It is truly a miracle!!!!!

I am so full of emotion today that my hands are having a hard time typing the words....we have gone from near panic about the time running out for our second trip and not knowing how we were ever going to make it work..... to being fully funded in one single day!!!! 

Our anonymous donor sent another large donation and we are fully funded for trip #2!!!  Can you all even imagine the intense emotions I am feeling?!?   I've never been so glad that I have a blog or otherwise I would have absolutely no way to express my gratitude...I am desperate for them to know how much this means to our family and I hope they are reading this!

Let me explain why I have been absolutely brought to my knees with gratitude....

Ever since we have been home, I have had fundraising in the back of my mind.  I knew that I needed to do it....and I knew that there just had to be a way but time was always so short now that we had the twins home.  Adjusting to two new children is not easy (and adjusting to family, pets, chickens, speaking English, and country living has undoubtedly been even harder for them!)  And, bonding takes concentrated and solid time spent interacting together....it can't be done in spare time(as if I had much of that anyway!)  So, in the beginning, I prioritized and chose the twins and the family.

Then, as our days began racing forward and we got our dates for our second trip and court, I realized I  *had* to get busy!  I struggled with attempting some of the past fundraiser ideas because I was afraid that many of the people who might participate would be the same ones who had already helped us.  The last thing I wanted to do was have our family and friends feel at all obligated or pressured to help when they had already been so very helpful and generous for our first trip. 

I decided that I would put extra focus on our business and list all of our ebay items and books that I've been slowly but surely working on getting up to auction. 

And then......well, remember what I said at the end of my last post?  I mentioned that we had a bit of a flood?

Our toilet flooded in our downstairs guest bedroom. We had recently renovated the entire room for my grandmother before she passed away....and now it was ruined.

 Also, the water did not stay localized in the bedroom or bathroom, but rather it carried on like a river and  poured into our library/ebay room and damaged many books and items that I had planned to sell.

 

We had to remove all of the carpet in the bedroom and threw away bags and bags of merchandise and books.  It was sickening and an *enormous* amount of work and time that I truly didn't have....and certainly didn't help with fundraising!

Thankfully, I saved my grandma's rocking chair......no apparent damage.  It has a great story that I may just decide to share someday. :)
Anyway, I am just now beginning to get caught back up from all of the other things that didn't get done while I was mucking out two flooded rooms.  <sigh>

So, today, this very day, was *the* day that I was going to just focus the whole day on getting auctions up and developing new ideas and new listings on etsy for our business.

 I started out at 4:45am to get ready to teach seminary.  My daughters and the other two truly wonderful teenagers in my class are all getting ready for a scripture bowl competition.  I taught a lesson and we had some fast and furious practice competition and then I headed on home to start the day. 

Let's see (just for fun) if I can think of all I did this morning....(well, just a few highlights perhaps!)

breakfast for the children,


boiling lettuce for our tadpoles,

fed the chickens and attempted to gradually entice them back into the very coop where many of their family and friends were murdered by some stray animal in the night (yeah, they're not buying it so far...),

 unloaded/reloaded the dishwasher,

broke up a tug of war between Eleanor and I. over bright red lip gloss that they were both eating (Amelia was just reading this over my shoulder and said, "oh my gosh, was that MINE???"),

reminded children one or two or three plus times that they needed to work on their chores,

helped Robertson and Amelia get started on their homeschool curriculum,

reminded the two of them one or two or ten times to focus on their work,

and finally, I was called outside to witness this interesting moment in country living:

Yes....these are bees that have decided to move...and I'm hoping that they are just planning to hang out on the outside of our chimney for a night before moving on...kind of like a short motel stay vs their new home. Pretty please!

And, yes, this was all before noon!  Ummmm, how many listings did I get done?

Absolutely none! :-(  I was so frustrated and feeling overwhelmed trying to figure out what in the world I was going to have to do to get some quiet uninterrupted time in order to work, and the day was already half gone....

Then, my daughter came into the house with her eyes all excited about the mail.....and there was our donation. 

I truly wish I had the words.....but often words just don't have the power and the emotion that real life can convey.  I am deeply, deeply grateful for the person or persons that care so much about the twins and our family.  I'm not sure if they know how many hours and hours I would have had to work and take time away from the children in order to earn the funds that were needed.  I am truly not even sure if I could have done it unless I had stayed up all night every night until Robert left. 

I am amazed, thankful, and in awe of the fact that our Heavenly Father has indeed made sure that our prayers were answered and that the twins will be ours on paper as well as in our hearts.  It is all so wonderful and humbling and overwhelming.  I often feel like I am unsure if I can believe it and that I am still in shock....This has been a day of a real life miracle for our family!!!!

To our anonymous donor....we will never ever forget the kindness that you extended to us and we will enjoy telling the twins throughout their whole life what an act of altruism that was to give so much and not ask for any recognition.  We will strive to do likewise and use this as an example of how we want to live and behave....just as our Savior would.  Thank you dear donor, we hope you hear and feel the great love and appreciation our family sends to you.
With our love,
The Walker Family