A Shutterfly!
I don't want to be the blog that is always posting about give-a-ways and making people think I'm greedy (even if maybe I am), but this isn't just a chance to win something; they said I would get 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly, and that is nothing to sneeze at (how does this idiom work since it ends in a preposition and wouldn't make sense if I fixed the grammar?).
There are many beautiful cards that Shutterfly makes using pictures I would upload myself. If I had them make my Christmas cards then I wouldn't have to write my usual picture letter that only happens once every other year because I am just that lazy, so I am very excited at the idea of getting 50 free cards. I would possibly choose this card as it says Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (so if I sent it out after Christmas it would still work) and lets me use more than one picture. If I knew for sure that I would actually send cards this year because I had already ordered them then I would participate in the Christmas card exchange on my We Are Grafted In Forum. I would like to participate even if it means I'll be linking our family name with our blog because it would be fun to "meet" some adoptive moms. I accidentally linked our last name last week anyway if you were paying really close attention, and while I fixed that error, it is only a matter of time before I make more.
I also love their photo calendars because they make wonderful Christmas presents. I've never ordered mine from Shutterfly because I'm never done in time for ordering on-line and having them mailed to me, but photo calendars are the best Christmas present I have found. It takes a little bit of work for me because I insist on creating my own photo layout in Photoshop, but once I'm done, I have all the grandparents and extended family gifts done in one fell swoop. It used to not work for the kids but now even my niece and nephew want one for Christmas.
If I was going to order anything else it might be the photo mug. What teacher wouldn't want to drink out of a mug featuring my adorable child? Plus I can fill the mug with hot chocolate, tea, or cider or if you aren't as cheap on as tight of budget as me a gift card to a coffee shop looks nice. One friend who is a teacher complained that all they get for Christmas is Starbucks gift cards, but I would think even if you don't drink coffee you can have fun with them. My SnapDragon was telling me yesterday that he would like to go back to Borders for some ciders and cocoas which only happened because I was so frazzled after having my husband drop us off at the wrong bookstore (the boys had gift cards to Barnes and Noble) and our friend was willing to pay.
Also, if I could prove that their mouse pads would work with an optical mouse I would definitely make my husband buy one for me. He tells me that the reason my mouse jumps everywhere is because I have an optical mouse and traditional mouse pads aren't useful. Well, neither is nothing! I would like a mouse pad that would work or a whole new mouse. I love my mac, but the mouse leaves something to be desired. A mouse pad with my childrens' smiling faces would at least cheer me up when I click on the wrong thing.
So after entering a contest by posting about the WAGI (We Are Grafted In) Forum, I found out that many others that entered just put the link as a post and were done, while I wrote a long explanation. I cannot help but think that they were cheating a little. However, I now want to enter another contest, and by posting once I will be entered once into 30 different drawings at Ni Hao Y'all. The problem is, I don't have anything interesting to say.
I could say thank you to Ni Hao Y'all because I did the Sunday Snapshot for the first time this last Sunday and linked my Orphan Sunday post to her which so far has given me 44 hits on my page. I will admit that does make me a happy since a more typical 2 days has about 10 hits--most of them my husband trying to run up my statistics to make me smile; a few good friends do this for me, also.
I could say this family fascinates me since they are in the process of adopting their sixth child from China and have a real heart for orphans, adoption education, and supporting families adopting. They are also military and moving soon. Makes me cross my fingers that their next assignment is Fort Lewis though the odds of a mom of 10 becoming my new second best friend is slim.
Or I could just post the link that I'm supposed to use and call it good. 
I think that is what I'll do. Much easier than thinking of clever things to say. Oh! And the point of this 30 days of giveaways is to highlight different families that are selling products in order to raise money for adoptions--either theirs or others. So you might want to check out the giveaways to get some Christmas gifts and support adopting families at the same time.
Okay, my good friend here, I mean my on-line acquaintance whom I hoping will be a good friend, is having a give away of a charm from Jiayin Designs in order to generate business for them and to hopefully get the word out about We are Grafted in--a site with a blog and a forum.
One way to enter the contest is to blog about We are Grafted In. That of course would lead to more people checking out the site. Unfortunately, I only have 3 readers, and two already belong to We are Grafted In, and one is really hooked on her Ravelry forum (for my WAGI readers it's a forum on knitting that apparently also talks about the t.v. show, Bones.) So my blogging about We Are Grafted In* won't result in more people on the forum.
However, it will get me one more entry in the drawing to win a charm that says daughter in Chinese which I could wear with my prayer box while we wait. If you are not interested in a Chinese charm there is also a magnet set from Ethiopia, or you could enter the contest and win a charm and give it to me for my birthday, just saying...
Anyway, about We Are Grafted In (this link is to the forum because while the blog is nice it does only have a new post every 2-3 days--reasonable for a blog--but the forum is a forum and much more fun!) I really am learning all about other moms who have adopted and love reading everyone's comments (and stalking their blogs). I feel quite sad when I check the site (as I do between 6-20 times a day) and there is nothing new said. Unfortunately, since I am not parenting a daughter from China yet, I do feel like I don't have much of use to say, but I say it anyway. So I agree with Kelly and my friend at this site that we need more traffic at We are Grafted In so I have more comments to read and answer. Hmm, how to do that? Well, I'm watching Blues Clues with Sunflower, so I guess I'll just go to my thinking chair and think about that!
* The site gets away with not answering the question of whether or not to capitalize the A in Are by having the url address entirely lower case and the Title on the forum entirely in capitals. Since the A in are is part of the acronym WAGI, I guess it should be capitalized everywhere, but it feels so unnatural! WAGI is a great acronym, but part of me wants an extra G--WAGGI. We Are God's--Grafted In? Just kidding!
