God put this passage on my heart today ...
36Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
50Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
I pray that Alya and I can be like this amazing woman of faith. She gave all that she had, and in the end her faith saved her. My prayer is that Alya and I's faith will never again waiver. I pray that every day we offer Him all that we have. That we grow strong in our faith, and no matter what comes our way we know and trust that our Father will provide for all our needs.
Life throws so much at you sometimes. The moment you feel like things are going good, that you are heading in the right direction, and have possibly jumped through all the hoops you have to jump through ... you run face first into a brick wall and it just takes your breath away. You wonder where in the world this brick wall came from ... and you once again call upon God to be your strength.
The thing is nothing is ever going to stay the same. Things change everyday ... sometimes for the good ... and sometimes life throws you a curve ball that isn't exactly what you were waiting for, but it's the kind of curve ball that helps you grow in your faith and in the end draws you closer to God.
So we're holding on, offering up our alabaster jar... knowing that He is the provider of everything.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
I Want To Be Here ...
In Ghana loving on my children.
And here ...
Holding my sweet Adua close.
And here ...
Rocking out a sweet African dress :0)
And here ...
Getting my butt kicked in "football" with my sweet sister Bernice.
And here ...
teaching 40+ kindergarten students in the village of Wamaso. They had no books, no crayons or scissors, not even a teacher, but the students still came every day anyways because they wanted to learn.
And here ...
Visiting with our village cook who had nothing but gave everything.
And here ...
Where I witnessed the most beautiful praise and worship in my whole life. Pink churches rock ... just sayin :0)
I was privileged to spend six weeks of my life there ... and when I left ... my heart stayed. You see things on the news, you read statistics on the internet, you know that it's a poor country ... but you never know how rich they really are until you come face to face with a woman, a man, a grandma, or a child who is so sold out for Christ. And I'm not just saying that they simply believe in God ... no, they have a passionate, crazy on fire relationship with him. They may not have material things ... but in my heart I believe that we are the ones that are poor, and they are the ones who are rich. Don't get me wrong ... there are too many orphans to count, starving families everywhere you go, children not able to go to school because they have to work on the family farm, family members dieing because of Malaria - a completely curable disease if treated properly, houses with dirt floors and no doors, rain water baths, living amongst trash and feces covering the ground .... they may have had all of these things going against them, but they taught me so much while I was there. They ALWAYS have faith and know that God is going to provide for them and their families. And where I would have doubted and wanted to give up, they instead sang praises for what God has already given them. I wish I could be there right now. Where life is so much simpler but so much richer at the same time.
Please pray for my new blog friend as she and her family prepare to bring two precious little ones from the place I love most ... Ghana. I am so excited for her journey there. :0)
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Rough Day!
Today was BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD ... did I say BAD? I really can't go into detail about it ... Alya and I are really just keeping this a private matter and on our knees begging God for yet another miracle. Please dear blog friends pray for us ... it's really serious and we really need an open door now! This has nothing to do with our adoption ... but greatly affects Alya and I. I know it's not fair that I'm being so vague ... but I am asking for you to lift us up in your prayers.
Thanks ..
Thanks ..
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Disappointed
I was majorly disappointed today. I went to the bank to deposit all of our yard sale money into our adoption account when my phone started ringing. I just ignored it because I didn't recognize the number and I was in the middle of trying to write out my deposit slip. stupid. stupid. It was totally our adoption agency calling! gah! And I had been praying all week that we would get a call or email from them sometime this week. I was so mad at myself for not answering the phone! The woman that we are working with said that she was going to be out of the office until Monday, so she would just try and get in touch with me then. Sigh ... more waiting. I just really want to get a move on with this whole journey. I have just been feeling lately like we are stuck in one spot *not that that is bad* but I just really want to keep moving forward. The more steps we take forward the closer we get to bringing home our baby. I am so ready for that day! Waiting is so hard ... I know that something amazing is coming soon ... I just wish that that something amazing could be in my arms right now. :0)
We had our 3rd yard sale this weekend. Oh, Boy! Am I done doing yard sales lol. We made $263.56 at this last yard sale. It's definitely a blessing because it's $263.56 that we didn't have before .. but I'm not going to lie and say that I wasn't slightly disappointed. It's just SO much work for just the two of us and was kind of hoping that we could get more out of it. But once we added up all three yard sale totals we made over $1,000 and met some really amazing people through the process so we are blessed. I know the Lord is providing for every step of the way to bring our sweet miracle home.
We only have 8 1/2 more school days left until summer break! waahooo! I had a really amazing group of first graders this year. I am going to miss them ... but I am ready for the summer. Not that this teacher will really have much of a break. I'm teaching pre-k again all summer to save up money for our adoption. I would really love to have that break ... but in the long run it will be so worth it! Hopefully I can just take next summer off to spend the whole time with my little one! :0) Praying HARD for that!
Don't forget to visit this blog. We are in the running to potentially win $5,000 for our adoption! Please pray for us ... that would be SO AMAZING! pray pray pray! There are only 9 days left!!!!
We had our 3rd yard sale this weekend. Oh, Boy! Am I done doing yard sales lol. We made $263.56 at this last yard sale. It's definitely a blessing because it's $263.56 that we didn't have before .. but I'm not going to lie and say that I wasn't slightly disappointed. It's just SO much work for just the two of us and was kind of hoping that we could get more out of it. But once we added up all three yard sale totals we made over $1,000 and met some really amazing people through the process so we are blessed. I know the Lord is providing for every step of the way to bring our sweet miracle home.
We only have 8 1/2 more school days left until summer break! waahooo! I had a really amazing group of first graders this year. I am going to miss them ... but I am ready for the summer. Not that this teacher will really have much of a break. I'm teaching pre-k again all summer to save up money for our adoption. I would really love to have that break ... but in the long run it will be so worth it! Hopefully I can just take next summer off to spend the whole time with my little one! :0) Praying HARD for that!
Don't forget to visit this blog. We are in the running to potentially win $5,000 for our adoption! Please pray for us ... that would be SO AMAZING! pray pray pray! There are only 9 days left!!!!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Love Is Not A Color
Check this movie out ... and this amazing young girl that is doing so much to try and feed the orphaned.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Happenings
Well it's been a few days since I've done a "real" post. There has actually been a lot going on that I have needed to post about, I just didn't really have the time to devote to a detailed post.
Last Thursday we mailed in our application to our new agency. Really praying that the communication with this agency goes better than with our other one. I got an email back from them last night saying that they received our application and check and that they were getting our file ready. They said that they would be contacting us soon. :0)
On our way home from mailing out our application I was telling Alya that it was so beautiful outside and that it was perfect weather for camping. I complained to him that we still had never gone camping together and that it was one of my favorite things to do. He reminded me that all of the camping stuff was hidden behind the massive amount of yard sale items in the garage. I told him that I wasn't saying that I wanted to camp out that night, just sometime in the near future would be nice. When we got home I came in and got on the computer. I could hear him rummaging around in the garage and when he came inside he was carrying our tent and two sleeping bags. :0) Mind you it was already 10:30pm, but he totally surprised me and set up our tent so we could camp out for the night. I totally love random things like that. As much of a planner that I am I secretly love spur of the moment random things. It keeps things interesting. :0)
Alya starting to put our tent together. :0)
We bought this camping gear three years ago and are just now using it for the first time. lol
Buddy had fun sleeping with mom and dad in the tent. ;0)
The finished product during the day time.
We also had our second yard sale this weekend. It went so much better than the first one! We set up everything on Friday night so that we wouldn't have to wake up so early on Saturday. It took 6 hours to set everything up ... and we still had things in the house to bring out! We met some really great people throughout the day. New friends that are on their own adoption journeys who just happened to see our signs. I love meeting these friends .... it's always great to share stories and our common hearts for the orphaned. We made a total of $813.65 on Saturday and just $17.55 on Sunday. But our total for our previous yard sale and this past weekends is $1,119.94!!!
Kacie, Shaun and my little niece Gracelynn came over to help. Gracelynn was chillin, rockin out her sweet beads. :0)
We were given some kittens to give away at the yard sale as well. We were able to find 2 good homes, but we still have three. I am having so much fun being a momma to them! :0) Alya just shakes his head ... but I have caught him playing with them AND they have all three fallen asleep on him lol. I even caught him cleaning out the litter box last night and I didn't even ask him. So he can't fool me, he loves them too. haha I am wanting to keep one of them .. but for now we are having fun with all three. Buddy doesn't know what to think, and he's super jealous that his momma is loving on something else other than him. He's so spoiled lol.
You know you want one!
We are planning on doing another yard sale this weekend as well. We sold a lot last weekend, but we still have TONS more. So we are praying for another beautiful weekend (tell those 35% chance of thunderstorms to stay away!).
Last Thursday we mailed in our application to our new agency. Really praying that the communication with this agency goes better than with our other one. I got an email back from them last night saying that they received our application and check and that they were getting our file ready. They said that they would be contacting us soon. :0)
On our way home from mailing out our application I was telling Alya that it was so beautiful outside and that it was perfect weather for camping. I complained to him that we still had never gone camping together and that it was one of my favorite things to do. He reminded me that all of the camping stuff was hidden behind the massive amount of yard sale items in the garage. I told him that I wasn't saying that I wanted to camp out that night, just sometime in the near future would be nice. When we got home I came in and got on the computer. I could hear him rummaging around in the garage and when he came inside he was carrying our tent and two sleeping bags. :0) Mind you it was already 10:30pm, but he totally surprised me and set up our tent so we could camp out for the night. I totally love random things like that. As much of a planner that I am I secretly love spur of the moment random things. It keeps things interesting. :0)
Alya starting to put our tent together. :0)
We bought this camping gear three years ago and are just now using it for the first time. lol
Buddy had fun sleeping with mom and dad in the tent. ;0)
The finished product during the day time.
We also had our second yard sale this weekend. It went so much better than the first one! We set up everything on Friday night so that we wouldn't have to wake up so early on Saturday. It took 6 hours to set everything up ... and we still had things in the house to bring out! We met some really great people throughout the day. New friends that are on their own adoption journeys who just happened to see our signs. I love meeting these friends .... it's always great to share stories and our common hearts for the orphaned. We made a total of $813.65 on Saturday and just $17.55 on Sunday. But our total for our previous yard sale and this past weekends is $1,119.94!!!
Kacie, Shaun and my little niece Gracelynn came over to help. Gracelynn was chillin, rockin out her sweet beads. :0)
We were given some kittens to give away at the yard sale as well. We were able to find 2 good homes, but we still have three. I am having so much fun being a momma to them! :0) Alya just shakes his head ... but I have caught him playing with them AND they have all three fallen asleep on him lol. I even caught him cleaning out the litter box last night and I didn't even ask him. So he can't fool me, he loves them too. haha I am wanting to keep one of them .. but for now we are having fun with all three. Buddy doesn't know what to think, and he's super jealous that his momma is loving on something else other than him. He's so spoiled lol.
You know you want one!
We are planning on doing another yard sale this weekend as well. We sold a lot last weekend, but we still have TONS more. So we are praying for another beautiful weekend (tell those 35% chance of thunderstorms to stay away!).
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Storing Up Treasures
CHECK THIS OUT GUYS!!!!
I found this blog a couple of weeks ago ... but today's post caught my eye! They are doing an amazing amazing amazing thing to help out families that are in the midst of their adoption journey! Please click on this link to see how YOU can help!
We are one of the 26 families that could potentially win $5,000 to go towards our adoption fund! Even if we didn't win the grand prize we still will get $200 ... so every family who has registered can get something! I am so excited about this and am asking that you go visit their site and help bring an orphan home. :0)
I found this blog a couple of weeks ago ... but today's post caught my eye! They are doing an amazing amazing amazing thing to help out families that are in the midst of their adoption journey! Please click on this link to see how YOU can help!
We are one of the 26 families that could potentially win $5,000 to go towards our adoption fund! Even if we didn't win the grand prize we still will get $200 ... so every family who has registered can get something! I am so excited about this and am asking that you go visit their site and help bring an orphan home. :0)
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Growing On Trees
There really is no way that I could have written this any better.... so I want you to read this blog post I found today because it explains exactly what lies on my heart everyday.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
When One Door Closes, Another One Opens Up
I honestly don't think that having to say no to potential birth mother matches will ever be an easy thing to do, not just for me, but for anyone going through the adoption process. I mean how does your heart not leap with joy over the excitement that "this could be it!" Pretty much impossible I would think. So although I was kind of bummed that my investigations into loans didn't work out for us yesterday, I really was okay with it. See when Alya and I first began this journey we really wanted to commit to not going into more debt just to bring home a baby. Which is why we didn't want to get a loan to pay for our adoption in the first place. I recently discovered that supposedly the adoption tax credit is not a credit anymore but a refund ... and also it has been bumped up to $13,000 instead of 12. When I was looking at the numbers of our adoption fund so far I saw that at the end of the summer we should hopefully have around $8,000 saved plus the amount of the tax credit we would have the amount that we would need to go through with our adoption. So getting a loan to pay for the initial payment wouldn't really be putting us in debt because we would be able to pay it all off by the end of the year with money that was already designated for our adoption and not just coming out of our other finances meant for bills. So I prayed really hard about it this weekend and just asked the Lord to shut doors and to make things really clear if we were NOT supposed to pursue this path. I made several calls and had face to face conversations with multiple banks but without even looking to see if we would be approved the interest rate they were quoting me was just not something we were looking for. So, I just figured that this was our sign that it wasn't meant to be. I did find a no-interest loan from a Christian organization online yesterday. They seem really great, however, you don't know if your exact amount needed will be met and/or if you will be approved in the first place. This also takes 4-6 weeks to find out. So, with a sad heart I had to tell the newest agency that we have been talking to that we wouldn't be able to be considered for this particular birth mother. I am at peace with the decision and know in my heart that ours is coming soon. Still I pray for this birth mother and her sweet baby growing inside of her and ask God to give her peace and direction in who to choose to be the parents of this precious baby.
A friend of a friend of mine emailed me this weekend to give me some information about the agencies that she went through. I called them today ... The agency is called Catholic Charities and they are located in Pensacola. I am very very excited about them. The fees are only $13,600 and you don't have to pay until after you are already placed (baby is born) with your child. There are a few fees that we have to pay up front ...like another $500 application fee and close to $500 for a home study update and additional background checks. However that $1,000 is all that is due up front ... and that is totally do-able for us! Now we will have a chance to be matched with a birth mother as we continue to raise/receive grants/and save money. I really can't even describe how excited I am for a new step. So please dear friends just pray that the Lord would open doors wide for us as we continue this journey. We are so blessed by His faithfulness and we are so excited to continue one step further on this journey to our child.
A friend of a friend of mine emailed me this weekend to give me some information about the agencies that she went through. I called them today ... The agency is called Catholic Charities and they are located in Pensacola. I am very very excited about them. The fees are only $13,600 and you don't have to pay until after you are already placed (baby is born) with your child. There are a few fees that we have to pay up front ...like another $500 application fee and close to $500 for a home study update and additional background checks. However that $1,000 is all that is due up front ... and that is totally do-able for us! Now we will have a chance to be matched with a birth mother as we continue to raise/receive grants/and save money. I really can't even describe how excited I am for a new step. So please dear friends just pray that the Lord would open doors wide for us as we continue this journey. We are so blessed by His faithfulness and we are so excited to continue one step further on this journey to our child.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Oh, What a Beautiful Day!
Today was so refreshing!
I woke up early to go to church with Alya. This is his week to do sound so we had to get up extremely early to head on over for practice. *Lord will I ever be a morning person??* The worship and message were great as always! I love love love The Journey Church! I am just so thankful that God brought us there a little over 2 years ago. He has been so faithful to us and has provided such an amazing Journey family for us to be apart of. I don't know what we would do without our Journey Group. They have walked through every step of our journey to become parents with us. Most of those steps have been through a really dark valley ... but now we are walking up towards that mountain top! I can't imagine life with out them!
Alya had to stay for the second service as well ... so I decided to leave and drive around. I just have been really really praying about the email message about the potential birth mother match we got yesterday. Just asking God for wisdom, for guidance, for peace. Just really anything He would like to give to me right now would be great. I ended up driving on over to American Beach, which is where Alya and I were married three years ago next month. I LOVE that beach ... it has a lot of history to it. Used to be the "black" beach back when things were still segregated. It is still not super popular, although I don't know why because it's by far my favorite beach here in the area. It's perfect and never crowded. I am so glad that we decided to get married there. So, anyways I ended up going on over there ... just wanted to have some quiet time alone with God. Going to the beach to do my quiet time was something that I ALWAYS did back in college. I don't think that I have had the opportunity to do that since those days ... and man how amazing today was! I miss that time sitting among God's creation breathing in the amazing peace and calmness the beach seems to bring. Besides a few Marilyn Monroe moments *whoops!* today was perfect! I brought my Bible on out with me and just read through some scripture, but I think the part that I got the most out of today was just being STILL. Just being quiet and still and soaking it all up. I am a "to-do" girl. I always seem to have a list a mile long and then some of things that I need to be doing. So today was so nice to just sit in the presence of the Lord. You know I thought that this weekend was going to be hard for me. Just the whole memories of Hope coming back and the fact that it's everyone else's Mother's Day weekend except for mine. I had thought of possibly skipping church this weekend ... but I didn't And I can definitely tell that you guys have been praying because I felt so much peace today. Just so much joy in what is to come. I can hardly wait! I am looking into a few possibilities tomorrow about this particular placement. I am asking everyone to please pray that God makes clear which doors are closed and which ones are open. If He doesn't want us to go this particular way that I am looking into please please please pray that the door is shut immediately. We want to be obedient and trust in only Him. I'll keep you updated as I hear more news!
I woke up early to go to church with Alya. This is his week to do sound so we had to get up extremely early to head on over for practice. *Lord will I ever be a morning person??* The worship and message were great as always! I love love love The Journey Church! I am just so thankful that God brought us there a little over 2 years ago. He has been so faithful to us and has provided such an amazing Journey family for us to be apart of. I don't know what we would do without our Journey Group. They have walked through every step of our journey to become parents with us. Most of those steps have been through a really dark valley ... but now we are walking up towards that mountain top! I can't imagine life with out them!
Alya had to stay for the second service as well ... so I decided to leave and drive around. I just have been really really praying about the email message about the potential birth mother match we got yesterday. Just asking God for wisdom, for guidance, for peace. Just really anything He would like to give to me right now would be great. I ended up driving on over to American Beach, which is where Alya and I were married three years ago next month. I LOVE that beach ... it has a lot of history to it. Used to be the "black" beach back when things were still segregated. It is still not super popular, although I don't know why because it's by far my favorite beach here in the area. It's perfect and never crowded. I am so glad that we decided to get married there. So, anyways I ended up going on over there ... just wanted to have some quiet time alone with God. Going to the beach to do my quiet time was something that I ALWAYS did back in college. I don't think that I have had the opportunity to do that since those days ... and man how amazing today was! I miss that time sitting among God's creation breathing in the amazing peace and calmness the beach seems to bring. Besides a few Marilyn Monroe moments *whoops!* today was perfect! I brought my Bible on out with me and just read through some scripture, but I think the part that I got the most out of today was just being STILL. Just being quiet and still and soaking it all up. I am a "to-do" girl. I always seem to have a list a mile long and then some of things that I need to be doing. So today was so nice to just sit in the presence of the Lord. You know I thought that this weekend was going to be hard for me. Just the whole memories of Hope coming back and the fact that it's everyone else's Mother's Day weekend except for mine. I had thought of possibly skipping church this weekend ... but I didn't And I can definitely tell that you guys have been praying because I felt so much peace today. Just so much joy in what is to come. I can hardly wait! I am looking into a few possibilities tomorrow about this particular placement. I am asking everyone to please pray that God makes clear which doors are closed and which ones are open. If He doesn't want us to go this particular way that I am looking into please please please pray that the door is shut immediately. We want to be obedient and trust in only Him. I'll keep you updated as I hear more news!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
OMG!
I can't believe I overlooked this!
ps. Are you and your husband open to all races/ethnicity? If so, we are looking for an adoptive couple living close to Jacksonville to be matched with an African American birth mother. She has expressed a desire to have the adoptive parents accompany her to her pre natal appointments and be part of the process through birth. I would love to include your profile in the four we will present to her. Let me know if you are interested!
THAT my friends is part of an email I got from an agency that I inquired about just last night. First thing this morning I received an email back ... gotta love an agency who means business! I emailed her back and said of course we are 100% interested however we are just at the VERY beginning stages of fundraising. But you know what, I know that when things look impossible to us, they are never impossible to God. I'm not saying that this particular situation is going to work out ... but I just want to put out there that I am believing in a miracle!!! Because whether it's this situation or another, it's going to be a miracle for us to bring our sweet baby home. So please friends ... if you would take the time to get down on your knees and pray for a miracle for us!
ps. Are you and your husband open to all races/ethnicity? If so, we are looking for an adoptive couple living close to Jacksonville to be matched with an African American birth mother. She has expressed a desire to have the adoptive parents accompany her to her pre natal appointments and be part of the process through birth. I would love to include your profile in the four we will present to her. Let me know if you are interested!
THAT my friends is part of an email I got from an agency that I inquired about just last night. First thing this morning I received an email back ... gotta love an agency who means business! I emailed her back and said of course we are 100% interested however we are just at the VERY beginning stages of fundraising. But you know what, I know that when things look impossible to us, they are never impossible to God. I'm not saying that this particular situation is going to work out ... but I just want to put out there that I am believing in a miracle!!! Because whether it's this situation or another, it's going to be a miracle for us to bring our sweet baby home. So please friends ... if you would take the time to get down on your knees and pray for a miracle for us!
Ugh!
So I finally heard back from our adoption agency ... 2 1/2 months, 2 emails and 3 phone calls later we find out that our home study from being foster parents has not been approved. I have not talked with them personally they just left a message on my phone while I was at school on Friday. sigh ... I am just so upset that it took them that long to get back with us only to say that our home study isn't going to work. I just feel really frustrated right now. I don't really know what to do. I just feel really uneasy and don't know if I still have the peace I had at the beginning with using this particular agency. I am just really praying that God throws open some huge doors so that we can have a little bit of direction. Do we stay with BOH or go with another agency?
On another note - I just got home from the store where I found this cute little ring that I bought representing our adoption journey. I love love love jewelry and I have been looking for awhile now for something that I could wear all the time that would represent this journey God has us on. I found a cute little ring that has an inscription on it. It says: The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The one thing that I like most about it is that it is kind of wavy ... twists and turns exactly like our journey has been so far. And the one step that we took was jumping off a cliff and allowing God to have control. So many amazing things can occur when you let that happen. *I tried to take a picture of it, but the flash was ruining the picture, sorry!*
Although I kind of feel like yesterdays phone message was a little bit of a set back, I still know that my God is in control and he ALWAYS provides. Please just pray with me that He will provide peace and a clear direction to go in.
On another note - I just got home from the store where I found this cute little ring that I bought representing our adoption journey. I love love love jewelry and I have been looking for awhile now for something that I could wear all the time that would represent this journey God has us on. I found a cute little ring that has an inscription on it. It says: The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The one thing that I like most about it is that it is kind of wavy ... twists and turns exactly like our journey has been so far. And the one step that we took was jumping off a cliff and allowing God to have control. So many amazing things can occur when you let that happen. *I tried to take a picture of it, but the flash was ruining the picture, sorry!*
Although I kind of feel like yesterdays phone message was a little bit of a set back, I still know that my God is in control and he ALWAYS provides. Please just pray with me that He will provide peace and a clear direction to go in.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
One Year Ago Today ...
So I've mentioned in the last few blogs how this week is an especially hard week for me... this is what's been going through my heart this week.
I really can't believe that it's been a year already. It still seems like it all happened yesterday. The pain is still very fresh in my heart, and I will never ever get the picture of my sweet little girls face out of my mind. One year ago today God decided that it was time for our little Hope to leave our home and go back to her birth mother. I remember every detail of that day ... and to this day it still breaks my heart.
We knew that it was a possibility, losing her that is. We knew from the first day that she came to live with us that the goal was to reunify her with her momma. But telling this momma's heart that just doesn't really work. My ultimate goal was to go on being that baby girls momma for the rest of her life. We knew that there had been a court date set for that Friday (the Friday before mother's day) and we also knew that there was a huge possibility that she was going back. But as much as I would have rather held on tight to her for the whole day, life had to go on. So I watched my sweet husband give our precious baby girl a kiss on the forehead goodbye for the very last time and off she went to daycare while we went to work. I got a call later on in the day from her daycare saying that she had a fever and that I needed to come and get her. I rushed her on over to the doctor because I wanted our sweet little one to have some antibiotics in her system if she was going to be leaving us for real. And as we left the doctors office I got the phone call I had always been dreading.... "we need to come pick her up, she's going back." All I wanted to do was RUN! Just go get away with my sweet baby and run far far away. Oh, how was I ever going to give her back? We drove home and I had to pack all of her things up while she napped in her car seat because mom wanted her back right away. (I don't at all blame her for wanting her right then and there ... I would want the same thing if I were in her position, but oh how hard those last couple of hours were for me packing "things" instead of being able to just hold her in my arms for one more minute.) I remember sitting on the couch cuddling with her while we waited for her caseworker to come. I sat there trying, but unable to hold back the tears as I I prayed over her little soul. I just remember how confused she looked just laying there cuddled up in my arms looking into my eyes. I will always hold those last few minutes in my heart. We cuddled until we heard the doorbell ring announcing the arrival of the caseworker coming to take my sweet girl away from me. I gave her one final hug and kiss and then they took her out of my arms forever. After I shut the door I just dropped down to the ground and sobbed. Oh, how I cried for my little girl. The thing that was the hardest was that I had to do all of this by myself. My husband had to work really late that night and I never felt more alone in all my life. I felt like I lost the ability to breathe and that someone had literally come and taken my whole heart out of my chest and ran away with it. I had some really sweet friends that were really there for me on that day. *Thanks Sarah for renting chick flicks with me and not judging me while I fell to pieces.*
On that day my whole life fell to pieces ... and I allowed that to happen. I was a complete mess for many many months to come and it was all because I allowed bitterness towards God to move into my heart instead of clinging to Him for peace and comfort. I have come a million miles from where I was a year ago today. It has sucked I'm not going to lie. But if someone would ask me if I could take it all away turn back time and never had fostered I would never agree to it. You see that precious little soul that we were so blessed to have come into our hearts changed my life forever! Right then and there God proved to me that I didn't have to birth my own babies to love them as my own. He gave me sooooooooo much love for that sweet baby girl and my life will now never be the same again. There really are NO words that can describe a mother's anguish when she losses her child. I know that I was not Hope's birth mother, but I was still her momma. She just had more than one to love her. I pray every day for that little girl ... I will never ever stop loving her as my daughter. I just pray that she is in a safe place and that God is working in her other momma's life. And I pray with all my heart that her other momma loves her even more than I could ever love Hope because that little girl deserves it!
So today is a day full of memories. Sweet memories that bring tears to my eyes because I miss those moments with my baby girl. Memories that will forever be etched in my heart ... memories of the joy and real hope that she brought into our lives.
So, if you think about it ... could you just lift me up in prayer this weekend? This is a hard weekend for me (being the 1 year anniversary and also Mother's Day weekend) and I just really want to make sure that I am focusing on God and all that He still has in store for us to come. I love to think back to all the precious times we had with Hope, but I want to celebrate in the fact that her other momma is doing better and that we are on the road to lovin more babies. Just pray for peace ... thanks blog buddies :0)
I really can't believe that it's been a year already. It still seems like it all happened yesterday. The pain is still very fresh in my heart, and I will never ever get the picture of my sweet little girls face out of my mind. One year ago today God decided that it was time for our little Hope to leave our home and go back to her birth mother. I remember every detail of that day ... and to this day it still breaks my heart.
We knew that it was a possibility, losing her that is. We knew from the first day that she came to live with us that the goal was to reunify her with her momma. But telling this momma's heart that just doesn't really work. My ultimate goal was to go on being that baby girls momma for the rest of her life. We knew that there had been a court date set for that Friday (the Friday before mother's day) and we also knew that there was a huge possibility that she was going back. But as much as I would have rather held on tight to her for the whole day, life had to go on. So I watched my sweet husband give our precious baby girl a kiss on the forehead goodbye for the very last time and off she went to daycare while we went to work. I got a call later on in the day from her daycare saying that she had a fever and that I needed to come and get her. I rushed her on over to the doctor because I wanted our sweet little one to have some antibiotics in her system if she was going to be leaving us for real. And as we left the doctors office I got the phone call I had always been dreading.... "we need to come pick her up, she's going back." All I wanted to do was RUN! Just go get away with my sweet baby and run far far away. Oh, how was I ever going to give her back? We drove home and I had to pack all of her things up while she napped in her car seat because mom wanted her back right away. (I don't at all blame her for wanting her right then and there ... I would want the same thing if I were in her position, but oh how hard those last couple of hours were for me packing "things" instead of being able to just hold her in my arms for one more minute.) I remember sitting on the couch cuddling with her while we waited for her caseworker to come. I sat there trying, but unable to hold back the tears as I I prayed over her little soul. I just remember how confused she looked just laying there cuddled up in my arms looking into my eyes. I will always hold those last few minutes in my heart. We cuddled until we heard the doorbell ring announcing the arrival of the caseworker coming to take my sweet girl away from me. I gave her one final hug and kiss and then they took her out of my arms forever. After I shut the door I just dropped down to the ground and sobbed. Oh, how I cried for my little girl. The thing that was the hardest was that I had to do all of this by myself. My husband had to work really late that night and I never felt more alone in all my life. I felt like I lost the ability to breathe and that someone had literally come and taken my whole heart out of my chest and ran away with it. I had some really sweet friends that were really there for me on that day. *Thanks Sarah for renting chick flicks with me and not judging me while I fell to pieces.*
On that day my whole life fell to pieces ... and I allowed that to happen. I was a complete mess for many many months to come and it was all because I allowed bitterness towards God to move into my heart instead of clinging to Him for peace and comfort. I have come a million miles from where I was a year ago today. It has sucked I'm not going to lie. But if someone would ask me if I could take it all away turn back time and never had fostered I would never agree to it. You see that precious little soul that we were so blessed to have come into our hearts changed my life forever! Right then and there God proved to me that I didn't have to birth my own babies to love them as my own. He gave me sooooooooo much love for that sweet baby girl and my life will now never be the same again. There really are NO words that can describe a mother's anguish when she losses her child. I know that I was not Hope's birth mother, but I was still her momma. She just had more than one to love her. I pray every day for that little girl ... I will never ever stop loving her as my daughter. I just pray that she is in a safe place and that God is working in her other momma's life. And I pray with all my heart that her other momma loves her even more than I could ever love Hope because that little girl deserves it!
So today is a day full of memories. Sweet memories that bring tears to my eyes because I miss those moments with my baby girl. Memories that will forever be etched in my heart ... memories of the joy and real hope that she brought into our lives.
So, if you think about it ... could you just lift me up in prayer this weekend? This is a hard weekend for me (being the 1 year anniversary and also Mother's Day weekend) and I just really want to make sure that I am focusing on God and all that He still has in store for us to come. I love to think back to all the precious times we had with Hope, but I want to celebrate in the fact that her other momma is doing better and that we are on the road to lovin more babies. Just pray for peace ... thanks blog buddies :0)
I forgot to mention ...
WOW! So first I just have to do a HUGE shout out to Lynn thanking her for allowing all of us that are adopting and currently doing fundraisers to post our link on her blog. I have gotten soooooooo many hits since I did that last night AND AND AND we have sold SIX of our adoption fundraiser shirts at adoptionbug.com just today!!!! If you haven't already taken a look at our site you should!
In the midst of all of the yard sale madness *that I mentioned here* I forgot to tell you some big news that I got last Friday. Each summer our county offers a VPK program for incoming Kindergarten students to attend. I applied for the position last summer and spent my break hanging out with some fun pre-k kids. One of the perks of being a teacher is having all of the breaks off of work ... so giving up my summer to work isn't exactly a great vacation, however, it does provide a lot of extra money that we are so grateful for. I went back and forth as to whether or not I should apply for the position for this coming summer. I really would love to have that time off but I also realized that since we are trying to adopt that it would be a great way to make some extra money without killing myself trying to work an extra job at night. So, I applied, and I found out last week that I got the position! This is just another reason to be so thankful to God for always providing for our needs!
Another thing that I got super excited about last Friday was a weekly advertisement that adoptionbug sends me for their Friday feature Tee ... last week was SUPER exciting for me because they featured a brand new t-shirt that I fell madly in love with and just HAD to have! So I bought it right then and there and last night I got it in the mail. It is def. one of my most favorite shirts right now. I want to wear it all the time ... click the link to see a picture of it, but it says "My heart is in Africa" ... and that it is friends! I pray every day for God to send me back there one day!
I've had a heavy heart this week ... tomorrow is going to be a hard day for me, so if you think about it just pray that God gives me a lot of peace tomorrow. I'll write a post about it all tomorrow. Night friends.
In the midst of all of the yard sale madness *that I mentioned here* I forgot to tell you some big news that I got last Friday. Each summer our county offers a VPK program for incoming Kindergarten students to attend. I applied for the position last summer and spent my break hanging out with some fun pre-k kids. One of the perks of being a teacher is having all of the breaks off of work ... so giving up my summer to work isn't exactly a great vacation, however, it does provide a lot of extra money that we are so grateful for. I went back and forth as to whether or not I should apply for the position for this coming summer. I really would love to have that time off but I also realized that since we are trying to adopt that it would be a great way to make some extra money without killing myself trying to work an extra job at night. So, I applied, and I found out last week that I got the position! This is just another reason to be so thankful to God for always providing for our needs!
Another thing that I got super excited about last Friday was a weekly advertisement that adoptionbug sends me for their Friday feature Tee ... last week was SUPER exciting for me because they featured a brand new t-shirt that I fell madly in love with and just HAD to have! So I bought it right then and there and last night I got it in the mail. It is def. one of my most favorite shirts right now. I want to wear it all the time ... click the link to see a picture of it, but it says "My heart is in Africa" ... and that it is friends! I pray every day for God to send me back there one day!
I've had a heavy heart this week ... tomorrow is going to be a hard day for me, so if you think about it just pray that God gives me a lot of peace tomorrow. I'll write a post about it all tomorrow. Night friends.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Crazy Love!
Today at A Place Called Simplicity Linny is featuring a Crazy Love post for families fund raising for their adoptions. Many of my blog readers know our story so far but I just wanted to remind those fellow readers and the new ones too of some of the fundraisers we have been doing ....
The first one that we started was our baby bottle banks. We were asking friends to fill baby bottles up with their spare pocket change to add to our adoption fund.
The second one that we started was a crazy buckeye (peanut butter balls) candy sale. If you live in this area and would still like to purchase a dozen let me know and I'll make up a batch. :0)
The third fundraiser that we started was selling adoption t-shirts at adoptionbug.com ... click on the link to go directly to our fundraiser site. They are really awesome t-shirts ... I have 3 :0)
And finally the last one that we just did last weekend ... and will continue to have this weekend is a MASSIVE yard sale!
If you would like to participate in any of these fundraisers please let me know! Thank you so much for being apart of bringing out little miracle home to us!
The first one that we started was our baby bottle banks. We were asking friends to fill baby bottles up with their spare pocket change to add to our adoption fund.
The second one that we started was a crazy buckeye (peanut butter balls) candy sale. If you live in this area and would still like to purchase a dozen let me know and I'll make up a batch. :0)
The third fundraiser that we started was selling adoption t-shirts at adoptionbug.com ... click on the link to go directly to our fundraiser site. They are really awesome t-shirts ... I have 3 :0)
And finally the last one that we just did last weekend ... and will continue to have this weekend is a MASSIVE yard sale!
If you would like to participate in any of these fundraisers please let me know! Thank you so much for being apart of bringing out little miracle home to us!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
A Heavy Heart
I don't really know how to put into words the burden that is laying on my heart right now. I feel as though there really aren't words to adequately describe how my heart is hurting. Sometimes I just sit back and wonder how in the world God is going to orchestrate our adoption(s). I say adoptions because I 100% believe that we are not going to just stop at one. I am already praying daily for the Lord to give us direction and guidance as we seek to adopt more precious children into our family. I've been blog stalking {as I like to call it} lately and I have found some of the most beautiful families that love the Lord with all of their heart. The way they love the orphan and seek God's heart with everything they have is so inspiring. I pray that I live to even be half the women these beautiful moms already are. This is an emotional week for me ... more on that on Friday's blog post. But my heart is just really hurting for the orphans right now. I have seriously just been on my knees begging God for a miracle so that we can bring a precious child into our home to love forever. Will you pray with me for that? Will you help us pray that God brings that miracle now? I feel like the Lord has taught me a lot of what patience and the act of faithfully following HIM looks like over these past three years of trying to become parents. But right now the stirrings in my heart are so so powerful I am begging you to pray with us that God would provide that miracle now.
I bought a new devotional yesterday. It's called Embracing Your Freedom: A Personal Experience of God's Heart for Justice And on page 2 this paragraph came right out of the page and grabbed onto my heart -
"This Enemy of our souls is ruthless. He beats and bruises us. He kicks us when we're down, steals what matters to us, and distorts the truth. He is ruthless on all levels and everything he does is based on a lie. He is perfectly giddy at the thought of robbing us blind. .... But then there's God. We serve a God deeply motivated by love and profoundly committed to freedom. A God so mighty that even mountains melt like wax in His presence and ocean floors open at the blast of His breath. This same God loves us fiercely and calls us to participate in His divine nature. In addition to the salvation He offers us (which in itself is gift enough), He wants us free on earth. God wants us to stand strong in the face of our giants, our bullies, and our scary circumstances. He longs for us to enjoy an abundance of peace. He doesn't want us to be pushed around by our fears. God knows that sometimes the Enemy gets away with his schemes, but when we take Him at His Word, He helps us get back what we've lost - and then some."
This road to become parents has definitely taken its tole on my faith and trust in my Father. I hate that that had to happen ... I wish that I could take back time and re-do this part of my journey. I hate that I quit on Him for a bit. I hate that I lost all hope. I hate that my heart became bitter. I feel like I took five million steps back in my walk with God during that time ... 5 million steps I wish instead I had taken forward. I know that time has helped me to grow into a stronger woman. I know that my Father is still madly in love with his daughter no matter how stubborn I can be. And I know that even when I quit on Him, He never quit on me. I found this quote in my devotional in the paragraph right under the first one ...
"Even if you feel as though God is miles away, He's intimately near and fully engaged with you on this journey."
Oh, how true that is. And I have never felt Him more at work in my life than I do right now. I know that he is stirring something crazy up in my heart right now. Please, please pray for direction for us.
I bought a new devotional yesterday. It's called Embracing Your Freedom: A Personal Experience of God's Heart for Justice And on page 2 this paragraph came right out of the page and grabbed onto my heart -
"This Enemy of our souls is ruthless. He beats and bruises us. He kicks us when we're down, steals what matters to us, and distorts the truth. He is ruthless on all levels and everything he does is based on a lie. He is perfectly giddy at the thought of robbing us blind. .... But then there's God. We serve a God deeply motivated by love and profoundly committed to freedom. A God so mighty that even mountains melt like wax in His presence and ocean floors open at the blast of His breath. This same God loves us fiercely and calls us to participate in His divine nature. In addition to the salvation He offers us (which in itself is gift enough), He wants us free on earth. God wants us to stand strong in the face of our giants, our bullies, and our scary circumstances. He longs for us to enjoy an abundance of peace. He doesn't want us to be pushed around by our fears. God knows that sometimes the Enemy gets away with his schemes, but when we take Him at His Word, He helps us get back what we've lost - and then some."
This road to become parents has definitely taken its tole on my faith and trust in my Father. I hate that that had to happen ... I wish that I could take back time and re-do this part of my journey. I hate that I quit on Him for a bit. I hate that I lost all hope. I hate that my heart became bitter. I feel like I took five million steps back in my walk with God during that time ... 5 million steps I wish instead I had taken forward. I know that time has helped me to grow into a stronger woman. I know that my Father is still madly in love with his daughter no matter how stubborn I can be. And I know that even when I quit on Him, He never quit on me. I found this quote in my devotional in the paragraph right under the first one ...
"Even if you feel as though God is miles away, He's intimately near and fully engaged with you on this journey."
Oh, how true that is. And I have never felt Him more at work in my life than I do right now. I know that he is stirring something crazy up in my heart right now. Please, please pray for direction for us.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Yard Sale Day
So the BIG day was this past Saturday! Our first yard sale adoption fundraiser! It was quite the adventure let me tell you!
We started taking little trips all last week with yard sale items and leaving them at my best friend Kacie's house. Her and her hubby made a space in their garage for the massive amount of items we had to sell. This was so sweet of them! We figured that since the location of our yard sale was 30 minutes away moving our yard sale items at least half way would help us out a bit. I tried my very best to stay calm and not get overwhelmed by all of the things I had on my to-do list ... but I don't know if I did that great of a job. (more on that later in the post) I did however continue to thank God for this amazing blessing. Although it was soooooooo much work, it was a way to provide extra money to be raised to bring home our soon to be little miracle. Kacie and Shaun were planning on helping us with the yard sale but Shaun's great grandma died on Thursday and they had to make a trip up to Ohio for her funeral. :0( [Please pray for him and his family during this time] I called in reinforcements *the amazing Marcus and Mandy* and that sudden change in plans was fixed. We decided that it might be easier to just spend the night at Kacie and Shaun's house instead of getting up even earlier than the butt crack of dawn to make our 20 minute drive over to their house. We are watching their dog while they are out of town and had been planning on just letting Buddy play with their dog Daisy while we were at the yard sale anyways. Shaun left us his SUV and trailer and the Stewart's were so sweet to let us borrow their truck and trailer as well. Having all these extra vehicles made it so much easier to be able to load up the last amount of stuff and head on over to the Forbes house for the evening. As we were driving it did start to rain on us :0( but it wasn't too horrible and all of our stuff was okay.
Buddy was ready to go!
We got up about 5:00AM (which is far too early for this girl!) on Saturday morning and started getting the last of the yard sale items in order. Marcus and Mandy showed up in both of their vehicles around 6:15 and we were able to get EVERYTHING that was in the garage loaded into their two vehicles. (PRAISE GOD!)I really wish that I had pictures to capture what 5 car loads and 2 trailers worth of yard sale stuff looked like, because it was definitely a sight! Once we arrived in the church parking lot we were met by a woman who was already waiting for us! sigh ... I mean I love that people get all excited and serious about yard sales, but please don't come earlier than what the starting time says. So anyways ... the boys left Mandy and I to start unloading the 4 vehicles and the boys went back to get the final truck and trailer. The set up took us about 2 hours to get done ... it was INSANE! And I'm not going to lie, the early birds stressed me out a little bit.
Once we finally were done setting up, we popped open our tent and chairs and sat down to take a much needed break! We soon discovered that this was not going to be an option for us. These crazy gross caterpillars started coming towards us and simply wouldn't leave us alone! They are the ones that hurt you too .... every time we would knock them away thousands more would come back in their place. [okay maybe not thousands ... but to Mandy and I it most definitely seemed like that!] We had to move our chairs completely away ... stupid bugs!
Pictures of our setup.
Mandy and Marcus stayed with us most of the morning ... I really don't know how we would have EVER done it without their help, so I have to say a very special THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to them. We love you guys ... our Journey Group definitely rocks that much more having you guys in it! :0)
We started packing up at 2:30 since it was just the two of us and we knew that it would take forever. Although it didn't seem like we sold that much stuff we must have because we ended up being able to pack everything back up using only 1 SUV and 2 trailers. So that felt really good! We decided to leave my car there and take the two cars with trailers back to our house. We were trying to beat the rain ... but were incredibly unsuccessful in doing so. Half way home we drove straight into a downpour of rain. And everything got soaked. But there wasn't much we could do so we just kept on driving on to our house. Once we got home we decided that we wanted to unload all of our items into the garage this time instead of using the house. (this was impossible before the yard sale due to my dear sweet husbands stupid car and car parts that have overtaken our garage.) We tried to make sure that we got all of the caterpillars out of our stuff, but we knew that there were probably some still hiding and we didn't want to risk getting those little buggers in our house. We were able to unload one trailer when I looked up at the sky. I wish I had a picture of this as well to show you. I am not kidding when I say that I seriously thought a tornado was going to drop out of the sky right onto our house. It was sooooo scary! I didn't know if I should drop everything and run to a safe place or keep on trying to get our stuff back into the garage. Alya was like "Lindsay, it is getting ready to POUR on us!" So he ran and tried to move the other SUV and trailer into our driveway. We still had the Forbes tent with us so we tried to open it and put it over the trailer so the rest of the stuff didn't get completely ruined. Before we could even get the tent opened it started to pour. Our sweet neighbor and her cousin ran over to help us get it over the trailer. Below are pictures that I just simply couldn't resist capturing. Although this is the last thing I wanted to happen, I had to admit it was pretty amusing. :0)
My cute hubby making sure the tent is keeping everything dry :0)
It poured for all of about 5 minutes and then cleared up so that we could continue to unload.It was a very beautiful sight ...
We went and dropped off the Stewart's truck and then drove all the way back to the island to get my car. Then we drove back over to the Forbes to collect our over night stuff and the dogs. Then FINALLY we made it back home where we were able to stay and not have to leave again by 11:00PM
It was most likely one of the longest days of my life. I think that our yard sale went okay. I thought that we would have more people come visit us since the Shrimp Festival was going on ... but honestly everyone that came to our yard sale was staying far away from the festivities. It might have something to do with all of our signs blowing away, but oh well. I am still so grateful for the opportunity to raise more money for our adoption. We will hopefully be having another one this weekend in Callahan (please no rain!) so that we can sell the rest of the stuff. Whatever we don't sell I will probably be posting on Craigslist ... there are a lot of nice items that have been donated.
As far as the not stressing part ... I think that I must have because on Sunday I broke out in hives alllll over. :0( I took off work today and went to the doctor. They gave me a cortisone shot, a prescription for a steroid and two over the counter allergy medications. I am def. going to be drugged up for the next week ... hope I can make it through the week at school!
Oh! The grand total ... are you curious to see how we did?? We raised $20,000!!! Just kidding lol ... we did however raise $288.74
Alya and I are very blessed and so thankful for all the the Lord has and is still providing for in the amazing journey he is taking us on.
Hot, sweaty and sunburned ... we made it through the day together!
P.S. Anyone want to buy a toilet?? :0P
We started taking little trips all last week with yard sale items and leaving them at my best friend Kacie's house. Her and her hubby made a space in their garage for the massive amount of items we had to sell. This was so sweet of them! We figured that since the location of our yard sale was 30 minutes away moving our yard sale items at least half way would help us out a bit. I tried my very best to stay calm and not get overwhelmed by all of the things I had on my to-do list ... but I don't know if I did that great of a job. (more on that later in the post) I did however continue to thank God for this amazing blessing. Although it was soooooooo much work, it was a way to provide extra money to be raised to bring home our soon to be little miracle. Kacie and Shaun were planning on helping us with the yard sale but Shaun's great grandma died on Thursday and they had to make a trip up to Ohio for her funeral. :0( [Please pray for him and his family during this time] I called in reinforcements *the amazing Marcus and Mandy* and that sudden change in plans was fixed. We decided that it might be easier to just spend the night at Kacie and Shaun's house instead of getting up even earlier than the butt crack of dawn to make our 20 minute drive over to their house. We are watching their dog while they are out of town and had been planning on just letting Buddy play with their dog Daisy while we were at the yard sale anyways. Shaun left us his SUV and trailer and the Stewart's were so sweet to let us borrow their truck and trailer as well. Having all these extra vehicles made it so much easier to be able to load up the last amount of stuff and head on over to the Forbes house for the evening. As we were driving it did start to rain on us :0( but it wasn't too horrible and all of our stuff was okay.
Buddy was ready to go!
We got up about 5:00AM (which is far too early for this girl!) on Saturday morning and started getting the last of the yard sale items in order. Marcus and Mandy showed up in both of their vehicles around 6:15 and we were able to get EVERYTHING that was in the garage loaded into their two vehicles. (PRAISE GOD!)I really wish that I had pictures to capture what 5 car loads and 2 trailers worth of yard sale stuff looked like, because it was definitely a sight! Once we arrived in the church parking lot we were met by a woman who was already waiting for us! sigh ... I mean I love that people get all excited and serious about yard sales, but please don't come earlier than what the starting time says. So anyways ... the boys left Mandy and I to start unloading the 4 vehicles and the boys went back to get the final truck and trailer. The set up took us about 2 hours to get done ... it was INSANE! And I'm not going to lie, the early birds stressed me out a little bit.
Once we finally were done setting up, we popped open our tent and chairs and sat down to take a much needed break! We soon discovered that this was not going to be an option for us. These crazy gross caterpillars started coming towards us and simply wouldn't leave us alone! They are the ones that hurt you too .... every time we would knock them away thousands more would come back in their place. [okay maybe not thousands ... but to Mandy and I it most definitely seemed like that!] We had to move our chairs completely away ... stupid bugs!
Pictures of our setup.
Mandy and Marcus stayed with us most of the morning ... I really don't know how we would have EVER done it without their help, so I have to say a very special THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to them. We love you guys ... our Journey Group definitely rocks that much more having you guys in it! :0)
We started packing up at 2:30 since it was just the two of us and we knew that it would take forever. Although it didn't seem like we sold that much stuff we must have because we ended up being able to pack everything back up using only 1 SUV and 2 trailers. So that felt really good! We decided to leave my car there and take the two cars with trailers back to our house. We were trying to beat the rain ... but were incredibly unsuccessful in doing so. Half way home we drove straight into a downpour of rain. And everything got soaked. But there wasn't much we could do so we just kept on driving on to our house. Once we got home we decided that we wanted to unload all of our items into the garage this time instead of using the house. (this was impossible before the yard sale due to my dear sweet husbands stupid car and car parts that have overtaken our garage.) We tried to make sure that we got all of the caterpillars out of our stuff, but we knew that there were probably some still hiding and we didn't want to risk getting those little buggers in our house. We were able to unload one trailer when I looked up at the sky. I wish I had a picture of this as well to show you. I am not kidding when I say that I seriously thought a tornado was going to drop out of the sky right onto our house. It was sooooo scary! I didn't know if I should drop everything and run to a safe place or keep on trying to get our stuff back into the garage. Alya was like "Lindsay, it is getting ready to POUR on us!" So he ran and tried to move the other SUV and trailer into our driveway. We still had the Forbes tent with us so we tried to open it and put it over the trailer so the rest of the stuff didn't get completely ruined. Before we could even get the tent opened it started to pour. Our sweet neighbor and her cousin ran over to help us get it over the trailer. Below are pictures that I just simply couldn't resist capturing. Although this is the last thing I wanted to happen, I had to admit it was pretty amusing. :0)
My cute hubby making sure the tent is keeping everything dry :0)
It poured for all of about 5 minutes and then cleared up so that we could continue to unload.It was a very beautiful sight ...
We went and dropped off the Stewart's truck and then drove all the way back to the island to get my car. Then we drove back over to the Forbes to collect our over night stuff and the dogs. Then FINALLY we made it back home where we were able to stay and not have to leave again by 11:00PM
It was most likely one of the longest days of my life. I think that our yard sale went okay. I thought that we would have more people come visit us since the Shrimp Festival was going on ... but honestly everyone that came to our yard sale was staying far away from the festivities. It might have something to do with all of our signs blowing away, but oh well. I am still so grateful for the opportunity to raise more money for our adoption. We will hopefully be having another one this weekend in Callahan (please no rain!) so that we can sell the rest of the stuff. Whatever we don't sell I will probably be posting on Craigslist ... there are a lot of nice items that have been donated.
As far as the not stressing part ... I think that I must have because on Sunday I broke out in hives alllll over. :0( I took off work today and went to the doctor. They gave me a cortisone shot, a prescription for a steroid and two over the counter allergy medications. I am def. going to be drugged up for the next week ... hope I can make it through the week at school!
Oh! The grand total ... are you curious to see how we did?? We raised $20,000!!! Just kidding lol ... we did however raise $288.74
Alya and I are very blessed and so thankful for all the the Lord has and is still providing for in the amazing journey he is taking us on.
Hot, sweaty and sunburned ... we made it through the day together!
P.S. Anyone want to buy a toilet?? :0P
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