my favorite Christmas Present!

Boy, do I ever have a TON to be thankful for! We had a wonderful Christmas with our favorite three year old :) We thoroughly enjoyed watching his awe and wonder and seeing Christmas through a child's eyes again!

My favorite Christmas Present this year was the Lord hearing my prayer to be out of the hundreds on our waitlist for Marlee and we are officially #99 for December!! (we are even lower, unofficially, but I'm not sure by how much so I'll wait till next month for a new official report:)

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas season and a very Happy New Year!

Birthday Boy!

We had a wonderful time celebrating our fabulous three year old this weekend! We went to 'pump it up' to bounce and giggle since Myles has been obsessed with both birthdays and pump it up this year-he's been asking for his birthday party there since july! After a morning of friends and jumping we went to chick-fil-a (chick a lay says Myles) for lunch and home for naps! Everytime we sang the birthday song to him this weekend he had to blow out a candle :) Here are a few pics from the occassion...


his Lightning Mcqueen cake I attempted.

You mean Lightning McQueen is on a bouncing ball-what could be better?! Thanks best buddies Sam and Mac!!

Myles is three and on his throne at Pump it Up!

We didn't win the grant contest we were in this past week, but I'm SO thankful to all of you who shopped our 'ordinary hero store' this past week to help us fundraise to bring Marlee home! I don't know our exact total, but it was close to $300!! y'all are awesome!

FUNdraising week!!

7 Days left to shop our Ordinary Hero store and help us be one of the top three sellers to win a $500 grant to go toward our adoption!!! We are in the top 15 sellers right now, and need to move up in sales to catch the top 3 spots!

Would you please check out our store and do a little Christmas shopping this week??

Would you please spread the word through facebook and word of mouth that THIS week (until Dec. 11th) we are in a grant contest to win $500 towards adoption costs??

All you have to do is pick out an ornament, a cute t-shirt, some rain boots for children in Ethiopia, adorable wooden frames, or a beautiful piece of jewelry handmade by African women and then select 'Megan Manuel' during your checkout from the affiliates drop down menu and we get 40% credit for your purchase as well as another sale closer to being a top seller for the grant!

Blogger is not cooperating with pictures right now, but I'll keep trying to post some things from the store.

THANK YOU!

Shop with a purpose!

NOW is the time to order Ordinary Hero gear! Shop TODAY through December 11th at midnight ... 40% of your purchase goes toward our adoption costs. Simply choose my name (Megan Manuel) from the drop-down affiliate box. There is even a specials Tab where prices have been slashed! Top seller receives $500 grant from OH! Can you please help me??! They have GREAT new items to choose from..Take a look and Thank you!!! :) For the Ordinary Hero store, just click here! *important* you have to choose my name from the affiliate drop down menu at checkout for us to get credit :)

Anyone enjoy a steamy cup of coffee perfection? Ethiopia's major export is just that-and it's the best in the world in my humble opinion! Get a bag of African coffee for the coffee lover on your Christmas List this year and we get a portion of the proceed and you are helping to sustain the livelihood of Ethiopian coffee farmers as they receive a fair wage for their labors from Just Love Coffee! Their are links on the right sidebar of my blog for both of these fundraisers too!

I don't want to be stingy so I'd love to give you some links to other blogs who did the ground work of compiling awesome lists of 'gifts that give back' for your holiday shopping this year! Alison at Lovin' Much has a Christmas shopping list you can access by clicking on the Christmas Tree on the left sidebar of her blog. Also, Melissa at Road to Mercy, has a great list where you can shop with a purpose.

I got (and don't worry, they've already received them at Thanksgiving) my siblings adoption fundraising T-shirts from Josh and Katie Braddy. You can check out their most awesome t-shirt design at their blog-the Braddy bunch! and my sweet friend Brandy and her husband Jason Hester started a non-profit to benefit orphans and widows in South Africa called Restoration Hope. You can provide a week's salary to a caretaker (usually an older widow) for the orphans at Tabitha Ministries by the purchase of one shirt! You can check out their website and order here!


Me and my sweet sis, Erin at Thanksgiving. I'm wearing the Restoration Hope 'love' shirt and when I gave Erin and Julie their's-they loved them!