"For my thoughts are not your thoughts and neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the eath, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:8-9
Never has this verse been more true in our lives than in the month of October 2011. There are several stories to be told, but one of them, the one I am going to tell today, was a story that God allowed SO many of you to help Him write! When God placed the Adoption Rocks t-shirt dream in our hearts, we had NO idea what He had in store for us. But, thanks to you, 98 shirts "Adoption Rocks!" t-shirts are going to be worn by people from Georgia to California, and we were BLOWN AWAY! The biggest surprise of all was that we made over $2,000 profit from the sale of the shirts! We were completely humbled and blessed!
Those are the facts of the t-shirt fundraiser, but what I cannot even begin to put into words is what happened in my heart with every check, dollar, or paypal deposit that came our way. Time after time, we were humbled. Our friends and family started buying shirts as soon as we posted them. We were humbled and blessed. We had friends buying shirts for other families going through the adoption process. Humbled and blessed. We had friends buying shirts while going through their own adoption process. Humbled and blessed. We had friends and family who said, "I don't want a shirt, but I want to donate money to your adoption" (one from halfway around the world). Humbled and blessed. We had friends who clearly cannot count very well who paid too much for their shirts. ;) Humbled and blessed. We had friends who had their co-workers, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins buying shirts. No joke. Humbled and blessed by people we have never met. Craziness! We had friends buying shirts to wear in honor of their daddies, sons, daughters, and brothers who were adopted. Humbled and blessed. We had friends who said, "You don't have the time to be doing all this. Let me take care of the shipping and delivery." Humbled and blessed. We included "free shipping" in the cost of the shirts, but we had friends who decided that they would be the "free shipping." Humbled and blubberingly blessed.
So, when I say 98 shirts and over $2,000, what you hear and what I am saying aren't the same thing. I cannot even put into words what we have gotten to see God do through this process. But, please know, we are so thankful and so blessed by your hearts and the story that God used so many of you to write on our hearts. We will never forget it.
That said, please do not forget that tomorrow is Orphan Sunday! November is adoption awareness month, and we hope and pray that you will focus your heart and prayers on orphans tomorrow. If someone asks you about your shirt, please use it as an opportunity to share that there are currently estimated to be 163, MILLION orphans in the world. Please pray for them. Even though our God knows their names, He knows their needs, and He knows their precious hearts, we do believe that He loves it when His children intercede for the least of these and, that in turn it will make our hearts tender to their needs. May He break our hearts for what breaks His.
"Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed." - Psalm 82:3
If you wear your shirt tomorrow in honor of our sweet baby boy (and we hope you do!), PLEASE have someone snap a picture of yourself in it and either post it to Facebook and tag me in it, or e-mail it to me at nsgruhn@yahoo.com. I would love to include your pics in a future blog post and see all the BLUE out there for Baby Boy Gruhn!
He has done GREAT things for us! Praise to Him alone for HE. IS. WORTHY!
Love to you all,
Stacy
