A Puzzle Piece Fundraiser with a Twist!

We are now kicking off our new fundraiser to help Bring Home Bella. It is a puzzle piece fundraiser, with a twist.

We have this puzzle. There are 500 pieces. 500 seems like a lot doesn't it?




We thought we would like to offer these pieces for a donation. But then realized..... There are a lot of pieces to sell.... And we really, really need to sell them all so that we can buy plane tickets in as soon as 4 months....We need to up the ante.

So, we present to you all........

Incentive!!!!!!!




For every 100 pieces we sell, we will hold a giveaway for 1 Kindle Fire! A $159 value.

How will this work, you ask? For each $10 donation you give to help Bring Home Bella, your name will be written on the back of me of the puzzle pieces. Once there are 100 pieces with names on them, we will draw a winner. Once there are 200 pieces with names, we will draw again. And so on and so forth.

We still have some of our program fees and all of our travel expenses to raise to bring our sweet daughter home. But selling these pieces will bring us a lot closer to that goal!




Would you like to be a Piece of the Puzzle and help Bring Home Bella?
You can do one of two things!

1. Send your donation to my PayPal account, elflikesmusic@hotmail.com

Or

2. Email that same address to obtain our mailing address.

Our goal is to do the fist drawing 6/15/13 or sooner!

You can buy as many pieces as your would like! Just make sure your donation is a multiple of $10 so there isn't any confusion.

Also, if you do not want to participate in the giveaway aspect, but want to purchase a puzzle piece, you can still donate and let me know not to include your piece(s) in the drawings.

If you would like to share this on Facebook or your blog, we would greatly appreciate that as well!

There is no cutoff date, this will be ongoing until we reach 500 pieces!
Thank you, as always, for your love and support as we get ready to Bring Home Bella!

DTC!!!!!!!!!

Wow, what a journey we have been in these last few weeks, but we are finally DTC! This means our dossier has been sent to China. The paper chase is over. And now, we wait. We are hoping that I will be in China in October!

We were DTC on 5/15. Which just happens to be Kiara's gotcha day and the anniversary of receiving our travel call for Jocelyn! All three girls share this special day!

On Mother's Day we were blessed with an update and pictures of our sweet Bella. She is doing well. She is healthy and happy and loves attention. Here she is!

Our Dossier is Finished!

After a 9 month long"paper pregnancy" I just FedExed our dossier documents to our courier in New York City, who will deliver them to the Chinese consulate tomorrow!

We hope to be DTC, or "Dossier to China" by the end of next week!

Hang on Bella. We will be there soon!

Having Fun in PT

Here is our strong girl having fun with her amazing physical therapist. Strengthening those stomach muscles in hopes of sitting independently someday!

That's her wheelchair in the background. So thankful she is still spending lots of time in it, sitting near the other children at her orphanage and being a part of the action!

Doesn't she just make you want to smile?

Moving Along!

I haven't updated recently because, well..... I have been shuffling mountains of paperwork, spring cleaning and organizing, and of course living life with our five kids!

We received an update on Bella a little over a month ago. She is healthy and happy and we hear she is getting some amazing physical therapy since her move back to the orphanage. While we certainly wish she never had to move, we will thank God for this blessing in the midst of her loss of all that was familiar to her.














Isn't she beautiful?

We are currently waiting for one last piece of our paperwork puzzle, and then we will hopefully be DTC in a few weeks. We are so excited to begin the official wait to bring Bella home!

T-Shirt Fundraiser!

We are teaming up with my friend Kelly and her company, Minus 1 Project, to sell these awesome t-shirts and help Bring Home Bella!

The shirts come in three colors, grey, orange and pink, as seen below. The available sizes are Youth XS-L, and Adult Small- 3X.

The cost is $20 per shirt, and $10 of the cost goes directly towards Bringing Bella Home!!!! If you need your shirt shipped, it will cost $2.50 extra for mailing costs.

You get an awesome shirt to wear, AND you help bring home our precious Starfish, Bella! It's a win-win situation!

We would like to have the orders in by January 15th. Please send me a Facebook message with your order, or you can email me at bellasmommy2013@gmail.com

Thank you for your continued support, and for helping us in this journey! God bless you all!

For as long as I can remember, I have had this dream to adopt a little girl from China. I married a wonderful man who shared my dream.

For the past five years, we have had it on our hearts to some day adopt a little one with lifelong special needs. We have prayed and waited and now, finally, this is the year! We could not be more excited to be looking forward to Bella's arrival this year.

We are not saints for "doing this." She is not "lucky" that we are adopting her. We don't "have" to adopt a child who is paralyzed from the waist down because we have "so many kids. " We CHOSE her!!!!!!!! Exactly as she is! Perfectly and wonderfully and beautifully made by God himself!

She is our long awaited answer to prayer; she is a dream come true. In her daddy's words, "I feel like I won the lottery, I am so lucky to get to be her dad."

Little girl, you are so very LOVED!!!!! I just wanted to shout that from the rooftops today!