What a night!

If you go to my blog to read these posts you might have seen a huge jump in our fundraising thermometer today. Last night at church was such a special time for many reasons. We were so blessed that Kyle was given the opportunity to share his heart about his book, time in India, and our adoption. And I never knew that a sea of grey shirts could look so beautiful--such a perfect physical example of how much we are supported by our church family. I hope the day we finally land in the US with a our little Indian child we will be surrounded at the airport with that sea of grey rejoicing with us!
Our family and friends gave so generously last night--$5200!!! Plus another $750 from shirts that we sold this round to help us raise in one night alone almost $6000! It was so humbling to see that not only are we loved more than we know, but our child is already loved and prayed for by so many others. They already want to take care of her like we do and I love knowing that one little Sparrow has so many people waiting for her to be here with us. I know last night had to make many wish this little one was joining their family--and I'm thankful that we're the lucky ones who get to have her in our home. ;)
Pastor Mark also had two more surprises for us--our very musically gifted worship leader was surprising our church with a song that he had written a couple years ago for Advent (sorry Drue, not sure on the year?) that he was recording and was going to give to us as a free download. He's still doing that, but he also decided that along with the song that he's going to share about our adoption and offer people the opportunity to donate to our adoption through the free download. This is something that everyone is going to want to hear and download and I will most definitely post the link when that's available. Drue and his family have been wonderful friends to our family and we are blessed to know him and have him lead us in worship every week. If you've never been to our church please take a minute to listen to (and buy!) his album he put out a couple years ago--it will most definitely bless you in amazing ways.
The second surprise was that the money raised from our infamous craft sale we have every year will be going towards our adoption. This is a big fundraiser for Providence--and it's only because we have some of the most creative, talented people in all of the DFW area, and I'm not at all exaggerating. I feel really unworthy of this because I am the least crafty person you'll ever meet and never have anything to offer to this sale. So I buy Christmas presents like crazy from the sale every year and count that as my contribution. Kyle has sold his Polaroid posters so I'll tag my name onto his and be thankful that I'm married to talented man! I can't wait to have examples of what's going to be offered and flyers to post because this will be something you'll want to drive to the Dallas area for to buy some Christmas presents. This is really a huge blessing for our fundraising and I never imagined this was going to be offered to us.
Kyle started a new job this year, and although we're blessed with a salary that works for us, it's less than what he made last year, and that's with a few hundred dollar jump in rent since we went from home owners to renters....but even with that we have SOMEHOW (crazy!?!) been able to also put $200-300 in our adoption savings every month, along with all the money I make with whatever little work I do for my dad. And of course there's the money from what we sold at our garage sale and we're about to sale at our book and music sale this coming weekend. All that to say that I surprisingly haven't been that worried about how we're going to raise money for this adoption, I've been more excited from the beginning to see how God is going to get us to our goal, so last night definitely proved that God does take care of us--and does it through his people. Yes, the few hundred dollars we are able to somehow find every month is a huge amount for us, but if you're only putting that amount towards $30,000 the thermometer seems to go up a lot slower than you hope, especially when you have to send $2500 to adoption agency within the next two weeks. But wow, to not just see huge chunks of money go out, but to see our very sacrificial church give to our little one in such huge amounts is definitely very humbling and beautiful all at the same time!
Thank you all to everything you've been doing for our family! We love you!

P.S.--I know I'm posting a lot about fundraising over the last couple months, but that's where we're at right now. We're still waiting on news about our home study report. It was supposed to have been finished by the end of October and I haven't heard anything about it yet, but will most definitely post news when that's written up because we can start moving along again. So for now we're blessed with money being poured down from Heaven and I definitely want to take the time to be thankful for that!