Dead Squirrel

The kids saw a dead squirrel, laying in the middle of the road. 

This is Jamison's reenactment:

Millie at 11 weeks!

David Platt...God Hates and Loves Sinners

God's Perfect Timing

Some friends of ours are in the process of adopting a baby.  On Memorial Day weekend, they had a yardsale to help raise money for their adoption!  They received many donated items and were able to raise a good amount of much needed money!

The events of that Saturday afternoon were nothing short of a full display in God's perfect timing!

Here is what they posted on their Facebook wall about what happened:

So as promised, here is the story of what happened at the end of our yard sale on Saturday:

We had originally planned to pack it in about 2:00 or 3:00 that day. At about 2:15, it felt like West Knoxville was about to fall into the Sun, so I decided that the stuff could wait to be packed up until the day cooled off some. At about 3:00, we started going inside more consistently and only periodically sitting outside to make sure no one was coming by to shop. I had already gone in to count the days earnings, and had ventured back out to sweat with our dedicated neighbors, Jason and Ashley Pugh Anderson.

At about 4:00 a car pulled up, and three individuals stepped out. The two women of the group promptly began going through the clothing and shoes and started making a rather substantial pile. I called Amy to come out and we, along with the Andersons, went down to talk some with the late day shoppers. What followed was nothing less than amazing.

It turns out that the family was originally from Liberia. The gentleman in the group, Sam, had just completed his medical training in Grenada and was living with his wife, Tee, just outside New Orleans completing his fellowship studying infectious disease. The two of them were up here in Knoxville visiting Tee's mother.

They shared with us that with what funds they could muster, they would go around to yard sales and buy clothing, shoes, and the like to send back to Liberia. They talked about the need for work clothes, warm clothing for the cooler months, etc, and without hesitation we told them to take whatever they wanted. Due to some language barrier, they were not fully aware of our intent to GIVE them anything they wanted. When we were finally able to make ourselves clear, they were humbly taken aback by the generosity (very similar I assume to the way Amy Mitchell Townsend and I felt at all of our friends' generosity in donating to the yard sale in the first place). We boxed up the remaining clothing, shoes, and toys to be shipped to LIberia via Sam and Tee.

We were only beginning to grasp the gravity of this series of events when Tee asked Amy about an area rug that she had brought out to sell toward the end of the day on Saturday. We had used it at our previous house and it had been in storage for the past three years (waiting for this moment is my firm belief). We thought Tee might be admiring it for either her or her mother's place, and Amy engaged in conversation with her. She was interested in sending it to Liberia as well. What she said next both floored us both and broke us (Amy to tears). No, the reason she wanted to ship it over was because it would be used as a bed to sleep on as opposed to the bare floor. We insisted they take it and all of the smaller rugs there too.

Amongst all of this exchange, Sam and Tee shared a genuine joy for Amy and I pursuing adoption and their love for our Savior. Tee shared that they too were looking to adopt a little girl in Liberia in the near future. We were overjoyed to give them the items they wanted, but they insisted that we take $60 as a donation for our adoption.

Even in writing the details of this story, I have chills. The aligning of events that made this happen give evidence of the great God we serve. The fact that Sam and Tee were in Knoxville for the holiday, the fact that we decided to wait to pack up the sale, Amy bringing out a rug that had been put up for years, the immense outpouring of support in the way of donations from our friends that allowed us to have the amount of clothing that we did, the fact that we had postponed the sale twice before settling on this weekend...there are no coincidences...GOD IS AMAZING!

Life with boys

Before:

After: (had to save some for daddy!)

Before:

After:

We don't get many leftovers in this house.  God help me when they are teenagers!