By September we had chosen an adoption agency and knew that to adopt from the Philippines would cost between $14 - 19,000 plus travel expenses. We were drawn to the Philippines from the get-go because my husband is Filipino. (Not to mention great looking and an awesome father, but I digress :) ) So once we chose our agency and knew the general budget span we'd be dealing with, we FREAKED OUT...no, not really, but that number is a bit scary, no?We know lots of people who have adopted in our area. There have been all kinds of fundraisers from garage sales to selling the most beautiful hand painted post cards you've ever seen. We decided to go for a garage sale to kick off our fund-raising/saving efforts because we had decided in August to build/move to a new home. So we started telling all our friends and neighbors that we were going to hold a garage sale to fund our adoption.
The response was overwhelming! We had friends, acquaintances and people we didn't even know donate everything from furniture to shoes! You've never SEEN so much stuff at a garage sale! What a beautiful look at how God can, and does, provide above and beyond what we can hope or imagine.
The sale was all morning and into early afternoon on 2 days in mid-September and when all was said and done we sold almost everything there was to sell (except a few things that we took to ThriftSmart, our local thrift store that funds several African relief organizations we believe in). There were also lots of folks who either didn't buy anything, but just gave us a dontation, or who paid more than the cost of thier purchases when they found out the reason for our sale. By the end of our 2 days we had made over $1100! WOW! I've never hosted a garage sale that big before and what a GREAT way to start off our adoption savings fund.
Over the next several months while our house was being built, we sold a few more items and recieved a few more gifts and donations. All the time we've been saving, too, toward the day when we could actually begin our home study (at our new home) and our paper work. As you know if you've read the previous posts, we've now moved into our new home and begun the paper work process. We discovered this weekend just how amazing God's provision REALLY is...
This weekend as we read through all the paper work we have to sign and send back, we came to a "Fee Agreement" that referred to a "Fee Schedule" we already had. So we got it out and looked it over. We got out the calculator and plugged in the cost of our home study (it wasn't on the list b/c we are using 2 different agencies one for home study, one for placement). As we added up the cost of each item we have pay in the next 2 months, we found that the total matches the total amount we've currently raised/saved EXACTLY! Now that, my friends, is God's provision.
1 comment:
LOVE IT!!! Now that's God speaking clearly!
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