Like Manna from Heaven...

This may just be the toughest blog post I've ever written.  Good thing it's not on paper or it might end up smeared through my tears. 


This weekend we had a garage sale to raise money to bring our daughter home from Uganda.  And God showed up in a BIG way.  So many people contributed to the success of our garage sale, and we can't wait until we can share this story with our daughter someday.


Thank you to...
*Grandma Thomas - for the donations and coming to help setup and distract play with Jonathan while we got things ready the night before
*Grandma Beck - for donations and babysitting all day on Saturday while we worked at the garage sale
*Chris - for coming at 7am on Saturday to help get things setup, make more signs, and finish pricing items...and then for coming back on Sunday with a Subway lunch
*Amy - for coming on Sunday to help with setup and signage...and for the great fellowship
*Mr. Hamlin - for the cash donation
*Todd and Sandy - for making the trek from the Westside to come and show support, for the fellowship, for the purchases, and for the donation
*Connie - for telling your friends about our garage sale
*Colleen - for the prayers and sacrifice to help bring our daughter home
*Hawley Family - for the amazing connections to awesome Christians who have adopted from Uganda, as well as the prayers and support
*Friends who shared about our garage sale online
*All the other shoppers who helped make running a garage sale so much fun.  We enjoyed sharing with people about our ministry at WOCC and our upcoming adoption


Truly, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!  We made over $400 in two days, and still have more sales in the works for this week.  We will probably have another garage sale next weekend before we wrap things up. 


Let me tell you, this was a lot of work.  And it certainly wasn't easy or stress free.  We were sorely disappointed when we had very few people come to the garage sale.  We made $61 by the end of the sale on Saturday.  A half an hour after we closed it up, a lady came (thanks to Connie!) and spent $185!  I spent a long time talking to her and learned that she has the same name as our daughter.  Special moment. :O)  I helped deliver items to her house (she lives right down the street from us) and she was so kind and appreciative. 


On Sunday, we received a cash donation in an envelope that said simply, "for the adoption."  We also had another donation from the Raabe's, and an extremely generous gift from our friend/sitter/teacher.


We are truly humbled by the outpouring of support from our friends, family, and strangers.  We still have a long way to go, but we know that God will continue to provide. 


Thanks for the love and prayers!