early in the week, we had a conference call with our agency. the lead gal from our agency had just gotten back from escorting a couple of the families on their trip to pick up their children in the congo, so there was a lot of information to be had. long story short, the process is moving significantly faster than we all expected! we waited not-so-patiently the rest of the week to hear the status of our particular case, and learned thursday that we are going to be traveling much sooner than we expected!! we are super excited, but i can assure you, that has put a bit of a furry in our step around here. we were expecting plenty of time to prepare, but that has been shortened by, well...a lot! i must confess, the news came with mixed emotions. we had a summer full of fun planned with our boys, and that seems to have disappeared in a matter of a 20 minute phone call. it's not that we are not super excited to get our girls. we have been longing for them to be here with us for far too long. but we had plans, and once again, God has different plans! i'm not sure when i'll learn to rest in His timing, but it's obvious i haven't learned my lesson yet! so, here we go, ready or not!!!
but, no time to digest the news, we need to saddle up for our garage sale friday and saturday! we live out on a farm, so our gracious friends offered to have the sale at their house in town. i'm pretty sure they won't do that again!! :) we had so much stuff donated (a huge thank you to all who did), their three car garage was stuffed to the brim. now they aren't the average people that have their garage littered with their own stuff, they can actually get their cars in! well, they could before the donations flooded in anyway! so there was a full three car garage full of donations from generous people, some whom we don't even know! one thing i can say, it was a miracle we got things priced! we had a group of us getting ready wednesday evening, and we all took a good long stare for some time not even knowing where to begin!! but thanks to the motivation of one of our trusty cheerleaders, we got motivated and took one bite at a time!
so we planned on starting the sale friday at 9a. as i pulled into their neighborhood, there was a sign for another sale that started at 8a. as we start putting our first table out, people were already lining the street. we tried to be as gracious as possible when we turned them away so we could catch a breath to get stuff out! but it seemed like it didn't slow down all day!
it was crazy, but we had so much fun! we got to visit with a bunch of our friends (well, they're more like family) and share our story of God's new blessings for our family with so many different people. we are so blessed to have fantastic people there to help, share in our journey, and support us each step of the way!
or to just give us moral support!! just kidding...she was testing the couch and ended up getting it, and a bunch of other things, for her son for college! love that family! thanks for the support team t!
here's the girls catching up!!
and here's hubby busted having a beer and pizza! i missed the photo-op of him and one of my faithful, most generous girlfriends both on the couch with beer in hand! it was one of the few down times we had!
me and two of my girls that made this happen! they were rock stars!! we couldn't have done it without them!! and me with the hostess of the mostess! you can see i'm a bit dishoveled at this point! we were exhausted!!
even the kids were pooped after a long couple of days playing together, but still so cute hangin' tight together until the end! 
and the boys were helping make sure we got our veggies in after a long day!
so after the dust settled over the two day marathon, we figured it was time to count it up and see what God had done. as we were counting, i was getting increasingly overwhelmed. we went into the hundreds, then in to the thousands. after we had gotten done, we realized there was another donation jar that we hadn't even touched! we made over $4,750 toward our travel expenses! all glory to God for providing every penny. it reminded us of the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. we were certain He multiplied the bills overnight!! we were selling things for pennies, and people were bartering down to $.25 on a $.50 item! of course we had overly generous donations from special friends as well, but still, who can do that at a garage sale?? there's only One i know who can! and He showed up in a huge way. He has it down to every detail. when i added up all the 20's, it added up to the year i was born!! it could have been 20 more or 20 less, but it was exactly the year i was born!! i just chuckled to myself. it's one of those sweet kisses from my Lord that shows his sovereignty! once again, i am humbled by that sovereignty, His gracious love, and my desperate need for Him.
"are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. but even the hairs of your head are all numbered." matthew 10:29-30
i can't thank all of the people enough who contributed their items, their time, their baked goods for the bake sale, their house, their love and their support! it means the world to us that we can share with our girls how many people were involved in bringing them home! we could not do it without you all!! thank you!
