Amazed and humbled!

We are truly amazed and humbled!  We had a tag sale/bake sale today to raise money towards our remaining adoption expenses (namely 2-4! round trip tickets to Ethiopia--for us to go to court and to go to Embassy; our stay in Ethiopia--2 weeks-4 months in a guest house with money for food, water, and a driver/guide; B's visa/medical exam for immigration; and B's return ticket home).

We've had a long, tiring week, and were exhausted.  We weren't really sure how many items people would donate for the bake sale or the tag sale, or how many people would stay and help us.  We had a horrible morning trying to get a car to take us, our baked goods, and our items for the tag sale the 10 blocks to church--the first set of cars left after waiting 5 minutes which was before we got down stairs with all our stuff; the second set of cars refused to take our items; and, we finally ended up having to get a minivan cab and one of the two cars we ordered for the THIRD time finally showed up.  We were 30 minutes late to church, missed the testimony about adoption that we were supposed to give, and were pretty much convinced that our tag sale/bake sale was going to be a bust.

Well...God is so good and we were so wrong!  We were blessed in about 100 ways today.  Our whole church family gathered around us with more cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and brownies than we could have imagined, designer clothes, coats, an aerobed, and hundreds of other items for the sale.

A core group of people (including two awesome pregnant moms and a great friend with a severely sprained ankle!) stayed almost the whole day, helping with set-up, pricing, the bake sale, and the checking-out/purchasing process.

Our teenaged friend K pretty much ran the whole first half of the bake sale and our friend M brought D, the teenager she mentors, and bank rolled her shopping spree:-)

People from the community stopped by all throughout the day to shop and to donate more items for us to sell.  There were families who just wanted a cupcake and families who bought bags of items, a lady who bought a dozen! to send to her child's school tomorrow, a teenager who got a designer dress for her Sweet 16 party, and two amazing older Dominican women who scored some incredible household items at a low price that made their day.

Everyone got to see pics of B, watch his video, and learn more about our story of adoption and the journey that is bringing B into our family.

And WOW...just WOW...

Little B you have no idea how much love is waiting for you in NYC!  Not only can we not wait to be your parents, but you have a church family who is waiting for you with open arms and is earnestly praying you home...you have a community of kids your age from our church and from our neighborhood who can't wait to be your new BFFs--they know your name, recognize your picture, pray for you, pick out toys for you, and in their little garbled toddler-speak tell us their interpretation of your pictures and how you are coming from Ethiopia to be part of Miss Mama and Mr. Ababa's family.

We got recommendations for preschools and daycares, brand-new clothes that neighborhood moms who we have never met picked out and specially saved for you for when you are older, and-as soon as you are ready-you have requests for playdates from about 20 boys and girls your age:-)

Also, WE RAISED $1,664...yep, $1,664 which includes a shockingly generous donation from a couple who we had never met before.

THANK YOU!!!!  EVERYONE, THANK YOU, FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!!!

We are so blessed.

So, as we enter this part of the adoption process where our dossier is sent to Ethiopia (hopefully this week) and we wait...(wait for our paperwork to be processed and submitted to court, wait for the court to assign us a court date, wait to travel to Ethiopia for our court date--and to meet B for the first time!--and then wait to get our Embassy appointment and bring B home) we know that God is using the community of our church and our neighborhood, but especially our church, to stand beside us, to wait with us, to pray for B, and to pray for the adoption process.

Thank you!

We are amazed and humbled!