When I married Adam, almost 11 years ago, one of my favorite moments was walking down the aisle. There are many reasons why this moment was so vivid and so magical, but the greatest reason was because I was so overwhelmed with love and appreciation for having all the facets of my life represented in one place. People flew out from high school and college out east, cousins and family traveled from all over the states, my new family (in-laws) were smiling at us, and the big prize at the end of the aisle was my soul-mate.
Now we are walking down an aisle of paperwork, fees, and hope for a new adventure in our life and once again we are surrounded by the smiling faces of those who we love and care about and are supported and lifted up. This past weekend we held our big fundraiser event. It was a TON of work, but so worth it. Friends came to help sort, price, and organize. What amazed me is it wasn't only our close friends who were there, but strangers who wanted to share in our love and excitement about completing our family. While some people had fun haggling us down on the price of an item, many people gave an extra five or ten dollars or told us to "keep the change". One family, who didn't even want us to know it was them, gave us two hundred dollars of 1s, 5s, and 10s so we could have starting cash for our big event. Another family donated and American Girl Doll Asian Boy.
The weather was terrible. It rained the first three hours of our sale on Friday. On Saturday we closed five hours early when the thunder and lightning were showing they were not going to let up. But you know what? It was okay. We raised $1,342 (including a few presales and the donation). Today we sold a few more things, raising another $245 with a grand total of $1587. We still have a full stall's worth of items we posted on local facebook sites and craigslist. This is enough for one full airplane ticket for us to and from China - possibly even a little extra :)
Poor Abby was sick the whole time. She had her five year shots on Thursday (five of them!) and ended up getting a fever of about 101 by the next morning (the day of the sale). I was also tutoring still while my mom and friend worked the sale outside. Abby's fever got up to 103 and when she was still sick last night on Saturday we brought her in to the doctor's office to find out she had tonsilitis. She needed meds and today is doing much better.
What continues to amaze me is how perfectly God is providing for us financially. After spending our savings, pulling our retirement, using the one loan we qualified for, the money raised from my parent's sale, and the money donated by friends, we were short by $1,800. Right now, thanks to this sale, we only need about $300 before we travel, which is in about 7 weeks! We still need to collect some money for while we are in China (we already are budgeted for hotels and food and travel necessary for the adoption) as well as medical expenses when we get home, but I am just in awe at the miracles God is providing for our family.
So, now that we are almost through with walking down this aisle, we are ready to say, "I DO!" :)
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