ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISER!

YEAH! This weekend's fundraising yard sale was a fabulous success. I've never had a yard sale at this house and I do live "way out there", so I wasn't sure how well we would do here. I held my last yard sale on Main Street with a bunch of other families. I have to say, I am VERY impressed. The cards did seem to be against me, but we pulled through!

First, when the local paper came out on Thursday, I went straight to the Classifieds only to find that my ad had not been published. Great. So, I had a wee bit of a meltdown, mostly because I was overtired from all of the prep work. But, I pulled it together and decided that Craig's List and a bunch of signs would do. My parents, who were away this weekend and couldn't help, both came over on Thursday night to help with the preparations. Thanks guys!

My good friend Pierre cam up from Boston to help me run this circus. Pierre is a hero. He drove all the way up here to spend two days SLAVING for Lily. Day 1 was fun. We had all of this energy and were bopping around, having a great time. Then today came, I was grump-a-rama at first, perked up for approximately 10 minutes, and then his grumpiness set in too. By the time we were packing the final boxes of the clean up we were almost in tears. Thank you, Pierre. I cannot thank you enough.

You could just TELL what the neighbors were thinking when they were driving by- "There goes the neighborhood!"... until they saw the sign at the end of the driving explaining the purpose of the yard sale. And then they came out of the woodwork to ask questions, give hugs and buy stuff. One family even went home on the morning of Day 1 and came back with two pickups full of furniture ad gear to sell as a donation! The best part was I didn't even know their names until then! So sweet.

In any case, all kinds of people donated all kinds of items, big and small, and they all added up to a whopping $1200 (including donations) which was my goal! So, once again, thank you all for your supportive thoughts and actions. It means everything in this process.

There is a bit of uncertainty going on again regarding constantly changing adoption procedures in Kazakhstan. On Friday I learned that the NY Consulate is not accepting any more dossiers until AT LEAST September 15. My dossier is still in translation and has a few weeks to go. Hopefully we will know more by the time it is translated. I will keep you posted. This could mean a short or longer delay. We'll see. All I know is this apparently part of the plan for me to find Lily in the right place at the right time, so I am rolling with it. There will likely be MANY more changes an possibly delays and hurdles. I am prepared for this. It's part of the process. We all want Lily to come home ASAP, but we have to go through the motions to get her here. So, hang in there. It will all work out in the end, just as it is supposed to.

You are a powerful group of people. Tonight, I would like to ask that you shift your positive vibes from me (or at least share them) with the people on he Gulf Coast. I am really upset about the approach of Hurricane Gustav and want to send as many prayers their way as possible.