Most of you regular readers know that we had a HUGE yard sale last month as a fundraiser for our adoption. I had been collecting loads of donations for weeks. Our garage was full, almost to the brim. It was really quite ridiculous (just ask those who came to help!). The day before our yard sale was the day that the false report came out that Russia had indeed suspended adoptions. Although the information was false, there was still a real possibility that they would decide to suspend. I had had a sinus infection all week and had no time to see my doctor. I was exhausted physically and emotionally. I did not care about the yard sale or anything else. If cancelling it had been an option, I would have.
As it was, the yard sale was huge. Jon and I got up at 5 am and began setting up at 6. An hour and a half later the yard and driveway were full of tables and they all had items on them, but the garage didn't look like it had been touched. We truly had SO MUCH STUFF! Would a visual help? I took these three pictures just before 8 am.
I wish you could see what the garage looked like at this point. We could walk in it (finally), but there was still so much stuff in there!
We had eight clothes racks completely full...baby girl, baby boy, older girl, older boy, mens, womens...you get the idea. We also had 2 couches, 2 chairs, a dishwasher, a desk, 3 table & chair sets, a coffee table...
Not to mention several bikes, lots of baby and toddler items, strollers, scooters and TONS of books that we set up in the garage.
It was quite a spectacle. My yard looked like a consignment store. We had lots of shoppers on Friday. Saturday was pretty slow since we were competing with a neighborhood yard sale not far from us. But it was still a very successful yard sale...to the tune of...
$1,800!!
Our friends adopting from Ethiopia were advised to bump up all their fundraisers since they had received their referral and will soon be traveling. They had also been collecting donations for a yard sale fundraiser. Their yard sale wound up being the weekend following ours. A friend of theirs offered to host the yard sale at her home since her very large neighborhood was having a huge yard sale that weekend. Rain had been in the forecast all week, but we were still praying it would hold off. We set everything up the night before the sale and covered it all with tarps. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, it started raining. I woke up to rain. I prayed that God would bless the yard sale anyway and that He would send shoppers. When I arrived at the yard sale shortly after 7 am, I could not believe my eyes...everything was soaking wet!
And. There. Were. Shoppers!
People had been shopping since 6:45 am in the pouring down rain! I'm not talking about a light drizzle here...there was thunder and lightning and solid DOWNPOUR!!! And we had people shopping until early afternoon! It was simply amazing!
We had a short break from the rain so I ran out and snapped some pictures before it started again. By the time I took these, we had already sold SO MUCH STUFF!!
Caleb, Jenna, Abbi and Carrington ran the baked goods table.
They did a fabulous job!
Even with the rain, the yard sale raised $1,300!
Praise be to God Almighty
who repeatedly exceeds our expectations!
No comments:
Post a Comment