Our big yard sale is finally finished! Well, sort of...if you don't count all the tables and piles all over our carport of stuff we have no idea what to do with now since it didn't sell! Its been a very long two weeks of preparing...sending out requests for donations, picking up donations, making signs and sorting through bags and bags of items. Many many hours of sorting in the heat. I started setting up on Wednesday and I had a stream of people coming throughout the week to look and shop even though the sale wasn't till Saturday...so it definitely feels like we just finished up with an exhausting 4 day yard sale!
Overall, we made about $320 dollars from the yard sale. Its not a huge amount of money, but its something. Dan and I are glad that we did it...we really felt like we worked as hard as we possibly could have. The biggest blessings of the yard sale wasn't even the money we made but the people who offered to help by giving us items, bringing tables and the few people who came out to support us at the yard sale. A good friend of Dan's blessed us by coming out the night before to help carry all the heavy filled tables out around the yard, which was something this pregnant mama just could not have handled doing after all the days of working to get ready...I didn't have much left at that point. And then on yard sale day, a couple wonderful friends came out in that oppressive heat and brought all their children to "shop" at our yard sale! They bought lots of stuff and gave so generously from their hearts...Dan and I were so very blessed by their being there.
So...an adoption yard sale. We've been there...we've done that...and we're tired! Dan and I had a lot of conversations after the sale...what should we do instead? This was so incredibly hard and time consuming and it probably didn't bring in enough to be worth doing again...so what else? We've already tried T-Shirt sales, our puzzle fundraiser and now this.
We have so much to raise. Its been kind of weighing on me. Its funny how you can get caught up on little specifics. An example: It will cost us about $25,000 to bring Joseph home. The country we are adopting him from is a hague country and our home study agency is not hague accredited so we need to have our international adoption agency "review" our home study for us. This used to cost $250 to have that done. The price has now gone up to $500. $500 just to look over our homestudy! I've been having a really hard time with this for some reason. $250 seemed ok but for some reason adding an additional $250 to the cost just overwhelmed me. We have so many other important expenses and it just seems so expensive for such a little thing.
God knows where we are and He definitely wanted to show us that He has it covered...and He used my little obsession with the extra $250 fee to show me He will call others and it will all work out. Here I am freaking about an extra $250 and an amazing friend, out of nowhere, handed me exactly $250. Absolutely amazing. It was like the reassurance and pick-me-up that we needed after all that yard sale work. The exact amount extra for reviewing our home study. Ok, God...I'll stop worrying about it ;)
Then we get home and check the mail...My mother-in-law has been collecting her $5 bills...every time she has a $5 bill, she puts it aside for Joseph. Doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Its only $5. But she gathered up all the $5 bills she had put aside so far and put it into a check for us. That check was $220 !! What an amazing and thoughtful gift. That was $470 in one day.
And I haven't even gotten to tell you about the wonderful meeting we had with our parish priest about our adoption the day after our yard sale...I just don't think I can fit this many blessings into one post! I'll have to write a little post about that later.
So...we've been crawling along and wondering how we are ever going to be able to climb this mountain and God is right there. He is calling people to help us over each hurdle. I am beyond blessed today. It is so scary to know we have so much money to raise but it is so amazing to see God call people to help us do this. Thank you so much to all those that have heard God call them to help and have made the decision to do so!
God is good...and so are the people He has placed around us.
Thank you for all the help...we pray each night for all of the people that have helped in some way to bring Joseph home.
Blessings,
Kimberly
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