I am a Noonday Ambassador

I am so thrilled to announce my latest new adventure! I am now a Noonday Ambassador!

What does this mean? Noonday is a company that works to provide jobs for artists around the world. Through Noonday, individuals living in poverty have the opportunity to earn stable incomes.

The handmade pieces in the Noonday Collection are absolutely stunning. See?

But the very best part, and what appealed most to me, is that purchasing the pieces from the Noonday Collection means you are supporting artisans all around the world and are helping them provide for their families in a fair and ethical way. 

For example, the earrings above, which are some of my favorites, were handmade by a fair trade artisan group in India that creates avenues of employment for the economically disadvantaged. 

Some of my very favorite pieces in the collection were handmade in Ethiopia. The beautiful jewelry is created when farmers in Northern Ethiopia supply local bead makers with artillery shells discovered following former war conflicts. The village artisans then melt down the shells and create beautiful beads. Once the beads are created, they are sent to the women of Entoto Mountain who take the handcrafted beads and create gorgeous jewelry. Pieces of former weapons are now upcycled to offer redemption!

How cool is that?!

I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to unite my love for fashion with my desire to contribute to helping the poor and oppressed in our world. 

One of the best parts of being a Noonday Ambassador is that I will have the opportunity to help individuals in the process of adoption raise money. We all know adoption is an arduous and very expensive process. Noonday offers families 10 percent of sales at a trunk show to support their adoption efforts. I absolutely love that!

I have been thinking a lot about the stories behind what I purchase, and I am so appreciative of companies like Noonday. If I'm going to purchase a statement necklace anyway, I love that I can buy a Noonday piece I adore knowing I am contributing to a greater cause. To me, that is far better than paying a little less.

If you are interested in learning more about Noonday or in browsing through the pieces in the collection, check out my website. I look forward to presenting at trunk shows in the St. Louis area so if you are interested in hosting, please feel free to drop me a message at jessicahartman (dot) noonday (at) gmail (dot) com. Individuals who host trunk shows have access to some pretty neat promotions, and as I mentioned previously, if you are in the process of adopting or fostering or are interested in hosting a trunk show on behalf of someone who is, Noonday will contribute 10 percent of the sales at the trunk show!

I'll leave you with photos of a few of my other faves!

First Mother's Day

Anyone that knows Travis knows what a thoughtful guy he is. And, he definitely made me feel super special on my first Mother's Day. I am so blessed to have such a kind and generous husband. I don't like to say too much about it because I know it makes people throw up in their mouths a little bit, but if you know him, you know he pretty much rocks. And if you don't know him, that's a bummer.

My first Mother's Day with a baby on the outside of my body was really special. Our church hosted baby dedications, and we dedicated our sweet and precious gift, Stella Breann. It was a very special day for us and represented a promise from us to God that we will raise Stella to the best of our ability in accordance with God's word. It was also a public statement in front of our church family. In turn, our church made a covenant with us to walk alongside and support us. And, as cliche as it may sound to some, for us, our church really is family. Our biological families are more than 2.5 hours away so we have come to rely so much on our church family. 

At the beginning of the dedication, a video of pictures of the babies being dedicated was shared. It was fun to see Stella on the big screen! I also submitted a fresh-out-of-my-womb shot, which may have scarred some teenage boys. Oops! Our pastor overheard them asking their mom, "What is that?!" Yikes!

So presh!

Stella had just awakened from a short nap and was ready to go! Note: Stella's dress was another find at the consignment shop! And, I had to crop my Spanx out of this shot.

We were presented with a certificate commemorating this special moment, which included the life verse we selected for Stella: ⁶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7 (ESV)

The entire group. It's so fun to think about Stella growing up with these kiddos. And, some of the parents in this photo are our dearest friends. See my friend, Jo, in the long, pink dress? Yeah, she held one of my legs while Stella was being born. That is true friendship, my friends.

The rest of our day was lovely, too. The weather was gorgeous. We went on a picnic, planted some flowers and enjoyed some custard from our fave, local place. Travis also presented me with a really neat little treasure I'll try to share with you once it arrives on our door step. 

And, just for fun, this is a picture of me last year on Mother's Day 20 weeks pregnant with Stelly Bean.

And, how sweet is this picture of Daddy and his other girl? Stella is wearing one of my dresses from when I was a wee one.

I don't really know how to wrap up this post because Mother's Day makes me super emotional. Though I've only really been a mom for two of them, I always find myself shedding lots of tears on Mother's Day. I only know a little bit about the feeling of having my hopes of being a momma stripped from me, and my feelings, which were deep and painful, were somewhat temporary. My heart hurts so badly for many of my friends who long to become moms, and I know Mother's Day is especially a hard reminder for them. I also think of friends and family missing their own moms, and it's just hard. I don't really think anything I can say or write will alleviate any heartache, but I am thankful I'm able to relate on some level. And in doing so, my gratitude for my own amazing mom, who has managed to transition seamlessly from mom to friend, is increased. And, words cannot express how thankful I am for the privilege of being Stella's mom.

First Road Trip

I am so fortunate to be able to stay at home with Stella. I know that. Trust me. I will have to admit, though, it's not exactly what I thought it would be. And that, my friends, is why the blog is struggling to stay alive. Little Sweetheart is completely awesome but is also everywhere! She is crawling so fast, and she's pulling up on everything now, holding on with only one hand while standing and is into everything. That means, the only time I really have to write a post, do the dishes, catch up on laundry, do homework, study, etc. are the two short windows of nap times she sometimes gives me. Again, not complaining. Just admitting that I thought all women who stayed home with their kids did was go to the gym, run to Target, tidy their homes and nap when their kids nap. Yeah, not so much. I'll save all of that for another post a different day, but the schedule is being re-prioritized on a continual basis.

All that said, I do want to write about our first family road trip. It wasn't actually our first attempt at a road trip, but the first one was cut short when I got a stomach bug. Little baby, stomach bug, stuck in a tiny room at the DoubleTree was not what we had in mind when we attempted the same trip before. After swearing we would never try it again, we changed our minds and went for it again a couple of weeks ago.

We drove 4.5 hours to Jackson, Tennessee, stayed the night, and then drove 5 hours on to Knoxville to visit some very dear friends of ours. We met Chris and Jessica when they were also living in Japan, and they are now some of our best friends. Some of our fondest memories with them include traveling to Singapore and Malaysia, canyoning in the mountains of Japan, watching sumo together in our kimonos and too many nights of eating chicken wings and drinking Japanese beverages to count. The best part is that we are all now parents of two sweet little girls. Their daughter, Evelyn, is only about two months older than Stella so we were pumped for them to meet.

Unfortunately, it rained the entire weekend, but we still had such a fun time catching up, watching our girls play and dreaming of more international adventures in the future. Chris even cooked us up some awesome chicken tonkatsu, and it tasted exactly like what we often ate in Nagoya!

Stella was an absolute rockstar. For three of our long drives, she never even exited her carseat. Of course this required some pretty amazing maneuvering by her savvy momma, but her belly remained full. :) I was shocked by how well she traveled. I did end up reading her the same book no less than 800 times, and by the end, I could read it in 38 seconds without even looking at the words! Hey, Travis and I started needing some entertainment, too.

Getting two babies to look at the camera is pretty much impossible.

Cutie!

Love this picture of Chris and Evelyn. We were so brave and went out to eat twice! Girls did great. 

Not sure why the passerby we asked to take this shot cut off our lower halves. But here we are brunching on Sunday.

Stella also took her first swim at the hotel. The water was a little chilly and not exactly pristine, but she loved it! She also said "Daddy" for the first time. Evelyn must have taught her that! Evelyn, however, did not teach her how to sleep through the night...

I'm so glad we didn't talk ourselves out of taking a seven-month old on a 20-hour road trip. We had low expectations for how the drive would go, but we had an amazing time, and I felt so rejuvenated and energized when we returned. It's no secret Travis and I love traveling, and I'm glad Stella seems to love it, too. That, or she thought it would be funny to give us a lot of false hope.