A God Thing....

On September 24th Chad and I were schooled in God's provisions and His faithfulness. We held an Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale. For 6 weeks we gathered (some would call it hoarded), priced, labored, and were blessed by the generosity of family, friends, and complete strangers. We made piles upon piles in our garage, our bonus room, our entire downstairs, and eventually in our sweet neighbor's garage. We anticipated. We prayed. We discovered: God provides and He is faithful!

Our adoption will cost $20,000. That's a lot of money! We save. We are not big spenders. Chad and I both have good jobs. We can pay our bills. However, we do not have $20,000 sitting around. Initially this was a concern when we first decided to embark on this journey. After all, we had already been through costly fertility tests and treatments. Something told us not to worry about all of that, it was just money, and if we believed this was God's plan for growing our family He would figure it all out for us. So we dove in head first, and since that faithful day we have been provided with the cushion we needed to never land directly on our heads:) Once again our eyes have been opened and we have been brought to our knees in thankful surrender.

For some reason I have been struggling with writing this post. I think it's because I don't feel there are words that can truly describe what we experienced the day of our fundraiser. All I know is that on September 24th  God walked by our side. We felt His presence in a way we have never felt before. He TOLD us that this is the path He has chosen for us and that He will not leave us stranded. He reminded us that He asks us to love our neighbor, and He wanted us to be the ones that were receiving that love.

So what happened that has brought me to a point of complete wordlessness?

God provided family and friends to help us fill 2 garages and our house.

God provided family and friends to help us organize the chaos.

God provided us with an amazing friend who fed us on Friday night and Saturday morning.

God provided us with 4 big strong men and 1 petite, but VERY strong and energetic, soon to be sister-in-law at 5:30 in the morning to help us haul ALL that stuff out of those 2 garages and our house.

God provided family and friends to help us collect money, sell donation drawing tickets, organize, and sell, sell, sell!

God provided the perfect weather...SUN...when the weather forecast predicted rain on Saturday for the entire week before! We even had huge thunder clouds surrounding our house all morning, and when people would come by they would tell us about the rain in the surrounding areas!

God provided people, more people than I have ever seen in my life, to come out and shop, bring over donations, and stop by to purchase a ticket or two for our donation drawing.

God provided us with the opportunity to give our testimony and chat with so many that have adopted, want to adopt, or were adopted.

By the end of the afternoon God provided $6,207.76! We had been told a typical fundraiser yard sale yields about $3,000. We raised over double that amount. God is so good!

Then God did something beyond words. He did something we are still in shock about. He gave us a family, who can only be described as our angels, that offered to MATCH our yard sale proceeds! We are humbled, we are blessed, we are thankful. Once again God provides!

We thank God for every penny because each one was a gift from Him and a reminder that He is faithful in all He does.

We are finishing up our fundraising yard sale tomorrow Oct. 8th. We will also be finishing up the donation drawing, so if you bought tickets come by my blog tomorrow to see who the winners are of the Kindle, 2 massages, gift cards, jewelry, and Justin Bieber.

Thank you again and again for everyone's love and support throughout this whole process. Each of you helped make our yard sale a success! We are overwhelmed by your generous hearts!!!!

***Be on the lookout for more exciting fundraising news...we have had even more people offer to help us fundraise!! I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Verses we are thankful for:

We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. Psalm 33:20

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6, 7

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:25