money

Eman and I are trying to tidy up our finances in anticipation of our family growing and the economy worsening.  So, in Dave Ramsey form, we are selling stuff to get rid of debt.  On a bit of a whim, we decided to put my sweet lil Honda Civic on CL Friday.  We had a call on it within an hour.  A deal was made and the car was sold by the next morning!  Neither of us were thinking it would go away so quickly, but it did.  We have our truck also on CL, hoping it will sell too.  We owe a chunk on it and are ready to be done with car payments.  So, now we are in the process of looking for a larger vehicle that will fit our growing family and hoping that we can pay cash for it.  We have a prospect in an older burb that has a ton of miles on it but we would have $ left over to use on other bills - Eman is nervous about this vehicle though.  He really wants to buy a different vehicle that would take all of our $ plus a bit..  I am thinking lets wait a little bit longer and not be in a rush.  Anyone of you few readers know of a vehicle that will get us over the mountain passes and will fit a family of 5 (sometimes 6 when I have Ellie) plus all of our stuff?  I am totally open to a reliable mini..  Blah.

On another note, we had a fundraiser today selling Kettle Korn at Wally World.  Eman and I stayed pretty busy all day long.  We had a couple of guys show up to help us out, which was SO nice!  But, I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the day went by.  I had sent a prayer request out to a couple of gals that God would grant Eman and I big bladders and He totally did.  We both got a food/potty break when our first helper came mid morning - interestingly, I wasnt hungry all day.  I ate around lunch time just because I knew I should, not because I wanted to eat.  I didnt even finish my sandwich.  Our second helper came about 15-20 minutes after Eman texted me that he needed to go to the bathroom REALLY bad.  Eman came and gave me a break before heading home to let our dog out to take a break.  When we were all finished and I climbed into the truck, was when my tummy told me that I was hungry and tired.  I am so thankful that my Lord helped me out with all of the necessaries! 

I had several people come by that had either adopted (from china), been adopted or had family members that had adopted.  One older lady told me about her trips to China that her son had taken her on when the son went to pick up children.  Another mom told me that she had adopted 4 kids from China, bought a bag of popcorn and then sent her kids back to me with a donation!  I almost started crying in front of the kids but held it together until they had gone back to the car.  And, of course, I had a couple of people ask me - why China?  why not here?  Both times I got to tell them that we felt like God was telling us to adopt from China.  Neither of these people really wanted to go further on that topic, but did continue to talk to me about the good of adopting from the US and their experiences.  ;)  Another gal, asked me what my name was because she while she wasnt able to give me any money she did want to pray for me.  I told her my name and said that prayer was just as important, if not more, as money.  She didnt know if she agreed with prayer being more important than money though.  I told her that it was - we are supposed to be in prayer for everything which includes asking the Lord to provide for our needs in this adoption (among everything else). She mentioned something about Isaiah 11, but I am not really sure what she meant.  I have read the verses and they are referring to end times stuff, I think - but, the first four verses are pretty cool, talking about the Spirit of the Lord - the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and fear of the Lord.  All of these things are what Eman and I need and I pray that the Lord will give us these as we make decisions on what to do with our $.. 

Thank you Lord, for taking care of us today!