Where in the world is our adoption tee at? Post #5

This adoption shirt is being sported in Harahan, Louisiana, where I grew up until about the age of 9. Everything about Harahan holds such fond memories of my childhood for me. One of which, is this sweet lady, Ms. Angie. Ms. Angie has been around since I was born. There are pictures of her holding me in my baby book when I was only a few days old. She and my mom grew up together and have been friends for 40 years now.....um....WOW! She is fun and spicy and you are always guaranteed a good time and some laughs when you are around her. Love you Ms. Angie. Thank you for helping to bring home 1 more grandkid for my mom, because clearly she needs another one.

Where in the world is our adoption tee at? Post #4

Today's adoption tee post is one that melts my heart and makes me all the more anxious to have our son home. This is Jessica and Rit Gianelloni and their adopted son Solomon. I haven't actually met them in person yet, but we have corresponded via facebook and I started following their adoption journey a while back. I remember seeing their video for the first time via a mutual friend's facebook post some time last year when God was merely stirring in my heart about adoption. I cried! Little did I know that one day, I would connect with Jessica when we began our own adoption journey and they would be supporting our adoption through buying our shirts.

They brought their sweet Solomon home from Uganda a couple of months ago. Is he not the cutest thing in the whole world? I felt an immediate connection with this family, as they were adopting when they had 4 young bio children at home already. Maybe they made me feel less crazy since we have 3 kids 3 and under. Either way, seeing their faith and determination to bring Solomon home has been so AMAZING and pulled at every heart string I have. I have cried over their updates and pictures and I have never even met them. Seeing an adoption story come full circle, fills me with hope and anticipation that one day we will be taking pictures with our little guy.

If you have time, check out their adoption story via video HERE. Then if you want to finish out the story you can read it on their blog HERE.

Thank you Gianelloni Family for being part of OUR "Minus 1" even after YOUR "Minus 1."

Where in the world is our adoption tee at? Post #3

You gotta love family! I am one blessed girl with an AMAZING super close family. My grandma and grandpa had 5 girls, who had 5 more girls, our generation now has 9 kids (with our adopted son on the way). All of the aunts and cousins grew up together and are continuing the tradition through the generations. Cousins are more like sisters in my family. When we are all together it is a dose of FUN and craziness all in one and I LOVE it!

With that said, here are 2 totally amazing and Godly women in my family, my Aunt Deborah (better known as Yaya) and my cousin, Shannon. Yaya is full of God's wisdom and love and my kids love her. Shannon and I are best friends and know everything about each other. We share some very fond memories from childhood and now up into our 30's. She was one of the main influences in my life that led me to Christ. Now it is so much fun to raise our families side by side.

Here are the 2 Louisiana girls (mother and daughter) wearing our adoption tee and looking super cute. Love you both so much!

Where in the World is our adoption tee at? Post #2

Our shirts have been busy making their way around. This adoption tee, in particular is enjoying being a traveler this week. This is Grandpa Ricky. He is so much fun and loves to laugh and be silly, as you can see! He can't get enough of his new shirt, and I can't blame him. Here is Grandpa in his shirt at Zephyr Stadium in Louisiana and then in Las Vegas. 1 week....2 locations (not to mention Chicago airport in between). Now that is love! Thanks Grandpa for spreading the message and supporting your grandson.

Where in the world is our adoption tee at? Post #1

So many of you guys have bought our custom adoption shirt to help support our adoption and raise orphan awareness by wearing it. I wanted to feature each of you on our blog so we can see just how great you all look in them and see how far out we can get our tees.

So, in honor of a great show from my childhood, we will be calling these posts "Where in the world is our adoption tee at?" Any guesses of what show I am thinking of? If you guessed, "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?," your cool points just bumped up. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you MISSED out and I really feel for you.

                                                  

PLEASE, if you ordered a tee shirt, we would LOVE for you to send us a pic of you in it to angiemcginty@gmail.com. It would be awesome if you could take one near a landmark or something significant to where you are so we can see our tees all across the world. Wear them on your summer vacation and send us your pic. When people ask where you got your totally awesome shirt, send them to our blog. We would so appreciate it!

We got our first Adoption Tee pic in. Isn't she adorable? This is Haley. She is 10 yrs old and she is from Waggaman, LA. Thank you Haley for wearing our adoption tee! It looks GREAT on you!

Time to Represent

                                       

     (Yes, I totally took a mirror pic of myself....don't judge...it's for the sake of the shirts people. And yes, I realize that the words are backwards, but seeing as how you are all so smart, I have faith that you can read backwards:)

We got our custom adoption shirts delivered this week and I must say, I am THRILLED with how they turned out!  Mad props to our designer, Scott and our printing company Sonny & Cille. We are getting them out to everyone who ordered them a little at a time. If you needed yours shipped, it should be there soon, as we sent them out yesterday.

Seeing everyone wear their shirts with pride, fills me with so much excitement. People have already said that they like them better in person. The shirts are super soft and comfy and sport a great message, while supporting our adoption. We did order extras, but as more people order, we will run out of sizes until our next order. So if you haven't ordered yours yet, don't worry, YOU STILL CAN. Just e-mail me at angiemcginty@gmail.com to see if we still have your size in stock. Remember, you won't find these shirts anywhere else but here, so get yours while they last.

If you ordered one of our shirts, please don't forget to take a picture of yourself/ family in your shirt and send it in to me via e-mail so I can feature your awesomeness on our blog.

Life on paper

Sometimes I feel like we are a lifetime away from meeting our son, and bringing him home. Some days I am ok with that, as it gives my bio littles time to become more independent and sometimes, I just want him here NOW doing all of our family activities with us. I know this journey is all in God's timing. We are only 4 months into the process and still probably have over 2 1/2 years to go. It is hard sometimes as we talk about him all the time, pray for him, envision him in the grocery basket as we do our shopping, think about he and Knox sharing a room and so on.

One thing that helps me tremendously is journaling. I have always been a journaler. I love writing down my emotions, my fear, my joys, my prayers. There is something about putting the words of my life on paper. I keep a journal to each one of my kids. I write about their stages of life, my love for them, my struggles with them, etc. I always think about if something were to happen to me one day, how they will have a piece of me to look back on time and time again.

I started a journal to our adopted son before God had even changed Evan's heart about adoption, because I just KNEW he would. I wanted to be able to let him know what I am thinking through the process, how much I already love him and that even though he is not here with us physically, he is here with us in our hearts and prayers. Not knowing how old he will be, there will be some time that I will not be with him to document about his life. His baby book will not be as filled as my bio kids books are, with every detail about their first coo, smile, etc. But, I look forward to one day handing him his journal and letting him know that even while we were apart, we were together in some ways. That before he even thought about me, I was thinking about and loving him.

It reminds me of how God felt about me before I even knew him. He knew my name and everything about me before I ever acknowledged that he was my father. Even when I tried to deny him, he displayed his love in the most sacrificing way possible, death. He left me a story/journal too, the most amazing love story ever written. The story of how he came to rescue me from a fallen world and that once I accepted what he had done and called him daddy, that I was in his forever family. My journaling and my love will never compare to that of God's for me, but I hope that it shows my son a glimpse of the kind of love we have for him.

1 John 4:19 "We love him because he first loved us."

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

 Jeremiah 1:5 "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations."

Ephesians 1: 4-5 "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."