Field Trip & The Marrs Family

We picked the coldest day of the week to take a field trip to the farm with some friends. There we discovered that Ava, while fearless in the areas where one should have discretion (i.e. flipping off of furniture, jumping in large bodies of water), actually does have some fears...namely the unnecessary kind (freaking out while big sister pets a pig, etc.) Isaiah, however, decided that he wanted a pet pig. I welcomed him to try to convince his dad, who won't even consider getting a fish, that a pig would be a good idea. My suggestion was to try the bacon angle.













And now switching gears here. (As said by Chris Farley in my head; bless you if you actually understood that.)

A blog friend of mine just so happened to be featured on Give1Save1 two weeks after we were. This family is actually much closer to bringing their little girl home and have even seen her sweet face. Head over to Give1Save1, watch their precious video, give that dollar (or 2 or 5!), and pass it on. I love how easy that blog makes it to support adoption!

Calling All Photography Lovers

Many different moments of love and care have taken my breath away during the beginning of this adoption process. Let me take a moment to share one with you. A friend contacted me a couple month ago. We knew each other as young girls; but by our teenage years, life had taken us separate ways. And nearly two decades later, we had simply reconnected on Facebook. Now she was messaging me to let me know that our adoption story had touched her heart, and she wanted to do something about it. As a talented photographer with a successful business, her plan was to create a set of Photoshop and Lightroom actions, sell them at a reasonable price, and have all the proceeds go toward our adoption fees. How do you even respond to that? It took me awhile to get my brain around someone giving of their time and talent to help someone they hadn't seen in 2 decades just because they want to see one less orphan in the world.

So, if you love photography, and want to spice up your editing for the low price of $12 (every penny goes toward our adoption), head over and see her handiwork. With this collection, you will get 1 action set for CS& PSE, 4 Lightroom sets with nearly 175 presets, 1 template collection, and 1 texture collection. Just click HERE or on the image to take you there.

Also, check out her business page (which she'll blush that I'm even asking you to do) and see how much there is to "like"!

Still Waking Up

For her, waking up is a long process. She's definitely my daughter....

Crafty Momma I Am Not

Crafty mommas make me sick.

There. I said it. You and your well thought-out crafts give me a headache and make me want to turn on a movie for my kids.

Okay, I'm joking.

Kind of.

Kid crafts and I just don't have a good history. It's like one of Murphy's laws. I'm more a crayons and coloring book kind of mother. But once in a blue moon we actually step outside the world of Crayola. Michaels was having an fabulous deal on t-shirts and I had a fabric stamp pad on hand. Throw in some Sharpies and an array of stamps, and we had a t-shirt making bonanza on our hands.

Ava is super proud of her creation, and the other kids think it's pretty great stuff, too.









Easy, fun...yep that's my kind of kid craft. And for about 15 minutes I had visions of being a inducted into the Crafty Momma Club. But now as reality and a Sharpie mark on my dining room table set in, I think I'll be grateful for my kid's art teachers.

Grand Total {Give1Save1}

We finished our week on Give1Save1, and I teared up more than once as people poured out generosity and kindness on our family.

Our grand total for the week was...


One of the things this adoption process has shown me so far is how lacking I am when it comes to expressing myself. The words "thank you" have plunked out of my mouth so often seeming to just fall to the floor and not capture the heart of my gratitude. I am truly overwhelmed with gratefulness.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share our video.
Thank you to our dear friends and family who were happy to be borderline obnoxious by sharing our video over and over.
Thank you to my blogger friends who took the time to dedicate a post to us.
Thank you to the all people who were willing to donate towards the future of our family.
Thank you to those of you who had never seen our family's faces before viewing the video and yet still were so generous.
Thank you to the G1S1 girls who are kind of my heroes for being moms who take the time to have a huge worldview and then do something about it.
Thank you to my West Coast sista' who nominated us and then, in the middle of her own adoption transition, took the time to drum up probably about half of what we made. (Council member for life, g-friend!)

Now that I feel like I've finished a sub-par acceptance speech for an Oscar, you can get a taste of why all of y'all's love for our family blows my mind.

Day 4 total {Give1Save1}

Do remember those times as a kid where some club you were part of would hand you a stack of ordering forms and tell you it was time for you to knock on your neighbors' doors and raise money by peddling something?

Yeah, me too.

I remember because I'm scarred by it. Every single door I went to I would get a big ol' pit in my stomach. Then as the homeowner answered the door, the pit would move into my throat.

"Hi, do you want to buy ______ (insert some obnoxious item)? Okay, I can tell by the wince on your face you don't. No problem. Bye."

Let's just say that if I had to support my family with sales, we'd starve.

And for many years now I've avoided selling anything of any kind. I hardly promo my photography business at all, and I've managed not to knock on a stranger's door for years now.

Along comes adoption.

And guess what? We have no choice. Let's see...so far we've done mini-sessions and sold coffee; now it's promoting this video. Don't get me wrong; I'm INCREDIBLY grateful for each one of these opportunities. But that little girl who would rather visit the dentist (and that's say a whole lot) than sell something? She's dying little deaths over and over again.

So how do I say "thank you" to all of you who have pitched in, shared the video, and help us raise money? I truly don't know. Many of you have generously opened your wallets. And you've "knocked on your [Facebook] neighbors door" for us. Some of you have given our video more PR than even we have. It means so much, and even there words don't touch how I feel.

Here's our grand total after 4 days:


We still have until Sunday night. So if you would, please pass along our video. Every time you share a whole new circle of people get to see and have a chance to be involved.

And I promise, I'll never knock on your door asking you to buy wrapping paper or cashews.

Day 1 Total {Give1Save1}

After our first day on Give1Save1 our grand total was:


Thank you, thank you, and another thank you!

If you haven't yet, PLEASE watch and share our video. Remember it's simple, ONE dollar and ONE share can make a big difference. You can find it all HERE.


Only about half of our adoption fees have been paid so far, and we're so grateful that this is helping us to bring our girl home! We've gotten a question about where this money is going. I'm going to answer that question the cheaters way by not copying down all of our itemized info but referring you to another adoptive momma who has itemized it out HERE.

Again, thank so much to those of you who have already participated.

We're Being Featured!

Good morning! I'm just little *cough, cough* excited for this post. Today started a full week of our family being featured on the wonderful Give1Save1 blog!

This a big fundraiser for our adoption and we need your help! It's fun and EASY.

Click on this LINK to head over to our family's featured post.

Here's how 5 minutes of your time could greatly help cover our adoption costs:

1. Watch the video we made (it's short)

2. Give $1

3. Share the LINK with everyone you know! (This is the super important part since the more viral this video goes, the more money is raised.)

Now wasn't that easy? When else can you help change the future for an orphan in only 5 minutes?

THANKS SO MUCH!!

Picture It...Easter

To Michigan we headed...


Three generations of Sieb ladies...














The cousins...


At the end of our visit, we stopped by the new River Raisin National Battlefield. Dressing up was the highlight... (Unless you're a pre-teen with a reputation to protect.)

Wait For It...

Have y'all ever heard of Give1Save1? It's a powerful adoption blog. A group of ladies who believe in taking Jesus' command to "look after orphans" literally started this dear spot on the internet. Each week they feature a video of a family in the middle of an adoption process. The premises is simple: they ask that you give $1 to the featured family and then share their video with your friends so that they can give $1. The farther the web goes, the more money is made without a financial burden on anyone.

Unbeknownst to me, my west coast bestie "nominated" us to be on the blog. Give1Save1 asked us to make a video for our nomination, and early this year; I finally got my act together enough to do so. We sent in it, and we're thrilled to hear that they would be featuring our little Sieb Fam.

As of right now, we go on Monday, April 8th. We can't wait to show you our video (stop-motion since the dear Lord knows I can't make a decent live-action video to save my life), and share the link.

So tune in on April 8th...