Our first yardsale fundraiser

So this past Sat, we had our first yardsale fundraiser. It. was. CRAZY...but oh, so wonderful as well. The best part was that God was written all over this sale (as He is everything :). We started planning for this yardsale back in Nov of last year. We had heard of so many adoptive families that had raised  money for their adoption funds with a yardsale. I thought that was a great and fairly "easy" thing to do, but we didn't have that much "stuff" for a yardsale. So, I put the word out on fb and around our church that if anyone was cleaning out for the New Year and getting rid of some stuff to let us know and we would be happy to come by and pick up any unwanted items. Well, we quickly learned that people wanted to help! What a blessing our family, friends, and church family were in providing donated yardsale items. My awesome parents happily let us take over  half of their garage to use as storage for our yardsale items. Well, by the end of Jan we slowly began taking over the other half as well. By the time our sale came around we had the entire garage filled- wall to wall, and floor to ceiling. I so wish I had taken a picture of it, but I forgot. :( We were blessed.

About three weeks before the yardsale we spent almost all day every Sat, organizing and pricing items. You should have seen the driveway- it looked like we were hoarders. haha We would have people drive by and slow down wondering what was going on. ;) The week before the yardsale the weather forecast did not look promising. It was predicitng a lot of rain and thunderstorms for our yardsale day. We were trying to be hopeful, knowing we could always do it another weekend, but ads had already gone out and a lot of work had been done. The Thurs before the sale Wes went around the area putting up signs advertising the yardsale. As soon as he had gotten the first sign hammered into the ground, he got back in his car, and it would not start. *sigh* (Oh, and it sarted raining). This is just three weeks after his car stopped on the interstate due to a broken belt. So, he had to once again have it towed. At this point I think my hubs was feeling a little disheartened, but he did not let it bother him too much. Well, Fri afternoon and night was spent doing more pricing and organizing. We wound up spending the night at my parents house, since we didn't go to bed until 12:00 and had planned on waking up at 5:00 to start setting up.

So, the morning of the sale I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. I really thought no one was going to come to the yardsale. After all this work, I just wanted people to atleast come. Well, they came! At 5:45 a.m.(while it was still dark), they came- lots of them!! I had no idea yardsale shoppers were so intense- I mean, this was like a sport to them. They came prepared, with their flashlights! I guess when we advertised a "HUGE" sale, they took notice. Wes had only gotten out there at 5:15 to start setting up, so when people came we still had stuff piled in the garage up to the ceiling. I thought we were in over our heads, but my awesome Dad quickly woke up after seeing the look on my face when I so kindly said, "HURRY!!" and come help. :) Soon my awesome mom in law arrived and was an amazing help getting stuff out and helping to take money. And my awesome mom kept our little bit happy and entertained inside. After E woke up, he came outside excited about helping with the yardsale, but he took one look at all the people in the yard and he ran back inside. I think at one point he said, "all those people are scary!" lol :)

So, from about 5:45 until 10:00 we had a yard FULL of shoppers. At one point a dark cloud came over head, and the wind picked up. I just knew it was about to rain, but all of a sudden the cloud was gone. From 10-11:30ish we still had a few people coming by, and by 12 we started putting up what we hadn't sold. Wes and I had hoped that between this yardsale and our second one we will be having in May, along with what we already had in savings, we would come up with the amount we owe for our secong big payment to Lifeline which is $2500 (due after our homestudy is complete). Well prior to our yardsale Sat we had $1000 saved already in our adoption funds. When we added up what we made from the yardsale the total was a little over $1500. Yep, I got teary eyed. So we made exactly what we needed, in only our first yardsale!! God provided, and in so many ways. Through friends and family who prayed, donated items, and gave us tables, God blessed us. Through the overwhelming amount of shoppers, God blessed us. Through the rain staying away, God blessed us. Through the extra amounts a few friends, and even strangers overpaid, who came by to shop our sale, God blessed us. However,even if it had been a rainout, even if no money had been made, even if no one came, God would still have been good to us, because He is good all the time.

Thank-you friends and family for encouraging us, and praying for us. We still have a long journey before we can bring our little one home, but we are one step closer!



Making signs and organizing clothes. This is the only pic I got of the entire yardsale :(