Another Update

I wanted to give you a quick update.  Last update I gave had us basically packing bags to head to Uganda. 

We scurried around getting malaria medicine, supplies we needed and making sure we had all our paperwork.  We had airline tickets on hold and were checking our email every few minutes.  It was craziness but we were so excited!

Then we got an email letting us know that some things had changed and that we would not be flying out as soon as we hoped.  It is the roller coaster ride of International Adoption; very high highs and very low lows. 

So right now we are in waiting mode again.  Our case has been assigned to a Judge and we are waiting on a court date.  We are praying that it is sooner rather than later.

Overwhelmed by God's Abundance!

I have been anxiously waiting to give you an update about our yard sale this past weekend but I first had to finish up some things with work.  Well, first I had to recuperate from the weekend.  On Sunday night, I think my body just melted into the mattress; even my bones were tired.

We had been collecting items for our yardsale for sometime.  I had been storing things in our attic, garage, dining room and in our bedroom.  Plus we had several people generously donate items to us.  Really good stuff, some of which I wanted to keep for myself but I didn't. 

All week I had been trying to price things in the beauty of air conditioning but I only made a dent in it.  On Thursday night we loaded everything up and hauled it over to my in-laws house.  They were so gracious to let us take over their garage and house.  By the time we got everything in there, you really couldn't walk.  It was packed full and we even had to put things behind their house on the porch because they wouldn't fit in the garage. 

Friday started the task of getting everything organized and priced.  My mom, Cliff's mom, Aunt Sandy and myself worked all day pricing items and getting things set up.  The men (father in-law, brother in-law, dad and husband) moved stuff, priced stuff and worked too.  We worked late into the night on Friday but we didn't really mind because our Yard Sale Entertainer was FABULOUS!

I wanted to take lots of pictures and be able to show you how much stuff we had and how organized we were.  But that just did not happen. 

 





Here is everyone working away.



We finally got home and ready to crawl into bed around 2:00am.  The yard sale was to begin at 7:00 am, so our plan was to be back over at their house at 6:00 am.  It is very foolish to think that you will get up at 5:00 am when your alarm goes off when you are so tired you can barely feel your legs.  So you can imagine our shock when I rolled over and the clock said 6:00!  It is a miracle that I managed to get clothes on and my hair brushed.

When we got to the yard sale site at around 6:40, people were lined up in the driveway waiting for us to open the garage.  My in-laws said their doorbell rang at 6:30!

We jumped out of the car and started pulling stuff out of the garage.  The guys were hurrying to get the big items from behind the house. Thankfully, the people were very patient to let us get everything pulled out before they started grabbing stuff.   It was really crazy from the start which is why I forgot to take pictures.

At one point my mom asked me what time it was and we were shocked that it was only 10:30.  We were both sure that it was at least 2 in the afternoon.  I have never seen so many people at a yard sale! 

We wrapped up the yard sale at around 2 in the afternoon.  We probably sold at least 95% of what we started with and took the remaining items to the Salvation Army.

We were all so exhausted but so very thankful because after counting all the money we knew that we had witnessed a miracle.  The grand total from our yard sale was a little over ....

$2,700!!!!

Who makes that kind of money at a yard sale?  We were all truly in awe and overwhelmed by God! 




Pregnancy of the Heart

Do you know what happens when you tell people you are going to adopt, especially if you don't already have biological children?

They start in with the stories of all the people they know that are now pregnant since they decided to adopt.  Literally if I had $10 for everytime that has been told to me, this adoption would be close to being fully funded.  I know it happens and I even have friends it has happened to.  I think for me the reason I find this almost offensive is that it somehow lends itself to the idea that this is some secret desire that adoptive families have.  Nothing could be further from the truth for me.  Adoption for us wasn't a second best option but rather God's best for us and for that I am so grateful. 

I literally still look at my children that are 12 and 10 years old and wonder how I got so blessed to be their mama.  And the same goes for Brenda.  Only God could look the whole world over and pick me to be her mama.  How blessed I am!

Well, that went down a rabbit trail I wasn't really planning.  I started that story because just this week my mom told me she had a dream that I was pregnant.  My response was something along the lines of "Please don't go there because y'all would need to commit Cliff and I if that were to happen."  I love babies but I really don't want to start back over.  She goes on to explain that I am pregnant just not in my womb. 

That is the part of adoption that very few people understand.  We adoptive mamas get pregnant in our hearts.  The hardest part is that our gestational period isn't usually the typical 40 weeks.  We don't have a protruding belly telling us the time is drawing near.  (Well, some of us have protruding bellies but they don't really mean anything other than we like to eat!)  In reality, many times we don't really know how far along in the heart pregnancy we are.  Such was the case with me.

Who knew that I was over 8 months heart pregnant with Brenda!  (Only God knew!)

So you can imagine my surprise at around 1 am this morning when I opened my email to read a message from our lawyer that said we should make preparations to travel.  We will either be in court in two or three weeks from today!    So then, my water broke! 

All I could do was sit at my desk at cry.  I was so overwhelmed at the goodness of my God.  I have been hoping for a September court date and never even thought of an August one.  I just told someone how I had a feeling it was going to be in September.  God must have been smiling with amuzement at what we were about to learn. 

Pray for us!  Pray that God would prepare our family for Brenda and prepare Brenda for us.  We love her so much and can't wait to be reunited with her!

Also, pray for our yard sale this weekend.  We need no rain and lots of customers!  We want a complete sell out!

Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale

We have scheduled our yard sale for this Saturday, August 10th.  We are busy gathering items and filling up our dining room. 

If you have items that you have been meaning to get rid of but just haven't gotten around to, we would gladly take them off your hands.  You can call, email, facebook us and we will coordinate getting the things from you.

The yardsale will be held in Wentworth Subdivision.  Please go ahead and pray now for a sunny day and a major sell out! 

And if you would like to help set up or price items, we could sure put you to work.  We will be doing the majority of everything on Friday.

Thanks so much!