Garage Sale: Part One

Today was our first garage sale of the season, and I think it went well. Vicky, Taylor, Zack, Tom, and I spent the day selling quite a bit of our donated stuff. We started at 9 am, though really we ended up starting around 8:15 because that's when we were setting up and we had a steady stream of people starting at that point.

The morning was very busy. We didn't even get half the stuff out until 10 or so because we were so busy selling away....and there was so much stuff to get out thanks to our lovely generous people that donated so much.

And the grand total for the day? $632.90! That was pretty good for our first sale. We also figured out a few things that we will change for next time that I think will make it even better. It was a very successful day for us.

Thank you to all who donated to the sale and to all who showed up to purchase things. We are very blessed people.

Our oldest "helping".

The baby was cheering us on!

My sister, Taylor, put a lot of effort into the entire process of the garage sale. She even made little rainbow pins for people to wear if they donated. They were very cute!

Tom refused to have his picture taken. I'm pretty sure he was just being silly.

More of that cheerful baby boy. I love his happy attitude. He is much nicer than his sister when he wakes up =).

Vicky also worked her buns off today. She was also kind enough to bring coffee for the crew this morning. That was greeted with joyful chorus.

Zack likes to pretend that he is a teenage boy that doesn't care, but he sat outside watching everyone all day. He was interested. He also helped with a lot of the preparations for today's sale.

Of course I don't have a picture of myself as usual, but I do have proof in the form of a sunburn that I was there. That's just a normal part of the photographer's life- no pictures of me.

If anyone is interested in helping with the next garage sale, we found that we really could use more hands. We would like to do our next sale on Friday and Saturday, but we will have to especially find people willing to help on the Friday. Just e-mail me at anadoption@gmail.com if you are interested in helping in that way.

Thanks again to all who were a part of making this first sale such a success. We still have more than half of what we started with this morning too!

Delegation

Sanity. I want to keep it during this process and it seems this is achievable. You want to know how? Delegation.

I am so lucky to have such great support from family and friends that are willing to do what needs to be done. I have many things to do, and they could take over my life, but because of helpful people in my life I am not overwhelmed.

Special thanks to my Mom, Lisa. She is heading up the fund raising team. Does this mean that I am not extremely involved in that part of things? No sir. But she is the main go-to lady when it comes to all things fund raising. She is the head of that. That helps with stress big time.

Also thanks to Vicky. She is heading up the research department. There are so many things that I need to find out from day to day right now, it can be a lot at first. Can I do this paperwork yet? What do I need for that? Does such and such need to be a certified copy, or can that one be notarized? Lots of stuff. Usually I can figure it on my own, but if it's something that I am just getting hung up on I ask her to figure it out. She majored in European studies and has traveled way more than I ever hoped to (I do not like travel at all), so it's a good area to have her in.

So, my advice is to delegate anything that you can if you decide to go through the adoption process. Hopefully you are lucky like us and have a great support system that is filled with people that want something to do to help you. This ensures that I have time with my kids and still get to live a semi normal life until Ana gets home.

You guys are a blessing =).

Ana Button

When we were praying and waiting for God to lead us to Ana, I was routed to Reece's Rainbow through a post on My Charming Kids about Lucille who is passionate about this ministry. She was kind enough to make a button for Ana so that you can add it to your sidebar and have it lead here so that we can spread the word about our beautiful Ana.

If you would like to add the button you can feel free to pick up the html code below and post it to your blog's sidebar.


<a href="http://www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsornemes.htm"><img src="http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/WilliamtheOutlaw/AnadoptionButton.jpg" alt="Ana" width="200" /></a><br /><a href="http://anadoption.blogspot.com/2009/05/ana-button.html ">Grab This Button</a>
The code will produce this on your website:

Grab This Button

For Smaller Sidebars Use This Code

<a href="http://www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsornemes.htm"><img src="http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/WilliamtheOutlaw/AnadoptionButton.jpg" alt="Ana" width="160" /></a><br /><a href="http://anadoption.blogspot.com/2009/05/ana-button.html ">Grab This Button</a>
The code will produce this on your website:

Grab This Button

I love when the Lord sends verses of encouragement.

And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:5

Just thinking of you and praying for you today, my little Ana.

Home Study

Last night was our first visit for our home study. It went really well and we are very pleased with the social worker that we have. He seemed to be very supportive and it looks like we will be able to get approval for two children, both will be approved for special needs. We don't know what God's plan is for a second child and whether we will bring home two at this point or not, but we want to be prepared to carry out His will either way.

Also, big praise about the finances so far! In the first week of our adoption process God provided us with over $4,000. Isn't that amazing!? We have all the funding we need for our next step, we are just waiting on our passports to come in. If you want to be in prayer for quick return of those that would be wonderful. We are at peace with however long that takes because we know that it will happen perfectly according to God's will.

Thank you all for continued prayers for our family and for Ana. We appreciate it all.

Why us?

Our decision to adopt Ana is very recent. The question we get often is, "Why?" Why do we need to do this right now? Why do it at all? You can always do this later when you don't have such young children and when you have more money. There are so many answers to this question...

My first answer is, would you rather us leave her there to be transferred to an institution and likely die within the next year? In other countries it is common at the fourth birthday for a child with Down Syndrome to be sent to an institution where 85% of them die within a year of that transfer. Even if they do live, it is not a healthy or happy life at all.

Second, God called us to her. We felt like God was going to grow our family a short time before we found Ana. At first we thought it would be the good old fashioned way, but then we realized that we were being asked to adopt. I landed upon a site called Reece's Rainbow during my normal online activities one day. It was right after I had been praying for our unknown children. Right away, I knew that this was the place we would be adopting from. I was nervous about my husband's agreement, after all, we had not been talking about a child with special needs. Adoption was a big enough jump in itself. He was supportive and in agreement very quickly.

We were led to Ana after a middle of the night burden to pray. I had seen her face before and been drawn to her, but we didn't think that she fit our search. (I felt, and still feel that there are two little girls for our family. We don't know if we will bring two home right now, or if it will be another child that is in our future.) She was the first face that I saw on the site at that time and immediately I knew that she was our daughter.

The day after that we had our first appointment with a social worker scheduled for just one week later and a lot of work to do. It's all been going very quickly and we hope this continues to be the case for Ana's sake. We cannot be guaranteed that she will not be transferred to an institution while waiting for us, we have to work quickly. We have to pray that God will prevent this imminent transfer.

Why us? Why now? Because we have seen the need and cannot close our eyes to it. We have felt God's call and cannot deny Him. Christ tells us to take care of the fatherless, to open our doors to the needy. We cannot leave this little girl and think someone else will take her, someone else will save her. She is ours to save and she has blessed our lives already.

We do not see our decision as a burden, but as a blessing. We have already been blessed greatly by Ana and we have not even met her. Our lives will change when she joins our family and we believe that it will be a wonderful blessing from God. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to add Ana to our lives. Your blessings are abundant and beyond what we deserve!