Daisy's 1st Party

Be sure to visit Daisy's 1st Pampered Chef Party!

This is a pampered chef fundraiser for Daisy!

https://pamperedchef.com/go/Daisys1stparty

Facebook Event: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/756300377838969/ 

A Leap Of Faith. Blind Faith.

A Leap Of Faith. Blind Faith.

I've taken some leaps before in my life but there has never been a leap quite like this.
It's the hardest thing for me...not to know how something will happen. And when exactly it will happen. To have very little control. The only thing I CAN control is my Faith and how big that is. Honestly I still go back and forth. I don't go back and forth about the Love for my child. Or the fact that I know she is coming home. I loved Daisy the moment I saw her, a full year before I even knew she was my child and I would bring her home to us.
No...I go back and forth about the money. Will it all find it's way to me? One day I panic. I cry. Like the kind of ugly gutteral ( is that a word?) sobbing. It just happens and once it starts there is just no stopping it. I repeat my argument with God. The same argument I had when he first revealed I would be going back to China. 35,000 dollars. Really? That is a years wage for many.

Then the next day I am full of Faith and Confidence. I had a sobbing day just recently and then last night a beautiful woman threw me a Party to help me Fundraise for Daisy.
Daisy's 1st Party. It is called Pampered Chef and sells all kinds of amazing kitchen gadgets. She just did it for me. I never met her. She is so full of Love. I had never done anything like this Party and I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't do a good job...not that I even really understood what I should do but she made it so easy. I had the time of my life and realized I am a bit competitive when we were playing games on there! Who knew?
Another beautiful woman launched another Fundraiser for me selling Candles and other household items. Yep...never met her either. She just wanted to help me and she is so full of Love. Yet another launched a Tupperware Fundraiser for me. I felt so lifted and so cared for. So cared about. I don't know if any one of these Beauties know just how much it means to me to have their support.
All of a sudden I felt like I could do it. Like I could reach this huge goal. I didn't feel so alone and I knew there were people out there that wanted to see my Daisy come home as much as I did.
I feel the same way every time I get a donation. Sometimes they come from where I least expect them because I know these people don't have very much 'extra' money but here they are, donating what they can. They also believe that every little bit helps because it adds up. Every bit helps as much as the next. It brings me to my knees every time.

All my life I have been so independent. I can do it all and I can do it all by myself. I will come to you if you need anything and I will do whatever I can to help you. I will do it for you, buy it for you and I'll even send you a check. Nothing has ever given me more pleasure, aside from my children, than being able to give. To perform random acts of kindness as many as I can and as often as I can.
I have gotten different reactions from people regarding this part of my personality.
Honestly most people think I have an ulterior motive. But not the one that I have which is completely selfish in that I get the biggest 'high' from doing these things and it seriously makes me SO happy. It's addicting! No...they seem to think I want something. I don't. Well I do. I want that feeling of joy and happiness that I get. But nothing else. It always confuses me why people would think that is so strange. Don't we all keep doing what we are addicted to? That's what addiction is!

Yeah...it is HARD for me to ask for help. UGH
But I have to admit I have also always liked a challenge. And the unknown to an extent.
It is SO exciting to witness how God is slowly but surely making this happen.

Please know how much your Love and Support means to me!! To me AND my kids.
As a single mom it can be a bit challenging sometimes but your Love and Support and especially your Prayers makes ALL the difference in this Amazing Journey to Daisy!!!
Thank you ALL with ALL of my Heart!!!

CandleLite Fundraiser!

*** CandleLite Fundraiser ***

Last day to order is April 24. 

1. Please go to http://www.partylite.biz/sites/kathyrice 
2. In the upper right hand corner it will say 'Find Your Party Host'
3. Click that and enter Starr Pelc so that she gets credit for your order!

Candles make great gifts for Mother's Day!

This month's specials are 

Buy Any Jar Candle, get another of the same type 50% off. 

(Must be same type, but can be different scent).

Also, 

Any Catalog Item is 40% off with every $50 purchase!

(Discounted items not included). 

Items will be sent directly to you. 

UPDATE on Our Journey To Miss Daisy!!

We are awaiting out LOA!!!! Letter Of Arrival.
We should have it this month or next. After that we will officially be in the Planning Travel Stage and will hopefully travel in July or August. I am definitely Praying for July because we have a Family Reunion planned the 2nd week in August!!! I know...it's all my fault. Even after adopting twice already I have not a clue as to how this all works and the timing of it all. I thought we would be traveling this month or next. God knows what he is doing though and I don't know how we would have been able to go this month or next. I am a single mom and have raised nowhere near the money I need. I have no family that is able to help me financially. I started out needing 34,000 dollars for this adoption. I have been able to pay 10,000 dollars of my fees and Daisy comes with a 2,000 grant through RR. As in true adoption form I had 10,000 on a credit card I could have used if I didn't raise all the money but I have just had to use that to get us a new (to us) car. I am grateful though that for a hefty fee the dealership let me put the whole thing on my card. But that leaves no more money available in case I don't raise the rest of the money I need so I HAVE TO raise all the rest.
I still need to raise 22,000 dollars!!!
I am also applying for Grants, selling things I don't need, making small donations to other families that are getting ready to travel, had a Tupperware Fundraiser (kind of a bust) and soon I will be making headbands I hope to sell. It is hard for a Single Mom to raise so much money in such a short time but I know some way somehow I will bring My Daisy Home!!!

Please consider Donating to our FSP. All Donations are tax deductible and ANY amount will help get us to our goal. Maybe you have always wanted to help bring a child home and I am providing you with the Perfect Opportunity!!! This is a wonderful way to see what your Donations can do!!
If you can't Donate Please Pray for Us. Pray for Daisy and SHARE my FSP with your friends. We really need the village on this one!!! We need all the help we can get.

Thank you SO much to everyone who is following our Journey with Prayer and/or Donations!!!
We couldn't do this without you!!! We Truly appreciate you ALL!!!
Much Love and Many Blessings!!

Chocolate Muffin

His name was Yared and he was 6 months old when I first saw his little face.

Yared means "sent from Heaven" but of course it does because I had asked my late husband to send me the cutest baby in all of Ethiopia and I would name the baby after him and would call him Ziggy. My husbands was born Zigfreid in Germany and then adopted and his name changed to Steve. 10 years later on the anniversary of his death, on January 11, 2011, I received a picture of my son and he was the cutest baby in all of Ethiopia!

I got the phone call first and literally fell on the floor sobbing as if I'd just given birth. It felt the same. The release, the exhaustion, the relief, the love. I forgot I was on the phone.

I met him when he was 10 months old. He was sitting on the floor in the toddler room at a Transition Home in Addis Ababa. This is where they bring the children from an orphanage after they are matched with their parents until they can come home. He was sitting there looking solemn and I walked in and sat directly in front of him. I had told myself I had to stay calm so I wouldn't scare the little guy. I did pretty good. We looked at each other and I put my arms out to him. He reached for me and I scooped him up and we hugged. He hugged me so tight. He knew I was his mama. He knew it. I could feel it in that moment and he still has that uncanny sense of 'knowing' now almost 5 years later. I pulled away to get a good look at his beautiful face and he slapped me. Then he started to cry as if to say "what has taken you so long?" It was a life changing moment in my life.
I couldn't wrap my heart around the fact that I had to love him like only a mother could for a full week and then leave him for an unknown number of months before I could finally bring him home. But I wouldn't think about that now. I was so in love.

We spent the whole week playing and getting to know each other but it was honestly like we always had. He was strong and smart and he was starting to walk around the furniture right on track. I gave him his bottles and his little naps and then I would give him back to the nannies at night so his schedule wouldn't get ruined..I knew I had to leave him. How would I possibly do that? How could I? But I had no choice. Would he forgive me? Would he resent me? I couldn't explain it to him. I couldn't make him understand that the reason one trip had recently turned into two was because many a family had gone to pick up their child after the Ethiopian Government basically attended court for them and adopted the child for them so they would only have to travel once for a week to bring them home, had rejected their child once they met them. So the Ethiopian Government decided that parents need to come and attend court themselves...meet the child and adopt them on the first trip, leave them for ? months and then come again to get their VISAS and bring them home. It was heart wrenching.

During the next few months Ethiopian Adoptions slowed from 100 a month to 10 and 1000 children already adopted by their parents and waiting on the second trip would likely stay stuck for years because of the 'slow down'. Until it was determined that children weren't being 'stolen' for adoption. It was the hardest 4 months I ever spent. Luckily the powers that be allowed the 'stuck' children to go home and 4 months later I was back in Ethiopia with my boy in my arms. He remembered me! He didn't resent me! He was so happy to see me! I couldn't believe the trust of this precious child!

He had spent the last 4 months in a stroller with nothing to do. He couldn't walk around furniture anymore. His legs had grown weak. Children that are starting to get mobile are harder to watch and can get into more trouble so they are confined to a stroller for the day and their bed at night. We brought  gates for each of the toddler rooms in hopes that they could be installed and give the children more mobility. I don't know if they got installed.

He never stopped smiling. He knew he was home. He started talking right away. Of course we didn't understand a word for several year but that didn't stop him. It wasn't Amheric or English but more of a language all his own. He just wanted to be heard. He would start talking at 6am and he didn't stop until 6pm when he went to bed. He had so much to say. It's like he was thinking out loud.

He is still that way now, 5 years later except now he is full of 'facts' about animals or machines or pretty much anything. He has the memory of an elephant and at 3 years old could recite an entire book literally word for word, a book we read every night for a month before bed and then didn't read for several weeks. Not a 'baby' book though. A book with each page filled with words from top to bottom. I still can't believe he had done that at 3. I got it on video.

Ziggy Lion is so smart. He loves learning anything and everything. He is starting to read and write all on his own. Because he wants to. He will be 6 this July and wants to go to kindergarden so bad. i have to let him go. He is a social butterfly this one.

When he found out we were finally going to bring his sister home from China he was beside himself. He talked about her day and night and carried her picture around. He loved her. In China she was not a fan of me but she loved Ziggy right away. He is so good with her and she has learned so much from him. They are best friends. He is so good with her and dotes on her constantly. He tells on her and then when she is in 'trouble' for it he tells me how she didn't really mean it.

When I told him we were bringing home another sister he was over the moon excited. This was 5 months ago and not a day goes by that he doesn't talk about her and how we will bring her home. He worries if she has enough to eat. He wants to bring home ALL the girls from China he said!

There has never been a more loving, compassionate and grateful child. At least every hour he wraps his arms around me and tells me he loves me so much. That is at least 12 times a day. He appreciates everything I do and he tells me so. Especially when I prepare food!

God broke the mold with this Treasure. What a wonderful gift of a Big Brother both of my little girls will have.

Remember how I said he 'knew' things? We had just come home from China with Zoie Love last year and I was DONE adopting. I had my two and the process was hard and it was expensive and I had no money. I was very content. He said one day "My grandfather in China told me we are going back to China". Hmmm. It was months before I knew I would adopt again. Like 5 months after he said that!

But Seriously...after this I am DONE. <3

REGARDING ZOIE

THIS is what Adoption can do. THIS is what it's done for this child. THIS is why I have adopted twice and I am going in for a third. Full speed ahead.

I want to tell you about my little Zoie Love Mi. Isn't that the name to beat all names?!!
I had named her Zoie when I first started her adoption in the Fall of 2006. It means 'life' and seemed so very appropriate. I gave her the middle name Love while I was waiting for her referral in 2014.
Her second middle name would be whatever her Chinese name would be.
To be honest I was waiting for a referral of a child missing an ear or a limb or something similar to that. Then I got this random referral for a child not missing any body parts. They weren't supposed to do that...send me random referrals like that. It was just too heartbreaking for me to say no.
But of course I had to look. I opened the file of this child that was supposedly mentally and developmentally delayed.
I recognized her immediately. She was my child!! What confirmed it to me was her Chinese name.
Mi. Zoie Love Mi. LOL. Seriously though I couldn't have planned that better. I was in Love.

We were prepared for the worst of course because what does delayed really mean? It could be severe or not. We had no idea but I knew she could bond because her report said she was close to her foster mother. That was all I really cared about. She had experienced failure to thrive in the orphanage where she spent a full year from the time she was abandoned at 6 months old. So thankfully they moved her into a foster home where she finally learned to walk at age 2 1/2.

We met Zoie in the 'room' and she was not a fan. She screamed and clawed for at least an hour but I didn't let her go. I wanted her to know that this was no mistake. I was the one she could count on from this moment forward and I would accept and love her exactly how she was, screaming and clawing included. Oh how happy she was when she finally calmed down and I passed her off to her older brother and sisters. She loved them so much. Partly because they weren't me.

She warmed up to me though and by the third day when I took her shopping for food and put her in the cart I was the real maMA. She pointed to everything she wanted.
She is fascinated and obsessed with food. Especially bread and meat. I can relate.

I have much experience with children and have run my own Childcare/Preschool for more than 17 years. I know delayed and I know sharp. She was not delayed. Well at least not to the extent that that diagnoses suggested. She was delayed because she lived in an Orphanage for much of her young life. She was delayed because she had definitely not been taught many things and experienced even less but that was all I saw. There was nothing slow about this child.
So the experiences began.

I have to mention that she has an amazing adopted brother, Ziggy, who I brought home at 14 months old from Ethiopia. He is a very unique individual. I really have NEVER met any child quite like him.
I will tell you about Ziggy in another post but Ziggy is a big huge reason why my Zoie may very well start college at age 16 like her older sister.
Zoie loves to do everything that Ziggy does. She can't always of course because she is 2 years younger and there are things a 5 year old has earned the right to do that a 3 year old just hasn't but for the most part she doesn't miss a thing. It started in China when she didn't want to brush her teeth. So I told Ziggy to open wide and started brushing his. Well needless to say she couldn't wait for her turn at that.

After we got home she payed very close attention to everything Ziggy. He just turned 5 last summer and was learning how to read and write. Of course now Zoie is starting to write too.
I am NOT kidding.
Let me back up a little.

When Zoie came home she was almost 3 years old. She knew no English and had just learned to walk so she was not yet running. It was more like a half trot and she tried so hard. She was completely flat footed. As a board. But she was potty trained. Even overnight.
That was last May 2015.

Now it is March 2016. Zoie  is just over 3 1/2 years old and has been home just over 10 months.

She is fluent in English and pronounces her words better than Ziggy did at age 4 after 3 years home.
She dresses and undresses herself including socks and shoes.
She knows ALL her colors.
She knows ALL her ABCs both upper and lower case.
She knows what sound each letter makes. EVERY ONE.
She knows how to write both the upper case and lower case of about 1/2 the ABCs and and the others when guided.
She can sing the ABC song and Twinkle Star too.
She can recognize ALL her numbers up to 10.
She can count to 10 by herself.
She takes apart and puts together puzzles designed for a 4-6 year old with a speed I have never seen.
She LOVES to play the 'matching game'.
She is running now, albeit a bit tippie-toed but it's like REAL running!! This is good news because she so badly wants to keep up with Ziggy.
And she has arches in both her feet!! YES. REAL arches. Her flat feet are gone!! I have NEVER seen anything like it in my life. I thought kind of thing was permanent. Maybe they are sometimes flat from lack of walking on them. I don't really know.
My late husband had very flat feet but he had them all his life. He had been severely malnourished and then adopted at about 6 months old from Germany.
Zoie is a great big helper. ANYTHING I am doing she wants to help me. ANYTHING. And this includes getting the toilet paper for me when I am going potty. Yes I am not kidding.
She is a born Nurturer.

She loves to cook and she loves to eat even more.
Because of both the kids' obsession with cooked food and food in general about 70% of our diet is in the form of fruits and vegetables. And these are mostly RAW. This way I can give them as much as they want to eat without fear for their health or weight. She especially loves to graze. There have been days where she will finish her breakfast smoothie (1/2 the blender filled with greens and 1/2 filled with fruit and then water, maybe a splash of juice) and graze on peanuts that she peels by herself for the next couple of hours until lunch. She just takes her time and she feels in complete control. She loves to do that.
She is starting to leave food on her plate when she is full. Cooked food which she especially loves. That is a VERY good sign.
She is starting to trust that she will always have food to eat and enough of it too. Trusting.
Today while we were grocery shopping she ate several stalks of Kale from the bunches I bought for our salad. Just plain. And she just loved it. She does the same with Spinach. She loves her greens.
Her body absolutely CRAVES them.

Zoie is bonded. She loves her brother and she loves her mama. She loves her Babi and he Aunties and she loves her older brothers and sisters and Skype days are a highlight of her week.
She is such a Light. She is such a Love.
We don't know how we ever got along without this girl.
God has truly blessed me over and over.
I am Truly One Blessed Mama!!

A STORY

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful wrinkled up old woman named Starr. She loved children so all her life she did everything she could to surround herself with all the children she could. She had many of her own children that came through her but were not hers (Jason Mraz said so) and she also cared for many children of other mothers. She always taught them that they were beautiful and needed to fly out into the world to spread their goodness and light upon it so everyone could benefit from their love and light. And they listened...and they flew...and then she was all alone and wrinkled up because (I forgot to add that the daddy died) they had listened. But she was SO proud of them and happy for them because how could she keep them all to herself when the world needed their beauty and love and light...?

So she went across the world to Ethiopia and she found a magical motherless child and she brought him home to her breast and she loved him and taught him that he was beautiful and that he needed to fly out into the world and spread his goodness and light. And then she went across the ocean to China and found a most beautiful outcast princess who's light no one else saw. But SHE saw it and she brought her home to her breast and she loved her and taught her that she was beautiful and that she needed to fly out into the world and spread her goodness and light even though she knew that one day she would end up alone because they had all listened.
But they didn't forget her.
Sequel:
The beautiful wrinkled up old woman was happy, yes she was. She had a blessed life and she was surrounded by her beautiful children and so much Love but across the ocean in China there was a little discarded and very lonely starfish and she didn't have a blessed life and she wasn't surrounded by Love. That's when the old woman knew that this child belonged with her as well. Bringing this starfish home would be difficult but the old woman had Faith that when things are meant to be they will always come to fruition. She knew she had to work very hard but she was not afraid of hard work, she thrived on it. And so she worked hard and the weeks passed and then months. Sometimes she became very tired but never discouraged and she knew she would never give up. Looking at starfish's picture gave her strength and she kept working and she would think of starfish every day and send her so much Love. She promised her that soon it would be time and she would fly across the ocean to China and scoop her up and bring her home to her breast and teach her that she was beautiful and she was worthy and that it didn't matter if she ever flew out into the world to spread her love and light because she spread her love and light upon everyone that she met and she changed lives with her very presence. She promised her that she always had a home with the beautiful wrinkled up old woman and she would always be so very Loved and forever cherished.