My Rock and My Redeemer!

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,

O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer.  Psalm 19:14

        I have just spent the weekend with my family doing what seems like an endless circle, and what seems like will never end…Fundraising!  A close friend, who is also adopting, and I have put our heads together and launched what feels like the never ending cycle of many fundraisers, to help bring our children home.  We have done and are still doing many craft shows, we have a 5K planned, yard sales, basically anything that will allow us to add a few extra dollars to our adoption accounts to bring Reece and Lily home.  It has been exhausting and a blessing!  The lord has provided in so many different ways I could sing His praises all day long.  Once again this weekend He showed up and showed out…but not in ways that I expected. 

        I know most people hear the word fundraiser and the $$ signs come to mind.  The work they take comes to mind.  The extra we have to give up to pull them off comes to mind.  Well let me share what fundraising meant to me this weekend…

        It started off with the sacrifice of my mother, who gave up an entire weekend of her time to travel two hours from home, stay in a camper with our family, our three dogs, and Anna Lee, and if that was all she did that would be enough said.  She got up early and stayed up late.  She shared stories about her new grandchild that will be joining the family.  She entertained Anna Lee and did just about anything I asked her to do.  As with any mother daughter relationship, you don’t always see eye to eye on everything, but I saw the heart of my mother.  The servants heart that she has passed on to me, and hopefully I will pass on to my daughters.  I saw her relationship with God growing as she got up early in the morning to sit and read her Bible before we left.  I saw her fire for the Lord has been revived after a very long long time of hardships and troubles.  Our relationship was strengthened this weekend, and my love for her grew.  She has always sacrificed so we could have more, and once again this weekend she did it again!

        I got to see the sweet heart of the man I married, who so effortlessly did whatever I asked him to do this weekend.  And he did it with such love and compassion, and a smile on his face.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed at how this adoption has given our marriage a deeper level of respect and adoration for each other.  I got to watch him talk about his new daughter and share our story.  I got to watch his love for people shine through.  I got to watch him get up at 6 in the morning and thaw out our water line that had frozen so we could get ready…on the one day he had to sleep in.  And he did it with a smile! Once again I realized how much he really was my hero!  Bath house showers are not my friend and especially at 24 degrees!  He sat with me for hours on end and laughed and talked and didn’t complain one time that he was at a craft show for women.  He soaked up every extra minute he could spend with his wife and daughter and even his mother in law.  I saw the Gift God has given me in this man this weekend.

        I saw my daughter turn into a sales woman and sell just about everything so she could bring her sister home.  It’s very hard to say no to a six year old who has a passion for her sister who isn’t even home yet!  She even told one lady something cost $400 dollars so we could be closer to getting her home!  She was also a trooper!  I often wonder if the sacrifice we ask her to make is fair.  But once again she shines through, and finds a way to bring life to the party that we need after hours and hours of craft shows!  She reminds me how much she loves her sister already, and how she is ready to walk this journey with us!  And to be six, she did very little complaining and was very well behaved!  That in itself was a small miracle from God this weekend!

        And then there were others…There are the three new friends I met, that had a booth behind me.  Who, on the second day of the show came in sporting our adoption t-shirts they had bought the day before so others would see and support us too!  They invited friends from church to our booth.  After hearing our stories, one of them went home, grabbed some very cute crafts she had made and brought them to donate to us.  And every single one of her cute creations sold.  She had known us for 24 hours, and God moved her to such compassion to donate to our cause, and it helped.  That is the heart of God!  That reminds me of the early church that sold everything for the common good of all who was in need.  That is the body of Christ working together!  I was also inspired and moved by the story of one of my new friends little boy.  His name is Mitchell.  Mitchell was born with something wrong with his tibia.  Mitchell’s mom and dad were told to amputate his leg when he was very little.  They didn’t take that diagnosis and a new doctor and 4 surgeries later, I learned that Mitchell was a healthy little boy who did normal little boy things! Praise God!  My God is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals.  I will continue to pray for Mitchell that God strengthens him and gives him a story to share for His glory!

        Then there was the cute lady from Hoover that warmed my heart.  She heard of our booth and what we were doing.  She is a teacher, and had made some very cute stationary items.  Anna lee is a writer and loves to journal.  She had been by her booth a number of times and admired a very cute panda journal.  We have told her time and again we are there to raise money not to spend.  Then about midways through day two the cute lady from Hoover walks over and hands the panda journal to my daughter and gives it to her. She commented on how good she had been all weekend, knew that we probably didn’t have the money to buy and wanted to help us by giving Anna Lee the journal.  It was such a small act of kindness, but a huge lesson on grace!  Once again the body of Christ! Once again the compassion of a stranger overwhelmed my heart!

        Then there was Deborah.  Deborah was a very attractive African American woman who asked about some scripture I had posted.  She had the most beautiful curly hair, and all I wanted to do was ask her for tips on how I was going to style my daughters hair just like it, but God had other things for us to talk about.  She questioned me on the scripture and what it meant and God opened a door.  Before I knew it, Deborah and I were praying in the middle of a craft booth, in the middle of Decatur Alabama.  Deborah just needed God’s comfort and reminder of how Awesome He is and how in Control of everything He is.  Turns out…I needed that reminder too.  I will forever be praying for Deborah and will be reminded of how God used her to make me bolder!

        There was also a retired preacher who came through being drug by his wife and either her friend or her sister.  After hearing about sweet Lily and Reece he just parked and stayed with me for a while.  We talked of scripture, his grandchildren, his son who has fought in three wars so that I can have the freedom I have!  He shared who God was to him, and I got to share who He was to us.  He was encouraged to see a young couple’s fire for the Lord, and I was encouraged by him in too many ways to even write that will forever be special to me in my heart. 

        There was the woman who bought a $3 bag, handed me a twenty and kept walking.  There were kids who spent all their allowance in our booth to help us!  There were countless stories of adoptions and kids who were adopted and grown and in college.  That is very encouraging.  There were those that shed tears with us, those that prayed with us, those that said encouraging words to us. And then on top of all that, we raised the most money at this show, than we have ever raised at any of the others. It is as if the Lord poured blessings on us in so many ways I can’t even begin to count them.  And these are just a very few of the people and stories that have touched our life this weekend!

        Fundraising is not about the money…it’s about making us bolder in our faith, it’s about sharing our cause, it’s about giving a voice to the least of these, it’s about teaching our kids what’s important to us, it’s about family, it’s about the friends we make, it’s about seeing the heart of God in others, it’s about comforting others when the Holy Spirit prompts us, it’s about listening to those that just need to talk and learning when to be quiet yourself, it’s about forging friendships that last and encourage one another, it’s about sharing the Gospel and most of All proclaiming Who my God is…My Rock and My Redeemer!