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Wow...just...wow.

I just got done applying for...wait for it...

TEAM CHENZHOU 2012!!!!

WOW.

Thank you, Jesus, for opening these doors!

I am so excited!

I have told Chad at least 10 times that it feels like Christmas.

As if I haven't been before, I am so thankful that the Lord placed me in a Christian home and had me marry a guy who will put his love and faith in Christ over his worry for sending his wife halfway around the world.

Because James 1:27 commands it.

Now, I owe my Mommy and Daddy money until like August, because $4000 mission trips don't mix well with being in college.

But God is good and we will work it out.

I'd like to say more but I am so excited that I can't think.

Hunan at Heart

Wow. What a crazy past 24 hours.

New family news, and news from Team Chenzhou 2012, a team VERY near and dear to my heart.

Because I was a part of Team Chenzhou 2011.

And I was strongly considering being a part of Team '12, until this whole "getting married" thing came up.

We are getting married exactly 55 days before the team flies out to China.

So naturally, I assumed it wouldn't be possible to go.

And since them visions and memories of the time in China have graced my daily thoughts and prayers and nightly dreams.

As time has been racing towards the wedding I have still been thinking and praying for the team.

Then, this past week, Shannon posted in the group we have going from Team '11 asking us to pray for guidance and her team.

They have lost 7 team members within the past month.

That's HALF of her team.

7 less sets of arms to hold babies,

7 less sets of lips to kiss their foreheads and cheeks,

And 7 less people that could have a strong, lasting impact on the nannies and employees of the Chenzhou SWI.

This KILLED me.

Last night, I got maybe 4 hours of sleep, in about 1 hour increments, divided by times of thinking over and praying fervently for the team.

And as the clock hit 4am, I realized that maybe the Lord was trying to get me to realize something.

I had done my FAFSA last evening with my dad.

And I got an email giving me my estimate.

Which ended up being about $4,500 more than Chad and I had budgeted.

The cost of China when all is said and done is...

...you guessed it, about $4,500.

And I began to think. And pray.

More fervently.

And I began to wonder if God was starting to open doors.

And yeah, Chad and I had already decided that it was not in the budget.

But our God is bigger than budgets.

So, I dropped the bomb on Chad today ad I was driving to see him.

Poor hubby-to-be.

Shock, disbelief, and worry laced his voice.

And since he's going into financial planning, the BIG obstacle is money.

And the whole "I'd be leaving my husband of 55 days to spend 2 weeks in a foreign country" thing.

But like to wonderful, patient guy he is, he heard me out, and was eventually "the most okay with it he could be".

And I understand that.

We looked at where and what we could cut to make it work, before, after, and during the trip...

So we started to crunch our numbers around the payment schedule.

Which goes like this:
$200 deposit with application
$2,000 by May 6 (PS, 6 days before the wedding!)
Remaining balance 3 weeks before the trip. (About June 15)

I am sorry to say that after talking and turning and calculating, we can't seem to find a way to make it work.

And that KILLS me.

KILLS me.

We will have the money, but not until August.

It KILLS me that I am able to go financially 2 months after the fact, easily, but I can't when they go.

It causes me much emotional and even physical pain.

So here is where I ask for advice, from those wiser and further in their marriages.

What should we do?

Chalk it up to coincidence and forget about me going?

Run our bank account dry trying to get me there?

Start the process and wait to see if somehow money comes in?

Borrow it from someone? Who?

I (we) asking for advice and prayer here.

What would you do for a girl who has the Hunan and the kids there so deep in her heart?

And a brand new husband willing to send her if he could?

If I meet these kids someday, what do I say to them?

That money was my excuse to not invest in their physical, spiritual, and emotional health?

Help!

Love,
Hunan at Heart <3

Zebra Print Cupcakes

My little sister celebrated her Sweet 16 this week, so I was asked to do her cupcakes.

I jumped at the chance to do anything super-girly :)

Cue the animal print cupcakes!

I took my cupcakes (red velvet on bottom and pink lemonade on top) and buttercream icing and went to town.

I then set up several icing bags with the 1M Wilton tip (the cupcake tip as most call it).

Then I took a cheap paintbrush and my black gel food color (you must use the gel, if not the color will run)... 

...and painted stripes up the sides of the bag. 3-4 stripes work best.

**hint: set your decorator bag in a cup and roll the bag down a couple of times to get it to stand up steady and be easier to paint!

Then I just iced the cupcakes like normal, and ended up with:

please excuse my horrible photography skills!

Each icing bag you set up will color about 8 cupcakes before the color fades away, as you can see here:

I then added some black stars to the top of each one to add a little extra something :)

Florist Faking!

I (with the help of my sister and the creative eyes of my mom and other sister) have designed all the flowers for the wedding.

Wow. That was a lot of work.

I have a newfound respect for florists!

All the boutonnières, bouquets, corsages, and centerpieces are DONE.

And I am happy to say that there were. no major injuries involved.

(just minor ones like sticking myself with pins or florist wire accidentally)

I am so excited for the wedding an the 2 biggest pieces that I did that I wanted to share...

Thoughts? Suggestions from those who have floral talent?

Ps: please excuse our busy basement. It has gotten very full with wedding and DIY projects!

Feed Me!

Hi guys, it's Emmett!

I got to hang out with Aunt Amy today and she fed me lunch.

Except she doesn't shovel bites into my mouth fast enough, so then I do this:

Our Newest Family Member

We've decided to add another member to our small family.

NO. I AM NOT PREGNANT.

Did you get that?

No rumors. Please.

And due to lease specifications, no, its not a pet.

Chad and I have the pleasure of sponsoring a baby from Lesotho.

If you're like us, you say, "Ummmm....where's Lesotho?"

It's here:

We looked it up on Google Earth and zoomed in as much as possible on the capital city.

Chad liked it because they had a soccer stadium.

And I liked it because I saw about 5 hospitals/clinics in a 5 block radius.

I am hoping this means our sweet girl has access to good medical care.

How did we choose her?

We went to the World Vision site and searched by our anniversary, May 12, and under 1 year old. 

After I saw in Haiti how AIDS ravages lives and families, 

We also thought it was important to pick a child in an AIDS affected area.

And wow, she is PRECIOUS!

Please Welcome Miss Malehloa!

Isn't she so precious?! I'd give anything to be able to hold her and tickle those chubby cheeks!

Welcome to our family, sweet girl!

On the day we celebrate our wedding, we will be celebrating one year of your life!

(I adore her already!)

Remind Me...

This past week, our Team Chenzhou 2011 got some very sad news.

Our sweet baby butterfly Ysmael passed away.

He had a problem with his liver function that caused him to be very sick for all of his 18 month life.

He lived at the Butterfly house in Changsha from age 2 months up until he passed away this past week.

No, I didn't cry when I found out.

I did that as we met and held him last June in Changsha.

Nothing can describe the feeling of holding a child you know you'll never meet again this side of Heaven.

The feeling of knowing his days are short and his pain is great.

Yes, I am sad that Lyn and Alan and all of the people of the Butterfly house don't get to look into his beautiful eyes anymore, or snuggle his small frame,

...but as Chad reminded me, he's no longer in pain and suffering.


He knew the love of all the workers of the Butterfly house and his fellow butterflies,

And now he knows first hand the love of his Heavenly Father.

So, when I get sad over him being gone,

Remind me that he's now healthy and dancing with the angels,

Remind me that now he spends his days as a normal 18 month old boy, enjoying the love of his Heavenly Father.

And most of all, remind me that while we may want to be sad, we should be rejoicing in his return to Jesus' arms.

Crunch.

There are always things in life that you don't plan for.

I was reminded of this today as I was driving down Main Street.

A lady stopped very quickly in front of me to make a left turn.

And I ran out of braking space.

Crunch.

No, I wasn't playing with my phone/the radio/etc. in case you were wondering.

I don't do those things while driving because they cause accidents.

But with my (horrible) luck with cars, I still rear-ended her.

Cue the cop and BOTH of my parents coming to help us out.

Like always, Dad knew the cop.

He actually helped coach my brother's football team and taught him to "long snap".

Whatever that means.

No tickets, no injuries, just a very sore and shaken up me.

Poor Sophie....

Dress Fitting....Well, sort of!

Okay, so I can't show half of the pictures from my fitting today because Chad reads the blog as soon as it's updated.

But I can show the most fun part of that whole ordeal.

Yep, the Monkeyheads.

One was acting very chill, and the other was acting VERY two.

As in nearly walking in on another person's fitting room.

And running circles in the alterations lounge.

I think he just felt uncomfortable with the whole situation, so hyper-ness took over.

He's still incredibly cute though.

Lindsay and the boys

Landon "playing" with his brother

Checking out the dress fitting action.
PS there's your picslip of my dress! Its white. Big shock, I know.

Caught you throwing a tantrum, Little Man!

My favorite part about the fitting was this:

Remember this picture from when I bought the dress?

Same baby, same car seat, SO much bigger and stronger!

Possibly one of the greatest things in life is to watch kids grow and change!

Although I wish these little guys wouldn't grow up so fast!

Getting there!

In case you forgot, it is:

months until we look like this:

....well, sort of. Less plastic and more happy.

No, the nerves haven't hit yet. 

And that's perfectly fine with me!

Oh, Those Weekends!

I LOVE weekends.

Have I ever mentioned that?

Because I do.

Because usually weekends are a time to spend with family and friends.

Because I don't have to go to work.

Because I don't (technically) have to do homework.

And because lately, at the end of every weekend I find myself thinking and realizing how blessed we truly are.

So what was on the plans for this weekend?

Oh, nothing much, we just got Chad $240 worth of ties for free, thanks to the rewards program at Men's Wearhouse...

Spent some time with our awesome nephews, reading and snuggling and playing.

Okay, so mostly they wanted to play with Chad, but that's okay.

It just confirms what I already knew. He's gonna be the best dad ever!

And, we got to see an exciting milestone in Emmett's little life! 

He started baby food this weekend and he is just as happy as can be about that!

The picture is a little blurry, because he was kicking and waving his arms because he was so excited!

On the wedding front,

The flowers for the wedding are DONE!!! PTL!

I am much more calm about the planning side of things because of this.

And, we even started to get some reply cards back! SO exciting!

Occupy Investment Movement

WE HAVE BEEN WAITING 8 HOURS TO SIGN ON AN APARTMENT.

THIS STINKS. HARDCORE.

IT'S COLD.

IT'S WINDY.

IT'S BORING.

I CAN'T FOCUS ON STUDYING.

And to cap it all off, the employees of said establishment seem to think its funny that we're out here 20 hours in advance.

Here's the reason why that had me stifling the urge to make a very unholy comment...

One of the rudest of the group stopped and asked, "are you sure waiting all this time is worth it?"

To which person #1 in line replied, "well how else do we plan on getting the places we want and need with the way you do things?!"

I could've hugged her. It was my thoughts exactly.

Because here's how they do it:

The list of all available rentals came out yesterday.

Then they are on a first come, first served basis starting Tuesday morning.

Which is why people start occupying the doorstep of Investment and TEN O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING the day before.

Because Investment is the only rental company in the Rolla area.

So we have to play their little games in order to get a decent place.

There's my little rant/tirade.

--A very cold, cranky, sore, and frustrated wife-to-be signing off.

Ps did I mention that in order to use the facilities we have to cross the highway to the gas station?! This is crazy.

Pps My fiancé is a saint for sleeping here tonight so I can sleep indoors. And for putting up cranky cold me!

Wedding Update

So this weekend has been busy in the world of our wedding planning.

We have been meeting with the wedding coordinator...

{Here is my shameless plug for Chelsea at Tan Tar A Resort. If you are getting married at Lake of the Ozarks, get married at Tan Tar A. Period. Trust Me!}

And we made, stuffed, addressed, and sent about 125 invites.

They look awesome.

There is something about seeing it all in writing that is SO exciting!

Is all of this planning stressing me (us) out?

Actually, no.

After we left our meeting today, I told Chad the ridiculous amount of calm I had about all the wedding planning.

And it feels GREAT!

As for now, we are doing well.

Two-ish weeks before the wedding, ask me again how I'm doing. Ha.

Adventures in Nanny-land.

Moms and dads, as you read this you will probably laugh.

Little man is currently sitting in his calm down (time out) corner.

Why?

Well, because he did this:

I'd like to call this little thing Luke vs. diaper cream.

He supposedly was napping, like he should.

But really, he was massaging diaper cream into his clothes, hair, sheets, crib, and books.

And as I went in to get him from nap I saw it.



Cue "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" in my head.

Little man has yet to understand that this was NOT cute.

I then called my mom.

Being the smart lady she is, when she answered to me whining, "MOMMMMMYYYY...." she immediately asked what happened.

And then she laughed.

Because Lindsay did a similar thing at this age.

And told me how to pre-treat to get the stain out.

Post-mess. I was in too much shock and frustration to take a damage picture.

Lesson learned:
I'm always going to need my mommy to whine to when days with the kids aren't what I'd like them to be!

"March"-ing Through 2012!

It's March already.

No. Way.

My spring break is in a week.

Thank you, Jesus.

And a new month, well of course that means a new wreath!

In honor of St. Pats, I did a fabric tie wreath in all greens, using this original pin:

It didn't have complete directions as far as scrap length, but I'd venture to say I used 1 inch by 10 inch scraps.

I'm not much into that whole "measuring" thing.

And you know what?

It turned out just fine!

I know, I know, the scraps in the top left could use a little fluffing, but I've gotta be at work soon, so this is what you get!

I had bought this "R" on a sale and had planned to use it the whole time.

(Yes, I am loving this whole "new last name" thing!)

But then I realized it needed something else...

So when I found this little guy at Michaels yesterday, (on sale no less!) I knew it was perfect!

It is actually a pick, so I cut off some of the wire and then just stuck it down into the foam. Easy.

I'm actually really liking it!

And it will be especially good for next year because the lovely town I am moving to celebrates St. Pats on the same level as Christmas!

Happy March, y'all!