Does anyone else feel like in the last two or three weeks your lives have gotten crazy busy? I find that summer always brings way more fun stuff to do, but I don't know if it's having two kids, or getting ready for a trip to California, or simply the shift from deliberately staying home to re-entering life, but I feel like I barely have a second to breathe (or blog)!
I have been asked how much we made at the garage sale. It is actually a cool story, so here goes: First, we had almost nothing big (high-priced) to sell, and much of the stuff for sale was a bit um, interesting (think lion statutes covered in real fur with sharp pointy teeth), and for some reason the really good stuff we did have wasn't selling...so, the amount we made was rather stunning. Second, we only had one nice day of weather. Friday was beautiful, Saturday was awful. Thus, my best hopes and prayers were to raise $500. We made about $400 on Friday, and Saturday morning we were talking about whether we would make the $500 after a few hours of maybe two customers. The conversation went something like this:
I have been asked how much we made at the garage sale. It is actually a cool story, so here goes: First, we had almost nothing big (high-priced) to sell, and much of the stuff for sale was a bit um, interesting (think lion statutes covered in real fur with sharp pointy teeth), and for some reason the really good stuff we did have wasn't selling...so, the amount we made was rather stunning. Second, we only had one nice day of weather. Friday was beautiful, Saturday was awful. Thus, my best hopes and prayers were to raise $500. We made about $400 on Friday, and Saturday morning we were talking about whether we would make the $500 after a few hours of maybe two customers. The conversation went something like this:
"My goal is five hundred, although more would be great. I just wrote a big check for our postplacement visits, they are $750."
"Wouldn't it be amazing if we made that amount."
"Yes."
"Wouldn't it be amazing if we made that amount."
"Yes."
Now, we had almost no business that day, and the few things we sold were mostly smaller. Yet somehow when we counted the money we had $728. I was very excited, because we were so close to covering the post-placements, and, I knew that it was all God providing, because we really did not sell that much stuff (some people...even strangers...came to the sale and just donated). We got so close to the $750.
That evening I received an email. One of my friends had taken a bag of the clothing that didn't sell to a friend, intending to just give it to her because we donated everything left over. Even though the clothing was meant to be free, the friend decided that she wanted to make a donation and gave $25 (not knowing about our goals), thus bringing our total up to the amount needed for the post-placement fees! How cool is that?
Seriously, we have amazing friends. I'm not sure how we end up with them every place that we move, we certainly aren't worthy of them, but we have been so blessed nonetheless. Ok, now I'm going to brag on my church for a few minutes. The thing we love most about First B is the people. We love their sincerity, their devotion, and how they care for others. They really work to love God by loving others. We (group of moms who have adopted) are working on starting what I hope will be an awesome adoption ministry at our church, and I'm so excited to be a part of that because I think there is always room to care for orphans a little more and a little better. But even without a dedicated adoption ministry our church has done such a great job of supporting us through this adoption. We've been prayed for like crazy, been given rides to the airport early in the morning, had weeks of meals when we got home from DRC, received some previously loved items (my favorite kind), had that garage sale fund-raiser, and on top of all that they are throwing us a baby shower this weekend. This allowed me to experience an important moral victory- I registered for Nicolas NOT at BabiesRUs. Yes, the grudge I bear against BabiesRUs is that deep-seated. It made me so happy to drive right past that horrid place and register elsewhere, even if it meant going out of my way and having to shop at the baby equivalent of Bed Bath and Beyond (walls of pacificers! Sippy cups to the ceiling! Towers of strollers!). Stupid, I know...but you have no idea how horrible getting BabiesRUs ads in the mail week after week was, or how much I hated calling and begging to be taken off their lists, and how many times they promised they would...and it was all a lie. I got their ads until the day we moved. Sorry for the tangent - moving on from that (necessary) rant, what I really wanted to express was how wonderful it is to be at a church and to have friends that treat families created through adoption with the same care that they give to families who give birth. We've experienced that at the three churches we attended/love, and I know that many adopting families do not receive the same level of support that we have. We know there are many families who are only grudgingly accepted...or not at all...and we are so thankful that we have never faced that.
In other news, our first post-placement visit went well. I got a copy of the report, and my favorite part is: "Overall this appears to be a healthy adoptive placement. Amy appeared to be very relaxed and happy as a mother of two children." Thankfully she didn't notice how sleepy I look. His first two months with us Nic had just two little teeth nubs. I was actually starting to wonder if he would ever get any more teeth, and then he started to cut another six within a two week period. That made for many nights of interrupted sleep, but they are all poking through now, so we should get a break from teething for a while.
Nicolas just turned 10 months old. He is growing bigger (another post-placement report highlight: Nicolas.."appears to be very robust and healthy"), and getting so active- he crawls backwards like a champ and frequently gets rather stuck because of this. He manages to crawl forward now and then, so we have high hopes that he will someday get moving in the right direction. He got another set of vaccinations today, so if you read this tonight please say a prayer that his body will tolerate them well and that he will not run a high fever. I am really hoping to stay out of the emergency room.
Tommy is getting a bit better with Nicolas...slowly but surely. He continues to amuse us with his crazy comments. My recent favorite - he got a small splinter while we were at the zoo. He told me his finger was hurt and when I asked what was wrong he responded: "It's a hippopotamus bite." Oh, how I love his creativity.
A few pics from the zoo:
That evening I received an email. One of my friends had taken a bag of the clothing that didn't sell to a friend, intending to just give it to her because we donated everything left over. Even though the clothing was meant to be free, the friend decided that she wanted to make a donation and gave $25 (not knowing about our goals), thus bringing our total up to the amount needed for the post-placement fees! How cool is that?
Seriously, we have amazing friends. I'm not sure how we end up with them every place that we move, we certainly aren't worthy of them, but we have been so blessed nonetheless. Ok, now I'm going to brag on my church for a few minutes. The thing we love most about First B is the people. We love their sincerity, their devotion, and how they care for others. They really work to love God by loving others. We (group of moms who have adopted) are working on starting what I hope will be an awesome adoption ministry at our church, and I'm so excited to be a part of that because I think there is always room to care for orphans a little more and a little better. But even without a dedicated adoption ministry our church has done such a great job of supporting us through this adoption. We've been prayed for like crazy, been given rides to the airport early in the morning, had weeks of meals when we got home from DRC, received some previously loved items (my favorite kind), had that garage sale fund-raiser, and on top of all that they are throwing us a baby shower this weekend. This allowed me to experience an important moral victory- I registered for Nicolas NOT at BabiesRUs. Yes, the grudge I bear against BabiesRUs is that deep-seated. It made me so happy to drive right past that horrid place and register elsewhere, even if it meant going out of my way and having to shop at the baby equivalent of Bed Bath and Beyond (walls of pacificers! Sippy cups to the ceiling! Towers of strollers!). Stupid, I know...but you have no idea how horrible getting BabiesRUs ads in the mail week after week was, or how much I hated calling and begging to be taken off their lists, and how many times they promised they would...and it was all a lie. I got their ads until the day we moved. Sorry for the tangent - moving on from that (necessary) rant, what I really wanted to express was how wonderful it is to be at a church and to have friends that treat families created through adoption with the same care that they give to families who give birth. We've experienced that at the three churches we attended/love, and I know that many adopting families do not receive the same level of support that we have. We know there are many families who are only grudgingly accepted...or not at all...and we are so thankful that we have never faced that.
In other news, our first post-placement visit went well. I got a copy of the report, and my favorite part is: "Overall this appears to be a healthy adoptive placement. Amy appeared to be very relaxed and happy as a mother of two children." Thankfully she didn't notice how sleepy I look. His first two months with us Nic had just two little teeth nubs. I was actually starting to wonder if he would ever get any more teeth, and then he started to cut another six within a two week period. That made for many nights of interrupted sleep, but they are all poking through now, so we should get a break from teething for a while.
Nicolas just turned 10 months old. He is growing bigger (another post-placement report highlight: Nicolas.."appears to be very robust and healthy"), and getting so active- he crawls backwards like a champ and frequently gets rather stuck because of this. He manages to crawl forward now and then, so we have high hopes that he will someday get moving in the right direction. He got another set of vaccinations today, so if you read this tonight please say a prayer that his body will tolerate them well and that he will not run a high fever. I am really hoping to stay out of the emergency room.
Tommy is getting a bit better with Nicolas...slowly but surely. He continues to amuse us with his crazy comments. My recent favorite - he got a small splinter while we were at the zoo. He told me his finger was hurt and when I asked what was wrong he responded: "It's a hippopotamus bite." Oh, how I love his creativity.
A few pics from the zoo:
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1 comment:
How incredible of those people-- the right amount and everything! Sounds like you found a wonderful group of people, indeed.
Also dislike BRU. It's painful and they don't seem to care that receiving their paraphernalia makes my day turn from bad to terrible. Reminders of what could have been and reminders that there are companies out there that don't care. It isn't always about the cost. Sometimes emotions do matter and business doesn't.
Your boys are just gorgeous. Congrats.
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