Sunday, August 17, 2008

Yard Sale

As you all might have noticed, there hasn't been a lot of blog activity going on the last few days.

We have been preparing for and holding a yard sale to help raise the last funds we'll need to travel back to pick up The Princess. On Tuesday, I was truly feeling despondent after going to the storage building and going through what was in there. In our minds, we wanted to raise $500 from the yard sale and the items we had in there just didn't seem like quite enough to get us to there. Remember, we've had a yard sale every year for the past three years, so I can kind of judge how it's going to work, how much we might raise and so forth.

Then on Thursday, we had so many people give us things for the yard sale. Jamma and Larry gave us tons of their daughter's name brand shirts and jeans that all the teens wanted. Our neighbor gave us a treadmill, tons of shoes, boots, purses, clothes, toys, coffee maker and VCR, media stand. Our friends Jennifer and Jason absolutely loaded us up on so much good stuff that I'm not sure where they were storing it. Their boys went through their toys and gave us so much good stuff, including about 20 video games which fetched a good bit. They gave us an elliptical machine, a glider/exercise machine, lots of household items, purses, camera and on and on. Kevin's mother had given us all of her yard sale items and his aunt and cousin gave us several loads of things as well. My friend Iris brought us by a Power Wheels jeep and a rocking horse. My mom let me have all her things left over from our last yard sale. We still had several things that folks had donated from that sale as well that sold this time.

And special thanks to my parents who allowed us to have our yard sale at their house where there is lots of traffic and who prayed we made more than we expected.

As I sorted through all the items, putting prices on them, I thought of all the love that was shared with us from each of these people. Each toy given up by Jennifer's boys was bit of love shared with us for our daughter. It's the truest example of Jesus's love I can imagine.

By the time it was all said and done we made right at $1300. What a blessing!!! I would have never thought we could have made anywhere near that amount of money.

Poor Kevin walked away with a sinus infection for all his efforts. He thinks it's from stirring up dust and such from all the boxes. He moved so much stuff this weekend, I'm surprised he's still walking around. And, kudos to Joshua and his friend Braiden who helped us move boxes of stuff on Friday night, Saturday morning and to break down on Saturday afternoon. I've never seen two ten-year-old boys work so hard. I was so proud of both of them.

Fifty-four days until we return. Hang on little bit, mama is coming. Soon.

9 comments:

Kelli said...

What a great success!

Monica said...

CONGRATS!!! That's a GOOD amt of $$$!
:)

Mom to 2 Angels said...

Is Jamma a neighbor? There can't be that many in the world. I think she used to be a good friend of mine, we worked together! Congrats on the successful yard sale! I am tagging my clothes right now for the consignment sale in White House, I can't go to the presale. You want my pass?

Lori said...

Holy rummage sale, Batman! That's fabulous! I may be inspired.

May being the operative word!


I love you calling her 'Little Bit'--I've been doing that for months now for our own Little Bit! Just in my head, though, as John hears me say it and thinks I mean it in the , "Why don't you clean yourself up...in a little bit, or why don't you go buy yourself some expensive camping thing you've always wanted...in a little bit!"

Hilary Marquis said...

What wonderful friends! My pity goes to Kevin...there is nothing more miserable than a raging sinus infection. I have to say that 3 shots a week for my allergies are well worth it, I've been infection free for going on 2 months!

Jeanne said...

Wow! Congrats on a very successful sale!

Anonymous said...

Just say no to the presale pass!! HAHAHA!! I teared up when I read mama's coming soon! I can't wait so I can imagine how you feel!

Betsy said...

Awesome! Congrats on such a successful sale. I can't believe it is only 54 days left to go. I'm counting down with you. I can't wait for you to go back for your baby girl!

Jackie said...

You go, girl! Great job on the yard sale. Geez, when I had mine, I brought in about $350 :(

Hope Kevin is feeling better.