Babypalooza Giveaway #1 Amanda Simpkins

So my dear readers, because of my wonderful blessing from God of my pregnancy I wanted to give back and get you all excited about something. While I can't give you all a baby (not sure if all of you would want that anyway hehe) I can do not one but two giveaways. I'm calling it babypalooza. They are baby themed, but definitely not just for mamas (or daddys) because these giveaways are great for everyone!

I'm so excited to introduce you to this first shop. I found her shop and I instantly fell in love with all her products. Then I started talking to Amanda, and wow I just absolutely love her already. It was one of those times when you just know she is a kindred spirit as Anne Shirley would say. Her sweet personality and obvious love of God was neat. I could tell that God was so important to her and just Everything in her life, which you know is something dear to my heart. 

Her shop is so special because she is using to money to fund her adoption (you will hear more from her later) but I thought that was so sweet. Adoption is so special to me, and I was so excited to feature her shop. I don't normally do this, but Amanda is so special and her shop is so special that I really want to encourage you, my dear readers, to help support her adoption and buy something from her shop. 

Her shop features bandanna dresses for girls, and art that is personalized. I love her art. She writes whatever you want, and uses the colors you want. Its such a neat idea. I am looking forward to ordering from her when I set up my nursery for the baby.

I wanted to help you, my dear readers, to get to know Amanda a little better so I asked her some questions and asked her to give you all some information about her life. I know you will love her too.

"I started my shop for one simple reason: to fund our adoption from Ethiopia. When my husband and I decided that we would for sure pursue adoption, I immediately went into money mode. I am a teacher, and he is a self employeed landscaper. We do fine, and we are content with what God has blessed us with; however, to try and come up with an extra $30,000 and still raise our 4 biological children was going to be a challenge. We are taking it in small increments, and we pray specifically for a certain amount. When we get that goal met, we move on to the next amount. I decided to begin painting these canvases just to see if they would sell. Any little bit helps. All of the money, every bit, will go straight towards our adoption expenses and help literally save the life of an infant boy somewhere in Ethiopia. 

We are using America World Adoption agency. We are in the very beginning stages, and we mailed off our paper application and first fee on Tuesday, December 27. We sat down Christmas night and completed the paperwork. We are requesting to adopt an infant boy ages newborn - 14 months. We have 4 biological children of our own. The two oldest are boys, and the two youngest are girls. Our new son will be our 5th child! WOW! I know...I would have never thought I would have 5 children!! :) My husband and I have been married 12 years. God is so good, he has been so good to us, and we want to extend that love to a child who needs it. I wish we could bring them all home with us! We wil llikely bring home a 7-10 month old boy...who will weigh about 10-12 pounds! That alone breaks my heart. Our youngest daughter is almost 11 months, and she weighs 24 pounds!

In my shop, one would find cute little handpainted name canvases for homes, little girls' rooms, hairbow holders, etc. I am expanding anytime something pops into my mind that I can make and make well. :) I have whipped out my sewing machine, giving myself a few refresher courses, and I am working on adding little girl bandana dresses in the mix. As soon as we get our adoption tshirts printed and ready to go, those, too, will be added in the store! I am excited to see those come! I try really hard to make each piece something I would want to have in my house. My favorites are probably the "Wash your hands. Use soap. love mom" sign and the initial letter canvas made with buttons. :)

In my free time, I love to read. I read all the time! (well, as much as one can with a full time job and 4 kiddos)

Who inspires me? Honestly, I am inspired by Jesus. The love he was able to show everyone amazes me. He willingly tolerated and endured so much. The strength, love, patience, kindness, understanding, etc that he displayed, and still does, is remarkable.

Excluding my family and my Bible, it sounds silly, but the one thing I couldnt live without is the sun. I love sunshine! I could never live in the Alaska or the state of Washington where there isn't much sunshine. We may even move to Florida, the Sunshine state, one day..who knows!

One random thing about me...hhmmmm, I am terrified of the dentist and snakes! Not that they have anything in common.:-)

I am excited to be a part of this announcement. Babies are wonderful in every way! Please pray for both Katie and I as we embark on the journey of motherhood, just in different ways! :) -Amanda"

Amanda has offered to the winner one 8x10 wrapped canvas in whatever colors and wording the winner wants. How exciting is that? I plan to order one with the baby's name and whatever colors the nursery ends up being when the baby is born, but one of you gets it for free!

The giveaway ends January 21. Please make sure your email is visible in your comment or blog. Also. make sure to post each entry as a separate comment to count as different entries. This giveaway is open to those in the United States (I'm sorry to those of who are international).

Mandatory Entry: 1. Tell me what wording and colors you would have on your sign, if you won. 1 entry

Extra Entries: 

2. Follow my blog publicly on GCF. 1 entry 

3. Follow Amanda's blog, The Family That God Built 1 entry

4. Heart Amanda's shop 1 entry

5. Buy something from Amanda's shop. 3 entry

6. Blog/tweet/faceboo/post to giveaway site (or somehow get the word out) and post link for verification. 1 entry per post

7. Vote for my blog on the fence (see side bar). This can be done daily. 1 entry per day per vote

My New Adventure

It has officially been a year that I have had this blog. This blog has seen me through some very low points this year, (2 miscarriages etc) and some high points (graduating, starting USF etc). So many people are using this time at the start of the year to look forward, and backwards at what last year held, and what we can look forward to this year.

So much has happened last year, and this upcoming year holds a lot of changes for us. This summer we are moving back to North Florida. We will be closer to our families, which will be nice, and Isaiah will be starting a new job. Isaiah graduates in May. But probably the biggest change in our lives this year will be a new addition to our family.

Yes, we are expecting a BABY!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? But yes, we are expecting in July. I have to say, its been hard keeping it a secret from you, my dear readers. But I can finally spill the beans, and spill I am. Right now I am 10 weeks, and starting to show!

We actually bought our first baby thing the other week. We found an adorable consignment shop near us, and they had the sweetest little rocking horse. We got it. I know its not one of those necessities, but it helped it all hit for me.

Its all starting to sink in. We are looking at nursery ideas, and name ideas. I am super sick well all the time. I am looking forward to moving past that! The sickness would be part of the reason I haven't posted much lately. I honestly haven't felt up to it.

I would ask that you all please be praying for us. Because of our previous miscarriages, its a little scary. I'm working on giving all my cares to God and letting Him handle them, but its been stressful.

Because I'm so excited I wanted to do something historical (well historical for Kady Did). I am doing not one, but two baby themed giveaways (but these giveaways are great for not just mothers etc, but everyone!).I'm calling it Babypalooza. I am so excited. These women helping me announce my pregnancy are awesome, and have some great stuff to offer.

Now I promise that my blog will still feature things God is teaching, and random stuff about my life. It probably will focus on baby T some, but I don't want it to just become a mommy blog. So here is working on making it relevant to others, and God focused!

God has blessed our family in a huge way and we are so excited! Dear readers, come join me in my new adventure!

Find in Me Thine All in All

Today I have been fretting. Some things where wearing heavy on my heart, and I was worrying and upset. I even called my husband at work and started crying at one point. I was a mess. I was fretting and well just a wreck. My husband (he is so wise) told me to stop what I was doing, rest quietly, turn on some soothing music and rest in God. Well wouldn't you know, I did and it started working? (funny how things work out when I listen to my husband)

I have a pandora channel for soothing old hymns, and when I'm stressed and upset I put it on and rest in my Savior. I put it on and started praying that God would work out what I was fretting about. A peace just washed over me. Yes, the situation was still there, but I wasn't worried about it. I know that God had it under control. My soul found peace in my Lord; He is in control and my worrying does nothing.

Then the song Jesus Paid It All came on and the first verse was exactly what I needed to hear.
 "I hear the Savior say,
'Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.'"

Wow! Isn't that perfect? Yes my strength is so small! When I lean on my own understanding, and my own strength I quickly crumple. Life just falls apart when I try to work in my own strength. When I finally gave the situation to God, I realized that I don't have to face it alone. I don't have to face life on my own strength. Because I am a Christian, I don't face life without hope, or alone, I face it with the Creator of the universe! 

When I look to myself for strength, I fail. I fall apart. I fret, but when I look to my God for my all in all, then I can face anything. I'm not saying its always easy. And I'm not saying life with Christ is always easy, but I am saying that I have a strength that is not my own. 

I know that my strength, in and of myself, is small. I know that when I look to myself I am weak. But I know that the Savior of the world has more than enough strength for me to lean on. And when I find my all in all in Him, I am at peace.

Random Thoughts About Serving God

Something I'm really thinking about is how much do I share my convictions and beliefs. How much do I say "hey, this is what I believe." or how much do I just let my actions show my beliefs? Its something that I think everyone needs to work through in their own  way. 

I knew someone that was constantly sharing his beliefs, you can't meet him without hearing about his faith. He preaches on the street corners, and he is so open. But then I know people that completely do not share their faith at all. They just say that God will work through them, but then they act no differently than anyone else, and you can't tell the difference.

Along with this, how do you balance showing the love of God with saying, ok this is my standard and I want to not be tainted by the world. How do you stay out of the world, but take Jesus' example and be loving to people that are obviously sinners? 

Honestly, I don't have the answer. I mean to me, I think that my faith is such an integral part of my life. You just look at me and I'm obviously different. I wear long skirts, modest shirts and I have very long hair. But then I want to not just look at me and then my testimony stop, but I want my actions to show Christ, His love and His power. 

I have to admit that I need to do a better job of making sure that my God is the focal point of my life. I dont want it to be something that is just a part of my life, I want it to be the thing that guides my life. I want everything to do to praise the Lord. 

 

Something I see so much of is people feeling like they have to follow certain rules to earn God's salvation and favor. I think this is so wrong. This changes the revelations from the Word of God and the convictions that He gives and makes them something that becomes like a prison and pressure. It saddens me so much because my beliefs and the revelations that I have don't mean that I'm in a prison. It makes me happy to follow them because is my way of showing God that I love him. Its like making supper for my husband or getting him a special present. I don't do it because I have to follow some rules to earn favors and salvation, I do it to show my love.

I want God to be the thing that my life wraps around. I want to people see how much joy serving God puts in my life. I want them to see that loving God and serving Him has changed my life and continues to change my life I want people to see that.

But how hard is it balance everything in my Christian life. I think that I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to live in the way that serves my God, and the way He has shown me. God will take care of how people see what I do, and how my testimony gets across. I started to realize that it isn't my job to make sure people get the right idea, its His job. As long as I'm living my life the way He has shown me, and showing Him how much He means to me, than He will have to worry about all his other creation and how they view me.

Making God First

I feel like our life is changing at a break neck speed right now and I haven't updated you all about it. Well, this post will not be about our rapidly changing life, that post will come later. No I promise it really will. This post will be about something else. Something God has been pounding into my head, and heart, a lot lately. Its come up in so many conversations, and in my Bible reading, and sermons. Just oh so many places.

This thing God has been showing me is how important a personal walk with Him really is. A personal relationship with God has to be everything in your life. It has to be the thing that you make the most important. I have to admit that lately I have not been doing a good job at working on my relationship with God. I have not made it a number one priority. So many times I think about working on my relationship with father, my family and others, and I start to neglect my relationship with God. What is wrong with me? Why is it that my relationship with God is one of the first things that I so quickly drop when things start to get busy? I know, I am ashamed to admit it. It is so wrong. But I have promised to always be honest on here.

So back to what God is showing me. I am realizing that he does not want my leftovers. He does not want what I have left over in my time to give Him. I know that in my relationship with my husband I have to make an effort to build our relationship. I can't just give my husband my scraps of time, and expect my relationship with Him to grow. I am realizing (and yes God has taught me this before, but in my somehow human mind I seem to forget this) that God needs my attention. He needs more than I even give my husband. If my other activities are taking away from my relationship with Him, than it should never by my relationship with Him that suffers, it should be that I need to take something out of my life that is distracting me. Working on my relationship with God should be the most important thing in my life.

Something that I have seen in my growing up (I'm at the ripe old age of 20, gasp!) is many of my friends, and aquaintances that I thought would never leave their faith are leaving everything I thought they believed in. Many people that came from good Chrstian families, and who I thought had strong Christian backgrounds are renouncing their faith. Now in many of their lives, it has to do with many different reasons, and I'm not saying that any one reason causes this, but something I am seeing as a big issue is that these people do not have their own personal relationship with God. In so many of these "good" Christian families the parents have a relationship with God, and teach their kids a certain way to live, but the kids never develop their own relationship with God. They rely on their parent's rules, and their parent's relationship with God, and then they grow up, and their parent's relationship with God will not hold them anymore. They flounder. I have definitley felt that way.

Something I have found, as a wife, is that it is easy to rely on my husband's relationship with God. Its easy to just say ok well He has a relationship with God, so I'm fine (ok well maybe not quite that simplified but you get the general picture). I know, that is so wrong. When I try to rely on His relationship, it puts so much pressure on Isaiah, and not only am I not getting what i should from God, but it hurts my relationship with Isaiah, and his relationship with God.

So here I am, saying that I am far from perfect. My relationship with God is far from perfect. But I need to work on not letting my busy life get before my relationship with my Savior. My Savior should be the most important Thing in my life. But ashamedly I say, sometimes He isn't.

I want to start making my Lord a priority. I want to make spending time with Him the most important thing in my life. I want my God to be first.

Need Some Help From My Readers

Lately I've been thinking a lot about homeschooling. As many of you know, I was homeschooled until college. It was an interesting experience, and definitely shaped who I am. We were not the family that you think about as "homeschooling". We interacted with others. We had a good education that prepared us for college. We did not wear khaki jumpers (not saying that those who wear khaki jumpers are bad). I am just saying I went through homeschooling and came out the other side.

Now I am studying to be a teacher myself. It has amazed me how much of a prejudice there is against homeschoolers. I know that it is a very touchy subject for many people. But I feel like I am coming from both sides. I went through homeschooling and yet I'm studying to be a teacher.

I also have a unique perspective because I have been all the way through it. I look back and see things that worked well, and things that didn't work so well for me. I have been thinking about an idea. I wanted to get some feedback from you all on it. What do you all think about having a homeschool blogathon? I was thinking about having some moms that homeschool write, and some ex homeschoolers write and all link up. And maybe have an opportunity to take questions from people. If anyone is interested in doing this with me, or would be interested in what would be said, let me know. I am trying to feel out and see if there is any interest in the blog world.

If anyone that has a blog would be interested in reposting this and helping me feel out interest, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

Healthy and Beautiful

If you go back to my first blog post this year I said that I wanted to get healthy. So far this year I have done nothing but let myself go. I have had stress after stress and lots of excuses. I have gained weight. Its bad.

I hate the way I look. I know its not good to hate the way you look, but then some would say its not good to be content with yourself with you weigh as much as I do. So I guess no matter who I talk to, I'm not a winner. but I do hate myself. It got to the point that I don't want to go out because I'm thinking about what people are thinking about how much I weigh. I don't want to see any old friends because I wonder what they are thinking about the way I look.

I know that I may sound very self-centered, and that added to all the guilt and frustration I had. I felt that no one could love me because of my weight. It was exacerbated by the fact that people so many people started talking to me about the my weight. I know it was because they cared, but it felt like no one loved me for me.

I guess I felt like no one loved me just for my personality. I felt like if I didn't look the part, I wasn't good enough. This comes from many years of feeling fat, ugly and then hear I go, gaining weight. I just wanted to feel beautiful.

Thankfully I had Isaiah telling em I was beautiful even though I was overweight. I guess I didn't believe him. More than that, I wanted to believe that someone God had made me beautiful. I wanted to think that He loved me and had made me special. I felt like somehow He had made me beautiful and yet somehow I had messed it up and He didn't want to look at me.

I know the way I felt was wrong, but I promised to always be honest on here. So I will be honest. I still struggle with all this. Part of my resolution to get healthy was to see myself as beautiful, and I have to admit that I'm still working on that. I still feel ugly because I am overweight. I still hate the way I look. But I'm starting to accept that for some reason God made me not stick thin. He made it harder for me to lose weight. He didn't make me naturally thin, and that's ok. He made me beautiful to Him.

And I am starting to realize that I am beautiful to Isaiah. I am so thankful for a husband that sees me as beautiful no matter my weight. He tells me he thinks I'm still beautiful. I don't understand why he thinks I'm beautiful, but somehow he does.

So I'm still working through how I feel about myself, but today I started working out. I wanted to workout, and start feeling better. I hate how tired I am. I hate how I look. I don't want to lose weight through crash diets, or purging. I want to get healthy in a way that can be long term.

So I start working out. I start getting to a place that I can feel like I'm healthy and I'm happy with the way I look. I know I need to work out how I feel about the way I look.

So as you can see, I'm a work in progress. I haven't arrived. I am not perfect. I struggle, I gain weight. I'm imperfect. But I'm honest with you. I want to feel beautiful and accept myself.