Sunday, May 20, 2012

He does big things

'Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'


The garage sale is over. The weather was gorgeous, business was consistent and the sales were phenomenal. Thankfully, some of my amazing friends came to help because we could not have done it without them.

These are the donations from the past few days alone. Several friends did nothing but sort through these and bring them out to the garage and driveway.



Saturday was extremely busy. It felt like we were selling everything, yet we had a garage full of items at the end of the day. 


Packed up and ready for the next day's sale:


We opened the garage again today and prepared to organize the things we had left while selling to a few customers. Instead, we were as busy today as we were yesterday. 


My friend, Randi, came by to help and rocked the sales! In true Randi form, she just kept saying, "It's all God, Ruthanne. He's working here."  She's right. 


One woman came to our sale all three days. She spent a decent amount of money each time. Today, she told me that she had dropped off two garbage bags full of baby clothes on Jill's porch sometime after the first sale. She just wanted to help.


Another man tried to dicker with me about the toddler bed we were selling. I told him I could not take less than $50 because a friend had given me the bed as a gift to help raise money to bring my son home. He and I both had tears in our eyes as he pulled out the $50 and said, "I will gladly pay the price you're asking to help you do that."


Many people came because they heard it was an adoption fundraiser and wanted to help in some way. 


While we packed up today, a man came by and started talking to Randi. He buys things to give to people who need it. By the time he had left, his truck was filled with $300 worth of items that we thought we would have to donate. It was one of the most amazing things we had seen all weekend.


Our God is big. He does big things.

I am humbled by the donations, the help, the selflessness of people who are friends and strangers. There is no way to thank you all except to bring Manno home and teach my boys how to pay it forward. 


Because of you: the people who helped by donating, buying, praying, sorting, selling, watching my children and/or lending me your garage, backyard, family room and weekends (Peter, Jill and Barb--I can't ever thank you enough), we have raised an amazing amount of money. The combined total of money raised between the first garage sale, the Hoarders for Haiti page and this weekend's sale was....


$7,000!


Can you believe that??? 


We've made a nice dent in the amount of money needed for this adoption. I have no doubt that all of the money will be there exactly when it is needed. 


This was the view from our window when we got home tonight. A rainbow. A promise.


Our God is big. He does big things.


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A surprise gift!

I got a Mother's Day gift from Manno today! :)  


A cut-out stamp of his handprint.



and a picture surrounded by more hand cut-outs.

The amazing people who care for him on a daily basis have no idea what these gifts mean to me; and in the future, to him.  He will have things he made in preschool just like his brothers. That is unbelievable. 
And, yes. The boys are already tired of holding their hands up to the cut-outs so I can compare their hands to his.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Malachi 3:10

'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'


How often do you hear someone quoting a verse from Malachi? Not often, right? I've heard this same verse quoted at least 3 times in the past couple of weeks--even before we began collecting for the garage sale and before we began the Hoarders for Haiti page.  It's no coincidence. Each time I have organized and cleared out space in Jill and Peter's garage, it has been filled up within a day. Every single time. The garage is now so full that the front doors can no longer be opened and closed. And there are still more donations coming.
The week before our presale, on April 28th, the prediction for all of Friday night and Saturday was rain. I went to bed praying and woke up praying. My prayer was simple: 'God, you filled up that garage and I trust You to empty it.'  At 7am we checked the weather again. The storm was moving through and would be gone by 8am.  And it was. The day was amazing. I was so busy, I never sat down. There was a constant stream of people from 8:00 until 4:00 when we finally turned people away and closed the doors.  When we got everything back into the garage, it was still full. And now, it is bursting at the seams with more donations on the way.


'Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'


This coming Saturday, May 19th, is our 'real' sale. I have no doubt that God will empty the garage that He has filled.


Someday, I hope to write out all the miracles and blessings that have happened so far in this adoption process. There is no question in my mind that this little boy belongs in our family. God has opened the floodgates and is pouring out blessing after blessing. If you are one of the people who is helping to provide those blessings, thank you! Thank you for being the hands and feet that are making this adoption possible. Thank you for being generous with your time and your donations. Thank you for helping to bring Manno into our family. I do not take any of these things for granted. You are blessing our family in a forever way and I am so grateful.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Keep 'em coming!

I got another Mother's Day gift today. This one was from Daniel and he was SO excited and proud to give it to me. He made me wait until we were home tonight which cracked me up since he hates to wait for anything.


He decorated the frame at school. It's one of the most beautiful gifts I've ever gotten. 



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

It's never too early for a gift

Andrew was bursting with a surprise when I picked him up from daycare today. He had a present neatly wrapped in his school bag and he couldn't wait to give it to me.  He told me I could not wait until Sunday to open it and that his teacher said it was ok if I opened it today. So I did. Who am I kidding? I would never have been able to wait until Sunday either. 


It had an adorable card on the outside that is shaped like a purple purse. I forgot to take a picture of it but I'll do that tomorrow.


Here is my wonderful, amazing, fantastic gift:


and on the back of each flower is an activity for us to do together. I LOVE this gift! I am totally stealing this idea for my classroom. We'll be making these tomorrow!


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Video

I got the most amazing surprise today--a 35 second video of Manno! I'm not going to embarrass myself by telling you how many times I've watched it already. 
42. 
or maybe more.
He's telling his nurse that his cracker looks like a 'machine' (a car). 
If you know Daniel 'in real life', you may see some similarities. ;)  


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Too cool

Andrew thinks he's too cool for school in this picture. 
Daniel thinks he's too cool for pictures.