an announcement and a giveaway with a cause

as many of you know, our family is in the process of completing an international adoption.  when we began walking this path in november 2008, we were told that we could be home with our baby boy in as early as nine months.

well..............

24 months later, and here we are -- still waiting, praying, and plodding slowly along.  the caution to "expect the unexpected" has never rung truer than during our adoption journey.  a major accident, emergency surgery, miles of red tape, agency hold-ups, changes in the foreign law, the death of our baby, an ill-timed second referral, more grieving and waiting...

it all leads to where i am right now.  and where i am is sitting at my computer looking at a photograph of a delightfully precious face of a gorgeous baby boy -- he's our son, micah.  i'm in alabama.  he's waiting for us in ethiopia.  last summer, i designed and sold "faith. hope. love." notecards to help raise the funds to finish that phase of our adoption.  a HUGE THANKS to the many, many of you who supported us and who, in turn, will be giving new life to micah.



and now, as we have travel dates coming up in the next two or three months, i wanted to share a couple of new things with you.  as you probably read in the post title, i'm going to be doing another contest this week -- a giveaway with a cause.  i've been dabbling in some art design lately, and i recently printed up a handful of samples for the initial work i did, and one of you will win the set of your choice when i close the contest next week.  more details in a minute...

but first, what i'm most excited about and what ties this whole thing together: if you follow my personal blog, you've seen that after judah died, we partnered with compassion international and the child survival program (CSP) they operate in addis ababa, ethiopia to support mothers and their babies both before and after birth through proper medical care, nutrition, and educational and spiritual training.   the work that compassion does through the gifts of its donors literally saves and changes lives. 

in memory of judah -- and in gratefulness for the many, many blessings that we've all been given -- in addition to saving for our travel expenses, i'm now setting aside a portion of the proceeds i receive from my business to give directly to the CSP in the city where our six-week-old baby lost his battle to poverty and disease.  for years our family has supported a CSP in another country, but we think it's really important to try to positively affect the lives of the children in addis ababa as well.  so think about it -- our work together here in this state will be making a real impact on the lives of mothers and children halfway around the world -- love it! 

so what can you do?  well i'm glad you asked.  :-)

help me spread the word about this giveaway (or about allison lewis photography in general if you'd like).  :-)  tweet it, post it, put it on your wall.  let's get as much attention turned to it as possible.  but secondly, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to the CSP in addis.  you can click HERE to read more -- PLUS, if you use that link to give, thanks to the techies over at compassion, it has a code embedded in it that will submit your donation in honor of judah lewis.  your giving will go directly to save the lives of babies in ethiopia -- in honor of a baby who lost his life in that place.

here are the designs (and details) that i've done so far:
fire gear (three 10x10 designs each mounted on a matboard and hung with black braided ribbon):


cowboy boots (three 5x5 designs each mounted on a matboard and hung with tan rope ribbon):


car and truck set (two 8x8 designs each mounted on a matboard and hung with tan rope ribbon):


roosters (two 5x5 designs each mounted on a matboard and hung with brown ribbon):


and firetruck (two 11x14 designs each mounted on a styrene board):


to enter to win one of the sets, just leave a comment letting me know which set you'd like (or even which you'd like to see up next!) and make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry (you get separate entries for tweeting, blogging, FBing, and commenting).  next sunday (november 14), i'll randomly select one of the comments and that person will receive his or her favorite set delivered or shipped. 

oh, and remember...i do christmas cards as well!!!  :-)  click HERE for details (the contest there is over, but it's still loaded with helpful information, pricing, and samples) or you can go straight to the christmas cards HERE. 

thank you so much for sticking with me through this insanely wordy post.  i'll be back soon with more fun photos!