one of many to come (the fundraiser edition)

First and foremost, let me start off by saying thank you for the overwhelming love, support, and kind words that you expressed to us about our upcoming adoption. We are so blessed to have family and friends such as you. You'll tire of our saying that we are super excited about what God has in store for our growing family, from 2 to 3! (or really from 5 to 6 if you include our dogs) We recognize that God is doing wonderful things in and through us so we do not take this calling lightly. With that being said, let our first fundraiser begin!!!

The Go Pro Drawing 

Up for grabs is a brand new Go Pro Hero 3 Black Edition (retail $400). This High-Def camera includes built-in Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi remote, assorted mounts and hardware, rechargeable Li-ion battery, and waterproof housing. This camera is wonderful to use for extreme sports or just regular everyday activities (such as telling everyone you are adopting). We have a Go Pro just like this one that we used to film our Hawaii trip, and it was wonderful! It is compact in size, which makes filming and picture-taking easy. 

We are giving away tickets for your chance to win this incredible camera. Daniel and I will draw for the winning ticket on January 1st, 2014 so there isn't much time for your to claim your tickets.

Ticket Prices 
1 ticket for $20
2 tickets for $35
3 tickets for $50
Let us know if you are interested in purchasing more than 3 tickets.

How It Works 
Upon receipt of your donation (either through our donation website, cash, or check), we will text or email you a copy of your ticket(s). Then on January 1st, we will video (aka GoPro) the drawing and post the results in a blog post and text/email the winner.

Please let us know if you have any questions concerning this fundraiser opportunity. We look forward to January 1st when a winner will be announced!

anchored in faith

As I mentioned in the last blog post, Daniel and I got plugged back into church after coming back from Hawaii. After the post-Hawaii blues, we felt that we needed that extra "pick me up" on a weekly basis. Prior to getting back on a regular Sunday morning routine, we finally felt it was time to sponsor a child through World Vision. We have felt the calling to sponsor a child for several years and it was time to stop saying and start doing. We found the most precious little girl in India who was born on our wedding day. She has become such an inspiration to us. In fact, we feel like she is our own child, only half a world away.

Our first Sunday back to church was a doozy of a day. Satan was trying everything in his power to keep us from attending that service. To start things off, we were late, which caused us not to find a parking spot at the church campus. We were headed out when we overheard a parking attendant mention to another car that there was a van picking up the overflow at a nearby lot. Luckily, we found a spot and were able to finally make it to the service. Since we were about 15-20 minutes late, there were no seats in the main auditorium. We were ushered to sit in the lobby to watch the service on a couple of tv's setup there. The ushers brought in chairs for everyone to sit on, but there were so many people that there was only 1 chair for me. Daniel ended up standing for about 10-15 minutes until an usher found another chair for him.

Upon the start of the sermon, Pastor Chris talked about the importance of giving, but not just of your money, but of your time. He mentioned several ways for the church to get plugged in and give of their time around the city. It wasn't until his last point that Daniel and I realized exactly why we were called to go to church on that particular day and why Satan had tried everything in his power to stop us from going. And Satan almost succeeded, because I was this close to telling Daniel let's leave since he didn't have a chair and listening to a sermon in the lobby of a church is rather distracting. I am so glad that we stayed. It was in that moment that Pastor Chris started talking about foster care through Lifeline Children's Services and how the church was going to hold a meeting for the church body for those who felt lead to foster a child. God has called us to give our time, money, and, most importantly, love to a child who isn't as fortunate as we are to have grown up with loving parents.

And so it was settled...

Daniel and I are excited to share that we are adopting a child from China. Isaiah 43:5 states "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." There have been many signs throughout my life (prior to knowing Daniel) where I knew adoption was in my future. When Daniel and I were married, we had talked about adoption and felt God leading us in that direction. At that time, we felt we would have a biological child before God called us to take action on this decision, but God works in mysterious ways. With that being said, at this point in time, a biological child is not His plan, at least not right now.

Every child up for adoption through Lifeline Children's Services is a special needs child. These special needs range from minor, correctable needs to severe needs. As you can imagine, this was not an easy decision to make. Adopting a child is hard enough, but a special needs child too? As scary and unsure as we were about adopting a child with special needs, the greater the peace we had that this was a part of His plan. Daniel and I know without a shout of doubt that there is a child who is/will be in an orphanage in China who needs us to love, teach, develop, nurture, and care for him/her. Honestly, I get teary-eyed every time I think about it.

Since returning from Hawaii and attending that one church service, God has sent us daily signs to point us to adoption. Did you know that November is National Adoption month? Neither did we, but we found out after we made the decision that adoption was our calling. Upon our decision, we youtubed other families' adoption stories and one video clip caught my eye. The family was standing at the place in China where you meet your child for the first time (I forget the name of the place, but it happens on "Gotcha Day"). It was then I remembered a dream that I had a few years ago........ Daniel and I were standing in that exact place waiting to receive our Chinese daughter. And where, you may ask, was our daughter during this dream? She was the one running around, acting like a crazy kid. As soon as I saw that place on the youtube video, I told Daniel that I had dreamed of that place before. And in the dream we were there to adopt our Chinese daughter, which is how I knew that China was our calling.

I could go on for the next hour or two recalling signs that Daniel and I have experienced within the last month about God pointing us to adoption. We are beyond thrilled to share this with you! In the coming days, weeks, months, and year, we will covet your prayers. It isn't going to be an easy road and Satan has already started his work in distracting us from where our focus needs to be. Please pray for guidance, direction, boldness to obey, open hearts, and peace about this journey. I don't think it would be normal if Daniel and I weren't a bit anxious about this process, but we are trusting in the One will never leave nor forsake us.

Along with your prayers for us, please pray about how God can use you to help support us: with words, letters/emails, and even financially. We don't want this to turn into a plea for money, because that is not the primary focus of this adoption journey. However, the means to the end result requires money and a lot of it. The total cost of this adoption is close to $35,000 for the fees and travel expenses as outlined by Lifeline's website. This amount doesn't even include the items needed once the child arrives: clothes, furniture, diapers, toys, etc (all of which are dependent on the child's age). Throughout the coming year, Daniel and I will announce various opportunities for you to give through fundraisers, auctions, raffles, etc. If you would like to participate in any of these areas and give of your talents/time/fundraising skills, please let me know. We would like for you to be a part of the journey in raising money rather than just writing a check. Support is key!

For those of you who are called to give, first we thank you. Without people like you, we will not be able to bring our child home. Please visit our fundraiser website to donate: Anchored in Faith. No amount is too small.

Even though our journey has just started, God has already started to teach us to trust Him fully. During our initial call with our socal worker, we found out that our first payment of $2,775 is due in just a few days. Luckily, we have a couple of months before the second payment of $2,775 is due so that was a semi-relief. However, she asked if this first payment was going to be a problem. I told her that it wouldn't be, because God will provide, but we are next to nothing in our adoption fund. This is when the real test of trusting God comes into play.

Again, huge THANK YOU to you for supporting us through this journey. We look forward to sharing it with each of you!

"For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is." Colossians 2:5

the trip of a lifetime

Did you hear? Daniel and I spent 2 weeks back in September in beautiful Hawaii with my sister and brother-in-law. Sissy and Josh are currently stationed on Oahu at Schofield Barracks until June 2015. Let me just say: I do NOT feel bad for their living there especially since it is so beautiful!

The weeks leading up to our trip felt just like any other time, nothing extraoradinary. I don’t think it truly sunk in that I was headed to Hawaii until we were about 3 hours into our last flight over the Pacific from LAX headed to Honolulu. At this point, I was ready to be off the plane and not sandwiched between Daniel and a stranger, which was the story of the 2 of the 3 flights for that day. I spent the evening before our departure cleaning and packing so I didn’t get much sleep…maybe 2 hours sleep? Daniel’s dad drove us to the airport around 3:30AM in order to catch our 5:30AM flight to Chicago from Birmingham. Then it was Chicago to LAX and LAX to Honolulu. We landed around 3:45PM Hawaii time, which was 8:45PM Birmingham time. Yes, over 15 hours of traveling is exhausting.

When we landed, we hustled it to baggage claim to meet Sis. (Josh was back at the house cooking hamburgers. Yum!) It was a sweet reunion, and I wish we had a few more minutes during that time to cry and hug before Daniel corralled us to get our bags. Fifteen months is a long time for Sis and me to not see each other. We were each other’s best friends. We are just 18 months and 13 days a part so I never really remember a time in my life when I was the only child. Living so far away from her has been really hard on me. It wasn’t until after we had flown back home and got back into our daily routine that I began to notice just how great our two weeks in Hawaii really were.

I say this to everyone who asks me how Hawaii was. It was absolutely indescribably amazing and for Daniel and me to spend it with Josh and Sissy, it truly was a trip of a lifetime. Now, it wouldn’t be a Brindley girls’ gathering if there wasn’t an argument or two, because hey, that’s what sisters do. However, there were a lot of laughs, sweating (especially from the “30 minute” hike that turned into 2.5 hours!), picture-taking, shopping, eating (galore! Daniel and I each gained 10 pounds while we were there and not from Sissy’s cooking), and the list goes on. Daniel and I were blessed to see our 50th state like most wouldn’t be able to. We went on a few hikes, line-danced, swam with a dolphin and sharks, paid our respects to the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice on 12/7/1941, surfed the Pacific, attended a luau, and so many more things that I can’t think of right now. We experienced Hawaii like a true local.

Our Hawaii trip taught me more about myself than I have learned since my college days. There are things and certain situations that arise in life where time is the only answer. I’ve always been a person to “fix” things especially things that I could control. God taught me that there is a whole world to see, explore, and discover and I am wasting time by trying to control things that He has already taken care of. He has a plan for my life, which is not a life of worry. Psalm 37:8 says “do not fret- it leads only to evil”. As soon as I read that verse, I almost fell out of my chair. I’ve always heard that worrying is calling God a liar, because I am not fully trusting Him. But to read that verse about worrying leads to evil…wow! That got my attention.

Not only was this trip a self-discovery trip for Leslie, but Daniel and I learned so much about each other and our marriage. I’ve always known that he is the rock, but this trip exemplified it that much more. He pushed me to do things out of my comfort zone and I think I surprised him by doing things that I normally wouldn’t do without his asking. And after we made the long trek back home, he was still there to help me through my post-Hawaii trip depression. As silly as it sounds, I had a rough time getting back to feeling like myself after our trip. For about 2 weeks, I was not my usual "Leslie" self. After days of soul searching, I realized that I was suffering from post-Hawaii trip blues. It was hard to leave a vacation of that magnitude and come back home to our "simple" life again. It was then that Daniel and I decided to get plugged into a church. And that is when the next chapter of our life started to take off…

time for change

Has it really been close to 2 years since my last post?  I am slacking...majorly.  Time for that to change.

Update:
Over the last 2 years our lives have changed drastically.  The person to change the most between the 2 of us is Daniel.  He has graduated from college (yay!), earned his Life and Health Insurance license (anyone need insurance?), had jaw surgery to correct his underbite (not fun at all), and led our family to where God is calling us to be.  No, we aren't moving, but God is working in and through us.

Since coming back from Hawaii (yeah, did you hear we went to Hawaii for 2 weeks?!), we are starting to get plugged into a church.  We aren't the type of people to just dive right in without fully "testing the waters" (so to speak) at the church we are currently attending.  We want to make sure that this is where God wants us to be and He will be able to use us there to further the work for the Kingdom.  More posts to come in the future about where and how God is starting to use us.  I ask for your prayers for us during this time, mostly for clarity, doors to open, and bravery.  Thank you for your prayers.

Until it's time to update again....

10 years ago today

When you are a kid, you never think about your loved ones not being there.  It's almost impossible to think about them being removed from this world, because they have always been there.  You spend your Saturdays playing in the backyard constantly looking up at their backporch to see if one of them would come out.  When they would, you would wave and hope there wouldn't be many questions.  There was something about answering 20 questions about school/elementary school boyfriends/life in general that wasn't too appealing espcially on a Saturday. 

And those mid-summer/mid-winter visits next door were the worst. Their house was either hotter than blazes or colder than the artic. It was non-stop talking about something that Sis and I couldn't understand. Most of it probably was about Auburn, football, or Auburn football.  At the age of 7, I wasn't too interested in football talk.  Not appealing...


Something else not appealing:  pulling up to the bus stop in the afternoons looking to see if he was standing there to (yep, you guessed it) ask 20 questions and chit-chat for 5 minutes.  Did he not understand?  We were ready to get home to our snacks and cartoons.  We couldn't miss The Rescue Rangers or Saved by the Bell reruns.  We were on a strict afternoon schedule before homework had to be done.  We didn't have 5 minutes to spare. 

Now I would give up a lifetime of tv just to have 5 more minutes with him....

My first grandparent to pass away was my father's father.  We called him Popa, but our (older) cousins called him Granddaddy.  My dad is the baby of 3 with a brother 17 years older than him and a sister (who passed away in 1996 from leukemia) 11 years older than him.  Needless to say, Sissy and I grew up on my dad's side without cousins around our age.  Popa and my grandmother, Winnie, lived next door to us.  Or rather we lived next door to them since we bought part of their land in the late '80s to build a house. 


Growing up, Popa always wanted to see/talk to Sis and me.  There was nothing about our lives that he didn't want to know about.  Sadly and shamefully, we didn't pay him the time of day he deserved.  It was a huge inconvenience to stop and talk.  I think that is what I feel so guilty about now. 

November 2001 Popa had surgery.  Honestly, I can't even remember what type of surgery it was because it was so minor that everything was sure to be alright.  I mean how life-threatening could a little surgery be to someone who was 83 and in tip-top shape?  Well, the surgery itself was fine, but it was the sponge that was left inside of him that began the downward spiral.  When we found out about the sponge, we initally thought something the size of a dish-washing sponge.  After much questioning, the sponge was the size of a foot by foot (12" x 12').  Someone in the O.R. was not doing their job because all utensils and equipment had to be accounted for before he was sewn up.  It's odd to think that the sponge was causing factor of what was to come.  He developed pneumonia in one lung and then the other.  He wasn't getting any better.  He was put in the ICU.  How life-threatening could this little surgery be?


I will never forget the call:  Sunday, December 23rd roughly 5pm.  Dad called Sis and me to meet him and Mom at the hospital, because he wasn't expected to make it much longer.  No way, I thought.  There is no way!  It was just a sponge!

There was a whole room full of us there:  cousins, my uncle, Mom, Dad, Sissy, my old youth minister, and others.  We gathered around his bed and watched him breathe his last breath around 6:30pm on December 23rd, less than 2 days before Christmas. 

I was a senior in high school and thought about my graduation without him.  In early September, I was accepted to Auburn, which I was able to share with him.  Popa was the biggest Auburn fan I knew (even bigger than my dad which is hard to believe if you know him) and I knew he was proud of my accomplishment.  I think my degree from Auburn was my gift to him.  I still regret my actions of ignoring him and not spending more time with him.  Being a kid, you don't think about what the future holds, or who it doesn't hold.


Today on the 10th anniversary of his passing, I remember all of the good times we had.  I wish I had more time, but that time will come again.

dear 17 year old me

It will haunt me for the rest of my life. Why did I do such an irresponsible act? Why did I feel like I needed to look a certain way in order to be beautiful? I knew the consequences and shrugged them off. Then it hit...

I was a junior in high school (yep, just 17) when I went to the dermatologist for the first time. I was going for 2 reasons: acne and a large mole removal on my mid-back. I don't remember much about the visit other than Mom's main concern was my acne. It was bad (and still is as far as being an adult). After trying every known acne-prevention product, nothing seemed to work so it was time to call in the professionals.

As I was lifting up my shirt for the doctor to see my mid-back, he noticed a place on my lower back. He said that was the one that needed to be removed, but could remove the other as well. Both were sent out for testing. The mole that the doctor found had precancerous cells. Surgery had to be done immediately to remove the roots and surrounding cells. The surgery wasn't too bad, but they did have to give me a double dose of shots to numb my back. And my dad had to sit down because he got queezy watching. He was there holding my hand. I had about 10 or so blue stitches that prohibited me from bending over. If I did, I would have ripped my skin. That scenario didn't sound pleasing so I did not bend over once during the number of weeks that I had stitches.

A few days later the results from my precancerous cell removal surgery came in: they had successfully removed all of it. But I was under strict orders to lather up the sunscreen and beware of tanning beds for the rest of my life. Did I listen? No. Every bride must be tan at their wedding. Bad mistake...

This past week I went to my 2nd dermatologist appointment specifically for a full body checking. And I had another mole removed, but this time from my stomach. The doctor also measured some on my back. That night I was following my cleaning instructions and I took off the band-aid to find another belly button: a gross one at that. My biopsy spot was at least 3 times bigger than my removed mole and the hole was deep. All I could think about was that I hoped the doctor had removed all abnormal cells, because I couldn't go through another cutting. Thankfully God is looking out for me, because the results were as good as they could be. No additional cutting is necessary, but there is a 10% chance that it could return as cancer. I will go back for periodic check-ups.

I want to challenge everyone to go to the dermalogist for a full body checkup. Skin cancer can pop up without warning. I was a 17 year old who was diagnosed with precancerous cells. Ten years later I am a young adult with continued skin problems and my later years don't look promising. Tanning beds are NOT safe. I will NEVER use a tanning bed again and will only be spray tanned in the future. Please know the facts and myths about tanning. Also use sunscreen with at least an SPF 30. Beauty in your younger years will quickly turn into wrinkles, leather skin, and sun spots in your later years. Please watch the video below. It changed my life.


Dear 16-Year-Old Me YouTube Video
http://youtu.be/_4jgUcxMezM

3 years

On Tuesday, October 4th Daniel and I celebrated 3 years of marriage.  It has truly been a blessing being married to such a thoughtful and caring man.  Not every day is a walk in the park, but that is the beauty of a marriage.  Some days are challenging, but most are rewarding.  I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else.  I love you, Daniel Henry Todd.

October 4, 2008

October 1, 2011