Weekend Recap

Wow! Now that I have recovered a little bit from yesterday's yard sale extravaganza, I thought I'd share a few pictures!

The fun really started on Friday. As soon as work was out, the sorting, pricing, and loading began! Thankfully, we had tackled a lot of the sorting and pricing earlier in the week. My sister, Joanna, and my mom-in-law, Lois, came over a few times to help with this massive job, along with my faithful friend, Kristy. I'm afraid I owe them all BIG TIME after this week!

My wonderful friends knew that I would need to have some fun in order to keep the stress-monster from taking over, so we headed out for dinner. Our dear friends Chad and Rachel went with us, even though Rachel was still recovering from the flu (she is covering her mouth so as not to spread all her germs to us!!!). After dinner, they helped us out so much by loading and letting us use their trailer. I cannot imagine how many trips it would have taken us if we'd only had our Malibu...

For weeks we had been praying for good weather for the day of the sale. God was so gracious to us and blessed us with a beautiful, sunny day! It had rained all week, but look at that sky! It was so amazing. We had the sale in the parking lot at our church, which turned out to be a good thing because we had a TON of stuff! People gave so generously and we ended up with way more than we ever thought we would have.

The day started out early - we were up by 5am and out the door by 5:30am. For those who know me...this was pretty much a miracle in itself :)

The sale was supposed to start at 8am, but people started coming at about 7:20am and even though we didn't have stuff all set out yet, they started shopping! We were amazingly busy all morning long, and once the stress of setting up was over, we pretty much just sat and took people's money. And drank mountain dew to stay awake!

It was a long day, an exhausting day, but a day that I will never forget. On the way home, I burst into tears as I reflected on God's goodness and the unbelievable friends and family that we have. It was humbling and truly the biggest blessing ever to be cared for and loved in this way. Saying "thank you" to these people seems so inadequate.

As Kristy, Brad, Chad and I sat around at our house after the sale counting the money, our mouths dropped open as we realized how much we had raised for the adoption. It was a shock, to say the least! Brad and I were blown away. We were talking today on the way to church about a time just over a year ago when we were sitting at our kitchen table, looking at the adoption fees, and looking at our budget, and wondering how in the world we would ever be able to pay them. It seemed impossible...but we know that with God, nothing is impossible! Our faith has been absolutely changed by this experience as we have seen time and time again that He has proven Himself faithful.

To anyone who reads this and was part of our sale in any way - if you donated items, or baked goodies, or came and bought stuff, or gave us a donation, or prayed for good weather, or encouraged us about the adoption...thank you. You are forever a part of our family's story, and I cannot wait to tell our child about all the people that helped us bring them home.