This weekend we had the mother of all yard sales. This was our first fundraiser for the adoption and quite possibly the last yard sale I will every do:0) Wow! I knew it was going to be a lot of work but didn't realize how exhausting it would be. I'm not sure having a garage sale in a yard that has the same slope as Stone Mountain was the smartest decision I have ever made. I'm sure the guys who helped us unpack the garage felt the same way.
Anyway, about 2 months ago I emailed everybody I have ever known and asked for any items in their house they were planning on getting rid of. David and I said we would come over with our trailer and pick it up and use it in our yard sale. And boy, did we get a response. We spent weekends and week nights hauling the trailer around the Atlanta area picking up everybody's stuff.
Here is my garage the morning before of the sale. And yes, both David and I could park in here before we got all the donations.
Here's the formal living room with books, games, and boxes of clothes. I believe I had at least 100 boxes in my house full of mostly clothes.
Here are all the clothes that would end up in those boxes. David decided to bring all the bags of clothes into the dining room for sorting (along with the books, CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes). He then jumped on a plane headed for Baltimore as quickly as he could. Grrrr!
Before we started all this I asked God to open or clothes the doors for me. Actually, I was hoping for an email from the Almighty containing step by step directions for carrying out this adoption. But seeing as how that didn't happen, I just prayed that God's will would be done. If He wanted this adoption to take place I knew He would provide a way. When I sent the email out I figured we would get the random bag of kid's clothes and maybe a few dirty kid's toys. I never expected all this.
Or this,
I was completely overwhelmed, but in a good way!
Sooooo many people came out to help. There is no way we could have done it without them. There were people unloading boxes, moving furniture, organizing clothes, and taking up money. During the middle of the day I zoned out and couldn't figure out what I should be doing. I sort of just stood there in awe. I had to ask my buddies to tell me what to do. They were the glue that held the yard sale together.
So, all in all, the yard sale was a success. Some of the nicer items donated I sold earlier on Craig's List. So with the Craig's List money and the yard sale we made..................................................................
$4000!!!
That's double what we prayed for. God truly blessed us!
I want to thank everyone who donated items and also those who helped out with the yard sale. I am thankful beyond belief. It's hard to believe that people would take time out of their busy schedule to come and help us raise money to bring out little boy home. But they did. And we couldn't have done it without them.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
