Before I give you the run-down of our auction success, I have to share this:
We're only just *almost* through the first of 3 or 4 major steps toward completing our adoption, and I've already been disappointed a few times. We couldn't work with our first choice agency because our little guy was already affiliated with another agency. It took us a long time to get our homestudy started because our caseworker was so busy before Christmas. The weather made us postpone our homestudy appointments twice. Russia has temporarily suspended adoptions. Now we've been waiting for weeks to get our homestudy finalized so it can be approved by our placing agency. It's all part of the process, but still: it can be disappointing and it feels excruciatingly slow.
However:
There is one organization- one organism- one body- that has not disappointed us and has not failed. One group of people that has come together faster, better, and with more incredible results than we could have every anticipated:
The Church. The body of Christ.
Our brothers and sisters in Christ have rallied around this adoption with incredible support. We have been covered with unceasing prayer. We have received daily encouragement. And we've been moving toward our fundraising goal FASTER than we hoped for. Far from a disappointment, the Church has been the very breath and heartbeat of our adoption. I know this is of God and not of ourselves because many of our donors and necklace/t-shirt/coffee buyers are Christians with whom we are not particularly close. Some we don't even know! These people aren't donating because John and I are so impressive or winsome, but because the Spirit of Christ has moved in their hearts. God is working to make this adoption happen and he is using people we would not have expected! I cannot tell you how this humbles and encourages me.
Hallelujah!
With that, here's the breakdown of our auction success:
Items donated: over 20!
Total bidding time: exactly two weeks.
Highest bids:
Runner up: Salmon fishing trip: $250!
Highest bid: Choose a scripture passage for John to preach on: $500! (I'm eager to see what the passage will be!)
Most bid-over items:
Runner up: Home Beer Brewing Session with 7 bids
Most bids: Custom painting of a favorite lyric or scripture with 11 bids!
Total money raised to bring our boy home......
$1840.50!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU so much to all our donors and bidders! You made this auction an enormous success. John and I are over the moon excited about how much money this auction raised. Our goal was $750. We raised over twice that. God raised it for us. Wow.wow.wow.
Those floodgates are thrown open, once again!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
(And remember our fundraising pancake breakfast THIS SATURDAY at our church, from 9am-11am. Hope to see you there!)
We're only just *almost* through the first of 3 or 4 major steps toward completing our adoption, and I've already been disappointed a few times. We couldn't work with our first choice agency because our little guy was already affiliated with another agency. It took us a long time to get our homestudy started because our caseworker was so busy before Christmas. The weather made us postpone our homestudy appointments twice. Russia has temporarily suspended adoptions. Now we've been waiting for weeks to get our homestudy finalized so it can be approved by our placing agency. It's all part of the process, but still: it can be disappointing and it feels excruciatingly slow.
However:
There is one organization- one organism- one body- that has not disappointed us and has not failed. One group of people that has come together faster, better, and with more incredible results than we could have every anticipated:
The Church. The body of Christ.
Our brothers and sisters in Christ have rallied around this adoption with incredible support. We have been covered with unceasing prayer. We have received daily encouragement. And we've been moving toward our fundraising goal FASTER than we hoped for. Far from a disappointment, the Church has been the very breath and heartbeat of our adoption. I know this is of God and not of ourselves because many of our donors and necklace/t-shirt/coffee buyers are Christians with whom we are not particularly close. Some we don't even know! These people aren't donating because John and I are so impressive or winsome, but because the Spirit of Christ has moved in their hearts. God is working to make this adoption happen and he is using people we would not have expected! I cannot tell you how this humbles and encourages me.
Hallelujah!
With that, here's the breakdown of our auction success:
Items donated: over 20!
Total bidding time: exactly two weeks.
Highest bids:
Runner up: Salmon fishing trip: $250!
Highest bid: Choose a scripture passage for John to preach on: $500! (I'm eager to see what the passage will be!)
Most bid-over items:
Runner up: Home Beer Brewing Session with 7 bids
Most bids: Custom painting of a favorite lyric or scripture with 11 bids!
Total money raised to bring our boy home......
$1840.50!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU so much to all our donors and bidders! You made this auction an enormous success. John and I are over the moon excited about how much money this auction raised. Our goal was $750. We raised over twice that. God raised it for us. Wow.wow.wow.
Those floodgates are thrown open, once again!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
(And remember our fundraising pancake breakfast THIS SATURDAY at our church, from 9am-11am. Hope to see you there!)