Rubber duckie, you're my very best friend, it's true
Every day when I make my way to the tubby
I find a little fella who's cute and yellow and chubby
Rubber duckie, you're so fine
And I'm lucky that you're mine
Rubber Duckie, I'm awfully fond of you.
Quack! Quack!
By the way... I must disclose out of pure embarassment that our tub is stained, not dirty. I promise you that it is stained and I have done everything in my power to get it clean to no avail. This ugliness is one of the main reasons I'd love to redo our bathroom! Just in case you were wondering why I'd put up pictures of such a dirty tub, there ya go!
Thanks to the fabulous donations of our friends and families time and stuff, wonderful weather and of course through the grace of God our garage sale was a smashing success! We were hoping to cover our application fee for the agency but after all the stress the days before I would've been happy with $100. I'm astonished and blessed to say that after 12 hours of sales (and a few presales Thursday night) we raised $749.83 for our adoption fund! 17 cents shy of $750, more than we could have ever imagined! We are so blessed... and so excited to be on our way.
Now the day(s) in pictures:
Our house with all of the merchandise and a few early shoppers!
My lovely lemonade girls: Alexis and Adrian. Not only are they two of the sweetest little ladies I've ever met, they happen to live right across the street. I love them to pieces!
Matt modeled some of the merchandise. Some how this lovely dog sweater didn't sell. Although one woman tried it on. Aren't you glad she didn't buy it Sarah?
My lovelies that came to help out: Sondra, Nicole, Sarah and Megan
And Gabe after a day of garage sale-ing. And yes, someone did ask if he was for sale... I replied, only for a bagillion dollars. I'm not sure how much a bagillion dollars is, but I'm pretty sure it's more than all of the money in the world!
Luke 12:33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
Most of the stuff is out, a lot of it is priced and we are ready for our garage sale! Here's to good weather, lots of sales and earning enough for the application fee!!
If you live in the area stop on by; browse our merchandise, eat some baked goodies and sip some lemonade!
If you don't live in the area... well, sending prayers for good weather and getting rid of our stuff would be terrific!!!
Have you ever seen the commercial with Sarah McLachlan song as the background to pictures of abused dogs asking to be rescued?
You have? Well of course you have because as long as you have public access television and your TV is on during a Saturday afternoon you are going to see it. And while I'd be lying if I said it didn't stir any emotion for those poor animals, it really does. While, I may not be a big pet person, I'm also not heartless.
However, whenever I see this commercial, I start to wonder, what would happen if instead of showing orphaned and abused animals there were pictures of abused or orphaned children?
And then I found this:
Sarah McLachlan's song "Angel" to the story of a 12 year old boy and his plight to finding a real family. And while there is only one picture; it's the words on the screen that break my heart. It is the loneliness and longing you feel in this little boy as you read his story. Heartbreaking, gut wrenching... the good news is this little boy found a family. The bad news is there is more than 147 million orphans still waiting for one.
Can you imagine how the world would change if we did show this video on television, or a video with this message showing more pictures of abused and orphaned children? I can. But what I'm envisioning is that the outrage people will feel about seeing these pictures will be from not wanting to see this rather than wanting to change the lives of these children.
When did we become a society that cares more for animals than children? When did we become a society that turns their back on the hurting for the comfort of their own ignorance?
As God continues to open my heart as we work towards our next adoption, I feel that we need to step up. As Christ followers, as people living in one of the richest countries in the world, as human beings; we need to make the sufferings of others our greatest concern.
While saving the earth is fabulous (if you know me, you know how green and crunchy I am) and advocating against cruelty for animals is wonderful... standing by and letting children live piled in orphanages not knowing a mothers loving touch or a fathers leading hand is unfathomable.
Alone, no one can save all the orphans, but together... we can make a difference (okay, I know that sounds cliche).
After our garage sale, we're teaming up with a wonderful organization to help us continue to raise money for our adoption and raise money for orphans all over the world! How cool is that? To say that I'm excited would be too downplay my feelings but until all the details are ironed out, I'll just leave you wondering!
And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me - Matthew 18:5
