First fundraiser: Baby bottle drive. We've made $365 so far!
Second fundraiser: Premier Jewelry Show
The wonderful and gracious hostess, Jessica Weaver. She sells this jewelry to make extra income for her family. It was such a blessing for her to offer help us with fundraising by donating the proceeds she would have made to our adoption fund. We made $575!
We had an AMAZING turnout! She had outside orders added to the show. There were a couple more people that showed up after this picture was taken, I was so overwhelmed!
Jessica showing how the jewelry would look on a person and different ways to wear this particular piece.
Third fundraiser: Garage Sale. Our wonderful friend Cheryl offered her house for this garage sale. It started off with a BANG!! LOL! Jessica and Misty trying out a donated pair of boxing gloves. We really hadn't started sorting through stuff, but I think they were tired and cranky from just thinking about getting started...HAHA!
This trailer was FULL of donated items. I can NOT believe how much stuff was donated! We are blessed to be involved in a church with so many generous people! It was such a rainy day and we didn't get it all emptied because we had so much stuff. The rain and 'the pond' at the end of the driveway didn't help either.
SO thankful for this yummy potato soup that Jessica made. It was the perfect comfort food after sorting through stuff, it was also chilly that day and that warm soup HIT. THE. SPOT!!
My son's friend and neighbor makes these bracelets and keychains. If you'd like one, we will send one (or several = p) to you. We recently changed the prices (bracelets are now $6 and the keychains are now $2). The colors are Ethiopia's national colors (red, green and yellow).
After the warm soup, it was time to tackle this thing (we had even more donations that couldn't fit in the trailer!). It was quite the ordeal to figure out how to get into it with 'the pond' surrounding it! Thankfully, Cheryl's dad was home and he helped us get some of the stuff out by lending us a ramp.
Day of garage sale! It was so cold and gloomy, but we had a great turnout! Charis and Ellie had a lemonade and bake sale stand. They enjoyed selling the goodies, but it was a chilly and rainy day!
Charis and Ellie's first dollar from selling cookies! =D
'The pond'.
Toward the middle of the day, the rain was pretty constant and people had to step over walk through 'the pond'.
Garage sale #2! We had so much stuff left over that we were able to do another garage sale!
Preparing for the second garage sale.
Our neighbor London (who makes the bracelets and keychains) helping us put together several toy train tracks for the garage sale.
Charis was such a big help! She enjoyed helping with the garage sale.
We had a third garage sale, but I didn't get any pictures of that. I guess if you've seen one garage sale, you've pretty much seen them all, right?? = p and I think I was all garage saled out (I know that's not a word, but it sounds good when you say it in your mind or even out loud...HAHA!). We made over $1,200 with all three garage sales!
Fundraiser #4: Mary Kay party. We had another generous friend donate her proceeds to our adoption fund. I forgot my camera that evening, so I didn't get any pictures =(. We made $160 from this fundraiser!
We have some more fundraisers that we are hoping to do this summer and fall. Can't wait to see how God will bless!
Just as an update, we are hoping to hear from our adoption agency within the next 3 months about our baby boy Calvin. It has been four years since we began this journey. Our paperwork has been in Ethiopia for over 2 years now. It has been such a long wait, but we know that God's timing is perfect and that whatever child he has picked out for us will be the perfect fit for our family. Growing our family the way God has planned for us has not been the easiest for us, but we know that even though God's plan may not always be the easiest (or most cost effective! LOL!), it will reap the greatest rewards and blessings. Struggling with infertility is not easy and I don't know if I'll ever get to the point where there will be a time in my life where I won't feel sad or sometimes still question why. I am looking forward to that day though. I can't wait til we are united with Calvin as God continues to unfold His plan for our lives. It's hard to imagine what our lives will be like once we adopt just as we didn't know how our lives would unfold when we had Charis. I am thankful that God is in control even though sometimes I KNOW THINK is best because I KNOW I'll screw things up if my life were left to my control (I have experienced this and it is NOT pretty!).
I have felt like this plenty of times!!
Ps. 55:6
And I say, "Oh that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
Is. 55:6-12
6. Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
7. let the wicked forsake his way; and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
11. so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12. For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
