Win This Bag Week 1

Welcome to Week #1 of  
Win This Bag  
sponsored by 
HipSwap  
hosted by Sidetracked Mom’s Blog

“Win This Bag” is a 6-week event that will feature 6 weekly giveaways. There will be one designer handbag given away every week! Each bag will be an authentic, recognizable designer brand such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Coach, or Fendi. Our 6^th week will feature a highly coveted designer handbag and you will have the option to claim bonus entries for each of the 5 weekly "Win This Bag" giveaways you entered leading up to this grand finale! So, enter each weekly giveaway to increase your odds of winning!

Here’s what really separates this event from any other handbag giveaway you may have seen before… some of these handbags will come to you directly from a celebrity’s closet! That’s right –

Thanks to HipSwap, you have the opportunity to win the exact bag that may have been on the arm of a famous 
celebrity!  

About our Sponsor:

HipSwap is a mobile and web marketplace that connects buyers and sellers locally and nationally. It enables people to discover what's inside the most fabulous closets, homes, and shops in neighborhoods and cities across America. HipSwap currently offers delivery service in Los Angeles and New York with its iconic pink delivery van.

This week’s prize:

If you are a fan of either Dancing With the Stars,  Karina Smirnoff? or Fendi - or possibly all three - YOU are going to love this prize! 

We are kicking off our 6 weeks of giveaways with Karina Smirnoff's Fendi Spy Bag!

 

How to Enter:

1. Create a HipSwap account. You will be asked to enter your name, email and zip code. If you do not live in the United States, please enter your City and Country in the Zip Code field.

2. Once registered, you can earn additional entries by:

a. Pinning your favorite HipSwap bag on Pinterest

b. “Liking” HipSwap on Facebook

c. Following @HipSwap on Twitter

d. Tweet with the hashtag #winthisbag for daily bonus entries

e. Following the blogs who are bringing you this awesome giveaway

To be credited, all entries must be completed using the Rafflecopter form below. You can complete as many or as few entries as you’d like but remember, the more you do, the better your odds of winning! Plus, once you are following all of your hosts, entering each subsequent weekly Win This Bag Giveaway will be even faster & easier!

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is open to entrants worldwide 18 years of age or older, except where prohibited by law. No purchase is necessary to enter. Void where prohibited by law. The odds of winning are based on the number of entries received. This promotion is no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook and is Facebook-compliant. 

To qualify to win, you must complete, at minimum, the mandatory entry on the Rafflecopter form. All entries will be forwarded to our sponsor for the purpose of randomly selecting a winner. Winners will be notified by email from a HipSwap representative. Winners will have 72 hours to respond or risk forfeiting their prize. Prize may re-awarded solely by the Sponsor's discretion. Prize fulfillment is the sole responsibility of the sponsor. This blog may not be held liable for Sponsors who do not fulfill prize shipments. The participating bloggers were not compensated for this post. We reserve the right to publicly publish winners' names and/or likeness. By entering this giveaway, you are agreeing to these terms and conditions.

Why can't we have the fairytale?

This weekend, I found out that two of my friends marriages were ending. I was not happy. I encourage all of my married couples to make sure they have done all possible for the success of the relationship before ending it. My counsel is to seek wise counsel - pray together; and then get into counseling. Fight for your marriage. Don't let the enemy win.

When I heard about my friends marriages, I just wanted to ask God why. Why can't we have the fairytale? Why wont you let our marriages survive?

It seems so unfair that our children have divorced parents, and go through the heartache of mom and dad separating physically, emotionally and spiritually. It seems so unfair that after loving each other enough to commit to a lifetime together, a number of years have equated to enough.

I know that these friends have loved enough, forgiven enough, fought enough, cried enough, tried enough, survived enough, prayed enough, and even stayed enough that they should have been guaranteed successful marriages, the same as I should. Where else do you give all of yourself to another person and a cause for 10-15 years and then end up severed from that person? Eventually you return to stranger status. Where does that happen?

But life does not work like that. Even as I was asking God why, He was reminding me that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, and our limited love is much different than His unlimited love. If some relationships do not last for a lifetime, it is not the end of the world. Nor is it the end of the story.

The further I grow into this divorced person that I am, trusting God with each new step in the process, the more I realize that I still have to pray for my ex husband and care for him. He is not a stranger. He is the man that I loved enough to take a journey that I would not with another man.  I loved him enough to have his children and support his dreams. Really, that love does not disappear, it is just redirected. A lot of times it turns into bitterness and anger, if we do not understand that God has given us the imperative to love beyond reason.

I sometimes think my ex husband is the most frustrating person walking the face of the planet earth. I wonder why he is still speaking in the same atmosphere in which I am living. But I still have the capacity to love him beyond his faults and pray for his needs. I am not a saint, and I will tell him what I think of his best laid plans that are all for naught faster than I can remember my Godly purpose is to love past pain, which is temporary, and into life, which is empowering.

I am still hurt that my friends marriages are suffering, and maybe ending in divorce. I want them to survive. I want the enemy to lose at all cost. I want my own failed marriage to be an anomaly, not the norm. I want to pray for them with a power that wins. But in the end, I want them to be able to love each other beyond pain. Love beyond their normal capacity for love - like Jesus did.