bringing sam home

We are so excited about our latest fund-raising effort for our adoption!!

Let's be honest...who doesn't love a good t-shirt?! It's always fun to wear a t-shirt that's an original and catches the attention of on-lookers! We have designed a t-shirt that does just that! And the best part of all...when you buy a shirt, you will be helping to make one less orphan in this world!!

Every single penny that is made from the sale of the shirts will go directly towards bringing Sam home - hence the back of the shirt!

We ask that you please consider buying a shirt...or two...or three!! We would LOVE for you to share this with anyone and everyone you know!

Now that we have seen the face of our sweet baby boy, we cannot wait to bring him home...and we need your help!!

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*The shirts are navy blue with white writing.
*We will be delighted to mail shirts to all of you out-of-towners!!
*Sizes range from Adult XXXL - Youth XS! Make sure you scroll down to see all the sizes available.

**Please email me if you have any questions or problems ordering...mindybrown25@gmail.com

Adult Sizes

Adult XXXL $12.00 Adult XXL $12.00 Adult XL $12.00 Adult L $12.00 Adult M $12.00 Adult S $12.00

Youth/Children Sizes

Youth L (14-16) $12.00 Youth M (10-12) $12.00 Youth S (6-8) $12.00 Youth XS (2-4) $12.00

Sharing Birthdays...

I remember sitting in my dorm room at Samford several years ago, talking on my cow phone (yes - it really looked like a cow!) to this "new guy" and he asked me when my birthday was.

I said, "January 25th." He said, "Hey, that's my mom's birthday, too!"

I thought to myself, "Wow, if this brand new relationship (it wasn't even that yet!) goes anywhere, this dude is in big trouble if January 25th slips by without him noticing!"

Well I'm proud to say that the brand new relationship went somewhere and I now share my birthday with my sweet mother-in-law!! And I'm also proud to say that this day has never slipped by my hubby without him noticing! :)


Happy Birthday to the best mother-in-law!


I am blessed with a mother-in-law that I love dearly and enjoy being with!

Baby K has a name!

For most, it's a difficult task to name a child that you are expecting. But let me just say, it's even more difficult to name a child when you can actually see their face!

We have gone round and round about what Baby K's name would be, but I think we've finally settled in...

Samuel Lee

We'll call our little guy Sam and I wish I could post his picture, because I think you'd agree that he looks just like a Sam!!

One day, when Sam is older and he and the girls are hanging their ornaments on our Christmas tree, I'm sure he'll ask why his first ornament is a "K." I can't wait to look into his big brown eyes and tell him the story of how we first knew him and loved him as Baby K!

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!!

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!

Did I mention...WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!

What an exciting evening it has been around the Brown home! The news we have been (somewhat!) patiently waiting on for nearly nine months finally arrived this evening!!

Here's a summary of how it all went down...

Because Lee and I are leaving tomorrow to take the youth group skiing, we had a few last minute things to pick up at the mall. I was in a dressing room - trying on pants - when my phone rang. I saw that it was our social worker, but didn't think too much of that because I was expecting a call from her about an email I had sent earlier. After she asked me if Lee was with me, my heart dropped because I had an idea of where this conversation could be going! She then told me the amazing news, "I have your referral!"

The details of what happened next are a little fuzzy but I do know that I squealed and tried to run out of the dressing room without any pants on!! I suppose Lee heard the chaos and came running. I pulled him and the girls into the dressing room to tell them what was going on. Somehow I managed to re-dress myself and the girls and I went running out of the store. Apparently we left Lee behind to buy something because we did come home with a bag from that particular store!

The sweetest part was Lee telling strangers as we ran out of the mall, "We got our referral!" We rushed home to see the email that had been sent to us that had a picture of our baby and his medical history. I can't even begin to describe the feelings of excitement as all 4 of us hovered around the computer waiting to see the face of this sweet child that we have prayed so long and so hard for!

I can't give too many details and I can't show his beautiful picture (yet!) but I can assure you that he is absolutely perfect! He is 7 months old and is very healthy! He has a smile that will light up a room and beautiful brown eyes! I instantly fell in love with the little guy and cannot wait to get my hands on him!

What next, huh? Well...we wait some more. We wait for the next "big phone call" which is the one letting us know that he's ready for us to go get him and bring him home. We can expect the call and the travel to happen in about 3-4 months.

You can bet that the next 3 months will be busy as we prepare to (officially!) become a family of five! We have a nursery to get ready, clothes to buy (all our stuff is pretty and pink!), toys to pull out of the attic and a name to pick out! We also have to amp up our fundraising efforts as we prayerfully seek ways to pay our baby's ransom! (If you want to be a part of that, take a look at an earlier post here ).

Wanna hear something neat about this whole story??

Today at lunch Lee said to me, "I had a dream last night that we got our baby." I looked at him and said, "No way! Me too! I dreamed last night that we got our referral!" Then I said, "How crazy would it be if we got our referral the day after we both had similar dreams like that?!"

Now I admit that I'm still a little unsure of what to think of all that, but I do know it makes me go, "hmmm..."

Tonight, we are praising God for so many things. We are praising Him for revealing our child to us. Praising Him for keeping him safe and healthy. Praising Him for the 2 beautiful girls He has already given us.

Praising Him that adoption is part of His plan for us. We, too, were once orphans wandering in darkness without hope until He adopted us into His family - the family of God. We are now His heirs and fellow heirs with Christ.

As I type this, I am still overwhelmed with emotions. I feel sheer joy and excitement; I feel relieved yet anxious; I'm so super excited to see his face and still so sad because I can't hold him.

As I've heard it said many times before...This truly is just a different kind of labor pain!

christmas...finally!!

It's taken me a few weeks to sort through Christmas pictures and regroup from "the most wonderful time of the year!" True to Brown Family form, we spent much of our holiday on the road so it takes a little time to get back into a routine. You throw a few birthdays in the mix, a few snow days in there too, and you've got a delay in blog postings!

I'm going to be honest right up front - I want a "do over" for some parts of our Christmas celebration! Keep reading and I think you'll understand...

We always look forward to Christmas with Lee's family because our time together brings a great amount of excitement and adventure. The days together are usually full of food and laughter, kids and dogs, a hayride and bingo tournament, gingerbread house decorating, and lots of harassment - all done in love, of course! The icing on the cake this year was the highly anticipated idea of a true White Christmas!!

This year, however, was quite different...

The weekend began on course, but took a drastic detour when "Victim 1" began to show signs of a stomach bug on Christmas Eve. The signs quickly turned into the real deal and we were one man down! Around midnight "Victim 2" sprang from her bed to see what was the matter - but not because of a clatter out on the lawn! More like a rumbling in the tummy. And I'm sad to say that "Victim 2" was my Addie girl! She was hit hard with the bug and we spent the next few hours in the bathroom. I had to go downstairs to put some stuff in the washing machine and found "Victim 3" sitting up in the chair in the den - he had been hit too! - and Victim 4 in the downstairs bathroom showing a few signs of the plague. No sooner than I could get Addie settled back down, I began feeling like I was falling prey to the ickyness and before I knew it - I was hit and became Victim 5!

Needless to say, Addie and I barely made it downstairs Christmas morning to see the goods that all the kiddos got! We spent the entire day in bed and everyone else decided to leave the party early and our fun family gathering came to a quick halt! And the worst part of all (well kind of!) - is that it actually snowed and it was my first white Christmas!!

Here are a few pictures before things got ugly...





the gingerbread house and tree decorating...



The girls eating their favorite Christmas snack - Puppy Chow! Look at the mess!

After a day home to recover from the plague, we repacked and reloaded and headed south to spend some time with my family!

We drove all day on Ellee's birthday so when we got to Grandpa & Mimi's house, Mimi had cupcakes made for Ellee and we had a quick birthday party...




Later in the week, we took all the kiddos to Monkey Joe's so we could celebrate Ellee's birthday "kid style"...






Addie met her newest cousin, Paul, for the first time over Christmas and Ellee had only seen him once before. They just couldn't get enough of Paul while we were together, but can you blame them? Isn't he scrumptious!!





I have fond memories of New Year's Day dinner at my Pop & Nana Raith's house. We always had the "traditional" New Year's dinner of pork, mashed potatoes with gravy, greens, sauerkraut, and cornbread! It is one of my favorite meals! My Pop would always carve the meat and all the grandkids would stand around him for a picture and he'd sneak us some pork while our moms weren't looking. My mom duplicated this meal perfectly and Dad settled into his place at the carving station while his grandkids gathered around. (You'll notice that we are one monkey short in the picture - my nephew, Charles, just wasn't in the mood for a picture!)

Like her mom used to do with Pop, Ellee hung around a bit longer in hopes of an extra sample!

Hope you've enjoyed a little glimpse into our Christmas and New Year! Now I'm off to celebrate another snow day home with my girls! Here's what we created on our day off yesterday...

a day of celebrations!

Somehow my family managed to cram as many celebrations into this one day as possible!

First...

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents!



Next...

Happy Anniversary to Chad & Ansley - my brother and his wife!


Last (but absolutely not least!)...

Happy Birthday to my amazing husband!




i love you!