A Huge, Awesome Fundraiser

It’s been awhile since I’ve given a real update. This past weekend, we had a fundraiser garage sale to raise money for our adoption funds. So many generous people donated items to be sold for the sale, and I really have to brag on our church family a little bit. The people of First Baptist Church of Medina went SO above and beyond for us. So many families donated really nice things for our sale, shared info about our sale on FaceBook, and even helped us throughout the sale, and we are so incredibly thankful for them!  Our families, friends, and church family are really in this with us every step of the way, and we love it! We raised $2,715, and the really awesome thing about that is it was the almost the EXACT amount that we needed for our next adoption payment (within $100). Isn’t God awesome? I mean, it was a garage sale! That number is just insane. And God used so many people do it.  God has been teaching us a lot of things in the past few weeks, and I want to share some of them with you.

1.     He is SO much bigger than our circumstances. We have had to raise $6500 in the past three months, and we have made it! $6500 is a huge amount, but God is SO much bigger than that. The best part is that He matched  almost exactly the amount that we need in a few weeks to submit our dossier! Can you believe it? It’s like He’s reminding us that He WILL provide! This little girl is His!

2.     God is good, all the time, and He does His work through people! In a world of terrorism, crime, riots, scandals, bullying, online trolls, and a culture full of negativity, He showed us these past few weeks that there are still so many good people, and God does His work through them. From the many donations for the garage sale (our family, friends, and even strangers) to friends volunteering their time to help us during the sale, and the extra money SO many people dropped into our donation jar, I have been in awe.

3.     Our garage sale was bigger than just a fundraiser. We handed out 200 cards with our blog URL, and I even had one sweet family tell me that after reading about our adoption, they were looking into adopting from China. Wow! We met so many amazing people, and so many told us their own stories of adoption. We met a speech therapist that gave us her card, and a family who recommended a great craniofacial team for our little girl’s probable cleft lip and palate. One family brought their little girl adopted from China to say hi to us. She was so precious, and seeing her just brought tears to my eyes. I can’t wait for our little girl to be with us!

4.     The paperwork process is just plain crazy, but God is with us every step of the way! If you have Netflix, I highly recommend watching the documentary “Stuck” all about international adoption. It gives a great overview about the process in general and about how many kids are waiting for families. Have your tissues handy, though.  After a few paperwork setbacks, we finally finalized our home study and submitted our immigration application last Monday. We are assigned a fingerprint appointment date, time, and place that we have to be ready for, and after that is certified and authenticated, we will have all of our paperwork for the dossier DONE! We then have it translated and sent to China. After China approves it, we are ready to be matched with our little girl!

After this weekend, Dan and I are exhausted, excited, happy, and feeling very, very blessed.  We still need to raise $24,000 to bring our little girl home, but if we have learned anything this weekend it is that God WILL help us get there! He has shown us time and time again that this is where He is leading our family. John 14:18 says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”.  God will not leave our little girl an orphan! Little Lunde girl, we are coming for you as fast as we can!