To say the least, it has been a crazy couple weeks. In the last 2 weeks we have had 2 back to back garage sales in 2 different cities 2 hours away from each other. It has been an exhausting, yet fruitful time. Luckily I have taken off the rest of the month for vacation so I will get a chance to rest.
I have a wonderful church family at the church I grew up in. Everyone knew that Bryan and I were going to have a garage this fall at home and instead of making us transport all of the donated items 2 hours away, they just decided to have their own garage sale for us. I first have to say a huge thank you to my grandmother who graciously let us have the garage sale at her house. This is a pretty big deal because she is a neat freak and the sale meant her garage was a mess for weeks. Thanks for being such a good sport Nanny!
I mentioned in my last post that I love the adoption stories we get to hear at these garage sales. I was not disappointed! There was one couple that said they had been considering adoption and that hearing our story encouraged them even more to adopt. How cool is that?!
The next weekend we had the garage sale at our house. We have an equally amazing church family here. Our lifegroup has been with us every step of the way of this adoption and this garage sale was no exception. I will say there is one couple, you know who you are, that went above and beyond. T went with Bryan with only a moments notice to help him pick up a couple couches and a 50 inch projection tv (umm...yeah these weigh like a couple hundred pounds). After T got home at 11pm his wife S came over and stayed until nearly 2am helping sort and price and then came the next morning to help with the actual sale. (There was also my faithful cousin S there for it all). The other amazing women of our lifegroup helped us set up and even baked goodies to sale.
By the end of it all we ended up making just over $1,500 from the 2 sales ($1,200 at one)!!!!! If you have been following us you know that last year we had our first garage sale to raise money for our adoption and were blown away by how God blessed the sale. We made $800 last year. We are in awe of God's goodness and provision. The money was enough to push us $300 over our goal. We now have enough to bring our child home. A BIG THANK YOU to EVERYONE who has sacrificed and given to make this happen. Every single one of you is a part of this adoption and helping there to be ONE LESS orphan in the world. You are all participating in pure religion by helping to defend the orphans (ja 1:27)
I know this is long, but wait, we're not done. On top of meeting our financial goal last week we also last Friday received our November #s update. I am THRILLED to tell you that we are now 22 on the girl wait list and 10 on the boy wait list. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better I came home Friday to my crib arriving!! We also had an encouraging Orphan Sunday. It is amazing how God has timed everything to happen at once. God is always showing us how He has ordained all of our days. His blessings are overwhelming at times.
The thing is, I am learning that very often when you are following God's will for your life and seeking after Him in a way that can cause other to be affected for good, the devil does NOT like it. Please pray that we would be protected from attacks by the enemy both spiritually and emotionally. Pray that we would be able to fully partake in the JOY of becoming parents and that joy would radiate from us in this time so that others will see. Pray that we will be prepared to boldly respond with a reason for our joy that is in us.
Boy #
Girl #
