I've been sitting here for awhile, typing and then deleting...trying to come up with the best intro for this, and am having no luck. I don't even know where to start! This might be a long post...you might want to have a mug of tea with you before you start reading...
As you know, this past weekend was the garage sale. When we got to the church on Thursday night to help price and sort, Mike and I both stood in the doorway for a second, totally blown away at the amount of stuff that we saw. It was truly shocking, I kid you not. Items were everywhere...covering the main floor, up the stairs, on the landing, up more stairs, and on the second floor. This amount did not include the three drop off loads that were brought later on, nor the three truck and trailer loads that were still in our basement and in the house of the other couple who is adopting. Insane. I will be the first to tell you that it was a little (and at times, a lot) overwhelming at times. But, at the end of that night...I was reminded of the old hymn lyrics of "Count your blessings, name them one by one".
To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect the first day of the sale. I kinda figured that we would pull everything out there, have moments of busyness and then those moments of no one, and that it would kinda go on in that pattern. However, that "on and off" crowd was not the case. The hours we had set for Friday was 9:30am-5:30pm, but as we pulled things out of church in the wee hours of the morning, people started to pull into the parking lot and look around. By 8:05am, we had made our first sale (a $2 item) and until the last item was put into the church that night at 6:10pm, we had no less that 5 people looking around. At one point, we had over 30 people looking around and a line of 5 people waiting to pay. I have NEVER seen a garage sale like this. It was crazy. But, we made over $2000 on Friday. Saturday was a little slower, but not much. We still saw a very steady crowd of people...our first item sold almost right away. We made almost $1800 that day. So total, we made almost $4000 in two days. Split between the two families that are adopting, we are each able to add almost $2000 to our adoption accounts.
People's love and support were breath-taking. My parents spent the whole weekend in Holland, selling things and running the cash box, helping to load and unload items. A friend from church made and sold egg rolls and fried rice during the lunch hours. A woman in our small group made and sold cupcakes and another woman from our small group made and sold headbands. Friends and family donated items and then stayed to help us price and organize them! Two other couples, also from our small group, gave three days of their time to organize, sort, move, and sell. People from church came to look around and buy items, then came back with more items to sell! Most of the customers who we didn't know were kind and supportive of the reason we were there. People gave and smiled. Every dollar was a blessing. It was a crazy, busy, very exhausting, and at points rainy, two days but it was nothing less that incredible.
The amount that is being added to our adoption account is amazing. Who makes almost $4000 from a garage sale?? The total amount that we now have in our account isn't enough for us to send it in with all the paper work, but we are now $2000 closer than we were Friday morning. We are $2000 closer to holding our baby in our arms and being able to kiss their precious cheeks...$2000 closer to being a family of three with our sweet baby at home. I can't wait for that day.
The Lord showed me what it means to be a cheerful giver this weekend. He showed me that people are all around us, loving and supporting. He showed me that He provides. He showed me that He is gracious, and patient, and 100% in control, even when I think I should be the one in charge. He taught me so much, and I am humbled and thankful for all of it. I am so thankful to everyone who prayed for us, donated items, gave of their time, supported, and blessed us. These typed words will never fully express that. Mike and I thank the Lord for each of you...this journey is hard and scary, but your love and support is amazing. Thank you for being a part of our family.
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