I’m a mom…DUH. I love my kids and can’t imagine a world without them (even though they drive me crazy on occasion, OK daily).

In my humble opinion, every (responsible) person who wants to be a parent should get the chance to be one. Most importantly though, EVERY child deserves a home and a family who loves them.

Recently, I was contacted by Kelly from The Raudenbush Family and asked to share something with you. Kelly is a mother whose life was forever changed through their adoption of a little girl with CHD from China. Kelly’s life changing adoption gave her the inspiration to found The Sparrow Fund. Started in the spring of 2011, The Sparrow Fund supports adoptive families by providing grants to pay for preadoption counseling and support, medical reviews of the child who may become their own, in-country support while they travel around the world to bring their child home, and postadoption counsel as their family goes through transition. In short, The Sparrow Fund helps people who want to be parents give a deserving child somewhere in this wide world a home. It doesn’t get much better than that people.

I’m so happy I was given this opportunity because it opened my eyes up to something I knew absolutely nothing about…Thanks Kelly!

The Sparrow Fund hasn’t stopped their amazing work with adoption though. They’ve partnered with a group of women in Nairobi, Kenya who have been broken by war and HIV, but are made whole caring for the orphans in their community. These strong woman are selling their handiwork to help support their families, but because they believe so strongly to the work The Sparrow Fund is doing, they are gracious enough to allow some of the profits go to help fund the grants through The Sparrow Fund. All of the hand made items at The Nest are simply gorgeous. I can guarantee that if you stop by, you will have to have something.

Let’s all take action and help The Sparrow Fund make dreams come true. Incase you need more incentive to help support the cause, I’m going to do a little giveaway here to entice you. Kelly has been kind enough to give me a par of earrings from The Nest to give to on very lucky reader.

These could be yours! This beautiful pair of earrings is hand made of paper. That’s right, paper. Each bead is hand rolled out of recycled magazine or calendar pages and takes about 15 minutes to roll and varnish. Talk about a labor of love.

Want them? Here’s what you need to do:

Entry 1 (MANDATORY) : Visit The Nest and come back here and tell us what your favorite item is.

Bonus entry 1: Go to The Sparrow Fund’s Facebook page and like it, then come back here and let me know you did. Please don’t clog up their page by telling them I sent you, they’ll just be happy you’re there.

Bonus entry 2: If you tweet, tweet the following for 1 bonus entry PER DAY. Help The Sparrow Fund see one more child with a forever family and one less orphan in the world. And win some earrings from @MommylandMychal

Get your entires in fast, I will choose one lucky winner on Monday, October 10th.

If you don’t win, I implore you go to The Nest and buy one (or more) of the beautifully hand crafted items or go to The Sparrow Fund and donate directly there. The Sparrow Fund is truly making a difference one family at a time, help them see one more child with a forever family, and one less orphan in the world.

Waaaaay back last fall I was sent a product to try, review and giveaway. Well, it was cold out, so the afore mentioned product sat under my kitchen sink for months and months. FINALLY, we had a bit of warm weather, so I broke it out and gave it a try.

I have to say I was more than skeptical about this product. I grew up in a house of cars (that’s cars not cards). My Dad always had a little something special in the garage. Exotic Porches turned in to restored classics and street rods. Besides the speciality cars that he kept in our garage, he was meticulous in the cleaning of the everyday cars. While I’ve never been that good at keeping my cars clean, it’s been ingrained in my head that you never, I repeat NEVER wash a dry car. Washing a car without water is a sacrilege where I come from.

Then Washdrops entered my life. Like I said, I was already skeptical about this product, I mean how good can something clean without water? I was down right scared to use this product, washing a dry car is a surefire way to destroy a paint job…Or is it?

The test…

While it was a beautifully warm day, it was still a little chilly for me to wash my car, so I enlisted the help of my lovely assistant (AKA my husband). As I followed him around the car with my iPhone snapping pictures I was truly amazed. Washdrops work, they REALLY work. My once filthy, disgusting, salt and road grime covered car was shining like the day we drove it off the showroom floor. When Bill was done we both just stood there looking at the car with our mouths hanging open. Bill liked it so much, he said he wanted more for his equipment at work.

So how does it work???

Using Washdrops really couldn’t be easier. Step one: Get a bucket and fill it with one (1) gallon of water. Step Two: Mix in one ounce (3 capfuls) of the Washdrops solution. Step Three: Apply with a clean sponge or cloth a section at a time. Step Four: Dry. There you have it folks, four steps and you have a clean car. No more wet tee shirt contests in your driveway. No more soggy feet. No more wrestling the hose.

Washdrops took everything I thought I knew about washing a car and threw it out the window. It left behind no scratches, no water marks, and most importantly no dirt. Not only did Washdrops make washing a car a cleaner job, it’s good for the environment too. I don’t know how many gallons of water you would use to wash your car the “traditional” way, but I know it’s A LOT more than 1. So, you’re conserving water. The Washdrops solution is solvent free, butyl free, phosphate free and ammonia free, so you’re not sending any chemicals down the driveway. When you’re done just dump to water in the lawn or flowerbed, no worries, it’s not going to kill your plant life. Saving the planet one car wash at a time!

If you’re a skeptic like me, check out my before and after photos below…

Now let’s get down to business. I’m going to give one lucky reader his or her very own bottle of Washdrops (16 washes).

Here’s how to enter:

1) Comment here and tell me what your least favorite part of washing your car is. (Mandatory)

Bonus entires (please leave separate comments for each)…

1) “Like” My Life In Mommyland on facebook.

2) Follow me on Twitter. (Leave your handle so I can verify)

3) Follow Washdrops on Twitter. (Leave your handle so I can verify)

Get your entries in by 5pm Friday, April 1, 2011. I will select a winner at random and announce that winner Saturday, April 2, 2011.

Good Luck!

For more giveaways from the amazing ladies of the Philly Social Media Moms, CLICK HERE!