It's Not Mine

Sometimes I can be stubborn. Shocking, I know. :) While researching adoption I came across many ideas for fundraising. One was to have a garage sale. No way. No thanks. Not interested. In my mind I had some very good reasons to NOT have one:

1. It's too much work.

2. We don't have enough stuff to sell.

3. We won't raise enough money to make it worth all the effort.

4. I don't even know how, I've never done one on my own before.

5. I can't handle the unorganized mess.

6. I just don't want to.

Well, those reasons were just not cutting it. That gentle nudging was happening again. I could tell God was calling me to do this and that He didn't think my reasons for not doing one were good enough. I'd like to say that I decided to obey God with a cheerful heart, but that wouldn't be the truth. I think I decided to be obedient because we had sent off our adoption agency payment and our checking account was at a frightfully low amount. I knew God would provide. I would do the garage sale, but I was expecting it to make maybe $600 or $700. 

In an earlier blog post I mentioned that we would be having a garage sale. People started asking if we wanted items donated to the sale. Sure! Why not? And so people started bringing things... a little here, a little there. And before I knew it my garage was getting full!

Here is a picture of everything out on Friday morning (yes, I know the canopy is leaning. Don't worry, we fixed it!):

 

We also had a snack stand that my daughters and niece helped with:

After a week of preparation and two days of the sale, God made it clear that this was indeed what we were supposed to do. We prayed that we would be amazed and make $1,000.00. He provided $1,600.00 on Friday alone!!! Friday night we looked at what our next payment would be, $2,412.50. We then decided to start praying that God would provide that amount. And as of today I am so blessed, thankful and excited to share that we have raised $2,196.28!!!!

Blown away. Amazed. Tears in my eyes. Completely in awe.

I know that number is still short of what we will owe. And I'm completely at peace about that. We still have a few items in our garage that we are trying to sell on Craig's List. I believe that once those are sold we will have all we need and more to set aside for our classes and training we will be starting soon.

It is so incredibly humbling to allow people to help us, to accept their gifts and donations and know we could not have done this on our own. I cannot say it enough, but we are so incredibly thankful for everyone who donated items, helped organize, let us borrow tables, baked treats, came to shop, and prayed for us.

We still have a long ways to go in raising the funds we need to complete the adoptions. God is faithful. God provides. God is good. And my stubbornness... that was a waste of time!