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Photo Giveaway on Adoption Blog! =)

Come check out our giveaway on our adoption blog. Everyone who comments is a winner!

Photo is an original black and white photograph of a Nativity. Perfect for your Christmas Decor!

Soup’s On

I have to admit it. I love my slow cooker. It may seem silly, but I love having a warm, yummy, and nutritious meal cooking at home while I’m at work. =)

I LOVE this soup. I’ve posted a link on our adoption blog to it before, but not with my alterations and not with pics. The original recipe came from allrecipes.com. Here’s an update with the changes I made.

Meatball Minestrone a la Christy
Ingredients:
1/2 small onion, diced
6 cups water
1 (16 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 stalks of celery, sliced
3-4 carrots, sliced
1 medium zucchini, chopped
3 teaspoons beef Better Than Bouillon
1 bay leaf
6 leaves of fresh basil, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
6 ounces spiral or shell pasta
24 cooked frozen turkey meatballs
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes

Directions:
Combine ingredients in a crock pot, minus pasta. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. 10 minutes before serving add pasta. Cook until pasta is tender. Discard bay leaf before serving.
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Hoping to Adopt!

Please visit our adoption website and get to know us better! The wider our message goes, the closer we get to finding our baby.

Mmm…Dinner

Growing up my mom made a version of Spanish Rice that was hearty enough that it stood on it’s own as a main dish. During a visit a few years ago after missing her cooking desperately, I watched her prepare it and jotted down the recipe. (Don’t worry, I checked with my mom and she’s totally on board with sharing with you!) I embellished the plating a bit, but the rice is the same yummy deliciousness from growing up.

Debbie’s Spanish Rice
Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
1.5 cups uncooked rice
1 can tomato sauce (15oz)
1 can diced tomatoes (15oz)
1 bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbspgarlic salt
3 cups of water

Directions:
Brown ground beef or ground turkey in a large pot. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook on high until liquid boils. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 20 minutes until rice in tender.

Serving Suggestion (pictured above): Serve rice on a bed of fresh spinach with a side of refried beans. Garnish rice with fresh diced tomatoes, green onions, cheese, avocado slices and crushed chili.

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Hoping to Adopt!

Please visit our adoption website and get to know us better! The wider our message goes, the closer we get to finding our baby.

Featured on apartmenttherapy.com!

I was surprised to find this phrase in my inbox this morning.

“Thank you for sharing your lovely nursery on Apartment Therapy Family – look for it today.”

SERIOUSLY!?!?! lol

I should explain. A couple of weeks ago on a whim I decided to submit some of our nursery photos to a site I’ve been browsing for the past several years, apartmenttherapy.com. I used inspiration from their collection to create the room after all (they deserved to get credit for that) and figured that it couldn’t hurt to try.

And look, there it is!!! http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/christy-my-room-171353

I’m so humbled! I’ve never been “published” before. lol What a fun surprise!

Our Nursery

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been taking a break from photography to focus on our adoption. During rare moments between the paperwork and while waiting for approval, I worked on our nursery.

A lot of what went into it was handmade. The quilt, teal knit blanket, crib skirt, chair pillow, white frames for the art, a dolly, bucket liner, stuffed turtle, the wall hanging above the crib. Instead of purchasing everything, working the one project at a time helped pass the weeks we were waiting.

Now we’re approved and the last thing to wait for is our baby!

I still have a couple of things I’m hoping to add, like a changing pad for the table and a crib mobile. And a baby. =)

Please visit our adoption website and pass it along!

Please Post our Button!

Please help us find our birth family by hosting our button on your blog or website!

With love and thanks,
Daniel and Christy

<div align="center"><a href="http://amalg.us" title="Daniel and Christy's Adoption Website"><img src="http://amalg.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/adoption_button1.jpg" " alt="Daniel and Christy's Adoption Website" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Approved

I am so excited to announce that my husband and I have been approved as an adoptive family!

We’ve been hoping to adopt for years and years and finally last year we started the process. It was a lot of paperwork and prayer, but eight months later we made it to approval!

The next step is to spread our profile far and wide. Out there, somewhere, is someone looking for a family to trust with something so precious and something that we would be forever grateful for. A child. Our child.

Please share our profile with everyone you know. Get to know us better and please pray for a match! https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/26470857/ourMessage.jsf

Holiday Luminaries

My mom came into town and we had a great time working on a project I’ve been wanting to try! Check out this Tin Can Luminary Tutorial and make your own! Only extra tip I can offer is to cover your paper design with a single layer of masking tape so that the paper doesn’t disintegrate while you are working.

These first few are my mom’s handiwork.

And here are my attempts!

I might be spray painting them soon so that they look just as pretty in the daytime. Right now it looks like I have 8 random cans sitting on my built in. =)

Gone Fishing

I’ve spent the last two weeks fishing the depths of my being for words. Writing a novel in one month is ambitious and anyone that has ever done NaNoWriMo will tell you that it’s no simple feat. I’ve spent hours in front of my computer. Sometimes the words spill out. Other times I feel like I’m fighting for each one. Sometimes I’m happy with the tone and the content and other times, I’m shocked at the darkness that I immerse my characters in.

It’s such a commitment and a time vacuum. I’ve missed creating images. I’m wishing I had more time to work on our adoption paperwork (we’re almost there).

Only two more weeks and I get my life back. I’m hoping that I can catch up some ground I’ve lost over the last few days and finish strong.

Poll: Photography Prints for Sale

I’m getting geared up to make a run of prints to sell at a community craft boutique and I thought I would ask a few questions that I’ve been stewing on. Oh will you, wonderful people, tell me what you would want if you were attending?

Thanks!