We survived!!

We all managed to survive the garage sale fundraiser we had last weekend.  We were so blessed in many ways.  We really felt GOD working in all aspects of the event.  We are so grateful to all of our friends and family...and a few strangers who donated items to sale.  As you can see below, there was no shortage of generosity.

There was also no shortage of help.  We had friends and family volunteer to come out and spend part of their weekend helping.  We all know how valuable and precious that time can be.  We started the sale at 6:30 in the morning on Friday, and we had customers for the next 12 hours without a single break in business. Saturday was not quite as busy, but it was still great.  We were exhausted, but it was also a ton of fun.  We were able to raise over $2,100 dollars for Isaac.

One of the highlights of the weekend was how involved Andrew and Olivia wanted to be.  They really wanted to help bring Isaac home.  What better than a nice old fashioned lemonade stand?

Now one thing is for sure.  We have some natural born sales professionals.  It doesn't hurt that they are so cute, or that they had a shamelessly sweet sign. This was the one time that I didn't mind them not taking no for an answer. There were several conversations that went something like this:

    Lemonade! Fifty cents! You want some lemonade?
                   
                No thanks. Not right now.
   
    Lemonade!  Its for my bubba. Just fifty cents.

               Not right now. Thank you.

     Lemonade! [takes Isaac's picture to customer] his name is Isaac.  We want him to come home.
            
               Ok. I would love some lemonade.
  
    Ok. but you have to pay for it ok?

It really wasn't fair, and some may say that we took advantage of their cuteness to manipulate people into helping. Guilty as charged.  If it gets Isaac home sooner, I don't feel bad about it at all.  Especially, when I see how bad they want him here.  Olivia went into her room and took all of the dollar bills out of her money jar, about 6 months worth of savings and told us she wanted it to go to Isaac.  Could not have been more proud of her.  All together they turned $5 worth of lemonade into over $60 dollars.

We still have miles to go before we can bring him home, but we have seen GOD provide so much for us in this process that we have no doubt that HE will provide the means.  We look forward to seeing how HE does it!


Praying For All Things,

Mat and Necia