calling all sewists! {edited}

So here's the thing- waiting for a baby is hard.  Waiting for a baby that is not in your own tummy is really hard.  Waiting for a baby that may not end up coming into your home at all is terribly hard.   In the mean time, why don't we get our sew on in honor of this precious baby boy?

I am teaming up with our adoption agency/ homeless ministry to make softies for the children that they are rescuing out of traumatic situations and placing in loving homes.  There are around 10,000 homeless people in Houston, and 25% of those are children.  The majority of these children are living in survival mode.  They are not thriving, they are surviving.  Wouldn't you just love to bring some hope into their lives?

Little Footprints in Houston is doing that.  They are on the streets offering love and meeting the spiritual and physical needs of these children.  In some instances, the best thing for the child is to be removed from their current living situation and placed into a foster home (LF calls their families Rescue Families or Rescue Homes).  We learned in our training that some of the children that are being rescued are living in motel rooms with their prostitute moms.  Mom turns tricks in one bed while the kids are in the other.  Some of the children being rescued are being tortured.  Actually tortured.  Tied to chairs, burned with cigarettes, sexually abused in unimaginable ways.  I met a baby girl that was 10 weeks old.  She was rescued at 8 weeks.  She was living on the floor of an abandoned house.  The adults living in this house were on meth and using survival sex.  She was on the floor in the corner.  A newborn, on the floor.

You can imagine how hard it was to sit in training and hear story after story.  Some had happy endings, they were placed in homes that could offer them the family they needed for the time that they needed them.  Some did not have happy endings.  Some ended with children remaining in homes where they were being raped daily.  Some ended with children dying at the hands of a mom's jealous boyfriend.  Sitting in training, my mind was working.  How can I help Lord?  What can I do?  And then I was reading an account in the book Quilting for Peace that jogged a memory.  I remembered hearing about police officers and fire fighters collecting teddy bears to give to children that they were rescuing from trauma situations.  I thought "why not for the little feet of Houston's streets?  Why not offer them something to hug and love to help ease anxiety?".

That brings me to this, to you!

Would you please consider sewing up a lovey?  A little softie friend for one of these sweet children?   Would you maybe even consider getting a group of friends together for a sewing night?  Sew a little, chat a little, eat a little?


The nitty gritty:

Buddy holding "clementine" made from the speedy quick OWL pattern

• There are so many great, free patterns online.  In my short perusal I found this bunny, this monkey, this owl, and for the littlest feet, this sunshine.  So thankful for the women that took the time to put such greatness online for free!  (those different color words are links- please click on them!)  If you already have a softie pattern that you love, please use that one!

The adorable Molly Monkey Doll from mmmcrafts-
just a sample of one of the MANY patterns you can choose from!

• While you sew, would you please pray over the child that will be receiving this gift?  Pray for their safety, for their healing?

• Most children that are being rescued are between newborn- four years.

• I'm shooting to have a box full by the end of July.  Can you help with that?

If you are interested in taking part in this, THANK YOU!  Please email me for an address to send your softie to.  Please write "softie" in the subject box so I won't delete!  My email is:

mandiandjohn (at) sbcglobal (dot) net

when to call in the big guns

This week I have found some unwanted visitors in the garden.  We found not one, but two black widow spiders on a tomato plant.  What the what???  I have never seen a black widow out in the open air, sunning on a leaf.  They are usually in places like the corners of sheds, under a stack of logs, not climbing up a tomato plant.  She was very pretty, but she ended up under my boot.  Now we are extra cautious when picking tomatoes, always looking for signs of webs.

And then there was this guy that I found this morning.  If you're thinking "wow, that looks really big, but it must be the close up zoom of Mandi's awesome new camera", you'd be wrong my friend (about the size, not about the camera- it really is awesome!).  This tomato hornworm is over 3 inches long!  And it is the perfect green of a tomato plant.  Can you believe I nearly missed seeing something this monstrous?

I have not used one conventional spray on my plants ever.  I usually smash stink bugs after picking each one off.  I feed caterpillars and grubs to the chickens.  But when I saw this guy I realized that I may have a real problem on my hands.  If left alone, horn worms can knock out the whole crop very fast.  So I turned to the big guns- Bt Worm Killer.  Bt is technically safe to use in organic gardens, but it was still unsettling to me.  Anything near the "poison" category makes me nervous!

You may have seen hornworms in your garden too.  They actually start out very small, like a normal caterpillar.  If undetected they can get between 3-4 inches long.  They typically munch on leaves, but this guy had eaten half of one of my mortgage lifter tomatoes.  Mortgage lifters weigh about a pound each.  Each!  He had eaten a half a pound of tomato over night!


Have you found any monsters in the garden lately?  Do tell!


Please come back on Monday.  I have an exciting project that I need your crafty selves to help me with!

how we met

We met our birth mom this week!  It was really incredible to sit next to her, hear her speak of her love for this child and connect over baking and crafting.  She is beautiful and brave, and facing a very difficult decision.  We are no where really closer to knowing if this is a for sure thing yet.  So we are still taking it one day at a time, trusting that the outcome will be what it is supposed to be.

In the meantime we have this young woman in our lives that we get to pray for and love, and we are taking that pretty seriously.  We feel so connected to her that we know this is the supernatural work of God.  Because really, she never should have seen our book.

We have been working all this time with Loving Alternative in Tyler.  For almost two years we have waited to hear some news from the wonderful women that work there.  During that time we found that they were assisting another group of YWAM missionaries down in Houston who run a program called Little Footprints.  This program works with homeless children and teens, and runs a weekly street church where individuals are fed literally and spiritually.  John and I had volunteered with street church about three years ago and really loved what we were seeing.  They have been working in the past few years to equip rescue families to take in street children and babies.  This then turned into adoptions.  Fast forward to February 2012.  A friend of ours from our church is a case worker with the Houston branch (called Loving Alternative Houston, or just Loving Houston).  She asked if we could attend their training in that month and if we had an extra Life Book that could be shown.  I grabbed her a copy of our LB immediately, but we then decided that my health wasn't really what it should be to begin the process at that time.  They told us that they would put us on hold until I was feeling better.

So two weeks ago when we received the call from Loving Houston, we were shocked.  We really thought that we were off of their radar at this point.  As it turns out, our birth mom had looked at several books and didn't see anyone that felt right to her.  The director of the program grabbed another stack of books that we just happened to be in.  When she chose us, the director was fuzzy on who we even were!  We should not have been in that stack!  She remembered that we are friends with another rescue family and got our contact info from them.  So crazy!  The timing has been perfect, because they were offering training this week.  They require that all of their families are licensed foster to adopt, so we are receiving training for both.  It has been a long week, but the classes have been really interesting and helpful.

I have been so moved to be in the midst of all of these couples that are taking a stand for the traumatized child, willingly putting themselves in hard situations to benefit another.  That sounds like the gospel to me.

If you are near the Houston area and curious about this program, please check them out!  It will bless your socks off!  They are in dire need of more families that will open their hearts and homes to the children of Houston's streets.

For information on Little Footprints, CLICK HERE

this moment

Standing in the check out line, 

finding my sister's pretty self in Martha Stewart's Wedding issue this month!

It's Official::Part 2

I am officially failing miserably at containing my excitement for our third child's arrival.  I blame it on my friend that gifted me with a large box of cloth diapers.  I mean, it is impossible to sort through a box of brightly colored cloth diapers and not get excited!

Here's the thing, I love pretty big.  I just cannot keep myself from loving this child.  I have decided that he is worth it.  Loving is always risky business.  I think back to our miscarriage that was just devastating to us.  After a few days of recovery, I needed to be at the beach.  To sit and watch the waves and hear my children squealing around me.  The song Coast by Eliza Gilkyson came on my iPod.  There is a line she sings "Did you ever think it would be like this?  The price you pay for love?".  And I decided then, just like I've decided this time, that there is a price you pay for loving.  And it usually is worth it.  This time is no different.

So as I am trying to maintain a level of sanity, I'm excited!  And vulnerable.  And shy about the subject, until I'm not.

We meet our birth mom next week!  In the meantime I am doing crazy things like ordering fabric for a baby blanket and tiny pants.  I'm researching adoptive breast feeding.  I'm trying (and failing) to get more sleep in anticipation for no sleep.

I'm pregnant on paper.

And I'm ready for it to show.

it's official

Well it is officially summer around here.  The kids were in the pool before 9 and they are eating breakfast in their swimsuits.  In the pool.

Here's something else that's official- I'm shutting down school for the summer.  I had considered doing some form of modified school, but you know what?  We need this!  When the kids were stripping down in the backyard at 8:45 am my first instinct was to say "no- we have chores... and math!", but then I thought, no way man, let the kids do whatever they want, it's summer dangit!  So it is now officially official.  And all that homeschool mama worry about "am I doing enough?" is now out the window.  Swimming and freezer pops and chasing chickens and killing stink bugs...this is enough.

we were so mature when we got married- here we were giggling
because we had to kiss in front of everyone!

And finally, it is officially 13 years today that I married my best friend.  And since we have been together for most of our lives, it is 20 years in total that we have been together.  Am I a lucky girl, or what?  I mean, what a gift this life is that I get to spend with John.  He is my favorite, and getting to wake up most every day with your favorite is a treasure.  It's birthday morning every morning.  So happy birthday to this life that we have built.  Together.

For a look at anniversaries past click here. 

garden tour

I have been so busy in the garden this season that I haven't really had the time to blog about it!  This is my first year planting by rows - I usually plant in raised beds.  This is also the largest garden I have ever planted.  We have so much room here in our new home that I am able to have melons and pumpkins and corn!  Here are some Glamour Shots of my garden (minus the upturned collars and sailor hats) :

The corn is coming in nicely.  It is already taller than Buddy (a fact that he is very excited about!).

We planted an heirloom sweet corn. I can't wait for it to be ready!

Bell peppers.  Lots and lots of bell peppers.

3 varieties of basil

12 varieties of tomatoes!  I'm a little crazy about tomatoes!

Pickling cucumbers

Patty pan squash

This is my first year to ever be successful in growing acorn squash.  Can I get a what what?!?

Rogue tomato plant growing out of my compost.  Look how healthy and lush it is.  There is nary a stink bug on it, unlike my tomatoes I planted on purpose.  Argh.  What's the opposite of getting a what what?  Insert that here...

Esperanza and lantana- just being lovely and inviting pollinators in.

An unwelcomed visitor

Morning harvest

The Ladies waiting for yucky tomatoes to be tossed over the fence

I'm linking up to the garden tour with Jennifer Rizzo