As if our life isn't busy enough...

For several years, it has been in our hearts to adopt someday.  It hadn't seemed to be the right time, though, until recently.  Maybe it is because our youngest is three now and we've gotten some rest from the more intensive physical care that newborns, infants and toddlers take. :)  Anyway, a few weeks ago we spent a few hours with an adoption lawyer learning about the costs and legal aspects of adoption.  So... we don't know who, we don't know when and we don't even know if it will be our privilege to bring another child into our family through adoption, but we do know that our hearts and thoughts are going that direction.

This summer, we have been working in our basement.  We've been sorting, cleaning, throwing away  - both to make room to build a bedroom or two (it is a walkout basement on two sides so it is more like a first floor, not a dungeon) and to have a sale to help pay for the costs of an adoption if it works out.  It's been a lot of work, but it has also been so much fun for the kids and me to work together. It's been fun to find pictures of when the kids were littler and  to dig out toys and clothes that they had when they were babies.  A friend of ours invited us to bring our stuff over to add to her yard sale next month, and that was (and still is) the plan.  But as we added and added and added to our pile of stuff we realized that it would take several trips to get our stuff to their house and we decided we'd have a pre- yard sale, yard sale here.  So this weekend is the weekend of that sale.  I put up a sign advertising that it was an "adoption benefit sale" thinking that it might encourage people to buy some of our stuff, but it was amazing as one after another people handed us money to pay for their purchases and said "keep the change".

So the thought that has been going through my mind today is that it is "More blessed to give than to receive..." but it is also so humbling - difficult - and beautiful to be on the receiving end of people's kindness and generosity.

(As a side note, the lawyer said the best way to find a child who is need of a family is through the network of friends and family - so... if anyone hears of a child needing adoption, please keep us in mind. At this point we are thinking of a child younger than our youngest who is 3)