LEMON-AID Stand

There is not a day goes by, that our children don't speak about adoption. Most frequently, our conversations involve their brother.. what he might be like, how old he might be, how he will share our room with our sweet JoJo.

Inevitably, the conversation turns to WHEN our newest family member will enter into our home and call it HIS. We are all so very excited and anxious for the day that our precious boy will eat, sleep, play,  love, pick fights with sometimes, and BE HERE with us!

And sometimes, the conversation even leads to the financial aspect of adoption. Our eldest fair-headed one has a knack for being on top of things. She is in the know.. about, well everything. She is wildly confident and is a wonderful planner. Her mind articulates all kinds of scenarios, solves problems with ease, and best of all.. she is a dreamer!

When this girl gets an idea in her head, there is NO STOPPING her! Her bravery amazes me, and I wish I had half her self-esteem and confidence.

This morning, like so many other mornings, she sat at the table doodling. (Sorry. We are the reason all the forests and trees are cut down everywhere. I promise we will start planting trees somewhere to make up for all the paper this crafty kid goes through.)

And while she is doodling, she is rattling off all these grand plans left and right. The words flow off her tongue a mile a minute, while her tone fluctuates with excitement at all the right moments.

She's found the perfect solution to bring her brother home. She is going to have a LEMONADE STAND! Hard at work, the crayons and markers create beautiful images on the paper in front of her.

(With a tiny bit of help from Mom on making the words all fit with proper justification and such.)

We spend the rest of our day much like all other summer days. In the blistering Texas sun but making sure to keep cool in a neighborhood pool where we are LITERALLY the only ones in the pool for most of the afternoon.

We stop by the store on the way home to pick up a few supplies for our grand LEMONADE STAND adventure. And every chance my children get, they chirp to those passing by about our plans. They excitedly share about the boy they will share all their toys, time and love with. They gush over how they can't wait to help bring their brother home with the sales from this endeavor.

With little time to spare before the coming-home-from-work traffic hits our neighborhood, we prepare our Fresh Squeezed (straight from the Country-Time container) lemonade. We make sure to have all our supplies out and ready.

Then, the fun began!

The girls rushed to hold the signs advertising our "LEMON- AID" stand to each car that passed by!

I just prayed it wouldn't be a huge flop, and the girls would get just a couple of cars to stop.

Several minutes passed. We had our first customer. The girls ambushed politely asked him if he'd like a cup of lemonade.

He did.

Chattering a mile a minute, they enthusiastically explained how they will have a new brother soon because we are adopting! They explained how they wanted to have a "LEMON-AID" stand to help bring their brother home!

(I fought back the ugly cry. I actually fought it back the whole day. It snuck out a time or two throughout the poster preparing, and the shopping.. and the swimming. And I've realized I need someone to teach my the art of the "Pretty Cry." For pete's sake.. I'm going to be crying lots of big emotional tears. There will be lots of FEELS throughout this process. I can't be breaking down in a completely hideous face  everytime the FEELS overwhelm me in public!)

The man laid $7 down in our collection box. AMAZING! Which, also kind of set the bar high for future customers. I may have had to remind the girls that our most generous customers were free to give as they wished.. and not feel obligated to fork over $7 for some water-downed CountryTime mix.

The girls worked and worked. They sprinted to pick up a sign each time they heard the faintest sound of a car. With eager grins, they presented the signs advertising a sweet, refreshing beverage.

Occasionally, a car would stop. But there were others that just whizzed right by. (From henceforth and forevermore, I vow to stop at EVERY SINGLE LEMONADE STAND from here to kingdom come!) Our expressive four-year-old found great delight and pleasure from throwing her sign on the ground at every failed attempt to attract customers to our tart beverages. And with each person that did stop, we had the chance to chat with neighbors we never even knew lived down or around, or a street over from us. We had the chance to chat adoption, and orphan care, and our Faith. And we did it together. As a family. With my kids more than eagerly serving to bring their brother home.

As the evening wore on and nighttime drew closer, my little sales-people were ever so polite to keep checking product quality. Being sure to do a taste check here and there, they wanted to make sure that our product was of utmost greatness to serve to the general public.

We called it a night and closed up shop just as traffic slowed to a near trickle through the neighborhood.

 After a long evening in the hot sun, the kids enjoyed running through the sprinkler. The water cooled them and only made the excitement over the evening that much more palpable.

And I vowed to want to ALWAYS believe in my little dreamer girl. I want to keep encouraging her and the ways she dreams up ways of bringing her newest sibling into this family. I want to continue to remind her that her ideas are important, they are valued!

(And I may or may not want to keep cashing in on that brilliant mind and killer smile of hers... which might have raked in over $100 this evening! We are so grateful to God for the very generous people that stopped by our little stand! Thank you for loving our family and loving our sweet boy that we just can't wait to welcome home!)