So, let's see. About a month ago, Friday, March 23rd & Saturday, March 24th we had a giant adoption fundraising garage sale! The Nowatzki family opened their house to having it the garage sale there. Which meant weeks prior to the garage sale, their house was already getting filled with items to sell. They were so positive and worked so hard the whole time! You could just tell how they were purely doing it all out of love! We cannot thank them enough for being so willing and generous with their home and time! We also cannot thank everyone else enough for all that they donated to the garage sale! I don't even know everyone that gave us stuff to sell but I love that they we're so willing to give. We got a ton of items and probably could have done garage sales for the next few weekends to get rid of it all. With the left over things we were able to donate it all to another family that was also doing a fundraising garage sale. Anyway, after two days of having the garage sale, we raised just over $3000!! Ya that's right $3000! Every time I hear that number it just sounds so unreal to me! That's just so much!
It's just so neat to hear all the stories of people who are praying for us. A lady at church was talking to Brandon and told him that she was praying that we'd raise 10% of the cost of the adoption process at our garage sale and we did! 10% of $30,000 (total cost) = $3000! I love how God hears our prayers. It's encouraging to hear that God puts us on people's hearts to pray for us and they do pray for us! Thank you all for that! Here are a few more pictures from the garage sale:
Thank you again to all who donated their time, things, and money to our
super successful garage sale!
On a different note, about a month back we got an email from our adoption agency sharing with us that the wait time for a child to be placed is now longer. Once we get on the waiting list (which we're not on yet, but we should hopefully be in the next month) the wait will be between 18-24 months... The main contributor for the slowdown in the Ethiopia program is do to paperwork and specifically clearances. This part of the process is out of the hands of the adoption agency and is contingent on the governmental bodies in Ethiopia.
It can be a little discouraging because it seems as though we aren't getting any closer but just further away from having kids. But we just remember that this is not our timing but God's. We remember that He will place a child/children in our home when He wants to. He is in control, we are not. I like knowing and resting in His control in my life. God has been faithful and will continue to be.
Thank you all again for partnering with us on this journey. Thank you for all of your prayers, they mean so much to us!
