I Did It

 I really like garage sales if I'm the shopper, but hosting one has never sounded appealing to me.

Whenever anyone suggested it my standard reply was, "No, I'm actually NOT going to do the typical adoption-yard-sale-fundraiser". But it seemed as though every time I talked to Jesus about the idea, I sensed a subtle whisper saying, "Just do it.  Do something to give people an opportunity to give."

 So I listened and, knowing I had hardly anything laying around to sell, mentioned it to a few hundred people and was astonished to receive an incredible amount of donations.

 My kids (minus Ryley, who was still commercial fishing) and my nieces and nephews were committed salespeople; they ran a cupcake stand, a lemonade/otter pop stand, and a handicraft stand.  Anna made beaded bookmarks and my niece Jayna knit a purse and a washcloth to sell.  All their profits were donated to our adoptions, also!  The kids brought in $87 on the first day alone!

I couldn't figure out how their lemonade table always seemed to be dripping wet with stickiness.  Today I found a crack in the bottom of the pitcher.

Not many could resist the sweet treats these pretty little ladies had to share!

This dynamic lady is a tourist from Alabama.  She stopped by and bought a few things, then left us with a generous donation.  Wow.  I never thought we'd receive donations from total strangers. I guess I should have expected it though; after all, He wanted me to create an opportunity "for people to give".  God is so good.

Stretched

My heart is heavy and my tears ever threaten to fall.  I am learning and growing and being stretched in ways I've only ever imagined.  I've wondered and worried about this place in life, back when my days were spent in the trenches of sleep schedules, potty training, play doh and Veggie Tales.  I am grieving what is gone and scrambling to grasp the reality of where we are.

Bittersweet is the title of this stage in my growth as a mama. mommy. Mom.

I am Home Base.

"Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

My people are boomerangs.  I am a rubber band.

"They might not need me but they might/I'll let my head be just in sight/A smile as small as mine may be
precisely their necessity"- Emily Dickenson

Currently, only one of the seven who hold my heart is home.

My earthly provider is away at work far from home.  Loving from a great distance.

My fisherman-child is on the cusp of turning 16, already a working man.  Maturing.  Walking through realities in life.  Learning.  Changing.  Stretched.

My second born almost-14-year-old (center) is away this week at camp with his youth group.  Experiencing Jesus in a new way. 

My girl is growing up too fast.  Anna spent the night with her girl-cousins at Grandma's house last night.  Her happy heart has experienced unfamiliar and unsettling life-stuff recently.  I have ached for her.  

Jesus, Ever Faithful, walks with us just as He promises.

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."  Elizabeth Stone

Two sisters are a world away.  I struggle, challenged to refuse to protect my own vulnerability and open up to heart throbs.  

Anything could happen. 

 None of this is in my control. 

  I am hopeful that one day soon, I will once again be Mom. Mommy. And Mama.