A Fragrant Home

Music playing, candles burning, yummy snacks, lovely scents filling the room with people shopping and visiting and generally having a jolly good time working together to help two families get closer to being able to adopt...that has been largely what the last couple of days have been like.  My niece Leah is leaving her Party Lite business behind as she looks forward to welcoming her second child, and as a bon voyage of sorts we decided to throw a two day open house fund raising event.  What an amazing two days of tasting and seeing the goodness of our Lord in a fragrant home! Want to see some pictures?

The lovely hostess, my niece Leah (in the middle):

with my daughter MJ and niece Carrie 

The two soon-to-be Mommies

Amanda Marl on the left and Angie Shubin on the right

These are two beautiful, Jesus loving people and I'm honored to have them as friends.

 

Leah had a lot of stock to sell off at great prices:

 

We had some yummy dessert...at least I was told they were yummy

 delicious cider...this I personally had more than one mug of

 and children to show the grown ups that food is as fun as candles
in case we didn't know :-)

Anyone ready for the "what scent is that" game?

Leah set up a raffle.  

Basket One was donated by Bob's Red Mill

Basket Two was a Party Lite assortment.

Also shown on this table were the donation jars my girls crafted.

A beautiful nativity scene just like this one came home with us...

thank you dear husband of mine :-).

All three of my sisters came to shop...yeah for sisters!

Linda on the left, my MJ in the middle, and Patti on the right.

and my sister Mary (on the left) with a friend she brought...yippee for friends!

Our dear friend Brenda,who just returned from living in Europe for the past few months, was hugged on by all when she showed up...so good to have you home Brenda!  I LOVED getting to hang out and visit with everybody who came.

Leah also made up these party favors for each guest, filled with candles and candy and a note encouraging the receivers to fill it with change and return it to either the Marls or the Shubins.

Leah and her brother Josiah worked together to create these lovely yule logs to raise funds specifically for the Marls.  There is a limited number of these homemade goodies available still for sale at Exodus Books (which just happens to be owned by their brother Eli and is a wonderful resource...check out his store...I believe he also carries the advent books shown here that were written by our good friends Doug and Amy Hayes.)

Angie and Melita modeling "simply love" shirts 

which Angie is taking pre-orders for...

see her blog for more details

Those of us involved in putting this sale together are enjoying a day of rest and worship today, and our hearts are filled with gratitude to God.  The final totals are not calculated since any internet sales cannot be seen until tomorrow, but we already know from what we can count that our expectations were exceeded once again.  This is not always the case in fund raising, as anyone who has ever done it probably knows, but when it does, there is a grace-filled humbling that comes with it, not to mention excitement and general feelings of elation, and we're thanking the Lord who orchestrated this in its every detail.  

THANK YOU to everyone who came or played a part in this event...prayers, gifts, sales, everything was worked together by our mighty and gracious God to bring two more families closer to the place of being able to graft little ones into theirs.

I'm off to make pop corn and enjoy some time of reading a-loud to my kiddos...thanks for stopping by :-)