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Win a Dyson!
I can only hope and pray that I am on a winning streak when it comes to these online blog contests. I tried to win one of these Dyson DC25’s last year, and didn’t win. So here I am trying again!
Here is what it looks like.
It’s a beautiful thing! Light weight, can turn easily so you can get to those hard to reach places, has incredible suction, and it has one of those hypo allergenic filters. NICE!
You can have an opportunity to win this Dyson too, by visiting From Dates to Diapers and enter.
Madeline’s drawing of Dyson DC-25 Transformers. So cute! They even plug into the wall.
One Home Study Visit Done
Yesterday was our first home study visit. By the sounds of it, it went really well! We found it hard to answer a few of the questions, such as “what are the weaknesses of your marriage”. We didn’t want to come across like we have a perfect marriage, but we couldn’t think of many things to say. Both Adam and I are soft hearted, slow to anger type of people and when we have disagreements, we usually find a compromise. We have never had one of those huge blow up type of fights. Actually, we have never had a fight.
The social worker told me that stay at home moms, and christian faith are things that birth mothers gravitate to. So I have that in my favor! The only thing that caused some concern on our part, is the fact that it’s the law that the child be vaccinated according to the vaccination schedule. My kids have only had just a few of the vaccinations, and we weren’t planning on getting anymore. It looks like if we want to adopt, we will have to follow the rules by doing the vaccinations. It is a bummer. But we are willing to if it means being able to go through with the adoption.
Our next visit is July 1, so keep us in prayer! The next visit is the visit where the social worker will interview the kids. Hopefully she can get Anna to talk! She is such a shy girl.
In other news….I won the crocs! I tweeted, and tweeted, and tweeted, left comment after comment, and it paid off! Now I just need to decide which pair I want.
Do I get the sandals for the summer…
Or do I get a pair that I can wear year round?
I can’t decide! I love them both. What would you do?
I have been able to finish a few blogs recently, and they have turned out pretty nice! I finished a blog for Photo Gem , Family Travel Suite , and I am almost finished with Five Arrows. After finishing up with Five Arrows, my waiting list is now empty! If you know someone who needs a blog design, or would love to help me out by just spreading the word about how I am trying to raise funds for our adoption, it would be a huge blessing. If you have any questions, email me at Ali at missionfielddesigns dot com (gotta stop those bots from getting my email).
Ways YOU can help us with our adoption
The cost of adoption is quite large. It can cost anywhere from 15,000 to 25,000 dollars.
I am fortunate that I have been able to raise a little here and there by doing blog designs. I am ready and able to take on more clients if anyone is interested!
If you don’t need your blog designed, or can’t afford to donate toward our adoption, there is something else you could do to help us out.
Spread the word!
You could blog about what I am doing, blog about adoption! Put my chipin button on your website or blog so others have the opportunity to donate if they feel led.
We are getting closer and closer everyday, to being able to open our home to a child. Our home study has been set for June 18th. After the homestudy is completed, we will be ready for a birth mother to place her child in our home. The financial end of it is a little intimiating. That is why I want do what ever I can through my blogs and blog design to raise donations.
Feel free to grab the code, and spread the word! Help us grow our family.
Crazy for Crocs!
Those funny colored, foam shoes. Why do we love them so much? Because they are comfortable, easy to slip on and off, waterproof, easy to wash off, and fun to wear! We are crazy for Crocs!
Crafty Mama of 4 is giving away a pair of these shoes on her new blog. My kids have pairs of crocs, but I have never had a pair for myself.
This last weekend we searched all over Salem looking for a store that sold crocs. We couldn’t find any. I am looking for a pair of Cleo Crocs. I am in need of some cute, comfortable sandals that I can wear with my skirts. My Mary Jane Style Doc Martens aren’t going to cut it in the summer weather. That is why I was so excited to hear that Crafty Mama of 4 is giving away a pair! It’ s perfect timing for me.
If you couldn’t tell…I REALLY want to win a pair!
Raising Funds for Adoption: Trade Services for Donations
The adoption process is exciting. But along with the excitement comes the uncertainty about how to come up with the funds to pay for the adoption.
There are many ways to raise money for an adoption. Most people can refinance their mortgages, or use home equity loans. For us, that wasn’t a possibility. We had to think of other avenues. After our home study is completed we plan on applying for different low-interest or no- interest loans, but being approved for those isn’t certain. This is where Mission Field Designs comes into play.
About 4 years ago, I started my very first blog on Home School Blogger. Since I homeschool my four biological children, this was a great place to connect with other home schoolers. I was able to learn some basic html and css by playing around with the templates that were provided on Home School Blogger. Eventually that led to my curiousity of ways to make designs for other blog formats. Since then I have learned how to design for not only Home School Blogger’s platform, but Homestead Blogger, Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad.
When thinking of ways I could raise funds for our adoption on my own, I decided to open up my services as a blog designer and ask for donations in return. I have already been able to use part of these donations to pay for some of the initial fees that incurred when we signed up with our adoption agency. We are no where near the amount that will be needed to pay for the rest of the adoption, but I am so blessed to be able to be raising funds little by little using the talents that have been given to me.
We are almost at the half way mark with our adoption through PLAN Loving Adoptions Now, Inc. It is becoming more of a reality the closer we get. We are all excited to bring a new baby into our home.
If you are interested in my services as a blog designer, have heart for helping families adopt, or would just like to leave a small donation, you are welcome to contact me.
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Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.
This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.
To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!
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Spreading the word
I am slowly but surely spreading the word about what I am trying to do with my blog design business. I was able to write a quick little article for Exploring Adoption explaining my unique way to raise adoption funds.
If you are not familiar with my site, I do custom blog designs for wordpress, blogger, typepad (kind of. Not too good at typepad yet), home school blogger, and home stead blogger. All of the donations I get for my designs go toward our adoption.
If you need your blog customized, and have a heart for seeing families grow through adoption, you can contact me at ali@missionfielddesigns.com or follow me on twitter @missiondesigns.
Keeping on!
The design jobs are coming in slow and steady. Little by little I am starting to raise more funds for our upcoming adoption. My latest designs are…
To keep up to date with our adoption process, or to help contribute to our fund, please visit my personal blog at My God Given Mission Field or my fund raising page at Chipin. Thank you to all who are contributing to our adoption! Every little bit helps us out.
Introducing…
Godinreallife.com and Developmypotential.com My newest finished blogs!
Annette has a real heart for helping and encouraging people. It was a lot of fun developing these two blogs for her.
Right now I have 3-4 clients that I am working with. I have been blessed to be able to raise adoption funds little by little. If you are interested in having a blog design done, would like to help me raise funds, or have ideas on ways to fundraise for our adoption, email me. I open to ideas!!
You can check out my newest completed blog designs here and here.
Finishing up another blog
After much work, and many hours, I finally finished my latest design for Farsighted Fly Girl . This blog was a huge challenge.
After doing this site, I realized that I am not very good at adding in custom commenting systems. I can do it, but the time that it requires is just too much. So in the future, if any one is needing something special installed into the blogger (like js-kit or commentluv) I won’t be able to do that.
There was also a huge learning curve with this blog. I had to learn how to export and import blog posts and comments from a blog privately hosted, to a blog hosted by blogger. That was tough, but now I know how to do it.
Come by Farsighted Fly Girl, and see what my new design looks like!
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