This Could be Yours!!!!

Hey All, 

As you know, we had a yard sale a few weeks ago and raised more than $2,000!  Amazing! 

Some very generous friends of ours, the Gibson's, have donated a brand-spanking-new video camera. Instead of putting it in the yard sale, where I can guarantee that someone would have offered a quarter for it, we decided to have a little fun online! 

As I said, it's brand new. As in, never been used or taken out of the box.  It retails for over $350.  

And it could be yours! 

What's that?  You have a video camera already?  

No problem, if you win it... you have an automatic awesome gift for your office Dirty Santa Christmas party! 

No office Christmas party? Well, I have a feeling that you know a family who could use a video camera and may otherwise never be able to afford one. 

See? This is for Everyone! 

$10 per entry. 

As many entries as you want! 

Once you enter, you can get an ADDITIONAL entry by sharing this link on your blog, twitter, or facebook page.  After entering, post a comment letting me know you shared it and the link.  

 Here is where the proceeds are going! 

Half will go toward our adoption travel expenses. 

The other half is going to....

Toni, just your average high school girl living in Montgomery.... aside from the fact that she passionately advocates for the orphan.

She's pretty amazing.

And you can meet her at For the Least of These 

Toni has helped adoptive families in our church raise funds for their adoption. 

She's tie-dyed many, many t-shirts and made bumper stickers that have sold to families across the country.  

And she has donated all of the proceeds to families bringing home their children from around the world. 

Have I mentioned how awesome she is? 

Toni and her mom, Kaye (our yard sale Coffee Barista), are going on their first overseas mission trip this summer to Ethiopia to care for the orphan. 

They have to raise $5,300 in order for both of them to go. 

We want to help them get there. 

Please head over to "Donate" button on the right column to submit your entry. 

You have until November 13th! 

Ready. Set. Go!!!!!

What We've Been Doing...

I've been a little MIA from blog land for a while.... let me share a brief synopsis of what we've been up to!

1. Working.  When Brian and I got married two years ago, I retired from working.  I figured that since I'm older than my husband, and had been working in the real world longer than him, he needed to catch up and level the playing field.

Ok, not really.

But I did take time off to acclimate to our new home and to life away from everything I had know for the past ten years.  This month, I started working again full-time again at a non-profit organization that advocates for families.  Thankful for a job that cares about the community and helps us out with our finances.


2. Zip-lining.  Finally used the Christmas gift that I bought Brian last year.  Three hours of zip-lining through the tree-tops in North Georgia wearing a really cool helmet.  So much fun! Highly recommend it.

3.  Celebrating.  We had the privilege of having a young man live with us for the past few months while he worked on earning his GED and making decisions to would lead to stability.  He turned 21 while living with us, so we threw him a surprise party with his family and friends there.  So proud of you, Justin!

4.  Watching football.  Last weekend we headed to Knoxville to watch UT get slaughtered play LSU.  Love college football in October!

 

Then we headed to Atlanta to catch the Falcons game on the way home from Knoxville on Sunday.  My husband's dream is to visit every NFL stadium in the country.  Before any little ones come, we're trying to do as many as we can.....I've gently warned him that a 14 month-old won't do so well in a stadium full of 60,000 screaming fans.













5.  Yardselling.  We had a big ol' yard sale this morning to raise money for our adoption travel expenses. We collected donated items from so many of our generous friends.  I was praying that we would raise $1,000.  One of our biggest cheerleaders, Kaye, showed up at the CUH-RACK of dawn to help us by selling coffee and muffins.

At the end of the morning, we were amazed to see that between the sales and flat donations, we raised $2,000!!!  

Kaye, our amazing coffee maker/muffin seller/orphan advocate.  We love you Kaye! 

6. Waiting.  The hardest part.  We're still holding on to number 4 on the referral list and honestly, today was a little hard.  I've been planning on doing a yard sale since the summer.  I held out til October because I assumed we'd have our referral and know exactly who our baby would be....I'd be able to give specifics to people, show their picture, tell a little bit about them...  but instead, we sit at number 4 with no end in sight.  

Days like these I feel the strain of the journey and wonder when we will meet our little one face to face. 

I don't have the answer. 

But I am eagerly anticipating the day that I will.  When I can share with you that there are one or two less orphans in this world.  

God knows the ending of this story.  And that's what I'm choosing to cling to while sitting in the unknown.  

And until that day comes when we meet our sweet peas face to face, we're going to enjoy sleeping in on Saturdays, hitting up some NFL stadiums, and trying to be present just where we are! 

Yardsailing

That's what we're doing this Saturday.  

After doing two previous yard sales in Montgomery, I've learned that when you start a yard sale at 6am, expect your first visitors at 4:45am.  


It's intense bargain shopping. 


All the proceeds from this sale will be going toward our adoption travel expenses. 


If you live in the area there are a few things I want you to know. 


1.  We'll gladly take any unwanted items off your hands. We are collecting things tonight and tomorrow.  


2.  We'd love to see your smiling face at the yard sale.  (but not before 6am.)


3.  We'd love for you to spread the word about the sale! 


If you live in the area and want to come by, email me at harrisleslie (at) hotmail (dot) com 
and I'll get you the directions! 

Game-Changer

This book....

was a game changer for me. 

I read it for the first time over four years ago.  Then I read it again.  And again.  In one week. 

The author, Beth, is an adoptive mom of nine who currently lives in Mexico caring for orphans.  

I love how she contrasted "refined faith," a term we most often hear in church, with her definition of "reckless faith"...

"Refined" can be defined as "cultivated" and "fastidious."  That kind of "refined faith" is the opposite of the Reckless Faith and I am writing about here. That sort of "refined  faith" is predictable and resistant to change; it pretends to know what God will do a hundred Sundays from now.  It is most comfortable with rules, consequences, and baby steps.  It likes control and people who agree.  It fears what it can't see.  A truly reckless faith, however, always expects change, and as a result, it's eager to risk more and fear less! A reckless faith knows there is more to the story, more we can't see, more than I experience now. It is hungry." 

She goes on to share about their lives in Mexico, caring for orphans and the families that had to give them up.  Her stories of faith were humbling and at the same time exhilarating. 

At this point in my life, four years ago,  I had been in full-time student ministry for years and was living fully on support of others as a missionary.  It was a job I loved and knew it was my calling for that time, yet in reading this book, something shifted in me.  I didn't know what to do with it.  But I kept saying to the other girls on staff, "I feel as though God is calling me out of my comfort zone..." 

I loved the book so much I recommended it to everyone and then lent it to someone.  I never ended up getting it back.  A few years went by and I ended up forgetting the name of the book, but I never forgot its impact on me. 

You can only imagine my excitement in the book store this past week when I found "Reckless Faith" staring back at me from the shelf! 

I read it again, amazed at where I am now in this crazy journey of adoption, and I can't help thinking about the route that God has taken to lead me here. 

I marvel at how He has used so many avenues to break through my fear of change and the unknown.  He has broken my heart for the fatherless.  And where as a few years ago, I may have found it a burden, I can now count it a privilege to advocate for the orphan. 

And I'm always up for recruiting more folks to join the cause for the orphan....  

I suggest you start with Reckless Faith.  But no, I'm not going to lend it to you. 

We are.....

Woohoo!!!!!