Leading Our Little One Home

Garage Sale #2 Recap

Some of my first groggy words and sentences on this early Saturday wake-up were to Mark, though really to Baby Owens and ultimately to God. I said something like “Baby Owens, today is for you and though we haven’t met you we love you and we happily sacrifice this morning/day to you.” To myself I remembered the verse in I Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”….even if you are doing a garage sale.

Like I mentioned in my last post we have been praying about $360 to cover the cost of our update to USCIS (the U.S. government agency that approves couples to adopt) which we have to do because of our move. It’s not that we don’t have the money from previous fundraising endeavors it is just that the money we currently have we have set aside to pay our agency at the time of our referral of a child.

We could tell very early on this morning that this day was going to be very different from our last garage sale. That day we had multiple “early birds” and someone present at almost all times. And we had many, many, many folks in and out. Today it was quiet from the start. I won’t lie, it was very discouraging to sit in the blustery, cool, sunny morning all alone (Mark was inside working on his school work – he’s desperately trying to keep up each week which has meant 55-60 hour weeks). I was trying to read my book, but focusing was hard. I was sad that things were not going as I wanted. I didn’t understand why God wasn’t going to answer our prayer of $360.

Thankfully as the morning warmed up and worn on we had more folks stop by. But I could tell we were still far from our goal. As we were cleaning up after the time we had allotted, I was reflecting on my disappointment and trying to remember that God just does things differently than I want but His ways and provisions are still good.

Fast-forward a couple of hours when I sat down for a wee breather to check my email. There was very little there except for an email from PayPal saying our September statement (of our adoption PayPal) was ready. It jogged my memory that we had money sitting in there that various folks have donated the last few months that we haven’t yet transferred to our bank account yet. I honestly had no idea how much was in there. So I opened up the PDF statement and when I saw the amount I knew that when added to today’s garage sale total it would be incredibly close to the $360! My heart skipped a beat and I proceeded to carefully count our profits from the day. Sure enough, I totaled up the two amounts and it came to $373.71! Seriously. The even cooler part is that in my heart of hearts I’ve really been praying for over $360, more like $370, to cover the cost of the postage too since it will be a fat envelope and will need to be certified mail.

Can I just say that our God is amazing?! How very caring that months prior to today He has been laying it on people’s hearts to give to us via PayPal to allow us to have the perfect amount in there to add to today’s totals to help us reach our goal! Once again God proved Himself faithful to us like Philippians 4:19 says “And my God WILL supply ALL your needs according to HIS riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” What a humbling reminder that God’s ways are beyond our understanding, but are perfect. I don’t know why He didn’t allow us to get the $360 from the garage sale, but I do know that without a doubt we can only give Him the glory for providing for our needs for this fee.

There are two verses (among many others) that I have been praying in regards to this adoption. They are the reason that I needed to write this post.

“By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation.” (Psalm 65:5)

“Come and see the works of God, Who is awesome in His deeds toward the son of men.” (Psalm 66:5)

Friends, I want you to know that our God has answered us in righteousness. He alone is our salvation. We live and pursue our child through adoption for Him. Would you come with us and see and glorify God with us? Praise Him for His good deeds towards us! I know of no other god or supposed God who would do this for his/her followers. Thank you God for your goodness and your perfectly abundant provisions!