Brazil News

Well I guess it takes more then great deals to get me to blog.  But this is something exciting to blog about.  David's parents, Howard and Marilyn, and one of David's sisters, Carolyn, her husband Brad and their 11 kids have moved to Brazil to open a camp.  They are hoping to minister to the very poor and to orphans among other things. 

It is a totally cool story.  Here's the VERY quick version: Brad and Carolyn Atkinson had been feeling like God was leading them to run a children's camp, they even followed several leads but doors always closed.
David's youngest sister, Mary Jane and her husband Jim went to Brazil on a mission trip, while they were there they went to look at a piece of property for the Atkinson's and told someone why, that person told someone else and long story short Jim ended up getting a 100+ acre camp given to him!  The Atkinson's have moved to the camp.  Carolyn's parents, who were missionaries in Brazil for years, have gone with them to help. The camp hasn't been used for several years and needs lots of work.

Swimming

The girls did great yesterday at church. First we went to a Sunday school at another church that is doing it in Russian for a bunch of the kids who are being hosted. Then we went to our church. After church we went swimming. Yes the girls can and yes they love it!

Monday we went swimming at a friends. We picked up the girls orphanage directer and one of the chaperones and took them with us. We all had a blast!

I can not get over how these girls are just fitting right in with our family. God is so good.

Giggles, giggles, giggles

Daniella is loving having "sisters".

My house has a new sound, it's giggles. Giggles as they read phrases from the dictionary, giggles as they try to teach Jeshua Russian, giggles as they run through the house playing hide and seek. It is amazing to me how well they fit in! I am thrilled. Last night we took them to a birthday party, they picked right up on the games. There were lots of relay games and they would be the 3 or 4 to go and have it figured out by then. Olga will try anaything (so far) and really tries with the English, Katerina will try if coaxed, Kristina not so much. Two examples green beans and pizza. Olga tried it, was OK with it and ate two pieces, Kate (pronounced KatEa) would eat the crust but not the pizza part, Kristina wouldn't try it (but loved the cheetos). I made green beans one night, Olga ate 1, Kate put it to her mouth, Kristina wouldn't touch it. But they love cucumbers and 2 minute noodles so we are good. And they ate the mashed potatoes and steak that went with the green beans.

The Girls Are Here!

The girls arrived safely last night. I was interviewed by Fox5, and they included a little blurb in their report, you can see it here http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/Program_Gives_Orphans_6_Week_Stay_in_US_062409
They are smaller then we thought they would be, but way less reserved then we thought they would be. My house has been full of giggles all day and we are having a lot of fun. They are trying to teach us Russian and to learn English already. This is going to be a great summer.

Hey Ladies there are some great deals this week.

RiteAid has Colgate on sale $0.88 with in-ad coupon, use the $.75 from the 6/7 SS insert, pay $0.13 each after coupons, be sure to use both. Not free, but not bad if you're not stocked up on toothpaste yet.

There are 3 deals at Walgreens (I know) that would be worth shopping there, even if you don't have all the coupons. The first is to stock up on razors (and if you got 2 papers for $2.50 this will pay for them):

Buy 1 Schick Quattro Razor For Men--on sale Buy One, Get One Free (prices start at $9.49)
Buy 2 and use 2 $4/1 coupons from 6/14 SmartSource insert, $0.75 each after coupons

The 2nd deal is a freebie and possible money maker if you have the coupon:
Buy 1 St. Ives Bodywash at $2.99, Get $2.99 Register Rewards. It's free!
If you have coupons from 5/10 SmartSource use $1.50/1 coupon Free plus $1.50 in overage after coupon and Register Reward.

The 3rd deal is a bit more complicated:
Buy 8 Selected Unilever Products, Get $8 Register Rewards
Here's the deal idea (not mine, it's listed on at least 4 websites I looked at)
Buy 4 Ragu at $2 each
Buy 4 Skippy Peanut Butter at $2 each
Use two $1/2 printable coupons
Use two $1/2 coupons from 4/5 RedPlum insert
Spend $12 plus tax out of pocket, Get $8 RR back
You can use your RR from the St. Ives deal to help pay for this if you buy them in separate transactions.

My favorite CVS deals are:

Dry Idea ($4.49) or Right Guard Deodorant ($3.69) B1G1 Free
Use $2/1 Dry Idea Printable coupon (buy 2, use 2 coupons) or $1/1 Right Guard coupon from the 4/19 SS insertPay $0.24-$0.64 cents each after coupons

Select Kellogg’s Cereals $1.88 Use $1/1 from the 6/7 RP insert Pay $0.88 after coupons

There's some other good deals so check the sites to see what's out there, sorry I don't have time to post them all. Remember if you wont use them it's not a good deal!

We are getting 3!

We are very excited, we will be getting all three girls pictured below. Stay tuned for details.

An extension

When I called to see what the absolute deadline I had to let them know by, New Horizons said Monday morning! Woohoo, that gives us two extra days to get the money. I am confident we will be doing the two girls but my heart breaks for Olga, she has ben in the orphange a very long time. I am wondering if God will work a miricle and let us bring her too. My heart is really knit to her, maybe because I was leaning toward her and then she was the one David picked too, without me saying anything. Last night David was looking at the photos of all the kids and talked to our kids about who they wanted to host and why an he decided that the photo I posted would be the two if that's all and if we get a third it would be Olga. Pray with us that God would provide for us to do it OR that someone else would step up at the last minute and host her. I am good with only doing two, I just hate for her not to get hosted! Of course this close to the deadline it seems impossible, fortunately nothing is impossible for God!