February 2011. Tax season. We began to prayerfully consider beginning our adoption process again, but this time God had given us new direction with a different CO agency (Colorado Adoption Center), however the direction(Florida) was still the same. Okay Lord...now? Yep, and there it was as soon as we got our taxes back we began the process. We contacted CAC and LOVED everything about them. Home study, education classes, application done and paid for. It was a fast, smooth ride. Stressful? Of course, but God really used the previous year to teach me how to wait. We had finished our home study visits in just 3 weeks and had been approved by our FL agency(Christian Family Services), and were given the green light to apply and be put on the their family waiting list. CFS doesn't want to have families waiting for a long time. This is why they only have a numbered amount of spots on a list for what an adoptive family is praying for. We were interested in only the Biracial or full African American babies. A boy is our first choice, but we are willing to prayerfully consider a girl as well. (That may sound hypocritical?...why? I don't think so. Did you know that the darkest skinned boys are the hardest to place? Why? Well I'll tell you why later) So we began our initial paperwork with FL.
March and April and May sort of blew by. Beginning of May. We had to pay a few things off in order to begin the next step and get home study approved. CO allowed us to defer our final payment of $1000(post placement fees) but we still had FL fees. Their application fee is $250, which we did not have. We also had to pay a one time social service fee to FL of $2500...hey, look at that, we don't have it either! hahaha. Alright so as I tally it up...huh, oh my. Basically we need $3750. All I could really do is laugh. We do NOT have that kind of cash flow. One night I was talking with a friend and we were joking(or at least I was!) and I said, "hey, I might as well have a garage sale!" WHOOPS...as soon as the words were out of my mouth I tried desperately to suck them back in. No such luck. "Oh you totally should!" my friend chipped in. NONONO!!! I GO to garage sales...I don't HAVE them...they are stressful and I don't have anything worth selling!? Well see, that's where God decided to put in His 2 cents as well..."Robyn, do you trust me?" Oh man, is this a trick question...can it be rhetorical? "Yeeeessss...Lord...? I do but..." See there are NO buts with God...its a flat out question... DO YOU TRUST HIM? DID I?? Maybe that's why He says, "Let your 'YES' be 'YES' and your 'NO' be 'NO'."(Matthew 5:37 'Simply let your 'Yes be 'Yes' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.') Because saying 'yes' to a question of this magnitude is important and changes the course of your life. And the moment had come that I had to be honest...did I trust Him that much?
Okay, so here we go garage sale! But...what do I do? Friends of ours that began the adoption process last summer needed money for their adoption fees as well. So they announced that all donations were welcome. Hmmmm...should I do the same thing? Yeah, since I have nothing really to sell I better send word and prepare myself for whatever would be 'donated.' (This very thing definitely did come true since my husbands grandparents gave us an old camping port-a-potty...LOL oh yes...I sold that sucker.) Allow me to back up, I had just met my friend Michelle a WEEK before in Sam's Club and she graciously opened up their garage to store all the donated items that came in. We ended up filling her entire 2 car garage!!! The other interesting thing is that we sent word out for donations the first week in May...we had our garage sale on May 20th. This only left us 3 weeks to gather stuff...it was NUTS!!! After speaking to my friend who had had their garage sale and learning she had several weeks to gather donations I felt sorely out of my league. "Ugh, this is going to never work, what am I doing??" I thought. But regardless, I knew God was pushing my 'trust' boundaries. So on a prayer I asked our friends, the Morgans if they had anything..."No," Cheri said, "but let me think on it for another day or so and I'll get back to you." PHEW!!!! I took that as a solid, "Good job Robyn, you obeyed me and now you don't have to do it.~Love, God" HA!!!! BOY WAS I WRONG!!! Cheri texted me the next day saying I had to call her because she had some really 'cool' news for me. My stomach dropped..oh no..."You aren't going to believe this! Our friends are moving and have a bunch of furniture and stuff that they can't get into their moving truck and they want to donate it to your garage sale!! I told them what you guys were doing and they are so excited to help!" Indeed, they had A TON of furniture and donated all that they couldn't fit in their moving van. WOW...tears welling. And so it began.
It happened that way with just about everyone that donated. We had tons of furniture, clothes, odds and ends and yes, my favorite(besides the port-a-potty) a rubber bass mouth beer holder. Wow...Michelle and I giggled over that thing the ENTIRE garage sale and we laughed even harder when we sold it. So, to the person who donated that item...THANK YOU. It brought laughter and money~double whammy!!!
Three days before the garage sale it was solid rain. I nearly gave myself an ulcer worrying about getting rained out and then it hit me, kinda like a 2x4 across the head...God called me to obey, what is my trust issue here? Hmmm, I had no control over the weather maybe? oh yeah...but GOD DOES. I had this picture in my mind appear of blue sky without any clouds. It was beautiful. I knew that this was Gods way of telling me, "Relax Robyn, I gotcha covered." And then I saw the number '4.' I prayed through what the number meant and felt like God was saying that it wouldn't rain until after 4pm. So we got up on Friday morning to bring the last of the donated stuff to Michelle's house and sure enough, not a cloud in the sky. Throughout the entire garage sale people would comment on how we better hope it doesn't rain and I was able to tell them in confidence that God and I had talked and it wouldn't rain until after 4. And it didn't...it poured at 530pm. We had people see our sign for adoption and just donate $20, $10, $50 in our can. The one that stands out is a little Hispanic girl, about the age of 4 came up to me holding a quarter and whispered to me,"This is for your adoption baby..." How God works is absolutely beautiful. At the end of the first day we had raised $1521.52! It was so amazing. Let me also tell you that when we first began getting things stacked in Michelle's garage I clearly heard God say "I'm going to provide the full amount." Okay...what is the 'full amount' Lord? We needed $3750...so I asked Michelle in a joking manner,
"hey, think we can get $3500 out of all this?"
"well, I think you can definitely get $1000!?"
*sigh* Okay well...He did say the 'FULL AMOUNT' so...
At the end of the 2nd day(Saturday) the final tally was $1870. WOW...so incredible for a garage sale...but Lord, I thought you said you were going to provide the full amount? We are a few thousand short? My parents had all of our kids for the weekend so Rob and I decided we wanted some Buffalo Wild Wings. It was around 930pm that one of my best friends called me..."Hey! How'd the garage sale go?"
"It really good went good! How are you?"
"Oh I'm just fine. Hey listen, I need your address."
"Why?"
"Because I am sending a check in the mail for Josh's adoption...is $2500 enough?"
I broke down sobbing. I started convulsing on the phone and my friend was laughing in joy..LOL she knows me so well so she just let me get ahold of myself. All the while my heart screamed in humbled joy and adoration, "God...You do too much! My feeble human mind and heart cannot take that much blessing in one day." God never does anything the way I think he will do it. I was called to obey and while I opened my heart to him and obeyed He threw open the floodgates and poured out so much blessing that I literally felt like I was going to explode. We had not only the $3750, we had raised $4370!! We paid Colorado Adoption Center the $1000 we owed, and sent CFS a check for $3750 and used the rest towards other adoptions. Praise you Jesus, for your desire to show me just how TRUSTWORTHY you absolutely are.
Wow! What a story! And you wondering if your story is worthy of being "out there" and worthy of being a blog. I say, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" This story touched me and made me cry. I do have to say that it's pretty cool that you were able to step out in faith and do the garage sale. For me this is more meaningful because I really don't like garage sales at all. They are so much work to prepare for and do and get rid of when done. It's too much in my opinion. So, for you to work that hard...it really shows how much love you have for this sweet baby that will be a part of your family. This is precious, Robyn! Thanks for sharing.
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