Ok, are you ready to sit back and listen to an amazing story? Good!
As many of you know Mike and I are about finished with our dossier! Praise the Lord! As we have been paper chasing we have been seeking the Lord to provide the money needed for this adoption. The Lord has provided every penny we've needed and we've had it right on time without having to wait to move forward on anything! On Thursday we heard from our home study provider and FHSA that everything looked good and we should have our home study in hand early next week. We were thrilled to have that piece done and now only had our I171H left to do/get!
In our adoption account we have 539.00. We will need to pay for our home study this week which will cost 400.00 leaving us with 139.00 and we need 700.00 to move forward. Mike and I were talking Thursday about how the Lord has provided the $ on time with each step so far but knowing that we had NO resources to pull from and so we were just going to have to wait and trust the Lord that He would provide the money when it was His time for us to move forward.
On Thursday I posted on my facebook that I was going to have one more yard sale on Friday and Saturday. I was praying that we could maybe raise the much needed 700.00. The only thing different from this yard sale then the ones I've done this year is I was doing it with two girlfriends from church who are also adopting. So we were going to split the money three ways. I knew it was unlikely that we'd raise that much money because we didn't have that much for the sale. I mean this was my 4th yard sale this year! I'm running out of things to sell!!
On Thursday, Sept 17 at 8:00pm I got a message from someone (that I didn't really know) telling me they had a TV they wanted to give us to help with our adoption. I'll be honest I thought it was really nice of them, but really didn't want a TV because it cost me a least 30.00 to dispose of it. This person said that God told them to give it to us....again I still was unsure because a lot of people say "God told them....." but most of the time I'm not so sure they are hearing from God....ya know what I mean?
This person dropped of the TV and needed help bringing it in our house so of course I went out to help. When they open their car there is a 40" flat screen high definition Samsung TV.....in new condition!!!! I'm like WHAT???? I was like are you sure you want to give this to us because you could sell this yourself and make some money! They said NO! They told me that they hadn't had a peace about this TV from the moment it was purchased and that they didn't know what to do with it, but once God told them to give it to us they had an overwhelming peace! I was like OK and gave them a HUGE hug and helped them bring it in the house. I had no idea what to ask for it! They told me they had purchased it for 1300.00 and it retailed for 1500.00 or more. They thought we could get 700.00 or 800.00 for it! Keep in mind I didn't tell them what we needed for fingerprints up to that point. After they said that price I began to share about our adoption journey up to this point and said we needed 700.00 so they said they would pray that we would get what we needed.
There was no way I was taking this to the yard sale! I didn't want it in the elements so Mike set it up (which took forever! He's not into electronics so it took longer to get it up and going) because we planned to advertise it on craigslist or facebook and we wanted people to be able to come over and see it. So by 9 or 10ish at night we had it up and running!
Saturday morning I was up early and out the door to have our yard sale! I didn't make a sign for the TV....nothing! My plan was to try to begin selling it on Monday.
I'd say somewhere around noon maybe a gal came to the yard sale and we were just visiting. It happened to be a sister in the Lord. I have no idea why but I just said to her something like....."I don't know why i'm telling you this but I have a TV for sale....." I began to share with her story of how we got it. I told her we were going to try to sell it for 800.00. She just looks at me with a half puzzled look and begins to tell me that she and her husband have never purchased a TV for their home. I guess they have a small one in their bedroom but they don't have for the family and don't get any channels beside WLBZ 2 . She said that they had been talking for a while about getting on and that yesterday (Friday night) her husband told her to go buy a TV! She said they had been saving money but only had 500.00 and asked if I would sell it for that. As much as I wanted to say yes I told her that because it hadn't even been 24 hours and without Mike being there I couldn't go any lower than 700.00. I told her I could get her info and I could try to sell in for a couple of weeks and see if we could get 7 or 8 hundred and if we didn't I'd call her and sell it for 500.00.
Someone else needed to pay me for something so I excused myself and when I turned around she was writing a check. She said she tried to call her husband but he didn't answer so she was going to make an executive decision and buy the TV for 700.00!! I was speechless and about fell over! We jumped in her van and drove to my house picked the TV up and she dropped me off at the yard sale.
So this morning I'll make a deposit and we'll have 1239.00!! 400.00 for our home study and 830.00 for our fingerprints!!!! with 9.00 towards our 9200.00! Actually at the end of the yard sale we each made about 250.00 and I sold a couple extra things for 200.00 so we have 459ish towards our 9200.00 we will need in about 4-5 weeks! That money will be the only thing standing in the way of sending our dossier to Nepal! That 700.00 we needed seemed as impossible as this 8750.00 we will now need!
We will begin today to pray the Lord provides the 8750.00 needed! And I believe He will!
I will continue to pray about what I can sell in order to help bring our son or sons home! All weekend I've had a verse in my head....Matt. 19:21 When Jesus tells us to go and sell all our possessions and give the money to the poor. I'm willing to sell my stuff in order to help bring (who right now is a poor orphan(s)...but will be our son(s)) home!
We still have an ocean kayak we would love to sell! Anyone want to buy it for 8750.00? LOL...just kidding we are asking 700.00.
One more thought. I am so thankful that this person was able to hear the Lord speak to them and that they were obedient. It just blows my mind! It would have been so easy to dismiss a thought like giving away a TV and sell it themselves or just keep it. I pray that I'll be sensitive and hear when the Lord speaks to me and that I will do as he says! I pray the Lord blesses this person just as He had blessed us!
