Redeemed {& a Giveaway!}

I love that I have been given the opportunity to review products by Dayspring and their new "Redeemed" collection.  I love Dayspring and I love the brightly colored products in this collection.

When my box arrive of products I was selected to review, I excitedly tore into it and found some beautiful things and this verse:

“In all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:28



Redeemed Gift Bag

   To be honest, this is not the top scripture I have wanted to read since the beginning of 2012.  To be honest, I sometimes have a hard time seeing how God can work us bringing Samuel home just to give him back for "good".  To be completely honest, I can't see how seeing my father suffering and dying from lung cancer can be worked for "good".  BUT, that is exactly why I need God's redeeming love.  It is exactly why I need to repeatedly read this verse.  The verse doesn't say, "In all things God works for the good of those who love Him and they will get to see the good."  The verse does say, "In all things GOD WORKS for the good of those who love Him..." 

God working for our good doesn't always mean we will see the good. 

Was God working the day Samuel was born.  Yes. 

Was God working during my father's illness?  Most definitely. 

Is God working now, in the aftershock of grief?  Absolutely. 

I know He was working the day Samuel was born due to the miracle that took place and how close he came to not making it here safely.  I know He was working during my father's illness because I prayed with my dad and I have heard stories of him actually leading prayers with others.  That in itself is amazing.   I know God is working now because he has surrounded us with loving, caring people who will pray with us and for us and support us with their love and prayers.

So, I guess you could say, this verse is now one that I lean on regularly.  No matter what, God is working.  Whether I can see the good or not, God is working.

In All Things.

(Who knew all this would come from a product review?!)

One of the things I was sent for review was the Found Tea Cup.  I love this!  It may actually end up being a gift to remind a dear friend of mine that He is Working...

The I Am Found Mug.  I. love. this. mug.

I AM

found

redeemed

remade

transformed

treasured

and...

LOVED.

I love the little reminder of love in the bottom of the mug.  I think I feel a coffee craving coming on...

I was also sent the Love One Another Memofolio and the gift bag to review.  I love this little notepad and sticky notes.  I am a compulsive list-maker so these lovely stickies made me smile too.

All of these products were not only beautiful and well-made, their message is meaningful and so important.  You are loved.  You are redeemed.  God IS working.  I absolutely love this whole collection! 

But wait!

I have one more little goodie to show off...

And GIVE AWAY!

This lovely wallet is part of the Redeemed Collection, and I just love it so much! 

One truly treasured reader will be winning this Truly Treasured Wallet!  The giveaway will be open until Midnight, Tuesday, April 17, 2012 and the winner will be chosen at random. 

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below telling me how you have seen God Work in your life in the midst of a hard time.  That's it!  Just share how God worked to redeem a situation or how you felt him working.  Think hard, it may not be something obvious!

Now, for no extra entries (just to be nice and give others the opportunity to win!) share this giveaway with someone you treasure.  Send an email to a friend or some one who has allowed God to work through them to redeem the hard times. 

(I was sent these products from Dayspring in return for a review, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.)

Merry Christmas! (and a Giveaway!)

Merry Christmas readers!!!

I have been pretty absent the past couple of weeks, but today I am co-hosting the last day of Tina's 25 Days of Giveaways!  Yay!  Since I know ya'll have tons of things to do and family to spend time with, I'll keep it short and sweet!

First off, I know that since today is Christmas, so I thought I would give away some gifts that would be good for the New Year.

Giveaway #1

My babies in Heaven have beautiful names.  Shyla Joy and Jakin Isaac.  The mean Creative Joy and God Will Establish Laughter.  So what better thing to give to one of you than this One Year of Joy and Laughter Devotional?  I seriously want to keep it for myself.  Joy and Laughter were both things that were (and sometimes still are) hard to come by after the loss of a child or children.

  
(source)

Giveaway #2

In the Company of Angels  
A Memorial book from www.pregnancyloss.info
This memorial book is basically a baby book for a loss mom.  It is beautifully done.  (And please still enter for this item if you have lost twins or more than one baby...I have two to give away!  My babies were not twins, but I feel the need to keep everything "even" just as if they were here.)


(source)

Giveaway #3

The third giveaway is a CD.  This CD has a selection of songs that have helped me through the loss of my two beautiful babies and many of the songs are included in the care packages that we take to the hospitals and have been used in memorial services around the country (I sent several of these CD's to October 15th event organizers last year).

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAYS:

The giveaways will be open until 11:59pm December 27th and winners will be announced the next day.  I would like to also offer something special to everyone that enters, but it will be a surprise, so please leave the following info when commenting below:

*Which item(s) you would like to be entered for (just let me know if you would be happy winning any of the items or if you just want to be entered for a specific one or two).

*Your baby or babies names.

*Your email address.

*And if you would like please include something that has brought you joy or laughter since your loss.

Love and Hugs to all and I hope you all have had a Merry, Peaceful, Joyful Christmas.

So Loved

We feel SO LOVED by all that has been done for us during the planning and the course of the online auction.  I knew it would be a lot of work, but whew!  In the end, totally worth it!  With just 10 minutes to spare, we hit our goal of $1000 and by the end, we were $24 over!!!  Praise God!

Thank you to all that donated!

Thank you to all that prayed!

Thank you to all that bid!

Thank you all for allowing God to use you in a practical way!

And thank you to all the winners and to those generous ones who are adding a couple of dollars on to your total bid (with the help of that handy "donate" button on the top left side bar) to help incur the shipping costs without it biting into our total raised!

Now that the auction is over, I really want to talk about something besides myself, fundraising and stuff.  Even beautiful stuff is just stuff.  I want to share about the news we got regarding Korea and new adoption laws, but first I want to share about something amazing that Wild Olive Tees is doing.  When I read the email from them in my inbox yesterday, I knew I had to share it with all of you because it touched my heart in some very deep places.  It is a story of love, adoption, orphans, heart conditions and the death of a child dearly loved.  If you know much about our story, you know why these topics are so close to me.  I could barely read through their story without being brought to tears.  But I would love to share it with you.   Please, please, GO HERE and read about precious little Esther and what you can do to help support other orphan's with heart defects like hers.  Wild Olive has designed the SO LOVED shirts like this one:




to help fund future heart surgeries of orphans in China like little Esther. 100% of the proceeds of the sale of this shirt go to that cause. And because Wild Olive is so generous they are giving away 15 of these shirts! Please go support Wild Olive as they bring hope to these orphans by giving them the surgeries that they need while they wait for their forever family.  

What Love Really Means ~ Day 8 + Giveaway!

Today we are going to visit Marie.  Marie has two beautiful children in Heaven, Alyssa-Joy and Evan and she is now pregnant with her rainbow!  Marie always shares her feelings and has always been so encouraging in her comments.  She is standing on God's promise of an expected end after experiencing two losses, IC, having a TAC and a subsequent pregnancy.  Please go by and show her some love today!

But first...be sure to enter my GIVEAWAY!!!

***

Marriage is a gift and needs to be invested in and protected.  Today's giveaway is for something to help you invest a little time into your marriage!

The Love Dare Cards contain 40 daily dares based on the movie and book, Fireproof.



There are three ways to enter this giveaway! Just leave a comment for one each of these...

(1) How you and your significant other met.
(2) What was your first date with your spouse?
(3) How long you have been married.

Thats it!  I'll choose a winner randomly on February 15th!

I also wanted to share some great marriage resources...

Fire Proof My Marriage is a great website based on the Fireproof book and movie that has some wonderful links and other things.  It has advice for couples, churches and even a marraige help line.

Focus on the Family Marraige and Relationships site has an abundance of info, podcasts, and articles.

The Five Love Languages Test.  This site is where you can take the love language quiz and have your spouse take it too.  Find out how your loved ones feel loved so you can love them more fully.  There is also a quiz for kids!

Have a LOVELY day!

What Love Really Means ~ Day 6 + Giveaway!

Good Morning Loves!

Today we are going to visit Heidi.  Heidi is one crafty mama!  I met Heidi on a baby.center board when we both lost our babies that were due in November of 2009.  Heidi's daughter, Jamie Lynn, was diagnosed before birth with a fatal condition.  Heidi decided to carry Jamie as long as she could and she met her beautiful daughter in October of 2009.  Heidi is also mom to three boys and has her rainbow due this month!  Please go over and visit Heidi and see what love means to her.  Also check out her beautiful embroidery she can do!

Please also take a look at her outreach to loss mammas.  She can embroider your baby's footprints onto a blanket.  I think it's really awesome and I plan on sending her a blanket and Shyla's footprints once her baby button is here and things have settled down.  Here is her daughter's blanket as an example:



*****

To go along with Heidi's story of carrying to term, I am giving away a copy of I Will Carry You by Angie Smith!


To enter this giveaway, leave a comment for each of these...
(1) Be a follower of this blog.
(2) Comment on Heidi's post.
(3) Tell me one of the precious things you have to carry your baby's memory.

The winner will be announced on February 15th!

What Love Really Means ~ Day 3 + GIVEAWAY!!!

Good Morning!

Today we are going over to Caroline's blog!  Caroline is mom to four children and three step-children on Earth and three beautiful babies in Heaven, Riley, Little Muffin, and Sweet Pea.  Caroline is a very special mom and shares her heart very openly on her blog.  She, like so many of us balances the grief of our children not with us with the joy of those who are.  I was also happy that she is doing a project 365!  I started one as well this year and it's great to see another loss mom taking a photo a day to document our year!

Go over and share some love with Caroline!

But first...be sure to enter my GIVEAWAY!!!

Today, I'm giving away a LOVELY charm from My Forever Child...



The winner of this charm will be chosen at random on February 15th.  The winner will also get to choose which color Swarovski Crystal you would like added to the charm!

There are a few ways to enter this giveaway...

(1) Follow this blog
(2) Follow my 365 blog, Love * Joy * Laugh 365
(3) Leave a comment about what color crystal you would like if chosen as the winner.
(4) Copy the button on my sidebar that says "What love really means" and put it on your blog.
(5) "Like" Beauty Will Rise on Face.book

You can do any of these, but please just leave a separate comment for each way to enter! 

I hope February is being kind and gentle to you all!

Much Love.

HOPE for the New Year Giveaway!

(Edited to add...this is my 200th post!)

2011 is upon us and to spread a little hope and joy, I wanted to giveaway this beautiful leather debossed planner from Christ.ian Art Gifts. 

I know HOPE means a lot to me.  The very word is inspiring and encouraging. 

This giveaway will only be open until Thursday, December 30 at around 9 am est.  I will get it out in the mail that day to the winner so they can get it as close to the first of the year and get the full use out of it!  I love this daily planner!  There is daily scriptures and monthly inspirations. 

To be entered to win this giveaway, just leave a comment about HOPE. What that word means to you.  What is your favorite HOPE-filled scripture or quote?  What do you HOPE for in 2011?  Anything HOPEful!

You can also get extra entries by  (1) following my blog and (2) "like" Beauty will Rise on Face.book. Just leave separate comments for each.

I'm hoping you all had a peaceful Christmas and I can't wait to share photos from ours!

Happy New Year!

Sufficient Grace Ministries Giveaway!

I just had to share about Kelly's giveaway over at Sufficient Grace!

Go here to check it out!

Sufficient Grace Giveaway!

Kelly at Sufficient Grace Ministries is having a huge My Forever Child Giveaway!  Head on over to her blog and enter!  I love my MFC peice that has Shyla's footprints engraved on it!

2nds for Shyla (Giveaway!)

Today is the 2nd of October.  Crazy.

It's notw been 13 months since Shyla was born. 

I have such a conflict when it comes to the dates of the events of last August and September.  You see, I don't really know what day her spirit left her earthly shell and went to be with Jesus.  That day I will probably never know.  I know it was in the last days of August, but not the specific day.  I know the day we found out she was gone.  August 31.  And then there is September 2nd.  The day her body was taken from mine.  I have a hard time calling it her "birth" day.  Her spirit was given to the Father before this day.  So when people asked when my daughter died or when she was born, I feel like there is a five minute explanation.  When the last of the month rolls around, what day can I really call hers?  I have struggled with this from the beginning.  The lone singular date on her stone even bothers me.  "September 2, 2009" does not tell the full story, but just part of it.  I hated that was all I could put on there and as generations pass and some one looks at that stone years from now, that is all they will know.

I have tried to make peace with this and realize it is ok to call that her day.  But it has been hard.  As all the "one year" marks came and went last month, I think I finally have decided that the 2nd will be her day.  I will always remember August 31, but the 2nd of every month is what I have counted as the time passed for how many months she has been gone. So, from now on...the 2nd's are for Shyla.

To mark this "2nd"  I would like to do my first ever GIVEAWAY!!!  This months giveaway is for a copy of the first book that really touched my heart in the days and months after my loss.  I'll Hold You in Heaven by Jack Hayford gives us reason to not just hope, but to know where our babies are and that we WILL be with them again!  I will also been sending a few gifts designed specifically for the person who wins including a candle with your child's name, a pink and blue ribbon for October 15th and a few other goodies!

For one entry, be a follower of this blog (just make that your comment).

For another entry, share with me the first book that really was an ecouragement to after your loss.

For a third entry, share the giveaway on your blog or facebook and just comment letting me know you have done so. A winner will be chosen one week from today (Saturday, October 10).