thanksgiving

we hosted thanksgiving this year and always enjoy having the family all in one place.  this year it was my side of the family.  unfortunately, my brother todd and his sweet wife jennifer couldn't be here.  we missed y'all!  i am not sure i got many pictures of the day because i spent a good portion of it napping.  which also brings me to thank my sweet hubby for doing the dishes and carving the remainder of the turkey so we had some awesome leftovers.  here's a picture of the table.

and here's the  only other picture i have showing any food on the island.

whiskey glazed carrots, sweet potato souffle, green bean bundles, dressing, turkey, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, green salad, and rolls.  all yummy!

the rest of the family played a game my dad created, but apparently "it wasn't fair."  all in all a fantastic thanksgiving!  

garage sale

this blogging thing is way tougher than i thought.  so, the garage sale was a HUGE success!  we had so much stuff and i'll let this picture below prove just that.

it was truly amazing how much stuff people donated.  we sold quite a bit and donated the rest to goodwill that afternoon.  my one rule for the garage sale was that it wouldn't be coming back into my garage at the end of the day.  :)  we were overwhelmed with the donations we received.  and so much of it was "big ticket items."  we had a leather couch, a sectional, a table and chairs, a super nice jogging stroller, and so much more.  thank you to those of you who donated.  and a  big thanks to allan's parent's and my great friend sarah lowry!  you guys were troopers!  we made $1250 which covered our home study that was on december 17.  crazy, right?  we've never made that much at a garage sale EVER!  this is how allan and i ended the day.  

again, a huge thank you to all of our family and friends!  we couldn't have done it without you!

one of those months....

it's been a long time since i posted.  it's just kind of been one of those months.  i'm not even sure where it all started, but i do know that our a/c had to be replaced, we need some foundation work on the house, we've had sinus infections, one kid down with strep, another down with strep, mom down with strep, dad with stomach bug, and first child down with strep again.  in the midst of all of that, we are planning a massive garage sale on saturday in hopes to raise some money to offset the cost of the adoption.  we have received so much from friends and family and are so grateful!  it's sorted, priced, and signs are made.  we are expecting more to come in tonight and tomorrow night.  saturday will be an exhausting day, but we cannot wait for it!

there are so many other things that i won't bore anyone with here, because the important thing is that during all of these "trials" we feel like we've been going through, it's nice to know we have a God to cling to.  this morning i opened my bible and read:

"The Lord your God is with you, 

he is mighty to save.  

He will take great delight in you, 

he will quiet you with his love, 

he will rejoice over you with singing."  

Zephaniah 3:17

we have absolutely no doubt that satan is trying to attack us for our obedience to God's call to adopt.  we will cling to the hope of our Savior.  we know HE will carry us through these trials.  this verse is all about being content in HIS love for us and how much HE loves us and desires to be with each one of us.