we had a white christmas

somehow the universe aligned correctly to give us folks here in texas a white christmas! what a rare treat...it was so beautiful (until we had to drive home in it :).

more on christmas coming soon, but for today...

Happy New Year 2013!!!!

alternately titled -

Happy Year We Bring Evangeline Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

christmas joy

 we have had a lot going on! you know the drill...shopping, wrapping, teacher gifts, class parties, christmas programs, baking, traditions, plus all the normal things you have to do. and if you get a meningitis shot for your trip to ethiopia, it MIGHT make you feel like you have the flu for 2 days after. NOT FUN. but our sweet baby girl is worth it. this season has been full of so much JOY for us this year! we have so many reasons to celebrate!

 judah had his little christmas program last week. it was adorable. later i remembered that it was his last preschool christmas program because next year he'll be in kindergarten. sniff. he also had pajama day and a little party on another day.

 yesterday, elijah had a christmas party and program. it was a western christmas play and it was really cute. he did a great job! i never can get good pictures of the actual production...we are always so far back it's impossible, but here's the best i could get.

 

hmmm, judah did NOT want to be in a picture. elijah was holding him down. 

man, he's been a stinker lately. :)

we also took some family pictures. i took some of my friend's family and the boys, and then she turned around and took a family photo for us for our christmas card. it worked out well! the boys are getting so big! judah is 4 1/2 and elijah is 8 1/2. did i mention before that after we got evie's referral, we now have all 3 of our children's birthdays within a 3 week time frame?!?! whew. that will be a busy, busy time of year for us.

We hope your family has a wonderful Christmas spending time with family, watching the joy on your children's faces and celebrating the birth of our Savior. For He is the true reason for Christmas and that is what I want to make sure my children remember for years to come. We are looking ahead to 2013 when we will BRING EVANGELINE HOME!!!

 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

i want to tell you her name

we are still floating on clouds around here.

the only thing better than getting a referral at christmas time is...nothing.

i can't think of one thing better.

this christmas had the potential to be very wonderful or very depressing, and i am thankful to God that we can say how WONDERFUL this christmas is! this may be the most wonderful christmas ever. however, ask me that next year when we have her home and i'll probably tell you that's the best christmas ever. :)

the busy-ness of the season makes it fly by and before we know it, it will be january and we'll hopefully be finding out our court date that month!!!

this week we are knee deep in preschool programs, pajama day, christmas parties, field trips, teacher gifts, last week of preschool for the year and cold weather. i plan to blog about all of this later.

right now i want to tell you our girl's name.

if you know jason and i well, you know that we don't tell names before the birth of our babies. with both boys, we had 3 names picked and did not name them until we saw them. THEN we shared their names with the world.

we also throw out any names that do not have a great meaning. we don't pick names just because we like the way they sound (although that's important too), but we pick names that also have deep significant meaning as well. i liked plenty of names and then found out what they meant and threw them out the window. i'm not saying that if you don't do this then you don't care about your child's name, that's just what is important to us. elijah means "the Lord is my God" and judah means "i will praise the Lord". our prayer for elijah is that he will have no gods above the one true God and for judah our prayer is that he will praise the one and only God as long as he lives. i love that we can tell the boys what their names mean and our prayer for them based on their name's meaning.

so...on to baby sister. we've had 3 years to think about this name so you would think it was an easy decision when we got the referral. WRONG. in thinking about the boys' names, i was trying to meet the same criteria...hebrew bible name with a strong meaning and a family middle name. i didn't want her to feel left out if her name was completely different. but things ARE different this time because we also wanted her to keep her ethiopian name to hold on to her roots.

i. was. torn. we had it down to 3 names (just like the boys). a family name, a hebrew bible name and a name that God had laid on our hearts. what to do, what to do. jason ultimately picked elijah's name, elijah picked judah's name and so it was up to me to make the final decision on this name. jason was totally fine with all 3 names. i was feeling the pressure...it took me almost 2 days to make a decision, but i did. and so...

OUR LITTLE GIRL'S NAME IS...

 

 

e-van-juh-leen

i already have it on her stocking as you can see. :) i want to tell you about this name and what it means to us. we totally abandoned the hebrew bible name and family name to go with this one. i just kept coming back to it over and over.

a couple of years ago when going through a baby name book, jason came to like this name. honestly, i was not on board with it at first. i thought it was too long and just a little too unusual. elijah had also read a book about a girl named Evangeline and he latched onto it as well. i still couldn't commit to putting it on "the list".

not long after this, jason had a couple of dreams about a little ethiopian girl named Evangeline. when he told me this, i liked the name a little bit more. then God laid a song on jason's heart so he wrote it down and sang it to me...it had the name Evangeline in it. okay, now i'm really starting to like this name. it can go on "the list". :)

Evangeline means "BRINGER OF GOOD NEWS". when we got the referral and saw her sweet little face, all i could think was what GOOD NEWS it was to finally know who our daughter is! then i started praying that she would be a bringer of THE good news to the world, maybe even to her home country of ethiopia one day. i can't wait to tell her what her name means to us one day...i hope that it makes her feel special.

i wish i could also share her ethiopian name with you and i will once we pass court. it will be her middle name and when i found out what it meant and with what Evangeline means...oh my word. it is just beautiful. based on her two names together, i know what scripture i want to be on the wall of her room.

she's our Evangeline...Evie (ee-vee) as we'll call her.
our little bringer of good news.

this is the name God has chosen for her.

Princess Evie, we can't wait to have you home!
(we are closer to that because today we were submitted to court!!!!) 

---------------------------------- 
 Pictures the DuFran family took for us while they were there in December.
7 months old...

our referral story {THE CALL part 2}

The phone started ringing, our hearts were pounding, our hands were shaking. This was it. We both knew what a HUGE moment this was in our lives. One of the biggest. How often does the anticipation build for 3 YEARS to know who your child is and what they look like? It was a moment we both knew we would never forget.

You tell yourself any number of things during the wait. Things like "She might not be very cute at first, and that's okay". You know, you don't want to build it up in your head too much and then be disappointed, so we were prepared for whatever. Lindsay said she was sending us 3 separate emails one at a time and the first one had some pictures of her for us to see. We refreshed my email several times and then FINALLY there it was. We were shaking with excitement. And then, there she was...

This is THE MOMENT we saw her face for the first time, captured on our computer's camera (and oh my, it was cap day at my preschool that day...of course :). I thought I might cry when I first saw her but all I felt was pure JOY. She was STUNNING. We were in awe. She was beautiful and tiny and perfect and she was OURS. We loved her instantly. Sweet baby girl was everything we had imagined and more. God is so good. We don't deserve her, plain and simple. I have had so many people tell me what great people we are and how lucky she is to have us. And while she may be, let me tell you right now: We are the lucky ones. She is a far greater blessing to us than we will ever be to her. All of a sudden in that moment, IT WAS WORTH IT. Everything we had been through: the pain, the heartache, the excruciatingly long wait, the paperwork, the tears and the desperation...SHE WAS WORTH IT. It all came together in a perfectly orchestrated story when we saw her sweet face.

A year ago, when we were expecting a referral any day, she wasn't even born yet. All of the times we cried out to God, Why?!?!, He was soothing us and telling us to WAIT. She's not ready yet, she's not here yet. Wait. I'm going to knock your socks off. Wait. She's going to be amazing. Wait. She is just for you. Wait. I am knitting her together. Wait. I love you. Wait. My plan is better. Just WAIT. 

We studied every picture (all seven of them!) in detail. Those pictures are like oxygen to us. We soaked it all in.  Her eyes, her lips, her hair, her little hands and feet, her adorable belly, and we got a glimpse of how God feels about us. We come to Him orphaned and helpless with NOTHING to offer and He loves us anyway. Completely and fully, He loves us. Thank you God, and thank you for showing us this in that moment. We are no longer orphans, and neither is she.

Lindsay then began to tell us every single bit of history they have on her: her health history, the circumstances surrounding her birth, her sleep schedule, her eating schedule, her personality, what she likes and doesn't like, how she laughs and how she plays. Every little piece of information is so precious in a situation like this. We loved hearing all about her and I can't wait until I'm the one who knows her more completely than anyone else.

I can't tell you any details, but I can tell you that she had no one. Now she has us, and more importantly, we have her. She is 7 months old TODAY too - Happy 7 months sweet angel!

After we had been on the phone for about 45 minutes and told Lindsay that YES, we wanted to proceed with her adoption, we began calling and texting all of our friends and family! Jason called his parents and they decided they were going to drive down to see pictures and take us out to eat. I skyped my mom at camp to see her reaction when I sent her the pictures. My phone began to blow up with congratulations and texts of people crying and jumping up and down and praising God with us! It was quite possibly the biggest celebration of my life so far. Let me just say right now that we could not have made it through this without our family and friends supporting us and praying for us and listening to us whine and complain and encouraging us. It has taken a village and we are very aware that she is not just our baby...she means so much to so many people.

Satan, you fought hard but YOU LOSE. We are now a family of FIVE! Blessed be the name of the LORD!

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God." Psalm 40:1-3

"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

Our first family of five photo :) (It was cap day...remember? :)

And the boys are THRILLED by the way. They were a little shocked at first but now could not be more excited about their sister!

Jason and I with our baby girl - we have a daughter!!!

 Nana and Grangoat's first reaction

Holding pictures of their first grand-daughter

When Lori brought Judah back home we showed her pictures, and Jason's brother's family drove over to see pictures and go out to eat with us as well.

And then, our sweet sweet small group. These people were in the trenches with us. Supporting us and praying for us and loving us even when we weren't very loveable. They threw us a celebratory party, complete with It's a Girl signs and pink balloons. Jason cracked open a bottle of wine he'd been saving for over 3 years for this very occasion.

We love you guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now we begin the next phase of waiting. This one will not even be a fraction of how long we waited before, thank goodness. We are waiting for a court date, which is typically assigned 4-6 weeks after referral and about 2-3 weeks out, so maybe in January? Then we'll have to go back about 4-6 weeks later after all of her paperwork is ready to come into the USA and BRING HER HOME. I have a feeling the wait between trips will be the hardest. So we might have her home in March or April, just in time for her 1st birthday. Amazing.

So that's our referral story. Still can't believe it happened. What a Merry Merry Christmas indeed. Perfect timing. We have a daughter! Eeeeek!

A post on her name is hopefully coming soon...

our referral story {THE CALL part 1}

*Warning: this is long!* I have been thinking on this post for days and I'm having trouble putting what I'm feeling into words. All of this is just so surreal and amazing.

For a few weeks leading up to Thursday we were just really, really low. I can't even describe to you the depth of despair that we were feeling. I had told Jason a few days before that I felt like the Israelites wandering around in the desert for 40 years. Dry and thirsty and tired, wondering what in the world God's big plan was. Crying out to Him - Oh God, will you ever deliver us?

When we started this adoption process, we obviously had no idea that it would take this long. Things were moving along very quickly. Even quicker than a lot of domestic adoptions. We just knew in our hearts that this was God's plan for us. We wanted to abandon this plan many, many times but could not bring ourselves to do it.

A little over a month ago we felt like God was calling us to surrender. Surrender our plans and our ideas and let Him have full control. So we did. We moved our age range as high as we could without added expense, to 23 months. We revisited our child medical form and changed some things. We were at complete peace about it all and fully expected a 1 to 2 year old since the paperwork on each child is taking so long right now. But God completely blew us away after we let Him have it all. He knew the desires of our hearts.

REFERRAL DAY: NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Last Thursday started out like any other day. I work at a preschool two days a week, one of them being Thursdays. Judah goes with me and it's a great little mommy job - I love it! School is from 9-2 and at 1:44pm my phone vibrated in my back pocket while I was at the indoor playground with my class.

Oh yes, it said "Possibly THE CALL" on my phone. :-) And you can see on the call time that it took a little over a minute for my whole life to change. My heart started an irregular rhythm and then I immediately told myself "She's probably calling about the email we sent yesterday." When you've been on the wait list for 2 1/2 years you NEVER think it's THE CALL. And let's just say that Jason and I had sent poor Lindsay a VERY whiny email the day before about how bummed we were. I looked at my co-teacher and said "I have to take this" and walked a little ways away.

Me (taking a deep breath): Hello?

Lindsay: Hey Summer, it's Lindsay. How are you?

Me: I'm okay, how are you?

L: Great! I got your email yesterday.

Me: (Deflated. Thinking, I knew it was just about that). Yeah, sorry about that. We are just really having a hard time right now.

L: I know you are. I think I have some news that's going to make it all better!!!

Me: YOU'RE KIDDING ME. Oh my goodness, I can't believe this. I feel like I'm going to pass out!

L: (Laughing) I have your referral right here on my desk, can you believe it?

Me: No, I really can't. I can barely breathe, I think I'm going to pass out.

L: (Laughing and consoling me that it's okay and is really happening) I'm assuming you're not with Jason, do you want me to conference him in or do you want to get with him at home and call me back?

Me: No, I'm at work. Um, I'm going to go home and then we'll call you back. (Starting to cry). I just need to know how old she is before I call Jason.

L: She's 6 MONTHS OLD and her name is *****

Me: YOU'RE KIDDING! (apparently I thought this was all some big joke on me :-) Oh my goodness, I can't believe she's so young! 6 months old?!?! (At this point I slid down the wall onto the floor and started crying).

L: She's beautiful Summer, she's beautiful. We've all been oooing and ahhing over her pictures!

Me: Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. I'm going to call Jason and then we'll call you back soon.

L: Okay, I'll wait to hear from you. Happy Referral Day!

Me: Thank you so much! Bye.

At this point my co-teacher was checking on me to make sure no one had died. :-) Once I told her what was going on she gave me a big hug and told me to GO! I remember telling her "I'm tapped out, my mind is gone. I can't help you with the kids right now." LOL.

I stood up, went down a hall and called Jason who was off work last week - perfect timing.

J: Hey. Is everything okay? (because I'm calling early from school)

Me: (yelling) THIS IS IT! WE HAVE A BABY! I JUST GOT THE CALL!

J: What? Are you serious? Oh my goodness!!!

Me: (Crying) She's 6 months old Jason, 6 MONTHS OLD!!! Can you believe it??!?!? She said she was beautiful!

J: (Laughing/crying) When can you get home? Can you leave right now? How quickly can you get home? (I think he said this about 10 times :-)

Me: Yes, I'm leaving right now. I just need to find someone who can take Judah home and tell Lori that I'm leaving and then I'll call you on the way home. Can you believe this?!?!? Oh my goodness. I'm in shock.

J: I know, I know. Okay, call me on your way home. Bye!

Me: Okay, bye.

And then I thought, what am I going to do with Judah? I didn't want to cause a scene because our families didn't even know at this point. I don't want the whole school knowing. I tried to walk as calmly as I could down the hall and found Lori (my close friend and boss) in an office. I calmly told her I needed to talk to her in the other room. I told her "We have a baby!". She hugged me and assured me that she would take Judah with her and then bring him to our house later. My friend Katie happened into the room right next to us. I called her in and just looked at her, didn't say a word, and she screamed and then cried while hugging me. I told them not to tell anyone, then grabbed my stuff, left Judah's car seat by Lori's car and left.

Before I left Jason had texted me that he was jumping in the shower in case I tried to call. By the time I called him in the car on the way home I was shaking and praying I didn't have a wreck. He was out of the shower - he said he was yelling "Thank you God!" over and over in the shower. We decided that we needed to find someone to pick up Elijah from school because we would probably still be talking to our caseworker at that point. I called my next door neighbor and friend - she didn't answer. Jason went next door and banged on her door until she did. :-) She said she would get Elijah. I remember telling Jason all the way home "I can't remember her name. She told me and I can't remember our baby's name!" and "oh my goodness, I cannot believe she's only 6 months old!"

When I pulled in the driveway, I ran inside. Jason was beaming and jumping up and down. We hugged and jumped up and down together! I ran next door to tell my neighbor not to tell Elijah what was going on and called his school to let them know my neighbor would be picking him up. Jason set up the camera on the computer, I grabbed my phone, we sat down together in front of the computer and called Lindsay.

The stage was set. God in His wisdom had known this moment in time long before we even began this adoption process 3 years ago. It was here. November 29, 2012. We were about to see our baby girl for the first time...

the post you've all been waiting for {our referral}

Yesterday, after 3 years in this process, we finally FINALLY received our REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 months old.

GORGEOUS.

AMAZING.

God has blessed us beyond our wildest imagination!

We are humbled and honored to be her parents.

I have so much more to say on this and the full story is coming soon, but for now please rejoice and praise God with us for this wonderful blessing!

WE HAVE A BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!


These are the earliest pictures we have of her at 4 months old...

generous tuesday

The simple and powerful idea that Generosity can change a life has inspired Generous Tuesday. It's a day to kick off the holiday giving season that celebrates enriching the lives of others through Generosity.
Join us in living generously. 

 

www.generoustuesday.com 

There are so many ways you can get involved with this and carry it through the Christmas season. Our family has chosen to give a portion of what we would have spent on gifts to Run to Uganda to help build a school in Uganda. You can check it out here: http://www.runtouganda.blogspot.com . Jason's cousin is helping to head this up...their goal is $50,000 by next fall and you can help simply by running. Contact me for details.

Now...GO and be GENEROUS!

thanksgiving

 

we spent part of our thanksgiving week at camp of the hills with my mom, jason's parents and my sister/brother-in-law. it was nice and relaxing.

the rest of the week went something like this: christmas shopping, eating, decorating our house, watching movies, being with friends and date nights. i'd call that a nice vacation.

a letter to my daughter

Dear sweet baby girl,
Sunday, November 11th marked 3 years that we have been waiting for you. On that day 3 years ago we mailed the very first paper to get started on our journey to you. Three years is a long time to wait for a baby, but you are worth it. You are so loved already and we haven't even seen your sweet face yet. Oh what a glorious day that will be when we finally see the little girl that God has had planned for us this whole time!

It is strange to love someone and miss someone when we haven't even met, but you are already part of our family. You have been growing in our hearts for 3 years and there is a hole in our lives where you should be that literally hurts. I am sorry that you are not with us yet. It makes my heart hurt to know that there is nothing we can do to speed this up and have you here in our arms. We are sad that things are taking so long and don't understand the "why's" right now but one day it will all make sense. When we see your beautiful brown eyes, we will know that we were waiting on YOU. If the timing had been any different, it would not have been YOU. And YOU are the only one to make our family complete.

One day I will look into your little face and tell you how much we love you, how much you were worth it and how special you are. God has known you since before you were born. He has made you to glorify Him and fulfill a purpose that only you can do. He has big plans for you. I can't wait to tell you that. I will tell you how your brothers prayed for you every day for years and years. I'll tell you how they talked about you like you were already here. Their love for you is limitless. I will tell you how sorry I am that you have already had so much hurt and loss in your short life but that we will never ever leave you. I'll tell you about your beautiful country and heritage and the sacrifices that your first mother made for you. Your daddy will tell you that he has been waiting for his perfect little princess and that you bring him so much joy.

We love you so much and ache for the day when you are ours forever. You are never far from our thoughts and you are prayed for every day.

Love,
Mama

giving and giving thanks

i totally stole this idea off another blog but i love it!

this is our first annual "thankful tree" for the thanksgiving season.

we just simply do not stop and count our blessings nearly enough.

this way we're making sure we do that each day this november.

make your own "thankful tree". it was super easy!

also, have you signed up for Pure Charity yet?

well, make sure you STOP right now and SIGN UP.

how amazing is it that we can channel our spending to do good for others all over the globe?

you don't even have to change your spending people, this just channels it to wonderful places!

don't know what to "fund" on Pure Charity?

read THIS and fund THIS: http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2012/11/06/the-legacy-project

or follow me on there and we can fund something together.

the point is, just sign up and fund something BEFORE you spend another penny. :-)

orphan sunday

today is orphan sunday.

this month is adoption awareness month.

what are YOU doing to follow God's command of caring for orphans?

they need us.

we need them more.

"Today, ask God that of the 2 billion Christians in the world, 7% would show hope to a single orphan, looking after the child in their distress. Ask the Lord to convict the church around the world that if we did this, there would effectively be no more orphans. Ask the Lord to show each of His followers that we can each do something. Within your prayers, choose a country or countries to pray specifically over and pray for nationals within that country to rise up and be willing to care for orphans."

i must share this...

I am very disillusioned with all of the consumerism and spending during the Christmas season. It makes me want to vomit, honestly. Seriously, how we can buy a billion toys for our children while people all over the world go without clean water is beyond me. But, I digress.

 Our family has already decided that we are going to cut a portion of our spending this Christmas and use it to meet a need, either here or overseas. I challenge you to do the same. We haven't decided what yet, we just know we're going to do SOMETHING. Well, I may have just found that something...or yet another something that we can do to make a HUGE difference this Christmas season. Before you spend another penny, PLEASE watch this little 1 minute video and read this quick blog post. It can literally change the lives of countless without you changing anything that you do. It's brilliant. And please SHARE it on your blogs, on facebook, through email to everyone you know! This is so easy! 

I'm copying and pasting straight from Jen Hatmaker's blog:

You know sometimes when you hear an idea, and in no small way, it totally blows your mind, and you think I am so happy to live in a world where smart people think up smart stuff like this? Well. Sit down. Because do I EVER have the best idea to share with you, and I am going to absolutely insist upon penalty of death gently encourage you to join me in it.

Step 1: Watch this. Seriously. It's like one minute, and this is THE STUFF:

 

So here's the deal: We spend money. All the time. Sometimes it's exciting things like vacations and iPads. Other times it's slightly less glamorous, like diapers and Windex. But we're spending. And the stores we spend at have historically managed their own charitable giving. They give a portion of their proceeds to amazing work like...well...we have no idea. There is a major disconnect between our purchasing dollars and their corporate philanthropic giving.

But Pure Charity gets this great idea: Let's bridge that gap and allow the consumers to decide where their little percentage goes. If Target agrees to donate 1.5% of your total purchase, then how about you decide what project that 1.5% funds? And so, like magic, the way we are already spending, already consuming, just living our lives turns into generosity.

It's the easiest, easiest thing ever, and I'm going to walk you through the steps:

1. Sign up for a Pure Charity account. ("Follow" me then scroll down to "Get Started" to make your own account. Following one another compounds our giving, because that is another way Pure Charity WINS THE UNIVERSE.) If you're on Facebook, you can sign in through that (which is great for sharing in the future), or you can sign up the old-fashioned way.

2. Install the browser plugin. This causes a cute little icon to pop up when you're shopping online at participating vendors, and with a simple *click*, a percentage of your purchase will be routed into your personal giving account with Pure Charity. And when I say participating vendors, yall, I'm talking about over 1000 stores like:

Target Gap Best Buy
Groupon Priceline Sam's Club
Apple Sephora Petsmart
Walmart Lowe's Forever 21

Are you kidding me with this???? I'm telling you, Pure Charity has convinced virtually all of our favorite stores to drink the PC kool-aid. These are the places we already shop. Can you imagine if we collectively harnessed a percentage of our regular spending for good? (Never mind. Pure Charity already imagined that.)

3. Register your main credit/debit card with Pure Charity. This is so brilliant, because every time you use that card at a participating vendor IN STORE, a percentage is automatically zipped over to your personal giving account. You have to do absolutely nothing at all. (Not every online vendor has an in-store partnership, so when in doubt, online shopping will always build up your personal giving account. Plus, who wants to shop in the store when you can do it online?? asks the shopping-hater.)

4. Now, browse the projects. Well...JUST WAIT A MINUTE. For perhaps, just perhaps I have an idea here already. Oh sure, you'll see clean water initiatives and AIDS interventions and whatnot, but if you'll not get distracted by inferior projects just wait a few more teeny days, I have something awesome we can pool our collective impact for, and you're going to want to know about it. I promise.

5. Support your favorite project. (You can change the amount you support…it starts with $5 increments…by clicking the dollar amount and changing it.) These are time specific projects with a set amount of $. If that project doesn’t fund by the finish date, Pure Charity refunds the money back into your giving account. But again...kindly wait just a few baby days, because I clearly have an ulterior motive here.

6. Share it with friends! There’s a strong social connection to this, where you can share buttons and widgets with your friends and followers, to generate interest in a cause you’re passionate about.

Pure Charity offers a redemptive opportunity to harness consumerism for great good. It's just so brilliant. Good reader, please make a Pure Charity account. Please share this blog with every person you know. Did you know that in the next two months, Americans will dole out roughly 40% of our entire annual spending? If ever there was a time to capitalize on capitalism, it is surely now.

Christmas spending...harnessed for good.

Holiday travel...used for charity.

Spending on our families...equals spending on others.

May I ask you to share this blog like it's your job? Let's get everyone we know signed up for Pure Charity, because with virtually no effort, it will redeem our regular spending, bit by bit, purchase by purchase, to change the world.

And once you all have your accounts in place...I have a little project to back. We're going to do something amazing together between now and December 25th. Oh, yes we are. YES WE ARE.