Thursday, July 23, 2009

Covered in Grace (actually, I'm swimming in it!)

Our auction was a HUGE success!! When I say that there are not enough 'thank yous' to go around, I really mean it!

I don't have the final numbers yet because we still have to take out the fees for ebay, paypal, shipping etc, but I am confident is saying that we met our goal of raising the $5000 orphanage donation, and may even have a couple hundred left to put toward our travel fees!

When I think that less than 2 months ago I hadn't even seen a picture of Rita and now I'm within 8 weeks of bringing her home AND managed to raise over $5000 in just 6 weeks, I am in awe. To loosly paraphrase my dear friend Ana "When God wants something done fast, get out of His way!" Amen to that!

I knew when we started this auction that there would be glitches along the way. Surprisingly there have been few, but they have been there none the less. Today I had two "boo boos" that I had to work my way out of.

The first one is that I accidentally "double sold" a set of 4 Pirates Dinner Show tickets. I called my contact at Pirates to see if I could get a donation or buy some at cost. He was very nice and willing to try to help me, but there was some red tape involved and no guarantee. So, I went to the source of the original 4 Pirate tickets in hopes that I could purchase them at cost or find a way to earn them. Without batting an eye, I was granted 4 more Pirates tickets. I did not expect that at all!! What a relief!

The 2nd boo boo was that Chris posted a photo of an item that we didn't actually have! I had a small Vera Bradley jewelry holder to sell. Chris posted a larger jewelry case in a different fabric. I've been so busy that I didn't even notice. Until we sold an item we don't have to a person we don't know!! OOPS! How am I gonna get out of this one? I printed out a copy of the posted jewelry case and took it to my friend Debbie at Pink Chalet to see if she had anything similar that she would sell me at cost. Debbie had the EXACT same case in the EXACT same fabric, and she donated it to the auction!

Now do you understand the title of my post? I couldn't ask for anything more. Well...maybe one more thing.

We did not expect Referral Approval this fast. We still do not have our renewed I-171H. There were some complications with Chris this year that nearly kept us from proceeding with this adoption. Those things have been cleared up (hooray) but they complicated our immigration. He needs to send some additional documents to USCIS. We thought we had until August 14 to get this done. Surprise - we need immigration approval now!! I fedexed the document this morning and am now at the mercy of USCIS. I'm a teeny bit nervous about this, but mostly I think God will cover us on this one as well. If He wants us in China, we're going to China!

Did I say "thank you" to everyone who made this auction a success? I am so grateful. I am especially grateful to those of you who passed it along to friends and family. We sold a suprising number of items to friends of friends of friends that we've never even met! If you bought something, I promise we are working hard to get things mailed and delivered. I will get this all wrapped up on Saturday when I have more time to spend. Then on Sunday, the cookie baking begins! If you bought cookies on the auction, look for them on your doorstep early next week.

Anybody want to come to my house and paint a little girl's bedroom next weekend? Ha!

I'm beat. Going to bed!

1 comment:

  1. Teresa, I was so touched by Lucy's comments about her first weeks with you. You must have been pretty close to tears. She is SO sharp and SO ready to be the big sister!

    Mary

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