My best friend Heather--

Will you all join me in praying for my friend Heather? We have been friends well...pretty much forever! She was scheduled to have a C-section with their 3rd baby on Jan. 3, but last Thursday her water broke. She has been in the hospital on bed rest. Since her water is only leaking and her body is continuing to produce more amniotic fluid they have been trying to keep the baby in the womb as long as possible. However now her body is starting to react and she has started having contractions. At this point, they are thinking that she is going to need to have a C-section tomorrow morning. Her little girl will be about 5 weeks early, and will need to go into the NICU once she is born.

*Please pray that the Lord will flood Heather and Joe with an overwhelming peace today.

*Pray that this little girl's lungs will miraculously be touched by the Lord and able to handle life outside the womb.

*Pray that she will also miraculously put on the extra weight she needs for her little life.

Heth and I were pregnant with her first and my youngest one four years ago. I was due before her, but she ended up delivery 2 days before me. So last spring when she called me at 11:00 at night to tell me she had just taken a pregnancy test and it was positive...I declared the race was ON! Matt and I were in the beginning stages of our adoption journey, so it only seemed right that once again we would go through pregnancies together--me paper pregnant and her big belly preggo. At various points on our journey, I have exclaimed to Heather...that I was going to win this time. Once again, Heth my dear, looks like you will win! Really, I am ok with it! Victory is a sweet thing and since you have been laying in a hospital bed with nothing to do but talk to me on the phone...I'll let you have this one!

We love you, Heather and Joe, and are praying, praying, praying for you and your sweet family! :)

Adoption Update--

God is WORKING! Please pray that His will will be fulfilled for our family! We need your prayers and will give you a full update when the Lord reveals to us what is going to happen next on our journey! Please, Please, Please be praying!

Thank You!

Thank you to those of you that have ordered. We will be getting them ready to ship out today!

You guys are so great!

Kids in Business--for you!

Below you will find all of the options for ordering your Bag Buddies! Please do not feel obligated to purchase one! If you are interested in ordering, please email me your order at familyofjoy @yahoo. com. The girls will help me get them sent off to you. All of them come with washable covers except the apples. (You will see some of them are not yet completed, but we wanted to show you all of the options for fabrics. The bee fabric has some bad shading going on...we took new photos, but we can't get them to load. We will change out the photo with a better one, once the computer cooperates.)











QUANTITIES REMAINING
Mary Englebreight-4
Mary Englebreight's Bees-4
Polka Dots-4
Apples-5
Snowflakes-4
Camo-2
Vikings-4
Packers-7

PRICES
1 for $7
2 for $10
3 for $15
4 for $20
Shipping will be $4.60 for one or $8.95 for as many as you would like. (I'm really sorry--that was the cheapest we could get it at the post office.)

We are willing to purchase more fabric and make more as needed. We aim to please our customers! :) Let us know if you have any questions!

Nothing says "I love you" like...

having your 4 year old pat your cheeks and say, "Your face is jiggly!" Ah...love is in the air!

Business Report...

They had a great time! We did get hit with a snow storm which kept most shoppers inside unfortunately. However, they still had a blast and I was oh so proud of them. They worked so hard and were so cute. Matt even brought our microwave along for demos. The girls warmed up some of the packs and met people at the doors of the mall. As they came in from the snow storm outside, the girls asked, "Would you like to warm up with one of our Bag Buddies?" This generated good business. :) They didn't sell nearly as many as they had made, but considering the weather situation...they did great! Not only did they enjoy running their business, but in true "Laura's Daughters Style" they shopped at all of the other booths. They came home with so many other great deals which they were super excited about.

Like I said, they made a great team putting these bags together. Our oldest taught her sisters how to sew these bags.I looked down to see how our six year old was reaching the sewing pedal on the floor, of course...wear one of mom's heels! I wouldn't have thought of that...but it worked great for her.

Not only was I super proud of them, but I was also super proud of Matt. He drove through the snow storm to get the girls to their business. He took all of them with him and spent the day alone at the mall with four girls...all day!

I so badly had wanted to go with them, but I am helping direct this year's church Christmas program so I had to stay back for our practice. Anyway...the day was a great day of making memories. We ended the day by going sledding together...which is a whole different blog post. Stayed tuned for more pictures and the story of that adventure.

Kids in Business

Today the girls are having a booth at a local mall for Kids in Business Day. They have worked so incredibly hard preparing their product. They are selling "Bag Buddies"...they are hot/cold packs that are filled with corn...you heat them up in the microwave and they hold their heat for 1-2 hours. You can also use them as cold packs...freeze them and they are good to go. The uses of these little things are endless!

This project has been so good for them! They worked as a great team! They had to fill out their own lease agreement, choose the fabrics, do the cutting, the sewing, the filling the bags (that is where the littlest was able to be involved), heating the bags, etc., etc. They decided that 50% of the sales will go towards our adoption fund. :) I really don't know how much business they will have today, but pray that they will be blessed for their hard work on this project. It has been a blessing to watch the work on this project. I really am proud of them! I'll let you know how it goes and I'll also post some photos from the project!

BAG BUDDIES
~Hot and Cold Packs ~


*Relieve stress by placing warm pack on tight shoulders

*Snuggle against cold feet

*Ease the of pain fibromyalgia or arthritis

*Take in the car on a cold morning

*Keep casseroles warm

*Bed Buddy on a cold night

*Cats and Dogs like to lay on them

*Use as an ice-pack for food or injuries

*Use as a bun warmer in the bottom of a basket

*Safer than electrical pads–do not carry fire risk

*Microwave for 2 minutes and bag stays warm for 1-2 hours