Passing time

While we are waiting to go get Nate we have also been busy clearing out our house and trying to make some last-minute money to travel back for trip #2. A week ago we had a huge yard sale at our friend Wendy's house and did really, really well!



Matt was up at 4:30 to work all day...pretty cool for a 12 year old boy!



Before we left on our first trip we intended to do this but we just ran out of time since our travel was so unexpectedly fast. Wendy, who is pretty incredible if I do say so, championed our cause unasked and made this event the huge success that it was. Her friends and family (who we don't know) donated lots of stuff and she let us store things in her shed, reminded us to do things like advertise, promoted it, helped us all day long...and I do mean all day since we were there from 5am until about 10pm...and she even made us fried rice and egg rolls for dinner!!

Both sides of Wendy's driveway were lined with tables and stuff...a pretty impressive sight. A lot of the stuff was ours (our garage is so much cleaner now!) but so much was donated by friends and unknown people who were helping support our adoption. We had several friends from church give us stuff, and some even helped out all day as well. Needless to mention, there were so many friends and community supporters shopping that we were overwhelmed most of the day. We feel so incredibly blessed and loved to have the support that we did.

Mr. Curtis working the runway!

If you've ever had a yard sale before you know how much work it is, and this one seemed like so much more than normal because of the sheer size. I won't lie...we were bruised, exhausted, in pain, and did I mention exhausted! After every yard sale we promise ourselves that we will NEVER do this again, but I guess it's like childbirth pain...well worth it and quickly forgotten.

We did have lots of fun though thanks to two special girls...Ally (who we claim every chance we get but who actually belongs to Wendy) and her roommate Olivia. If you've paid attention you'll remember that Ally was one of the three who redid Nathan and Matt's bedrooms! She and Olivia came from college the night before and were both up before 5 helping us get set up. They definitely brightened up the day!

We told Ally she could have this outfit since it looked SO good on her, but she really wanted us to raise all the money we could and so, sacrificed her own fashion needs.

Throughout the day we were all telling people why we were holding this yard sale, and of course we had pictures of Nathan, and many people made donations as well as buying up all of our junk. It was all overwhelming!

Our philosophy was to make money, but also to get rid of the stuff so we had decided that we would stay 'in business' until we stopped having people show up. There was a steady stream of cars until close to 6pm, at which point we were left with very little. We stuck a big Free sign out front and had people stop to take away everything else. The funny part is that we made another $100 just giving stuff away!

Paying for adoption is overwhelming and fundraising can be a huge challenge. For us it was difficult because we didn't want to ask people for help...there are always those who think you shouldn't do this if you can't afford it ahead of time. We felt differently because we clearly heard God call us to it, and even though we wanted to argue that we couldn't afford it, etc. we knew He was bigger than our doubt and the last thing we wanted was to be in direct disobedience to God. As we draw near to the end of this part of the process the honest truth is that we have seen all kinds of different reactions. Adoption is not for the faint of heart. There has been grumbling that we should be adopting locally, disgust that we were asking for money, envy over our process being faster than some, and on and on. Bottom line though is that we have also seen such tremendous support and excitement. There are families who can't afford it that bought things or donated things to the yard sale, people who go above and beyond to help us through this time, and many, many who are so excited for us to bring Nathan home so they can meet him. In the end we have been truly humbled, and as I said in the beginning....

God will make this happen, for He who calls you is faithful. -1 Thessalonians 5:24