God is Faithful and Worthy of Our Praise

Today we had our first adoption fundraiser and it was AWESOME! We had so many sweet friends and family members sacrifice their weekend to help us. We had friends and family and people we don't even know donate really nice items for us to sell. It is exciting to watch how God works in His children's hearts and leads them to serve others for His glory. One family donated 4 truck loads of things that they were about to sell in their own yard sale and make quite a bit of money off of. When they heard that we were raising money for our adoption, the mother told me that she just knew that God wanted her to give it all to us. God is faithful. In the words of my sweet friend, Kristin, "God funds what He favors". This pretty much sums up today and our whole journey thus far. As I sat there waiting for our first customers this morning, doubts crept into my mind that maybe this wasn't such a great idea and we had wasted a weekend. God was quick to remind me that He is good and He provides. Did He ever!!! We had customers from 7:15 AM to 1:30 PM with no breaks, not to mention friends showing up to simply give us money. I can't even describe the joy in my heart. The Lord keeps bringing me back to a verse that He showed me this summer in Ethiopia as I struggled to leave the country that I knew my child was living in.

"The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands."

My heart in all of this is to exalt the name of Christ. I hope no one looks at us adopting a child as Paul and I being good people with a heart for children. I know that God has called us here as a means of exalting His name and sharing the gospel with others. As I was reading the book "Radical" this morning I came across something that struck a cord in my heart. It says "The point is not simply to meet a temporary need or change a startling statistic; the point is to exalt the glory of Christ as we express the gospel of Christ though the radical generosity of our lives." I believe that this calling of adoption is well worth us selling things that are luxuries in our lives in order to follow our Lord in obedience. Here we go!