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!

Fundraiser and Latest News

For us the road to Africa is paved with watermelon seeds.  We first started selling watermelons back in 2011 to fundraise for our mission trip.  We literally set out with a truck and trailer headed south.  God blew us away by redirecting us and putting us right where we needed to be. And we came home loaded with melons. 

Last year we sold melons again to raise money for our adoption.  And we have been busy selling melons the last couple of weeks.  This year the season was later and shorter due to all the rain but we still had two good weekends of selling melons. 

God has blessed our efforts and the money raised will be go toward paying for our lawyer fees. 

We still are not fully funded, so our next fundraiser is a yard sale.  Our dining room is being used as our collection site.  We still have more cleaning out to do.  We are sick of clutter, which makes it easier to part with things. 

If you live near us and have some things that you have been meaning to get rid of, we would love to take them off your hands.  You can call us, email or text us and we will work out the details of getting your items.  We do not have a date set for the sale, but we want to have it in August.  If you would like to help set up or help on the day of the sale, we would love the extra hands.

In other adoption related news...we mailed our dossier this week.  If you are not familiar with what this is, it is basically multiple copies of all your personal information.  Ours weighed in at almost 5 pounds.  It is on it's way to Uganda.  Please pray it arrives quickly.  I checked, rechecked and checked again all our documents before sending them off.  It is pretty nerve wracking making sure that you have everything that is needed.  I was a little nervous to let the lady at the counter take it, but I had already had a prayer meeting over these papers while I was sitting in the car.  So off it went!

Our next step is...

JUST WAITING TO HEAR OF OUR COURT DATE!!!

Can you tell I am a little worked up over it.  There is nothing left for us to do except fundraise before we go.  (Oh who am I kidding, there is lots of things to do but you know what I mean)

Soon I will list specific ways that you can pray for us.  For now you can pray for our court date.  The courts are on break right now and will start back up August 15th.  When the courts reconvene, there will be new Judges in place.  We are praying that this does not cause a big delay in issuing court dates.  We are really hoping that we get a September court date so we can be back home before the holidays. 

Thanks for following along on our journey!

Little Pink Purse

Next week, people I know will be at Brenda's orphanage.  I am a little teary eyed because in some crazy way it makes me feel closer to her.  We got her a little gift that will be delivered to her.  It was a little pink purse.  I had a hard time thinking what we should put in it.  In reality, I wanted my current family of four to crawl in the purse and go be with her. 

Oh Lord, make to soon!

But since we couldn't fit, we put pens, bracelets, a necklace, a bouncy ball, a notepad and a pair of flip flops.  I hope the zipper holds.  And to top it off, I put in two blow pops.  I don't know if she has ever had gum but I do know how much she loved dum dum suckers.  So, she is really going to love the blow pops.  And we also sent a few pictures and stickers.  Above all the stuff, I hope she knows how much we love her and how crazy we are about her. 

Prayer Request:  There is an important meeting taking place on Monday in Uganda relating to our adoption.  Will you join us in praying that this meeting goes well and it accomplishes its purpose.  Thank you!

What's Happening?

I have been holding off posting hoping that I would have more to report.  Our lawyer is working to get the documentation needed so we can file in court.  We are praying that our case can be filed with the courts before they close July 15th for a month long break.  We would love it if you would join us in praying for this to happen. 

Once the courts come back in session, they will have all new Judges.  Every two or three years the Judges are reassigned and this is the summer for that to happen.  You can also be in prayer for the new Judges.  We pray for fair Judges that look at the needs of the children. 

So that is all we really have to report right now.  It is hard waiting but there is not one thing we can do to speed the wait up.  The not knowing when you might be going is what makes it really difficult.  But the fall will be here in a few months and I guess that isn't really that long to wait.  (I don't know that we are going in the fall just me hoping!)

We did go see the farewell concert for Uganda Thunder on Sunday.  Whenever I visit with someone from Uganda it makes me miss Brenda so much more.  Something about hearing the accent makes me recall the words Brenda said when we were together.  On our last day together, she started singing some of her songs from school for us.  I wish I had them recorded but every time we would try to video her she would suddenly get quite and just smile.

After we left the concert, we started talking in the car about Brenda coming home.  We dreamed about what it will be like at the airport.  Amelia has designated herself as the "Airport Party Planner"!  And she said we really needed to let her know when this was going to happen because she had so much to do to get ready!  We just laughed and said we wish we knew!  It was fun to think about what we should wear, as if that is important, but it is fun to dream about the day.  Should we all match and if so what should we wear?  I think it was decided that at least Brenda and I should match since we will be the two coming home together.  My thought was that I won't be hard to miss...look for the crazy haired woman crying like a baby!  I get teary eyed now just thinking about it. 

This has been quite a journey.  I would like to think that we are nearing the end but in reality we could be at the beginning or middle...only God knows.  This experience has revealed so much about myself.  The other night in our small group I made the comment that I think I need Brenda more that she needs me.  God has used that little girl to teach me so much about His love for me.  If you don't know me personally, you wouldn't know that I led the women's ministry at my previous church for 10 years.  I love leading women to pursue a deeper relationship with the Lord. 

I have spoken on numerous occasions to groups of women about God's love for them.  I wanted them to know just how crazy God was and is for them.  The problem was I had a hard time living in His love and believing in His love for myself.  Oh I could tell you about it all day long, but when it came time for me to live it well that was different. 

I have gained a greater understanding of God's heart for me through this journey.  We took Dum Dum suckers when we went to Uganda.  The children there call them sweeties.  We had a giant bag because we were going to give them to the kids at Brenda's school.  It didn't take long for Brenda to spot this big bag in our room our first night together.  I gave her one and she was so excited.  Over the next few days she kept asking for sweeties.  One day I finally had to tell her that we couldn't have anymore for now.  In reality, I wanted to give her the whole giant bag of sweeties and tell her they were all hers.  But that wasn't what was best for her.  I love her more than she can comprehend but I also only want what is best for her.  And sometimes what is best is "No". 

God reminded me of this little "lesson" this week.  I can't even begin to comprehend the love that He has for me.  And because I am His child, He only wants what is best for me.  Sometimes what is best is for Him to say yes but other times what is best is for Him to say no.  And there are even times when the best is for Him to say wait!  And when there is a no or a wait it is not because He doesn't love but because what we are asking for at the moment isn't the best there is for us.  And in His time He has something so much better waiting for us!