 |
| Madison, Chloe, and Dena selling drinks and cookies |
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Ephesians 3:20-21
When Lee and I were brainstorming about fundraising ideas for our adoption, the first thing that came to mind was to have a yard sale. Now, I am not going to lie: I HATE doing yard sales!! They are so much work, and in 100 degree Louisiana summer heat, it did not sound like one bit of fun. But, we spread the word on Facebook and at church that we would be accepting donations starting in June for our yard sale on July 17.....well, I learned pretty quickly not to ask small town friends for something unless you really want it! We got a TON of donations, so many that my garage was completely full in about 3 weeks. My super sweet Grandma and Aunt came almost daily to help me price items, because they are yard sale experts. However, even they were boggled by some of the items....what on earth do you ask for an air hockey table?? or a train table?? or a little boy's athletic cup?? (uh, the answer to that one is: pick it up using a stick and promptly toss both in the garbage!) It was an overwhelming amount of stuff, but we finally managed to get it all priced. The sale was to take place at my mom's house, which is right next to a small bridge. A couple of weeks before the sale, we get the unexpected surprise that the bridge was under construction and would be closed the date of our yard sale. We were sure that this would hurt our profits, but decided to stick with our original date. Then, the night before the sale it rained, resulting in most of the signs Lee had put out being blown away...more discouragement, but too late to back out.
The day of the yard sale started at 4:45 am, with lots of friends and family sacrificing their Saturday sleep to help us get things out on tables. We had borrowed 11 long tables from our church, and even that wasn't enough to put everything out! The weather was extremely hot, but from 6:30 am until 1:30 pm we had a steady flow of customers. God truly blessed all our hard work!
We were planning to use the yard sale profits for our home study the next weekend. The cost of the home study was $1,400. That's what we were praying for, hoping we would at least raise $1,000. About 3 or 4 days before the sale, Lee felt the Holy Spirit impress upon him to pray for $2,000. So, Lee prayed for $2,000. Well, at the end of the day we quickly counted up the bills and estimated the coins and it looked like we had made about $1,200. For a yard sale in 100 degree heat, that's pretty huge! Even though we didn't make the total amount needed for the home study, I was so grateful for what we did bring in. Well, it turns out, we had miscounted...the actual amount we had made was, go ahead and guess, $1,400!! Wow! God always provides what we need, just when we need it. We had exactly what we needed for the home study, so we were thrilled! Anyway, I was driving home (completely exhausted and soaking wet because we also got rained on while we were picking up) thinking about Lee's prayer for $2,000. We didn't get that much, but it was alright because we had enough to cover the home study. I pulled in the driveway and got the mail from the mailbox...nothing but bills, as usual. One was from our insurance company, and looked a little different than our monthly bill does, so I opened it first. Inside was a check for $888-a refund from over paying on our previous house!! My eyes filled up with tears. I am completely humbled and amazed that we serve a God who not only blessed us with exactly what we needed, but more than we were even willing to ask for!
Deciding to follow God in this adoption and do what we know He is asking of us has not been easy. Feelings have been expressed and questions have been raised that have truly hurt our hearts. We believe that the amount of money raised is further confirmation that what we are doing is right. God never calls us to a task which He doesn't equip us for. This is a God-sized task, something Lee and I know we can't do on our own, but God continues to remind us that He has it all under control!.....we even had so much stuff left over that we are doing another sale in September.
 |
| Billy and Lee making a big sale |
 |
| We had soooo much stuff! |
