Emma's Garage Sale

As I sit here, I am completely in awe of how the Lord had His hands on our efforts this weekend to raise support to bring our Emma home.  Over the last 2-3 weeks, treasures have been pouring in to our garage.  Each day I would come home to find bags, boxes, furniture and more stacked to the ceiling of our garage.  Sometimes I would know who had been so generous, other times, I had not a clue.  But to all of those kind people, we are thankful.  I knew that we would have some AWESOME merchandise for our sale because of our gracious friends and family.  Now, everyone kept telling me not to get too excited or have too high of expectations because there were several things NOT working in our favor.  First of all, it was not the first weekend in the month and several people told me this would automatically cause trouble.  Second of all, the forecast looked fairly grim as well.  40% chance of rain was predicted for sale time.  Not so pleasant!!! Anyway, I spent the week just in prayer that God would just work these hiccups out as only He could.  Well, I am happy to report that He provided in a major way for us and blessed our sale far beyond our wildest dreams!!!!  As Aunt Carolyn, Mom, J, some sweet friends and I were attempting to get things organized on Friday morning (like 7:30 am), people started flooding in to our yard...mind you, the garage sale was set to begin the next morning at 6am.  Well, with things in no real order and prices made up on the fly, we started selling things left and right.  It was chaos, but we just went with it.  As the last person left at 9:30 pm with flashlights in hand, I thanked Jesus for providing so many shoppers and I just assumed that was His way of providing since rain was still in the forecast.  We made it to bed finally, sore, tired, and sunburned.  When we got outside at 5:15 the next morning, the air was damp and I didn't really know what the day would bring.  People started arriving and did their shopping by the light of their cell phones.  The sun came up and the sky was clear and GORGEOUS!!!! It was a perfect day and the shoppers continued to flood our little sale.  By noon, there were only a few items left.  One of the last people shopping mentioned that her church just down the road was having a garage sale fundraiser the next weekend for a mission trip fundraiser.  We got in touch with the youth minister who brought his trailer and picked up the remainder of our things.  YEAH!!!!  We were so overwhelmed by how generous some people were and are so very thankful that because of this weekend's efforts, we are that much closer to our Emma!!! We are excited to report that with the donations we had received before the sale, and with the proceeds from the sale, we are a little more than 20% funded!!!!

There are so many people who made this weekend possible.  Countless people donated items and got the word out about the sale.  Our sweet friends Stacy Wallace, Louise Meyer, and Lauren Hutto came and sorted things and got everything organized.  My precious best friend Kristen (in the white hat below) worked her tail off and is the queen of garage sales! We seriously could not have made it without her!!!! My Mom, Dad, and Aunt Carolyn were absolute troopers and "thank you" is simply not enough.  They are amazing!!!!  Wesley Walton and his precious mom Dawn brought us dinner and Wesley entertained EK for HOURS!!!! He even slept in our driveway to protect the goods on Friday night! AMAZING!!!!  Taylor and Lauren from my d-group came to help for a while as well.  Countless people were praying for this weekend's success, and we could feel it!!!! We are so blessed to have so many people willing to walk alongside us in this journey!!!!

Sweet Joanna Keith and Elleigh took Ella Kate with them for donuts and a fun play date while we were super busy.  That was such a huge help!!!

Mrs. Mary Anna took Walker to Columbus for several days which was so helpful. I love my little guy, but we were a lot more efficient without the little monkey getting in to anything and everything.  From the looks of things, he had quite a fun time at Nana's!!!!!! Thank you so much to Nana and Pop....they will sleep well this week, no doubt!!!!

   

Our garage sale was definitely a team effort and we so appreciate all of the people who helped to make Emma's sale such a huge success!!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!