Big Day Today

In my previous post about our BBQ, I mentioned that we were $500 away from our first big goal. Today, we move on to the next goal....

We had a check in our mailbox today for $500! Thank You Lord!

This is such an amazing journey.

BBQ

Yesterday was such a good day. We are constanly blown away by God and how he uses people to help us out. He even uses BBQ...and it was really, really good. I consider myself an expert on eating BBQ and my very sensitive and refined tastes judge this bbq to be beautiful to the taste.

There two basic things about the day that really humbled us. One was that we made just over $2200! We were expecting around $1200. There were several peopl who voluntarily paid WAY more for their BBQ than the $6 we were charging. That was very humbling. So, with that amount we are roughly $500 away from our first goal of $7300.

So we are so thankful that God provided for us financially again and proved to me that my faith is pretty small....why can't I learn?

The second that blew me away was the people who served us. It is one thing to see money come in but it is such a humbling thing to see your friends give so much of themselves. Thanks to Neal, Joel, Hunter, Krystal, Walt, Andrew, Amber, Cory, Matt, Megan, Sara, Katelyn, Jimmy, who worked all day cutting meat, holding signs, setting up, cleaning up, serving people...YOU loved us well.

Then there are the pastors of Crossopint Church, Jason, Jeremy, and Ken who gave us free reign of the church facility and helped us promote the BBQ. Great friends and pastors!

Finally the Bennetts a.k.a "Slap Yo Mama BBQ", from Rock Hill SC. Jim, Annette, Samual and David (also a student at CLemson). They drove 2 hours, slept in the church parking lot cooked the meat, worked all day Saturday then drove home. THAT IS CRAZY! But it was such a gift of love towards us.

We are thankful. So thankful. And, just a little closer...

Emily's Lemonade Stand: The Georgia Extension and a Good Reminder

It is so cool how life and faith work...

I got a call from my sister last night (Thursday). Her two sons, Caleb (10) and Ben (8), have decided that they want to do a lemonade stand to help us out. They will be up and running Saturday, April 24 (Dana's birthday) starting around 2 p.m.

WHAT GREAT COUSINS! Thanks Caleb and Ben!

We continue to be humbled by all the ways that God is filling in all the blank pages of this story with His faithfulness. He really is good.

On another note I had a great moment in prayer this week. It has been so easy to anxious about the financial side of all this. It really does seem impossible at times. So I have spent a good bit of time praying for that part of the process. A couple of nights ago, as I was praying, I realized that I have spent much more time praying for the $$ than I have for the child who will come into our family. OUCH.

It was a great reminder that this about a life, a child, a Hunt that is on the way and not money.

I pray that we will love our coming child now more than the money we need to pay for the process. Please pray that with us.

doug

Notarization and Gifts of Grace and BBQ

Just over a week ago all 4 of us headed to the bank to sign, get notarized, sign, get notarized...over and over and over and over. It was all of our contracts etc. for our adoption agency, AGCI. It felt like a very non-exciting moment but I kept reminding myself that each time we signed we were one tiny step closer to bringing home our new daughter/son.

We also sent out a batch of letters in our first big step in raising funds. That is such "faith moment" for us.

Along side of that we have received a few very unexpected gifts of grace from surprising places. It is very humbling to be loved by people...

We do have another great fundraising event in a couple of weeks. A student in our ministry at BCM has a dad who competes in BBQ contests. He has offered to come to Clemson and help us by putting on BBQ fundraiser. In the process our church, Crosspoint, has offered to support our BBQ by allowing us to hold the event in the church parking lot and letting us sell tickets at the church.

If you are anywhere in the Clemson area on May 1 from 11:30 am -2:00 pm you should come by Crosspoint Church on Hwy 123 and buy a BBQ sandwich. If you can't come but would still like to make a donation you can either do that on-line through the button on this blog or send it through the mail to:

Doug Hunt
416 Rock Creek Rd
Clemson, SC. 29631

Let's Eat!

The Lemonade Stand for Ethiopia

It has come and gone...Emily's Lemonade Stand. It was an amazing day of grace, being a proud father, having a lot of fun, seeing the Lord provide. It was great seeing friends, college students, kids, strangers, neighbors, all take part. Even the mail man delivered a couple of envelopes that had money from out of town friends that were to Emily and for her lemonade. I haven't figure out how to mail those cups of lemonade yet...

Her stand was open from 1:30-4:30.
When we were all done and counted the money there was $447.85! BOOM! Thank you Father.

Best part of the day was when we were about to count the money. Emily prayed out loud and said, "Thank You for answering my prayers". Before she counted the money, she knew God had answered her prayers.

What a day...

Our child from Ethiopia, that is not even here yet, has such a wonderful big sister! Can't wait for the day I get to tell him/her about the lemonade stand.

Online Donations

For those of you not able to make it to the Lemonade Stand but would like to make a donation towards our adoption, you can now do that online through paypal. Just use the button on the right side of our blog.

Thanks,

Shelley

Orientation

This past Monday we had our “orientation phone call” with our agency, AGCI. Our agency has been awesome. Very helpful. Very encouraging.

The point of this phone call was to walk us through the basics of everything that the process involves. They sent us a 40 page document that explains everything that is going to happen, several things to sign, a schedule of fees, plus information about Ethiopia.

It could be very easy to be overwhelmed right now as we think about all that has to happen but I keep coming back to one thought that helps me not worry…there is a child that the Lord has prepared to be in our family. So, every signature we put on a piece of paper, every form that gets the notary stamp, every dollar that Emily makes in her lemonade stand moves us closer to that child being in our home.

Here is what is happening right now:
1) We have to sign and notarize several forms that go to our agency.
2) We have to come up with the agency fee plus a couple of other smaller fees that amount to a little over $7000.
3) We will complete 10hrs of online adoption education.
4) Build a lemonade stand for Emily.

Shelley and I have reading a great book that we recommend to anyone that would like to pursue a deeper understanding of adoption from a theological and practical perspective.

Adopted for Life, by Russell D. Moore

You can also learn more about our adoption agency at

www.allgodschildren.org

Please let us know if we can answer any questions for you. Thanks for stopping by!