Amazon Store

I have been hard at work putting together an Amazon Store! This goes hand in hand with being an affiliate. There is a link at the top of the blog page, Our Amazon Adoption Store. When you click that link, it will take you to my amazon store. I have posted books that I love and has really changed my life, family friendly movies, books dealing with Africa, and plan on posting household items, maybe some foods, and many more things. I also have placed our coffee store from Just Love Coffee, and our Olive Tree Promise storefront links on the same line so that you can find them easily. I want to thank you each one again for helping us bring our child home. May God bless and keep you each one!

Amazon Affiliate!

I am working on something new.  I hope to unveil it very soon.  Some of  you already know the basics.  The quick version is this, we have become Amazon affiliates to raise money for our adoption!  It is so easy, all you have to do is use the amazon search box on the right side bar and we will get a percentage of your purchase that will go directly to our adoption fund!  It is quick and easy and you don't have to do anything different than you were already planning on doing!  If you are headed to amazon to purchase something, will you please use the link here instead of going directly to amazon?

We have a winner!

I want to say thank you so much to each of you who have participated in our American Girl giveaway!  This has been so much fun to do.  I also want to say thank you to each of you for donating to help us provide a home for one of God's children.  We are so blessed and so humbled by each one of your generous donations.  Thank you so very much.

I am thrilled to announce that we have chosen a winner by using Random.org.  I listed each of your names 1 time for each entry and had the list randomly generate the winner.  Our winner is Lisa Keva of Homeschool Circus!  Congratulations Lisa!  She has chosen Marie-Grace as her prize.  I am sure there is a little girl in the Keva household who is very excited today!  Maybe we can get Lisa to give us a guest post with pictures when they receive Marie-Grace!

Mary Kay Fundraiser drawing to a close

First I want to say a big thank you to Debbie and to each and every one of you for considering purchasing Mary Kay to support the Crouch and Russell families in our adoptions. We are so humbled by and brought to tears by the generosity of each one of you.

I also wanted to remind you that the end is drawing near. The last day to order is Sunday, August 21st. If you haven't ordered yet, and still plan to, just head on over to Debbie's website at www.marykay.com/debbieburgio and place your order. You can specify to which family or to both families you want your portion to go to. Also, in a VERY generous offer, Debbie has promised, to each person who buys at least $25.00 in product, to give them 15% off anything else they buy through December 1, 2011!!! Isn't that amazing! Thank you Debbie ♥

Again, thank you to each one of you, for supporting us, but more importantly for helping to give a child a chance that they would have never had any other way. Orphanage life is horrendous. There aren't enough words to describe what these children have to endure because they don't have a family to love and provide for them. Can you imagine feeding your baby 1 ounce of formula and dirty water for the day, everyday, because that is all you have? That is what these babies go through. You are providing their ransom when you support their adoptions. Thank you sweet friends!

The Crouch and Russell families ♥

It's a GIVEAWAY!

I am so excited to tell you that we are giving away an American Girl Doll!  Want to know the coolest part?  You get to choose which doll you want!  SO, if you already have one American Girl doll, there is no chance of a duplicate ;)  Never heard of American Girl dolls?  Well, go to the official American Girl website (click the words in blue to get there) and read all about them.  Each doll comes with a softcover book in which they are the main character!  These dolls are very popular and tons of fun. 

This would be a great Christmas bargain, and the doll will arrive before Christmas.  All proceeds will go towards our adoption.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your donation to help give an orphan a family.  May God bless each one of you.

You will have the choice of the following dolls.  Click on their names in blue for the link to their page to read more about each one.  They all come from different backgrounds and time periods. 

Addy   

Marie-Grace

Cecile

Josefina

Kaya

Julie

Ivy

Kit

Ruthie

Molly

Emily

Rebecca

Kanani - who is the girl of the year for 2011!!

This giveaway starts today and will end on September 13th. 

If you donate:

$10 you are entered 1 time
$15 you are entered 3 times
$20 you are entered 5 times
and for every $5 you get 2 extra entries.

If you donate at least $10 AND blog about my giveaway with a link for me to check out your blog, I will enter you 5 times! 

Just click on the Donate button on the right of the screen to enter with your donation. When the page loads you will see a box labeled purpose, type American Girl doll giveaway in the box, then put in your donation amount in the smaller box and click update total.  Then come back here and leave me a comment.  Don't forget to leave me a comment with a link to your blog post sending people my way! 

Olive Tree Promise Store

We are so excited to announce our newest storefront!  Just click the blue words to check out our storefront! Olive Tree Promise is a wonderful online store set up to help adoptive families raise money for their adoptions.  There are some wonderful products offered.  Also, new vendors are being added all the time.  If you would like to become a vendor for Olive Tree Products, just let me know and I can hook you up with them. 

Check out some of my favorites!  I just love the puddin' pop dolls.  The Superman was adopted t-shirts are just plain cool :)  Also make sure you check out the jewelry.  There are quite a few products to choose from.  The other thing about this store that is just awesome is the donation page.  You can purchase baby formula for $20 to donate to orphanages in Ethiopia.  You can also purchase a mosquito net or 5 baby chicks for just $10 to give to a family in Zambia.  There are so many more products to choose from.  All the blue words are links to the products in our store. 

We are very excited to offer this avenue for you to participate with us in this adoption journey.  God is so good to us, and we thank Him for YOU everyday.

Mary Kay Fundraiser Live!

We have been blessed by an amazing friend, Debbie Burgio.  She has a Mary Kay business and is hosting a fundraiser for us.  She is donating 30% of the sale to our adoption fund.  This fundraiser starts today, August 1, and ends August 21.  It is very easy to participate.  Simply go to Debbie's Mary Kay website, place an order, and tell her it is for the Crouch Family!  This is not a Mary Kay party that is happening at someones home, it is all online.  We are so humbled and thankful for each of you and for Debbie. 

Mary Kay is a wonderful cosmetics company.  They sell makeup, skin care, hair products, and a men's line.  My favorite skin care product is Satin Hands (Peach scented or unscented).  My hands have a tendency to be very dry, and Satin hands cures this up in one use.  I love the silkiness after I use this product.  What a great gift to a busy lady!  The entire Satin Hands gift set is $34.00.  It lasts me forever! 

There is one more thing I want to showcase here.  I think this is sooo FUN!  You can do a virtual makeover on Debbie's site. All you do is upload your own photo and try on different colors!  I really like this.  Doing this, it takes the guess work out of "can I really wear this color?"  So cool!  You should try the virtual makeover today!

Getting started Fundraising!

Fundraising.  Have you ever considered how to fund raise?  Well, it is daunting to say the least.  When I think of fundraisers, I think of schools and the children going from family member to friends to neighbors asking for someone to please buy their too expensive items to support their group.  The people approached usually buy from them out of guilt or obligation and often times they don't really even want what they bought!  Needless to say, this creates a negative emotion for me as I think of fund raising.

That being said, adoption fundrasing is really not like that.  First of all, we don't have a few hundred children going to everyone they know, unfortunately lol!  Second, most of the fundraisers adoptive families do are services or products that you actually use or will benefit you.  Third, we are on a mission to rescue children that God has chosen us to parent, and by asking you to participate with us by donating money or participating in one of our fundraisers, you will also be counted as *in* on our rescue mission.  In James 1:27 God tells us that "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."  By helping us bring our children home, you are participating in Pure and Genuine religion.  Not everyone can bring a child home, nor should they, BUT everyone should support orphans and widows.  God's word is so clear about the way He feels about this.

Our first fundraiser will be our "Just Love Coffee" store.  If you enjoy coffee, will you please consider purchasing a bag or two from us?  It is fair trade coffee, and what that means is the coffee farmer in Ethiopia gets his fair share of the profit.  For years coffee farmers have been ripped off by the big coffee companies, they were given just pennies for their product, while we were paying a whole lot more than that.  Also, we offer organic coffees.  So won't you come on by and grab a bag?  We will earn $5 from every bag we sell.  You can choose whole bean, ground, and french press.  There are sampler packs, and even clothing  in our store.

Most importantly, thank you.  Thank you for praying for us, thank you for purchasing from us, and thank you for supporting us.  We can't say enough how much it means to us.