Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers

Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Emotions of Fundraising

Emotions are funny things.  I've been an emotional wreck this weekend.  It started as I walked into our church's fellowship hall yesterday morning and saw the massive amount of baked goods and casseroles that had been made to sale for our 1st fund raiser.  We may be members of the smallest church I've ever attended, but the hearts of the people are HUGE!!  I am continually overcome with their generosity, support and love!  This amazing family that God has given us through our church has me constantly thanking Him for His provision in our lives.  These people love God with all their hearts, and all of their actions, words and deeds are daily proofs of exactly where their hearts abide!  The bake sale was a huge success!  We raised close to $1500!!!

I went to the sale with my amazing mother-in-love and was so thankful to be able to share it with her.  Then about half way through the morning, my phone rings, and its my sister.  My phone is on 'roaming' at the church so I just kept silencing it, thinking I'd call her back later; however, she kept calling, so I finally answered.  She wanted to know where I was, which I thought was odd, because she knew I was at the bake sale, and then she said, well we are outside your church and didn't see your car.  My mom, sister and niece had driven up (about 2 hours) just to surprise me!  It was a great surprise and I enjoyed being able to share the afternoon with them!  Our family, both sides, have been so incredibly supportive of our decision to adopt and we couldn't be more thankful for that!

The emotions that are brought forth by having to fund raise have always been a hard thing for me.  When I was in the youth group, and we did fundraisers for youth camp and other activities, I HATED it!  I have just always felt this overwhelming dislike for having to ask other people for money, no matter the cause.  I have never been good at it and it has always made me feel inadequate and uncomfortable.  So, maybe this is part of God's plan for me, to grow my faith and stretch me out of my comfort zone in order to follow His plan.  I will not hide the fact that this is hard and very scary for me.  I have no doubt that God can provide the money for this adoption, but I have to pray daily for the strength it takes to step forward every day, not knowing HOW He is going to provide it.  I'm a planner, I like to have every step planned before I begin the journey.  This is probably the 2nd thing He is planning to teach me in this journey.   When I say I pray daily, it would probably be more accurate to say I pray many times daily, because as soon as I begin to get comfortable with things, the doubts start to creep in and I have to ask Him to give me the strength for the next step.  I saw a sign the other day that said "Take a step of Faith.  You do not need to see the whole staircase, just take the next step."   That is exactly what I feel like I'm asking God to help me to do.  We will not be able to see this whole staircase, until after we have brought our baby home and can look BACK and see the steps He has helped us climb.

So needless to say, the emotions are difficult at times and thrilling at other times.  Through it all, I'm thankful that God is guiding us and has provided such amazing people in our lives to make this journey with us.  I pray that each of them know how much we truly love and appreciate them and all they are doing to help us walk this path!

1 comment:

  1. Rachel - I TOTALLY understand the hating fundraising part, but as we begin raising funds to go to Uganda this summer, God has been pressing something on my heart lately that I thought I'd share with you too. He's shown me that with every person you ask for help, you have the opportunity to share your story, teach more about orphan advocacy, and possibly help them understand (maybe for the first time) how adoption so closely mirrors what God has done for us. It's been such an encouragement to me and I hope it will be to you as well!! Praying for you & Andrew & loving reading about your journey!!

    Love you!

    ReplyDelete