To God be the Glory

What a day, oh my what a day Sunday was. Words cannot contain or express Neil's and my gratitude for all the lovely, beautiful people that came out to support our fundraiser. We have just the best friends anyone could ever have, and they would not like to be named here, because not only are they spectacularly generous, they are incredibly humble. But I will mention that they put this whole affair together. The crafts were lovingly made over many months, the baked goods tediously baked and assembled into the wee hours of Sunday morning before the sale. Everything was made to a high standard, all this for our daughter's orphanage. Our dear friend and pastor not only helped get this thing up and running, he blessed our fundraiser with prayer early Sunday with those of us setting up. We had an army of friends and their kids help run the whole affair, you could hear some cheeky upwelling happening! "Ok, that will be $6 out of $20...would you like your change?" It was all very sweet and in good humor. Everyone was smiling and laughing, the room was filled with joy, pure joy. Joy only felt when doing God's work, taking care of the orphan. And then the good and faithful, the loving people who came out to support, who came to eat Kaiserschmarrn, even though they didn't know what it was ( it was a huge success! Way to go Neil, your Grandma Elsie would be so proud!). People stayed long and just enjoyed the music and food and conversation. It was remarkable. And my new friends I now can claim, the adoptive families that came to give us words of encouragement on this hard road, sharing their own stories, cheering us on. Humbling. Such a gift. I'm welling up with tears of joy as I write. May I never stop working for God, may all my deeds, mundane and all be to His Glory! Thank you everyone. Thank you. The latest development in our adoption is my conversation with our agency. They believe that our dossier will move from *in review* to *in matching* this Saturday or next Monday, and since we have already been matched, we should get, at long last, our Letter Of Acceptance....this will be amazing. From the day we receive the LOA it is 10 weeks of finishing up the paperwork and we will get our Travel Call! This works out to be the first half of August if we get LOA next week. So that leads me to our.... Prayer request: please pray that China moves our dossier to *in matching* at the end of this week. Please continue to pray that Elsie's heart is prepared for all the changes coming for her.