I Would Gather Children

Saw this on someone's blog today. Thought it was great.

I Would Gather Children

Some would gather money

Along the path of life

Some would gather roses,

And rest from worldly strife.

But I would gather children

From among the thorns of sin,

I would seek a golden curl,

And a freckled, toothless grin.

For money cannot enter

In that land of endless day,

And roses that are gathered

Soon will wilt along the way.

But oh, the laughing children,

As I cross the sunset sea,

And the gates swing wide to heaven,

I can take them in with me!

~Author Unknown~

Trunk or Treat

For our first time to participate in the "trunk" portion of trunk or treat, we decided our theme would be SHIPWRECKED.

Designing the "trunk". No, I'm not kidding. This is not staged. You are witnessing what is real and true in the Dixon home. And look at the little apprentice to his right....

Shipwrecked Sophia and a young MJ.

The most beautiful shipwrecked girl EVER.

Just call us the Swiss Family Dixon.

She'll be ok on the island as long as she has her daddy.

Fishing for prizes.

Micah.....

Jump house fun.

Sweet Sophia is 2!!

A few days before Sophia's actual birthday, we had a Tiny Party to celebrate her and Duane's birthday.

Anna Leigh, her "big sister", helping her open her Dora Backpack.

Caroline, "big sister" #2, enjoying her tiny cupcake.

Didn't know 2 year olds could be so beautiful!

Micah and Brooks. Double Trouble.

The birthday girl with her daddy.

Some of our "tiny" food. Tiny caramel apples, tiny cinnamon rolls, and tiny cupcakes.

Noah had a lot of fun with the tiny hats....

Birthday kisses with Owen.

Don't you love how she already knows how to "lean in"?

On her actual birthday we celebrated with a cake made by daddy and an outing to see "Alice in Wonderland" performed by her big sisters.

It's hard to believe that she is 2 years old! Ofcourse we think she grows more fun and more beautiful every day. With turning 2, she also grows more opinionated and stubborn each day. So it goes. She owns her daddy and her biggest brother. Micah treats her like one of the guys. And I don't know what I ever did without another girl in the house. We love you Sophia!!

Just Love Coffee

Ok, I know you are probably ready to see pictures of the kids and that will be my next post, I promise! I just have one more fundraising opportunity to share. Rob Webb, a man from Nashville, has opened a coffee business to help families raise funds for their adoptions. We have a store on his site at www.justlovecoffee.com/teamdixon. The coffee is fair trade, meaning that the coffee farmers had decent working conditions and received a fair price for their coffee. This is not the case with most coffee - something that many people don't realize. We get $5 dollars for every bag of coffee purchased from our storefront. Check it out!

The Weimers...because they have room.

Promo for "3 by 3 by 3" Documentary from David Watson on Vimeo.

Tracy's Adoption Shop

Today a sweet girl named Tracy contacted me through my Etsy store. She is also adopting from Africa and raising funds through an Etsy store. She sells very cute and very affordable baby slings! She had the idea to set up a blog where people can go to see all of the stores people have set up to raise money for their ethiopian adoptions. I thought it was a great idea (especially since she's promoting our 2 fundraising sites!), and I wanted to pass on the site. She just started it, so it might take her a while to build up the list. Just check back often. What a great place to do your Christmas shopping!
www.ethiopiaadoptionshop.blogspot.com

Wisdom for moms

Moms - you should read this blog post by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience.

click here

Exciting Announcement!

Our friends, Daniel and Sarah Dubois, have offered us an incredible opportunity to raise funds for our adoption!

They are in the process of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. As an effort to raise funds for their adoption, they created a line of t-shirts. God blessed this effort and the shirts have been a hit! Through this and several other fundraising efforts, they recently reached their fundraising goal, praise God! I can only imagine that after raising 27,000 dollars, their had to be a small part of them that wanted to rest and be done with it. But they have opted to continue in their fundraising. Now they will be raising funds for other adopting families. Here's the exciting part....they are blessing us with the opportunity to receive all proceeds from the sale of their shirts for the next 4 months! They offer t-shirts, hoodies, kids shirts, onesies, even stationary. We are so excited about this opportunity. God continues to provide what we need to carry out his mission!

The shirts and stationary can be found at http://www.goseeklove.com/t-shirt_fundraiser.html. They would make great Christmas gifts! While you're there, find out about the Dubois family and their adoption story. Their website http://www.goseeklove.com/ has some great resources for anyone adopting or considering adoption. In fact it was one of the sites that we initially referred to for information.