Saturday, July 21, 2012

Big Weekend






Awesome signs courtesy of  Kelly Ratcliff of Collinsville, Illinois
Wow! It's been a hectic few weeks! Every since we decided to answer the call to adopt again, we have been BUSY! We know God is faithful, but we also know we must do some of the hard work. Since this is His timing not ours, we were not prepared financially, nor could we be having just returned from our first adoption in China. We decided to start out having a fundraiser yard sale to raise the money for some of the fees we need to begin. I had been organizing and cleaning out closets ever since our return home from China. I knew I would not be able to get organized enough for our big city wide sale in June with Ellie demanding most of my time. Being two and all, it's her job. I continued to put stuff away, organized as if in my mind I was having a yard sale. When we decided we were going ahead with our journey, we put the word out to family and friends, cleaned out EVERYTHING we could find to sell and went to work. Donations of furniture, knick knacks, and more bags of clothes than you could imagine poured in. We cleaned the garage in 106 degree heat. On Monday ten members of our church's youth group pitched in and help carry up items, price and organize. Good friends stopped by to help sort, or to lend a helping hand with child care.

 I am over joyed to report two awesome affirmations from God...1) During horrible, record setting high heat, for most of the month of July...Friday, the first day of the sale, there was continual cloud cover and a high of barely 90 degrees by end of day. Most of the day was a gentle breeze and pleasant, cool weather. Saturday was a bit warmer but still very pleasant. 2) And this is the best part.... we made TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS! Enough to begin to start again. It's a long road but it will be worth it! We can't save them all but we can save at least one more.