Kim 365

What a day!

Alright, in case my posts the last few days have been a little cryptic, allow me to unpack what has transpired here over the past 10 days.

It started with me trying to motivate my children to part with some of their toys. The stash in the basement was more than I was comfortable with. “Hey guys, do you want to sell some toys at a garage sale?” This was met with much enthusiasm.

When I told Clay, he suggested we donate some of the money made from the sale to our friends who are in the process of adopting from overseas. He asked the kids how much they wanted to give. “All of it!” was the triumphant reply. Our kids got really ruthless with their toys and books, especially Markus. He really grasped the idea that the more we could sell, the more money we could give to his friends to bring their new sibling home. If it weren’t for Wyatt and Bailey reining him in, there might not be much left in our house!

I sent out a request to pretty much everyone I know, asking if they were spring cleaning and had anything around their house they were planning on donating, to bring it to our garage rather than to Value Village. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if Jesus just packed our garage to overflowing? The more, the better!”

Donations started pouring in. Our garage was absolutely packed with stuff that people gave to us to sell! This was far more than I had anticipated. This was far more than my control freak self was comfortable with. I like things manageable, I like to know I’ve got it covered. And this whole garage sale thing just was totally out of my control. I had to surrender it to the Lord. I had to have faith that since he had brought it to us, he would bring people to buy it. I cried out with the man in the gospel of Mark, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

I am so blessed. I can’t believe I got to be a part of this! When I consider the amount of money that it takes to bring a child home, I feel helpless. Who am I? A stay at home mother. I am not rolling in cash. I am no Scrooge McDuck. I have no means of coming up with a significant amount of money when I can barely balance the household budget. A single income family is rich in love, not padded bank accounts.

Here’s my attempt at a quick economics lesson.
There’s your money.
There’s other people’s money.
If you need more money, go get some from other people.

All the money is this world is ultimately God’s money. He’ll do with it what he pleases. And this weekend it pleased him to use some of that money to help bring a child home to his family.

Our gospel community group from church all got involved. They helped organize stuff, helped run the sale with us, brought us food while I was in the garage bartering like someone’s life depended on it – because it really did! My sister and father-in-law both took a turn with looking after the kids. Friends came and set up shop with a lemonade stand.

And people came.
People bought.
A few people who didn’t even want to buy anything slipped me a $5 bill because they knew it was going to a worthy cause.

Money was added to the ransom that will be paid for a child’s redemption. Thank you, Jesus!