WOW! DID GOD EVER SHOW UP!

Jeff and I cannot THANK YOU enough for your excitement, participation and support of our t-shirt/water bottle FUNdraiser! It was a big success and we are excited for the shirts and bottles to arrive later this week! We will turn them right around to you as soon as we get them!

I feel the need to share my heart with you regarding this whole blessing. You see, I found it fun to purchase others' fundraiser tees, bags, jewelry, etc. I also found it interesting to see how creative other families were being in their fundraising. I even enjoyed hearing the success stories of funds raised to help bring a child home to their forever families.

I just never thought WE would fundraise. Not because I looked down on it ~ I actually enjoy them! Not because I'm lazy ~ even though fundraising DOES take a lot of time in planning. I guess I just never personalized the fundraising to our family.

Until God had a "Come to Jesus" moment (or momentS) with us! {THANK YOU,GOD!}

As we neared the end of our paperchase, and we could do nothing to move things forward but wait, I began to think about fundraising. I shrugged my shoulders and brushed it off, thinking I would just continue in the fun of others' fundraisers. That is, until God started stirring my creative side (which doesn't usually have a strong presence) and I began to brainstorm t-shirt ideas. My thoughts started going more and more toward designs, even though I never thought we would actually make our own. We weren't doing fundraising, right!?

Well, I kept dragging my feet so God had to arrange to meet me ~ which He did ~ at a couple of other blogs. Oh how I wish I could remember which two blogs they were! Being the blog addict that I have become, I can find myself WAAAAY off my radar of blogs I normally follow at times, and I have no idea where I read these blog posts!

Anyway, back to my God-meeting. So, I had been feeling God stirring my heart with excitement about t-shirt designs (yes, the ones I was never going to create), but wasn't moving forward with it. So God led me to two different blogs, one night after the other, that were normally written by the wife, but these posts were written by the husband. And the topic was FUNDRAISING FOR THEIR ADOPTION!!!! Coincidence? I thought maybe, after reading the first one, but knew that God was trying to get a point across to me after reading a second one the very next night! (Sometimes it takes me a few times to really "get it" when God tries to teach me something)

Bless these guys and their willingness to post with such honesty. Each one spoke of their reluctance to fundraise for their adoption. They desired to bring their child home on their own. "GO, GUYS!" I cheered as I read. Each one of them had a "God moment" where they realized that God didn't want them to do things on their own. God wanted the opportunity to show up. He wanted his glory to be seen amidst their journey to their children. He wanted these families to stop relying on themselves and lean on Him for this adoption. He wanted these families to provide the opportunity for others to act on their own calling to support adoptive families. God reminded them that many are not called to adopt, but are moved to support those families who ARE called to adopt!....and they do this via fundraising!

OUCH! This really hit home. Especially after reading this similar message two nights in a row!

I realized that I was reverting back into my tendency to rely on myself more than God. I was letting my pride get in the way, I guess, even though I did not see fundraising as a negative. I wanted to bring our child/ren home in our own strength. Unknowingly, I was shutting God out.

Upon realizing this, I took my deep breath and shared my experiences with Jeff and, together, we agreed to FUNdraise! My designs really WERE going to get made! It took us some time, but with my mind-pictures and Jeff's technical know-how, we developed our two designs. We fell in love with them and are SO HAPPY so many of you did too!

We opened the door for others to contribute, and for God's glory to shine. What a brilliant shine it is! We sold 249 items!!!! That is a total of $6225 in sales! Not profit, mind you, but WOW! God really showed up BIG! This was such a GREAT reminder for me that God is right in the middle of our journey to parenthood! He is not only blessing us with a child (children?), but He wants to bless us along the journey! God is SO GOOD! ALL of the time!

So, again, we THANK each and every one of you for your love and support! I think it would be so FUN to receive pictures of each of you wearing the shirts or using the water bottles, so I could add them to our baby book! I am going to include our email with a request of just that with each delivery. Please feel welcome, but certainly not obligated, to participate! I just don't ever want to forget this life lesson of letting God show up, rather than relying on ourselves; and I think our son/children would find it fun to see the many people who contributed to bringing him/them home!

BLESSINGS to each one of you! May you be allowing God to show up BIG in your daily life too. Afterall, He really does want to bless us abundantly. Every one of us!

If we let Him.