Updates . . . One Yard Sale Down, One to go!

Ok, so I have been horrible about posting lately, but I have not had a lack of stories to share! I think my lack of writing is, on the other hand, due to the fact that so much has been happening!

Over the last few months we have been busy, busy, busy, raising more money to bring the girls home! We held another massive yard sale that was super successful thanks to the help of some really fabulous friends and all the donations people in our community showered us with!

Along the way to prepping for this sale, God brought some really amazing people into our lives. We met a Chinese family who donated to us and, on top of that, offered to teach us some Chinese, discuss their culture over dinner, and help our girls maintain their language once home! How amazing is that!

In addition to meeting that family, we also met a couple who came from Burma and Thailand. We got to speak to them for a long time and they shared with us how life in their countries were. They so generously gave to us, we were blown away. They did not have a lot themselves, yet they were willing to give all they could to help us bring the girls home. It was a lesson for us about how God expects us to share with our neighbors and that our money is not our own, but rather his to use as he directs us. Our job is to listen and move when he calls us to.

We have seen this happen time and time again as we put out the call for support to our sales. Funnily, I have been relying mostly on craigslist to get donations and, surprisingly, the response has been phenomenal! In the beginning of our adoption journey I questioned how, in this community with a lot of families adopting, we would be able to raise the money we need when competing for support from the same people. God has shown me the foolishness in those thoughts and how he is in charge. I am finding that when people hear our story they are moved and want to help!

As I write, we are gearing up for yet another Yard sale; we are praying that God will once again provide for us as we have just sent out a good chunk of Cash to fund this portion of our adoption process. I know he will provide as we go and we are eager to see who God puts in front of us this time and how he will move his people to get our daughters home!

Another Massive Garage Sale Fundraiser Out West!

This past week we have been working hard to put together another massive garage sale to help bring the girls home. I have to admit, I was a little worried about this one. We had planned on having a sale on the West Side for over a month and I had asked around with family and friends to see if they had any goodies to donate. While we did get some yeses we had no idea what to expect and headed over a week in advance with absolutely nothing! Three days later, my parents' house garage was jam packed and half of my Dad's shop was stuffed full of donations! We have been absolutely blown away by the generosity of our family and friends and others in the community that did not even know us, but wanted to help support us and help us bring our girls home!

God is soooo good and we are again overwhelmed by the blessings he continues to bring our way! We cannot wait to get our girls and now, thanks to everyone's generosity, we are one step closer!!!

Fundraiser Drawing

In addition to our garage sale fundraiser this weekend, my sister has generously donated two treatments at her acupuncture and massage business. In order to get your name in a drawing for one of these awesome gift certificates, valued at $75 each, we are asking for a $1 donation. If you want a chance to win one of these, please use the drawing link to the right or stop by our sale and enter there! We will be open Friday and Saturday 8-3 at my parent's house in Kelso!

We will run this through the weekend and draw the winners Monday, 7/1, night! Her office is located in Longview, Wa so this is for all our west side friends! :) We would super appreciate your support in helping to bring out little ones home!

More Wood (continued) . . .

Ahhh the suspense! :) So back to the phone call . . . I guess I should share a bit of back story here leading up to this phone call. A friend and I have discovered a hobby that almost beats garage saleing! I know, I know, ya right, but really, this is even more of an exhilarating treasure hunt -- dumpster diving, well, I probably should call it sidewalk scrounging, but the aforementioned has a better ring to it! :) Here, people are allowed to leave large items meant for the garbage man on the side of the street next to their cans, and let me tell you, I can't believe what some people throw out! Anyway, as we were driving around late one night, eyeballing peoples trash, we drove by a house that had a huge trailer full of wood with a bunch of debris burying it. I immediately knew it would be perfect for some sort of pinterest project that I could sell to make more money for the girls and I wanted it! Since it was 11:00 at night I couldn't just knock on the door so I decided I would swing by the next morning and see if I could catch someone. The next morning came and I got the girls up early so that we could make our way to Pasco to inquire about the wood. We knocked and there was no answer so I went around the corner to my friend's house to check on how she was doing at her yard sale. She encouraged me to be bold and write a note to tape to their door. So, after five minutes, I had a page long note ready. My friend started laughing and I replied, what? too much? lol. I'm a writer,what can I say! 30 minutes later we were back in the car heading to their house to tape up the note. It was a gamble, but I was hoping our story might encourage them to give me a call.

A day passed and I figured that they probably thought I was crazy or just didn't want to bother with the hubbub of calling me back and setting up a pick up time. I was bummed, but thought, oh well, there will be more wood. God had different plans and, once again, had gone before me to orchestrate yet another chance, but divine meeting that would lift our spirits and remind me that he is with us and for us!

The phone rang and I actually didn't pick it up because I was napping after our long work night and early morning rise to get ready for the garage sale. I didn't recognize the number and figured it was not important. When I heard the voicemail dingle, I picked up the phone to listen to it. To my surprise, it was the lady with the wood! She said we could have it if we wanted it and to come pick it up as soon as we could since they were planning to head to the dump later that day.

Isaac, sweet hubby that he is, had been in town all afternoon getting new tires on my van, washing it, and getting it vacuumed for me while I took a nap! I was excited about getting the wood (Isaac had not seen it at this point and had no clue as to what I was asking him to go and get!) so I called Isaac and asked if he would help me go and pick it up in our new trailer. Tired, he grumbled a little, but gave in to my begging and headed home to pick me up. :)

Once, there, he was surprised that it was a huge stack of good quality 2x6s that would indeed be awesome stock to have for upcoming projects that was worth a lot of money if we had to buy them new! We knocked on the door and met Emily and her sweet littles. We spent the next few minutes talking and here is where God began to shine once again down on us and our journey.

Emily told us that the wood was actually from a service project her and her husband had recently done. They had helped out another family by cleaning out and fixing their home. I immediately thought "wow, God, how cool that you are using service project leftovers to bless the journey you sent us on too!" But wait, it gets even better. We began discussing how God had called us to adopt and where we were in the process and that we were getting two little girls from China. She proceeded to tell us that adoption had also touched her personally as her sister had just domestically adopted a little girl! Once again, we were blown away by the fact that God had orchestrated this meeting through something as crazy as my new hobby of dumpster diving! :) He indeed knows my heart!

As we drove home, it was evident that God had truly instructed us to USE WHAT WE KNOW to bring our girls home. The wood and chance meeting with Emily were undeniable proof. We were humbled, yet again, by Gods love and provision for us on this journey. I am blown away by the ways in which he chooses to provide for us and I am so grateful for the ways he encourages and reminds us that we are on the right path every time we need a boost. Needless to say, our day went from down in the dumps to once again raring to work harder to create beautiful things out of the provisions God continues to bring us.

One man's trash is indeed another's treasure! I will post pics once I have some of the things built. :)

More Wood!!!

As many of you know, I have been praying and seeking God's guidance on what we should be doing to bring home our two littles from China. I felt a strong, resounding, USE WHAT YOU KNOW, and so we began gathering wood and outdated furniture pieces. Isaac, the girls, and I all worked tirelessly through the last few weeks to make a stack of signs from the barnwood we were given, refinish the handful of furniture pieces I scoured garage sales for and revamp some antique windows into message boards.

Once everything was done we loaded it up in our new trailer and headed for the Calvary Chapel trunk sale. It was super hot that day and we didn't have a lot of foot traffic. We ended up bringing home most of what we had made and left early feeling super discouraged and heavy hearted, thinking that maybe we had misheard what God was telling us. Then, about an hour after getting home, I got a phone call . . .

Time For an Update!

Well, a lot has been going on, mostly paperwork and education, but we are making progress! It feels good to be nearing the end of the first hunk of required paperwork and we are excited to be quickly coming to the close of our home-study process.

Our first alongside fundraiser was great fun and everyone who came, about 80 people, had a great time. We are so grateful to our wonderful Ice Skating teachers who made this event so fun for all that came! They were super sweet to donate their time and skills to provide lessons and games for the kids.

As the preparations continue to bring our daughters home, we have been in prayer a lot as to what God wants us to do next. Sooooo up next is another, hopefully, massive garage sale on the west side. We are in need of more donations and have faith that God will provide both the product and people we need to make this as successful as our first garage sale. We are excited to be heading west to do this fundraiser so that more of our family can be involved and see God move in our journey.

We appreciate all the prayer our friends and family have been faithful to provide these last few months and ask that you continue to keep us in them as we seek the Lord's guidance on something big that is brewing now!

Our First Alongside Fundraising Event!!!

I am super excited to finally have most of the details worked out for our first alongside fundraiser event! We will be holding a family skate extravaganza at the end of April and we are soooo excited to have been given the opportunity to not only work towards moving forward in our own adoption, but to help others do the same. 

I have struggled the last week about whether or not I was hearing God right and doing what he was asking of me. I was unsure of whether he wanted us to only help others at these fundraisers that he had shown to me or if we were to be involved as well. However, last night God was faithful to answer my prayers and he spoke clearly to me, reconfirming it through another friend's post this morning. 

For the past months I have been going through a book called Hinds Feet On High Places with my women's bible study group.  God has really used Much Afraid's journey to speak to my heart about our own adoption journey and last night was no exception. Although I finished reading the book weeks ago, a friend encouraged me to revisit some of the things that I had highlighted. When I sat down to do so last night, the book fell open to the following: 

 All you have to do is trust yourself to the chair and be carried in perfect safety to the place which I wish to take you and without any struggling and striving on your part. 

(From the Devotion) Jesus, I choose today to take the risk of doing it Your way! 

I quickly realized that God was showing me that I was questioning the plan he had for my family and the fact that he had put me in this place for a reason. I had been struggling to determine what he wanted us to do, not because HE had changed the plan, but because I was concerned about what others might feel about said plan. I had taken my eyes off Jesus and faltered because of it. 

Here was my second confirmation from this morning: 

"Are you debating whether to take a step in faith in Jesus or to wait until you can see how to do the thing yourself? Obey Him with glad reckless joy. When He says something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a conception of His honour which is not His honour. Are you loyal to Jesus or loyal to your notion of Him? Are you loyal to what He says, or are you trying to compromise with conceptions which never came from Him? "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.""

I am so grateful that God has new mercies for me every day and that he is faithful to remind me of things he has told me regardless of how much reassurance and repeating that may entail.