Having a lot of stuff to sell at a yard sale is a good problem to have, right? We thought so! (Even if we did feel like the walls were starting to collapse in on us!)
Early on, we were humbled by the amount of people offering to help us with this event. So many of you graciously advertised, collected donations from church groups, small groups, classrooms, small businesses, & co-workers. First, we want to thank Lindsey & Tony Sparrow, who opened their home & gave up a lovely weekend of family time to host the event. Next, I want to thank our dear friend Heather Miller, who coordinated so many things, helped keep my sanity intact & offered encouragement from the very beginning. My good friend Amy was an amazing friend for helping us the night before & the early morning hours of the sale. Then last but not least, future Baby Masch spoiler's, Trevor & Blake were up all morning, wheeled & dealed some folks, fed us pizza & boxed...boxed...boxed up stuff.
Heather & Lindsey
Blake & Trevor
After 2 truckloads & 4 cars full of yard sale merch, we were ready for
Saturday morning to get here so we could get rid of this stuff! Amy D. sorted
MOUNDS & MOUNDS of clothes (10 cent hose…) & we all worked ‘til we were
delirious, then called it a night. Kevin
& I got up around 4ish to start the day.
We littered Donelson with signs (some were pretty goofy…again, we were delirious the night before!) Then we started unloading everything along the Sparrow’s long driveway. Our first customer, the lovely Jessica Jackson, arrived at 6:45. She found some treasures & asked to pray with us before she left. What a blessing that was! I was running on about 3 ½ hours of sleep so, yes, I got a little weepy. This was just a tangible reminder of how many of you prayed for us that day!
The entire day was a blur. So many people came by to shop & we sold just over half of the donations received! When asked how we had accumulated so many things, I was able to tell people how we decided to adopt a baby & the response was so sweet. Complete strangers offered prayers, words of encouragement & decided against haggling to ‘support the cause’. I met so many people who have been involved with adoption. A woman spoke with me about being adopted 40 years ago. Another person saw our ad & brought her daughter that she adopted from Ethiopia. Every story we heard was an encouragement & a blessing!
The weather was beautiful until about 1pm & it decided to pour! After frantically getting everything inside their garage & under the carport, several people still showed up to shop. We even had a shopper rummaging through everything we boxed up to donate to Thrift Smart!
Towards the end of the day, Heather asked if I wanted to count the money. But I’ll get to that in a minute!
Let’s skip to this past weekend in San Diego. My best friend Tiffany Goodrick took it upon herself to coordinate a yard sale to benefit our adoption.
Complete strangers donated items to sell & the turn out she had was well. Seriously…we are just blown away by the generosity of others! We got really excited when people driving by decided to shop the night before as she was trying to set up!
She texted me asking how much I had hoped to earn from their sale. Honestly, I was just honored that she thought enough of us to do something like this & I didn’t care how much they raised. When I responded back with, “$400?” She said, “sorry, we didn’t raise that much…” Immediately I responded saying, “It’s OK! Any bit helps…” She was being sneaky, though, & texted “we sold $200…” (a minute ticked by) “…plus $300” (another minute passed) “…plus $100”, “plus $200”. “Plus $200…how much is that?”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?
Not only did they get a lot of gracious yard sale customers. So many people simply donated money to the cause. Our hearts are full…that’s the only way to explain it. What an unexpected, AMAZING gift!
Let’s go back to our yard sale when Heather & I decided to count the money...
She put her banker’s hat on & immediately sorted through everything. She looked at me & said, “How much did you hope to raise today?” I said. “Umm…$600?” Smiling, she put her finger down on one stack of bills (all $20’s) & said “There’s $600 right here.” I’m sure my eyes bugged out at that moment considering there was about 8 more stacks to go…She grabbed my phone, pulled up the calculator & told me not to look as she tallied everything up.
So by the end of the day, we earned $1,708. 23!!!!!!
We had easily tripled the amount we had hoped to earn at this fundraiser. We immediately went outside & had everyone guess as to how much we raised. Kevin was the closest with a guess of around $900. You can imagine the hootin’ & hollerin’ in the Sparrow’s diveway at that point!
I still have to pinch myself when I think, “we raised almost $3,000 towards our adoption in just two weekends!” It doesn’t make sense in my mind! I know I’ve said this multiple times already, but WE ARE SO GRATEFUL to all of those who helped us, for all of those who gave, & for all of you who prayed! So many people told me afterward that they prayed for us the entire day. Even though they weren’t able to come, they supported us in prayer. That means so much to us & we definitely felt the prayer.
Again…A MILLION TIMES…for the rest of our lives…until we’re blue in the face…we thank ALL who helped this November in bringing Baby Masch home!
With love & thankfulness,
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