Our biggest summer adventure

Summer is always so exciting, always something to look forward to.  No school, not too many places we need to be, no sports... a break from our busy lives!  Summer is comfortable and relaxing and we purposely make it that way - until this summer.

This summer we are choosing to do something totally out of our comfort zone.   This summer we are taking a leap of faith and hosting an orphan through New Horizons for Children.  Many of you know this is how my sister and her family met their now son Sergejs.  They hosted him through this program a few years ago and ended up adopting him.  He is such a joy to our family and it has been such a blessing to see God's hand in every part of their story.

We know that we are not going to adopt so we are choosing to host an "aged out" orphan. This is someone who is too old to be adopted, and even if we wanted to, we could not pursue her adoption.  We are going to host a teenage girl, for sake of privacy on the blog we will call her "M".

My sister is the volunteer coordinator for our region so of course the idea of hosting has been in the back of my mind since they started releasing photos and bios of kids in orphanages in Eastern Europe.  These kids are waiting, hoping, and praying they would be picked to come to the US for the summer.   A chance to experience a new country and live as part of a family, maybe for the first time in their lives.

Then a few days ago the thought in the back of my mind moved to the front of my mind.  I always thought of hosting a little one and for many reasons I knew that wasn't possible.   Then I remembered there were also teens in the program.  They know they can't be adopted but they still want the chance to be a part of a family and to experience the love that comes with that.  It was all of the sudden so clear.  We should host a teenage girl!  I got online and started looking through all the children in the program that haven't been chosen yet.  I read their bios that tell of their likes and dislikes, I narrowed it down to four young ladies that I thought would be a good fit and then called my sister for more information.  She helped me narrow it down to "M".    I started thinking about all of the logistics...
Where would she sleep?  What would we do all day?  How would the kids feel about having a teen in the house?  I really couldn't think of one dilemma that didn't have a solution.   So then I called Brian at work and told him my grand idea.  HAHA oh God is so good.  He gave me the perfect husband for me.  Brian is wise, he is cautious and he is so good at dealing with all of my grand ideas.

Brian of course expressed all of the same dilemmas I had already sorted through.  He came home for lunch that day and we made a pros and cons list.  There were way many more pros than cons but he still was not ready to commit.  So I gave him another 24 hours.  I called him at work again the next day and asked if he had any more thoughts on hosting.  He said he wanted me to talk to a dear friend who has three teenage girls to get an idea of what we might be dealing with, so I did.  Then I called him back again and shared about our conversation.  He then gave me the "OK go for it".  He said the only reasons he could think of to not host this young girl were selfish reasons.  Things like he would have to share the tv at night with another person, or that the summer wouldn't be as comfortable as it usually is. He said that when you compare those meaningless little things to the opportunity we have to change someone's life, how could we not do it?  I love my husband's honest heart and willingness to serve. I am so thankful for him.

So our summer may not be as comfortable as we are used to, but it will be meaningful.  Our goal (and the goal of the program) is to teach this girl about LOVE.   God's love, the love of a family, and how to love herself.   We will do this by showing her unconditional love.  Love her when it's hard and when it's easy, when it's exciting and when it's uncomfortable.  We are trusting God will show us how to do this and how we can most make a difference in her life.

So what's next??  Well "M" wont be here until late June but a lot has to happen before then.  We have completed the hosting application and its time to start paying for the hosting.   Hosting costs a lot of money.  Some of the costs include her plane ticket, catastrophic health insurance while she is here, paying for her visa, background checks and much more.  In addition to making those payments once she gets here we will need a few things.   She will come with nothing but the clothes on her back.  We will provide her with clothes that she gets to take back with her when she leaves and a rolling duffel bag to take them home in.  We will need to get her into a dentist (Our dentist has agreed to cover this!  Praise God!) and the eye doctor.   The idea of raising this money is my biggest fear in this process but I know God is ABLE.  So will you help?  I have come up with two fundraisers to help with the cost to bring "M" to our home this summer.

#1.  The puzzle fundraiser!   I am ordering a puzzle of California that I will give "M".  If you would like to help us show love to this girl you can buy a puzzle piece for $5.  Once you pay for the puzzle piece I will write your name and any message you want to include onto the back of the puzzle.  This is an awesome keepsake for "M"!

#2.  Wood Signs.  I have posted photos below of three signs I have made specifically to help support hosting costs.  Each sign is 8in x 8in.  With your donation of $20 ($3 more for shipping) you can pick what sign you want (or customize your own sign with different colors, stain, and wording).  Signs are made on a very thin ply wood and are light weight. (Your name will also be added to the puzzle with  this donation).

All donations can be paid through PayPal using marygudgel@hotmail.com  Please include what you want for your sign/what you want on the back of the puzzle piece in the notes when you pay. 

Thank you so much for all of your support and love.   Please pray for us as we navigate through this process and pray for "M" as she prepares to come to our home for the summer.  Pray for her heart to be ready to receive the love God has to offer her.  Thank you!


** Update  4/20/15**

To make a tax deductible donation you can donate online at www.nhfc.org  Just select donate to a specific child and be sure to include "M's" Number E1076 and our last name!  Thank you!

So far we have $200 donated/pledged and she has a $250 scholarship!  We have about $2,700 left to go towards her hosting fees.  Our blog before the update was viewed over 700 times!!!  If everyone that viewed the blog donated just $5 the fees would be paid for!  Thank you so much for your love and support! 

Also, our eye doctor has agreed to cover her vision screening!  So thankful!

Adoption trip round #2 update!!

81 puzzle pieces have been claimed...this just about completes half of the puzzle! To get a reasonable rate on airfare, they will have to purchase flights next week! Thank you to everyone who has claimed a piece or pieces! If you need this info again, donations can be made:

Through PayPal by using this link and making a friends and family donation to their email address:
toddandamywestlund@yahoo.com

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/send-money-online

With a check mailed to their address:
725 Setter Court
Redding, CA 96003

Who else wants to claim a piece and help make their adoption final? ❤️✈️😊

Westlund family adoption update!

As a lot of you know my sister and her family are in the process of adopting a 12 year old boy from Eastern Europe.  In November they got to go and stay in his country for three weeks and then bring him home.   Things have been going great but unfortunately this process still has a couple of hurdles to jump through before it's all said and done!

The next obstacle is for my brother in law and my new nephew  to travel back to his home country for 6 days March 29th-April 5th.   During this time they will meet with the orphan court and verify that "S" is doing well and still wants to be adopted.  This will finalize the adoption with his country.   This will be trip #2 of 3.  While this is exciting because it is ensuring things are moving along just as they should, its a little nerve wracking for them because that means they need to come up with the cost of the travel expenses. 

On top of all of that, their family also needs to find a new home to live in by March 31st!  The owner of the home they have been living in the past few years needs to use the house for family.  They have known it about it for awhile but haven't found a new place to call home quite yet.   We have been praying they wouldn't get travel dates for trip #2 until after the move but for some reason God had other plans.

After talking with my sister and her being sure she had drained everyone's well dry with the first half of this adoption process I forced encouraged her to do another fund raiser! She came up with a very meaningful way to earn the funds needed for trip two!  Here is what she wrote on their adoption page on FB.

"As most of you will remember, we started this journey to bring S to California with a puzzle fundraiser! S now has that puzzle hanging in his room as a reminder of all the people who loved, prayed and supported us in bringing him into our family!

2 years later we are doing a puzzle fundraiser to raise the funds needed to make our adoption of S final in his country! We chose the puzzle that S and I worked on  while we were there on trip one!  It is of his country and it has 165 pieces! If each piece is claimed for a price of $20, we will have raised enough to cover the cost of two international flights, hotel accommodations and food costs for 6 days/nights!

Donations can be made:
Through PayPal by using this link and making a friends and family donation to our email address:
toddandamywestlund@yahoo.com
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/send-money-online

With a check mailed to our address:
725 Setter Court
Redding, CA 96003

Who would like to help us put this puzzle and our second trip to ****** together?
1 puzzle piece=$20 and we will put your name on the back of each piece you purchase!"

So help me prove her wrong!  Help me make her realize people do still want to contribute and want to see this adoption through to the very end!  We are starting off by buying a puzzle piece for each of our kiddos!  So only 161 pieces left to sell!  Thank you so much for your love and support!

Molluscum Free thanks to ACV!

Ok friends... I am writing this post because I want to give anyone and every one this information regarding Molluscum Contagiosum and what worked for us to get rid of them! Please note I am not speaking as a health care professional and assume no legal responsibility for my recommendation but just a mom who figured out how to get rid of Molluscum!

Over a year ago "C" got these little white bumps on the back of his legs...  They didn't seem like a big deal but at any given time some of them would be irritated and red so he would itch them.   I took him to a P.A. and she told me about Molluscum and said they are very common in kids and that there's not much you can do but they would just go away in a few months.  She even had a hand out ready to go with the information on them because they were so common! She also told me they were contagious and would spread but since there's nothing you can do about them (besides freezing them off and that would be incredibly painful and would leave scarring) there was no point in really worrying about them.  Eventually they would go away. Here's a close up of some of them... The red one is inflamed and the little white bumps were what they looked like most of the time.

I gave it about a month and saw no change, if anything he had more so I decided I would get him into the dermatologist to see if they had a magic cream or something.  I couldn't get into our normal doctor so I made an apt with a PA at another dermatologists office assuming she would maybe have more experience with this pesky virus.  She was very helpful and told me that he had eczema, even though his skin wasn't red and didn't look irritated that because of the eczema his skin wasn't able to fight of the Molluscum.  Her thought was that if we healed his skin from the eczema then Molluscum would go away.  So she gave me a prescription for a body oil to use on his whole body and a cream to put on the areas with the Molluscum.  I used these products every night for a few weeks and still nothing...

Throughout that time I had also tried tea trea oil and a face wash for acne that I had read would help.  Neither of those things seemed to make a difference at all.

Finally I found a few blogs that recommended using Apple Cider Vinegar!  At this point I was willing to try anything.  One blog I saw said you should soak a tiny piece of cotton in the ACV and put it on the Molluscum and put a band aide over it for about 6 hours.  I tried that on some of them but there were so many it was time consuming and started to irritate his skin.  So I tried the advice of another blog and they said ACV baths!  I figured at this point I had to give it a shot, nothing else was working and basketball was coming up so he wasn't going to be able to wear pants forever.  So we started that and I noticed a difference after a few days... here's what we did..

Every night he would shower and wash his hair etc.. Then once he was all clean I would start the bath.  He only had them on his legs so I would fill the bath up just enough to cover his legs with warm water and then pour in about a cup and a half of the ACV.  I'm not even talking about expensive ACV from the health food store.. I'm talking about the cheapest stuff in the gallon size from Raley's or Target!  $3 a gallon!  I wouldn't measure it.. just pour for a few seconds.  He would mix it all around and sit in it for about 10 minutes.  We wouldn't rinse or anything after, just pat dry.   I would put lotion or body oil on his whole body after the bath.

I noticed all of the white bumps started reacting to the ACV.  They all turned red and the lotion helped him not to itch them.   With all of the Molluscum reacting to the ACV at the same time it was a little bit alarming because it looked so bad.  I just kept it up because I knew this was part of the process to them dying.  Finally after about a month they are gone!  We did a ACV bath every single night for about three weeks.  I still do them about two times a week to make sure there aren't any hiding and also to prevent any new ones from coming.   I am so happy to finally have this behind us and to know of a solution that will work if any of my other kiddos get it!

Here are a few more tips I have to keep Molluscum from spreading*
-Wash your hand with antibacterial after treating the Mollusucm
-Try as hard as possible not to touch or itch the Molluscum... The contagious part is in the white bump and if breaks open that is what will make it spread.
-Never re wear clothing that has touched the Mollusucm.  We wash EVERYTHING after wearing it once to make sure its not spreading.
-My son had it on his legs so after the ACV bath and lotion he was only allowed to wear pajama pants to bed.   No shorts.
-Use towels only once and no sharing!  When you have lots of little ones it's easy to line them all up after bath and pat them down before getting them dressed but this is a sure way to spread the Molluscum!  Whatever towel I used for my son I would make sure and take it straight to the washer.  More laundry for awhile but it is so worth it!
-Gummy Vitamins with Vitamin C boost to help his immune system fight of the virus from the inside


*I've read that the virus can't live on clothing etc but it was still worth it to me to be extra careful not to give it any chance of spreading.

I was too embarrassed to talk about the Molluscum with anyone but once they started to clear up I started talking about it and realized  A LOT of people I talked to had kids with it or knew someone that did!  I hope this blog will find them and they can get rid of them like we did!

Gudgels Do Disney Part 1- Shoes and Ears

We have been planning a trip to Disneyland for about six months.  As our trip has gotten closer I find myself doing a lot of unnecessary planning for our adventure.  I love crafting so give me an excuse and I'm going to run with it!  I will blame this one on my sister in love- Katie.  For Christmas this year we did "family" gifts with Brian's siblings.  For our family gift Katie got us matching Disneyland shirts (I will share those in a later post).  Of course I had to start thinking about what K & T would wear with their personalized Minnie shirts and all of the sudden I was in craft mode.  That combined with Brian telling me the girls probably should have some tennis shoes for comfortable walking riding in the stroller I knew it was time to get my craft on.  So here is post one of our Disney adventures... Disney shoes and Disney ears for our girlies.

Here is what you need-

For the Shoes:

-Ribbon- Size 5/8" for the laces and the "flare"

-Size 7/8" for the base of the bow

-Floral Wire

-Fray Check

-Buttons: Two big and four small

-Glue Gun

-Shoes

For the ears

-1.5" Ribbon

-Black Sparkle foam

-Black foam with sticky back

-Alligator Clip

-Glue Gun

-Fray Check

  

 I decided it would be easier for me to make a video of me blinging out the shoes and making the ears rather than showing each step in pictures.. It's a little long so just scan through to the parts you have questions about.  I gave a lot of details... I also say "and" a lot.   Happy crafting!

 Minnie Shoes and Ears How to Video

We are adding another member to our family!

We are getting another family member soon!

My sister and her family are adopting a boy from Eastern Europe!  

They hosted him over Christmas break for a month through an organization called New Horizons for Children.  Even before he arrived they knew adoption was a very likely outcome for this little boy into our family.  Once he was here that just solidified their decision even more.  He is such an amazing little boy and we are so excited for him to join our family.  Or like he says, "Summer I come to California for life".  As most of you know adoption is very expensive and often times seems nearly impossible! By participating in this giveaway you can have a chance to win one of these bracelets!

These bracelets were made to fundraise to bring this boy home for life!  They are MudLOVE bracelets, they say "live 2 love".  MudLOVE supports an organization that provides clean water in Africa.  A double donation and awesome bracelet, you can't beat that!  

Donations can be made through pay pal.  Email address is toddandamywestlund@yahoo.com.

The winner of the blender bottle will also win one of these bracelets!  Thank you for your support! 

Our family wearing our "live 2 love" bracelets! 

My very first Stitch Fix!

It's finally here! My very first stitch fix! I was on the list for awhile but due to that whole target debit card mis hap and me getting a new debit card and me not updating my stitch fix account I missed out on the box they put together for me a month ago.. But I got back in line and my turn is finally here. I got my box!

For those of you who don't know... Stitch Fix is basically a busy mom's dream come true. You go online and fill out a little bit about what you like fashion wise, tell them your sizes and where you wear the clothes you buy and then they give all that info to a stylist and they put together a box for you. They ship it to your home, you try it all on, keep what you want and send back what you do not like. I love this! It's like speed shopping and you can get the boxes once a month! Or you can schedule your shipments more spaced out if you'd like. They charge you a $20 styling fee when they ship your fix but that $20 will go towards your purchase assuming you keep something. I love shopping but at this point in my life never make it to the mall, and when I do I have no idea what to try on since I feel like i've been out of the fashion world for so long! So I was beyond excited to get this box today.... Here is what it had..

Zouk Tracy Fit & Flare Geo Print Dress $38 I liked this dress and it fit nicely but It was just ok. I do actually have a few events coming up that I'm going to need dresses for but the black and white geo print wasn't really doing it for me. So I am not keeping this one...

Pink TCEC Glendale Embellished Hi-Lo Tank $48. This top was ok. It fit nice but I didn't see myself wearing it often. I'm sending this one back.

Navy Under Skies Milan Lace Print Back Pleat Top $58. I love love love this. Its classy and comfortable and covers my not so flat mommy tummy. This is for sure a winner! I decided I'd post the pictures of me in the things i'm keeping!

Light Green Bay to Baubles Diana Flower Jewel Necklace $36. Cute necklace but I don't want to spend this much on a necklace. I like it though!

Black Liverpool Anita Ponte Pant $78. This was funny since i've been looking for more black pants/skinny jeans. I happened to just buy a pair last weekend and despite my love for black skinny pants, I couldn't justify another pair... for now, so i'm sending these back too. They were great though!

Well out of the five items they sent me this month i'm only keeping one. I have heard the more fixes you get the better the selection gets because your stylist learns your likes and dislikes. I will go on the website and "check out" and write why i'm not keeping the things i'm sending back. An extra bonus, if they ever do send you a box of things you LOVE you get a 25% discount if you buy everything. That makes a big difference. Stitch Fix is definity a treat and not something I HAVE to do but I will definitely be trying to fit this into our regular budget. It's exciting to get this box in the mail and try on things that were picked especially for you! IF you want to try it out I would appreciate it if you signed up under this link so I could earn credit towards my next fix! Thanks

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/3079165