Travel Approval!!!

It's the loooong awaited (most painful) travel approval!!!

In other words: MY WATER JUST BROKE!!!!

Instead of packing bags and running to the hospital...

                         ...we are packing bags and buying flights and going to CHINA!!!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!

Give 1 Save 1/Happy Chinese New Year!

Yep, it's totally the year of the SNAKE!!!

Happy Chinese New Year! This week EVERYTHING in China is shut down. This is like our American Christmas/New Years holidays. That means everything we are waiting on...is at a halt.

So...what a cool thing to be featured on the Give 1 Save 1 blog this week!

This is a blog run by a sweet woman who has a heart of gold and wants to see orphans come home to their families!

The premise is simple: 
Give $1 and help save a child from a life without a family.

That simple dollar goes not only to help a child home to his or her family, but it also frees up a bed in an orphanage for another child to come in off the streets.

Oh the power of a dollar!!

So this week, CHINESE NEW YEAR WEEK, the blog is featuring our family and all dollars collected will help us finish up the gap to bring Toby home.

We have $6,700 left.

So I have a favor to ask...

...in addition to following the link and reading about us and donating a buck, would you also share this blog post with your networks? Tweet it, blog it, put it on your Facebook...and Instagram it!!

The power of this week can potentially bring $1,000 in!!

BUT ONLY IF WE HAVE HELP SHARING!!!!

Here's what you want to paste places:

http://give1save1asia.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-week-meet-shaws.html

How can I thank you enough???

Maybe sweet pictures of Toby in our arms will do the trick! ;) (soon, so soon!!!)

Blessings, dear ones!!!

Oh, and Chun Jie Kuai Le! (Happy Chinese New Year!!)

When God Rains Down Love!!

I rejoice!!

New pictures of Toby have come to us this morning!!!

(This after I was having a very overwhelming morning that began VERY EARLY and many details were going wrong in some adoption paperwork I was working on for our Chinese visas...I had just cried out to God for something...and WOW did He answer!!)

Just look at this adorable face!!!

I cannot get over that he is holding our pictures! That whole book was prepared on our behalf by the wonderful women, Gretchen and Lillian, at China Adoption Help. If you are a waiting momma for a child in China, go here to visit their site! I was able to upload files from our computer and have them make this book and deliver it to him! AMAZING!!!

And then we ordered a "stuffed animal" to be sent to him. Is there any shock to anyone else that they "happened" to choose a cow??? Daddy is a dairy farmer! (Around here, we call that a God "wink" when He does some tiny detail to show you His love!)

(Anyone want me to pick you up some fun Chinese curtains while I'm there?)

And then another picture with the awesome pillow that Gretchen and Lillian made for us:

So cool!!!

And they added one final picture...this one makes my heart physically hurt. This must have been snapped randomly in the orphanage. He's totally got the "look" of living in an institution--the mismatched clothing, the shoes on the wrong feet...

...this sweet boy needs to come HOME!!!

And...funny you should mention that...

                                     ....because when it rains, it POURS!!!

This morning we ALSO got approved for a matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans!!!!

That means that if anyone gives to help us bring Toby home in the next few weeks...all donations will be DOUBLED!!!

Here's how to be part of this:
Go here to the Lifesong for Orphans website.

Then click "give" on the right side of the blue menu bar. Then select "Make a donation."

Then choose "Give to an adoptive family."

When you fill the form out, use our name "SHAW" and the number "3330" so that it will go specifically to bring Toby home.

Your gift will be 100% towards Toby's adoption expenses and you will receive a tax deductible receipt.

Please note that any donations given to our "Adopt Together" account do NOT qualify for the matching grant.

Thank you SO MUCH!

We are currently waiting on something called "Article 5" which is the final paperwork approval for Toby's visa to become an American and fly home with us. Then we get our Travel Approval (known as "TA") and we GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew! Turning out to be a rather exciting Monday!!!

147 Million Reasons to HOPE!

We are thrilled to announce that we are now fundraising through the amazing company:

That means that every time you purchase ANY product using our link from 147 Million Orphans, you will accomplish two awesome things:

1) Feed a child in a 3rd world nation (you can choose where your dollars go!)

2) Help bring Toby home!!

GO YOU!!!

There are loads of wonderful products available for sale...

From uber cool burn-out shirts like this one (I'm wearing mine today!):

To mugs...

To jewelry that comes from these 3rd world nations...

And much, much more! (In fact, I just got my pair of comfy red sweat pants and LOVE THEM!)

Click this link and hop on over to 147 Million Orphans and shop away! 
* SPECIAL NOTE: We will only receive credit for your purchase if you use this link. Thank you for helping us bring our little boy HOME!

Book It for Baby!

Time for a FRESH NEW FUNDRAISER!!!

Why???

To bring this now BIGGER boy home to our family!

(Can you believe how different he looks than that little boy in the crib in the sidebar?!?! Me neither!!)

Anyway, back to the goods!

We have the fabulous opportunity to earn funds for bringing Toby home by hosting an Usborne Book Party!!

Yayyyyy!!!! (the crowd goes wild!)

I have a history of home schooling. Not a long history, about 2 years is all actually. But during that time we bought many Usborne books because they are SO WONDERFUL and full of awesomely colored pages and information that our kids gobbled up. These books are so wonderful that Sonlight curriculum uses volumes of them in their Core curriculums. So when my friend offered to hold a party with these same books to help bring The Tobster home, well, let's just say I JUMPED UP AND DOWN!!

Just to throw a little marketing your way, here is what they about their books:
Usborne and Kane Miller books are the most exciting, engaging and educational books on the market today. They are high quality, innovative, lavishly-illustrated and best of all they are the books kids love to read. Choose from almost 2,000 bright colorful and fun titles covering a wide variety of subjects.

And I agree!! My kids POUR over these books!!!

I went around our house just collecting the Usborne titles we have loved over the years and this is what I've come up with:

Most of our titles are science and history related, but clearly Usborne has fiction and other books too! ;)

So what do our mommy-minds think about after we've put our kiddos back on the school bus and kicked off the school year?

Christmas!

(Stop rolling your eyes, you KNOW it's coming in just 4 months, don't you???)

We also have birthdays in between now and then too!

So here's what I'm thinking. Let's all get AHEAD this year. Consider gifting your beloved ones with books! I can attest to all FIVE of our children pouring over these books for HOURS at a time!

If you choose to do this, you have the joint pleasure knowing that your purchases have helped bring our little Toby-man home!! Twenty-five percent of your purchase will be deposited into Toby's adoption fund. Plus, the more people buy Toby will earn free welcome home books! How cool is THAT?!? I absolutely cannot WAIT to hold him and read to him!!

Follow this linky-dink to shop! Click me! Just to be sure your purchase helps Toby, please select "Amy Shaw" under "choose your event" (never knew I was an event before, haha!) before you proceed to shop.

Awesome! 

Picture Yourself...Helping Toby Home!

So...this past weekend I had amazing fun with my all-time BFF!!

They are SO cute, aren't they?

She and her precious family came and visited us for 2 wonderful days...we laughed and talked and just had a great time together.

One thing we did was take a few family pictures for them. This took about 10 minutes...and then we were back to hanging out and laughing.

It was way cool.

I just emailed her the files to print.

And it started my wheels turning...

What if we offered to do little "mini sessions" like this for others in exchange for donations to help bring Toby home?

We tossed around some ideas...

...so if YOU are looking to have 

some high quality family portraits done 

mid to late August...

...then we invite you to contact us about taking a slot. (Comment here or on Facebook and we'll get details out as soon as possible.)

As a caveat, this will not be a "full session" like we used to do with our photography clients. The time allotment will be 10-15 minutes per family. It will not be for large groups. It will be light retouching only. You will do the printing. (One of the main reasons we stopped our photography was the enormous time commitment on our part. The goal of this project will be to provide you with a high quality image of your precious ones with minimal time on our end.)

Obviously, this will be limited to people who live nearby. Sorry friends in Singapore! How much we'd love to come and shoot on location!

If you would like to donate toward our efforts to bring Toby home you can always click on his picture in the side bar and give directly to our Adopt Together account. All gifts are tax deductible.

We hope that this will be a delightful way to raise funds to help meet our next agency payment to bring home our little man!

Just picture yourself...helping bring Toby home!