Our First Yard Sale Fundraiser was a Huge Success

We hope that many of you enjoyed your long Labor day weekend. Our family spent the weekend hosting a Yard Sale to raise money so we can begin our Home Study and Dossier. Overrall it was a huge success. We ended up raising $700.

We knew when God laid it on our hearts to adopt Ting li, we would need to do alot more fundraising this time around. Afterall we haven't been home that long from adopting Jael and we still are paying some of those adoption costs. Normally by now we would have received an Adoption Tax Credit to recover some of the costs, but unfortunately we had too many tax deductions last year to get any of the money back. We would like to think that God knew that we would need the money more this year to adopt Ting li and he withheld it for that very reason. Either way this adoption will require more faith and trust that God will provide the needed money at the right times. So far he has done that and we are very greatful.

YARD SALE

About one month ago, I had posted an ad on Craigslist asking for donations for our Yard Sale to help bring home our 11 year old daughter from China. The response I received from the community was overwhelming as you can see by the photos. Our garage was packed with so many donation items and we still have quite a bit leftover. I probably have enough to have another Yard Sale, but we have decided to post the remaining items on Craigslist as wholesale quantities first.

Holding this Yard Sale was a huge undertaking but I was very fortunate that my family and neighbors were so supportive. They helped us set up, sort, and tear down everyday. We also were blessed to have Robin and her daughter Tessa (adopted from Yangzhou in 2000) at the event all day on Saturday. Robin was selling away and Tessa made the most amazing Orgami boxes and she donated all her profits to Ting li's adoption costs. This was a family that had never met us before and they gave up their Saturday to help out. We are so grateful to them. Jael loved getting to know Tessa and Robin. It was so amazing to see these children adopted from the same orphanage playing together. It made me think of how precious it will be to have Ting li and Jael play together again one day soon.