Monday, September 13, 2010

our both hands project!


i cannot even begin to tell you how awesome this weekend's project went! we were pretty nervous all week leading up to it because of the 70% chance for thunderstorms and we were also worried that we had forgotten to prepare for certain details, but thankfully it went off without a hitch!!

ryan and i both got up around 5:30 am on saturday morning, and headed down to mrs. lucille's {our widow} house around 7:00 am. as we were driving towards her house, the rain started coming down pretty good, but the closer we got to her house, the more it slowed down. we said one more last prayer in the car for the rain to be held back so we could work and we got started setting up. by around 7:30 am, my dad and mom were arriving with our pop-up tent/project headquarters. literally, as soon as they parked on the street, the clouds opened up and it began to pour! we all grabbed a poncho and i started to worry that our day was pretty much over before it started. however, around 8:00 a.m. when our team starting showing up, we were delighted that the rain had pretty much stopped. those of us who had gotten there early were wet, but everyone else missed the storm so it worked out nicely!

after gathering for some quick introductions, prayers, pictures and instructions from our fearless project foreman, dan, we were ready to get to work. here's the first group shots of the day:

both hands - one for the orphan & one for the widow!!

our goal for the day was to clean out as much of mrs. lucille's 2 homes as possible. since her husband died over 10 years ago, mrs. lucille began collecting lots of stuff in both the house she lives in and the house she owns next door. our biggest focus was to get the basement of her house next door cleaned out because it was full from floor to ceiling with boxes. we also wanted to get rid of a large pile of trash from the back yard, clean out the attic in the home she lives in, and clean out as much stuff from the other rooms as possible.

sweet mrs. lucille was pretty nervous about having a big group of strangers going through her belongings but she did pretty darn well all things considered. we were thankful that she had support in the way of family and friends to be with her along this journey. honestly, these pictures do not do the project justice! we had a lot of stuff standing in our way but our team was very determined, joyful and awesome to serve alongside. here are some shots of our stellar team in action:












after all was said and done, we ended up filling 7 dumpsters - 3 that were 30 yards, 3 that were 20 yards and 1 that was 25 yards!! now that's A LOT of stuff gone! throughout the day, we had around 60 volunteers stop by and help out mrs. lucille and bring us one step closer to our sweet baby :) here's a picture of our afternoon crew and some of the finished off dumpsters:



if you came out to help or have given financially to sponsor us or one of our team members, THANK YOU! you made a huge difference in the lives of 2 families.




if you'd like to still donate towards our both hands project/adoption fund, it's not too late! our matching grant through lifesong for orphans is open until october 8th. we are estimating that we need at least another $4000 to finish off our adoption so any amount of support is very much appreciated! you can give a tax-deductible donation by mailing a check to lifesong {info at the top right sidebar} or by donating online through lifesong's project website here {just scroll to our picture and use the donate button next to our project details!}

**sweet baby, we're coming for you! and hopefully sooner than later!! we can't wait to tell you all the tales of our awesome adventures to bring you home. you may not have grown in my body, but God sure is growing you in my heart!

**Lord, thank you for an awesome day, an awesome opportunity, and an awesome way to be your hands and feet to a widow in our community. You have once again far exceeded what we deserve or expect! blessed be Your name!!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Les,
Thanks so much for sharing pictures and stories about the day. I wish we could have physically helped you, but glad we can help a little in other ways! Hoping I can have lunch with you on my way to Lexington sometime in October. I'll let you know!

lesli said...

YES, lunch would be amazing :) I miss you. Please start a blog so I can know about your life too. It's not the same as the good ole HOO days, but I'd settle for that!

Ginny said...

I loved hearing about this "event" last night and I loved reading about your heart behind it (once again on this blog) today! What an awesome ministry!!! I look forward to getting to know you better as we are in community together! Love, Ginny