Humbled by His Plans

Sunday morning I got to church early, so I was looking back through the last few entries in my journal notebook. I laughed as I read a journal entry from about a month ago. I was freaking out over the adoption process – completely baffled at how we’d ever come up with the finances. Oh, silly girl, when will you ever learn to trust in the Lord and lean NOT on your own understanding?

Just over a week ago we marked the end of our first fundraiser. Four days at the 127 Yard Sale brought in over $5,000. Five. Thousand. Dollars. (Hey, Doh, it’s me, God. What’d I tell ya?) I have to admit that the week leading up to the yard sale I was an absolute wreck. Tim had just returned from eight days in Honduras and my mom’s house was covered with yard sale junk. So many times I felt overwhelmed and told my mom and sister that it wasn’t worth it. We’d kill ourselves trying to be ready for the weekend – we should just chill out and do it sometime later on. Thankfully they told me to chill out and convinced me to continue!

Oh how we were able to see God in our midst the whole time. First of all, had it not been for the timing working out perfectly for us to take advantage of the 127 Sale weekend, we never would have made as much as we did. On top of that, had our dear friends Drew and Cack not offered their perfect location, we never would have had the traffic we did.

Thursday was supposed to be our set-up day with no selling unless we felt ready. As soon as people saw tents popping up, they headed on over and started digging through boxes. It was absolutely the most stressful day of all as we dealt with customers while trying to unpack, organize, and setup tables and tents, but the stress and chaos of the day brought $1,000. Not bad for a day you weren’t even planning to be open – I guess God had different plans than we did.

We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends, family, and people we don’t even know. From the moment the yard sale was planned, we had people offering to donate things to sell. All weekend long, as we would begin to put a dent in our stash, more stuff would arrive. We thought we’d sold all of our “big ticket” items multiple times, only to have another table or dresser donated. Yet another way the Lord provided – no way did we have $5,000 worth of stuff on our own!
We had some neat experiences and met some great people over those four days. Multiple people shared with us that they had adopted, had been adopted themselves, or had adopted children somewhere in their family.

We were able to sell a tv with closed captioning to a lady who was hearing impaired. We communicated by writing everything down on a pad of paper as she asked me about the tv. I offered to plug it in so we could check it, and thankfully our friend Chad had arrived just in time to carry it over to the house for me and eventually to her car.

Mom was able to donate some Swiffer and Clorox mops to a gentleman who works at some sort of shelter or soup kitchen, and we also sent some backpacks and bags with a gentleman who helps out with a “Backpack Buddies” type program at his church.

Throughout the weekend, shoppers offered an extra dollar, ten dollars, or even more as they paid for their items. Many of them also offered prayers for us and our adoption process. People came to us at church and simply gave a donation, and other donations came through the mail. Even still we’re having people offer up things to sell at our next yard sale.

Like I said before – humbling. I don’t know that you’d ever choose in life to be in the midst of a difficult or trying situation. Yet how encouraged we have been by the outpouring of love, support, and generosity from so many around us! We are even more grateful now than we’ve ever been before for the family and friends that God has blessed us with.

So here’s where we stand: We are officially home study approved! Yesterday we received a letter stating that our home study was on its way to our agency and another copy on its way to us. Once we receive it, we will send copies of it along with our applications for various loans and grants. THEN….. we’ll finish our profile for the agency and send it off so that we can be matched!

Thank you again to EVERYONE who helped with the yard sale. If you came by and spent two dollars, donated junk from your attic, or simply prayed that the weekend would be a success, you were a blessing to us. Look for details for yard sale #2 and a cookout lunch soon!