Garage Sale- Sept 6th

We are getting closer and closer to our garage sale date and the piles, stacks, tubs and more in our basement seem to be multiplying! We are so very grateful for the donations we have received so far! It's not too late if you have items you want out of the house, the more the merrier for this sale! All proceeds will be going to our adoption fund! Please feel free to call, message, email with any questions :)

Where: 12376 S Quail Ridge Drive Olathe, KS 66061
When: Sat, Sept 6th from 9AM-3PM

Spread the word for those who have friends that like to shop garage sales! This one is definitely for a incredible cause!


PS- Those who ordered shirts can pick them up anytime during the garage sale :)

Fundraiser Update

Hello friends! It's been a bit since I've posted an update. We are nearing the end of our t-shirt fundraiser and would love to spread the love to help us meet our goal. Adult shirts can be purchased at: www.teespring.com/bridgespartyof5taketwo. Toddler shirts (2T-size 7) can be purchased at: www.teespring.com/bridgespartyof5taketwoTODDLER. Tell one, tell all and lets get these shirts out there!

Our next fundraiser will be our garage sale. We have had several donations dropped off already, but we have room for lots more! The garage sale will be help Sept 6th from 9AM-3PM, so mark your calendars to swing by and shop til you drop! If you have items you would like to donate, please email me at acbjlb@gmail.com and we can arrange a time to meet/drop off/pick up!

We are so VERY excited for our auction, but we are still looking for a venue to host it at. Our hopes would be to host the event in October, more specifics on a date will be announced upon booking the venue. We are also still taking donations for the auction as well as ideas of gift basket themes or items people would like to see at the auction. See previous posts for current donations for auctions. If you are interested in donating to the auction, please email and we can discuss details!

Stay tuned my friends for more details on the adoption progress too! Anyone who has been thru adoption or knows anyone who has... the home study takes some time! One step at a time, and each one brings us closer to meeting our daughter! Thanks for your love and support!

Adoption Fundraiser #2: Auction/Raffle

Greetings to my followers, here's another update. With adoption comes many responses (yes, I know we are just at the beginning of our journey, so we have only seen a glimpse of what's to come). Many people have been so very supportive and giving of words of affirmation and encouragement! Feels so good to have a support system behind us! We have also already gotten some silly questions and experienced ppl not so supportive. We were and are still prepared that not everyone has the heart for adoption, nor understands what a blessing it is. The human part of us longs for complete support from all, but not realistic by any means. We started this journey seeking the support and approval of one, God. He is the one that planted this seed and He is the one who will see it to completion. We whole heartedly believe this as His calling for our family! So our prayer remains that God would lead us in this process and prepare our family's hearts to provide a home and family to that precious little girl. We pray he would give us wisdom and strength for the journey ahead. There will be lots of people impacted by this adoption and we pray that our families and friends hearts are prepared as well to love this babe as they love our sons! For some, that's a tall order... good thing God is in the business of doing big things ;)

Now onto the auction. We have had several business owners already graciously donate products and services and man is that such a blessing. **EDIT- Thanks to a friend who has traveled the adoption fundraising road... raffles are not an option. So it will indeed be an auction. ** Besides, who doesn't love the excitement of a live auction?!? Here's a list of what we have and what we are still looking for... if you or anyone you know is interested in donating, send them our way!

Bags and Accessories
Thirty-One: Gift Basket
Still looking for one more person/company for this category

Jewelry
Looking for one or two people/companiesf or this category

Skincare (FULL CATEGORY)
Mary Kay Skincare System
Roden + Fields Mini Facial & Cert. for product

Hair
Haircut & Style
Still looking for a color service

Photography (FULL CATEGORY)
Obscura Photography: Free session & CD
Rachel Rhinehart: Free session & CD

Baked Goods
Cupcakes by Julie

Scentsy
One rep committed, item not specified

Nails
Looking for a mani
Looking for a pedi

Cookware/Kitchen Utensils
Princess House Cookware
Still looking for Pampered Chef or like company


*We are also looking for several items to make various themed baskets and big ticket items. Any business that is unable to donate a product/service, gift cards are welcomes to purchase some of these items. If you are interested in donating but your category is full, please contact me and we can find a way to get you plugged in to the event! If you are interested in donating and your product/service isn't listed above please let me know and we will get you plugged in as well! Thanks again for all those who have been so encouraging, we love you all and couldn't be more thankful to have you along side us!

Adoption Fundraiser #1: GARAGE SALE!

As you all know, adoption is an expensive process! We will be holding several different fundraising events to help offset the cost. We are ready to kick off with a garage sale. We aren't sure the exact date, but it will be in August. You know you have  stuff around the house that hasn't been touched in days, weeks, months... decades anyone? A pile or room ;) has been started in our basement and we will be accepting donations in forms of items to sell as well. We would be blessed by your contribution! Email us at acbjlb@gmail.com if you have items to add and we'd be happy to chat with you about it!! Here's to the beginning of the fundraising journey :)

Bridges: Party of 5!

Greetings my long lost blog, I keep making empty promises that I will keep up on here and always fall short. These boys keep me busy, but things are about to get even busier... in the best way possible! Our family of 4 is on it's way to becoming a family of 5! Here's the back story:

Most of you know that my pregnancies were less that pleasant, and that Andrew insisted on giving me two large boys... neither made it full term. Caleb was our NICU babe and while his stay was not that long... it was long enough to confirm our reproducing days were over. Too much risk to the baby's health if the increasingly early rate continued and the Lord knows I spent more than enough hours hugging that toilet bowl :(

Two boys, now that's busy... and fun... and hilarious... and exhausting. Two boys that surely bless our hearts! We are so fortunate to have these boys and we couldn't be happier with the family God has blessed us with.

Over the past 2 years, we have gone through some radical changes in our family. We had been going through the motions and enjoying a life at a superficial level... We began to re-evaluate our priorities, our beliefs, our family and our faith. We started with our finances. Those closest to us probably often thought "the Bridges', they are CRAZY!" We began selling off one thing after another and before you know it we had no couches to sit on and a card table to eat at. Dave Ramsey would be proud ;)

You see, we were breaking down society's lies about happiness and success. Happiness and success aren't found in the things of this world. They aren't found in the car you drive or the couches you sit (or don't sit) on. LOL We were yearning to live with more purpose. We began giving like we had never given before and I tell you what, it felt SO GOOD! We were fortunate to have some amazing friends in our lives that allowed us to take part in their adoption journey and y'all, God started working on us too!

I can't remember the exact date, or even that the sermon was about... but I tell you what God used our church pastor to plant the seed for adoption in our family. The sermon had nothing to do with adoption. In fact, when I (Jess) told Andrew what God had spoken to me... he was wondering if we were in the same service! He began to re-ignite our desire to experience having a daughter. Through prayer, and LOTS of it, we couldn't be more confident that God was and is calling us to grow our family through adoption. We are the church and we are responsible for caring for the orphans! If not us, then who?

We are so incredibly excited and blessed to be a part of a much bigger picture! And we ask that you would join our family's journey!! We are early in the process, but God knows exactly that child he has for our family... We ask that you start praying for our daughter. She may or may not even be conceived yet, but pray for her health and God's protection on her. Pray for the birthmother as she has an extremely hard decision ahead. Pray for peace and comfort for her as well as good health. Pray for us as we wait, that we would trust God in every step of this process and have complete confidence that He is in control! We couldn't be more excited to become, Bridges: Party of 5!

Alright y'all, here's my raw, honest confessions. This is the story of shutting down of the facebook. I have thought about it time and time again, but never actually followed thru with it. Various reasons flood my head. Facebook's always changing privacy settings (that no one actually reads, lets be honest) is a big one. People keep posting how FB owns your pics and blah blah blah. I post a lot of pics of my kiddos and I don't want anyone to own them but me (so why did I put them on the internet?!?) Then there's the time that is spent checking FB to see what else has been posted... like a lot has changed in 15, 20 or even an hour later.

Without realizing it, FB tends to make me compare myself to others and feel like I don't measure up, i'm not as good of a mom as all my amazing friends that homeschool and juggle everything perfectly. I'm not getting as many likes/comments (how ridiculous is that?) as others or other nonsense. Basically it isn't good for my heart right now overall!

One of our pastors challenged us to fast from something last week to better allow ourselves to spend more intentional time in prayer or reading the Bible. I chose to take FB off my phone... this was a big deal guys! And so very embarrassing to admit how hard that was. The first day I sat in the waiting room at the dr office and literally didn't know what to do with myself as I waited. I pulled my phone out of my purse I don't know how many times out of habit only to put it right back in... forcing myself not to surf the internet to entertain myself. Over and over again, the 30-40 min wait seemed like forever and that folks it what opened my eyes. I prayed over and over again that God would teach me how to "be still and know that He is God." This is something I have become VERY poor at.

I get so frustrated with E at times bc he is constantly asking to watch a show. A lot of times I end up snapping back at him that he doesn't need to watch TV all day... that he can watch a show after nap (his normal TV time). But today as I talked with a friend, it was so clear to me that I am teaching him the constant need to be entertained. How many times a day does he see me texting, checking FB, checking instagram, changing pandora stations... or any other task that puts phone in hand? I am leading by example and the example I have given him lately is a need to be entertained... always.

Rather than giving my boys that example, I want to teach him to be still (good luck, right?!) and know that He is God. So how do I do this? First step is to unplug, to retrain myself... I need to relearn how to be still, how to enjoy the quiet and how to use that time to be in prayer.

I have felt like a busy mess lately... like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Here's to unplugging and re-prioritizing!! This post is probably a jumbled mess and some of you may want to defriend me in life (cause you won't be able to on FB after today) but that's pretty much how my brain has felt lately... jumbled.

I think I will attempt, once again, to blog. No clue on the frequency, but I will attempt. LOL I don't want blogging to take the place of FB as a time sucker, so it may be a monthly update... but it would provide those who want to see pics of the boys to get their fix ;) So save my blog and check back!

My challenge to you... take a day to abstain from social media, phones, ipads... whatever your time sucker is. Take a day away and see how hard it is... or easy for some of the more perfect ppl ;) Anyone dare share their experience?

This whole mother of two thing keeps me BUSY! Especially when C thinks the plan for the day is to scream! But thankfully those days are lessening in frequency and we have some happy days in between :) I have been awful at keeping track of all the new things, funny things or simply crazy things that happen in the house, so today I think I'll recap some of my favorite of Eli's saying within the past few months.

E is the most polite lil man I know!! He says thank you for everything and when you tell him thank you, he always replies with "errr elcome!" He also loves to say bless you and when he makes silly mistakes, he quickly says "oh sorry (mom/dad/whoever is around), sorry" with a grin on his face.

His newest trick, which is VERY hard to keep a straight face with, is to wink at you when he is in trouble. REALLY?!? To see his lil face wrinkle up and concentrate so hard to just close one eye, it's impossible to stay serious. Sometimes he winks at me just cause, and boy does it make my heart smile! Something about a girl getting a wink from a boy she loves so dearly... first from Andrew, now from my boy and a few years down the road from C man too. That makes for one joyful momma!

Eli used to call his Aunt Laura "Urla" and I sure do miss hearing that!

He is very in to time and EVERYTHING happened "last night." With all that actions "last night," you'd think the boy would sleep great at night... but that's a different story. And it is pure excitement when at night when we talk about the things we can do tomorrow or in Eli's words "when the sun comes up."

"yesterday I was eating my food last night when the sun came up"

E loves putting his hands in his pockets, but most of all he loves to put his phone in his pocket just like Pops. Well in attempts to get him to put his underwear on correctly, I told him the "pocket" needs to go in the front. (I'm a girl and have NO clue what to call the opening in boys underwear!) Having said that, the other day I asked Eli if the pocket was in the front to which he replied "Yep, I have to put my phone in the pocket." HAHAHAHA A few days later when asked the same question, he said "Yep, we put our hands in our pocket." Not that pocket Eli, not that pocket ;)

Eli is starting to be able to pray on his own and give thanks for things that happened that day, rather than us having to pray for him. We have the "norm" people we pray for, but he has been adding people to the list on his own :)

The kid sings NON STOP! In fact, I think the only time he is quiet is when he's sleeping. LOL

Church is one exciting place to be! He asks to go almost everyday and doesn't want to leave when we do go.

I can't tell you how many times a day I tell Bub that I love him. And my favorite response of his is "I love you to Mommy, so very much!"

"I can't believe you got these clothes at the store clothes shop! I love them! I am so proud of you mommy!"

If he is excited about something, he is likely to spout "I can't believe it, oh thank you!"

All too often, when he doesn't want to go to sleep, he will ask me "mommy, you want to nuggle?" This is hard for me! I know he will only be little for a short while and I want to take advantage of the snuggles while he still wants to... but in my gut I know I can't always :(