next ER trip....daddy will only be a blink away! But really, no more ER trips please!