God is so good! We had a fantastic yard sale this past weekend. With the help from friends and family who donated money, goods, and time, we were able to raise OVER $1400. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend, better location, better buyers, or a better group of friends. The surplus of donations we had of things to sell was amazing. We were able to underprice pretty much everything and still raise the money. Not to mention, we hauled off two truckloads of leftovers that we took to the seminary's share shop and an apartment complex which houses several of Raleigh's refugee families.
I have definitely learned some things from having my first "big girl" yard sale. Having yard sales as an adult are very different than when my parents had yard sales and I helped them prepare for it. Who knew this much went into preparing for a sale?! I definitely felt like I could be on the show "Hoarders" last week. I was stuck in the garage getting everything ready because of the torrential downpour of rain outside. Luckily I had friends to keep me sane. I have a focus problem when I face overwhelming tasks, but my friends helped me to dig right in. When it boiled down to it...Saturday was great and the Lord showed His absolute love for orphans through His provision this weekend.
I think my highlight of the yard sale was watching some of the neighborhood kids bringing their own items and donating them to our sale. One little boy, Jonah, especially touched my heart. He is adopted from Russia and probably about 8 or 9 years old. He brought his old tricycle to donate. He came back a few hours later to see if anyone had purchased it. I told him with great enthusiasm we had sold it and he had been so helpful with our sale. He was excited and started looking around for things he could buy. He picked up a candle holder marked $1 and pulled out his one dollar bill and gave it to me. He looked at me and said, "I want to get this to give to my mom. This yard sale is for a good cause." I can't help but think he felt connected to the sale in some way because of his adoption. It was such a blessing to see him and have his help along with the other boys. Blake, Nathan, and Jonah were all our "Junior Volunteers." They did a great job of guarding our money.
What a blessing to see God at work in our adoption. We have met our first monetary goal and can now send off our agency fee. Praise God.
