Evidence of Grace - The Garage Sale

Sitting here, both Travis and I are exhausted, speechless, humbled, and feel so unbelievably blessed!!

When we began our adoption journey last September, we prayed for financial provision for our adoption.  And as many of you know, we've been taking donations for our adoption fundraising garage sale since April.  All the while, we've prayed for God's will to be done and for the donations to come if the garage is how He wanted to provide.  

Well...they came!  A big THANK YOU to all of you who donated!!  Steadily our garage and our home began to fill up with the outpouring of generosity by friends, family, strangers, and our church family at Living Stones.  We have been humbled by the response, which is such evidence of God's grace, yet over the last few weeks or so, Travis and I would look at each other and ask how are we going to be able to pull this off??  The logistics of getting everything outside, alone, seemed impossible.  Yet, we knew, all the while, that God would make it happen, for He is faithful!

Let me take a moment to shed light a bit on how the whole thing pulled together...  Travis and I woke up at 3:30am on Saturday not expecting any help until about 6am, but a friend, Scott Peterson, showed up at 4am to help us get the stuff out!  Many others showed up bright and early to help as well, Alena Yancy and her son Evan, T Grant, Nicole Kelleher, Taylor Laack, my mom and Travis' parents!!  Without these early risers, we would have never been able to get it all out to sell...and they continued to stay to help throughout the day!  Additionally, a friend of mine from church, Nikki Fuller, was our indispensable sales clerk!  Thank you Nikki!  

We had friends/family (Mom, Sue, Sarah, Kim, Jenny, Nicole, Shawna) baking (for the bake sale), sorting, organizing, selling...all by the grace of God!  What's more, is that our neighbors were more than  gracious and allowed us to block their driveways and take up the entire cul-de-sac.  Additionally, one of our neighbors, Mary Hicks, cooked an authentic Mexican lunch for Travis and I as well as all of our helpers on Saturday!!  And we had many unexpected friends show up to help and support us in so many ways...  Thank you all!!!

It went from this...

Our living room the week before!

...to this (in 3 hours)!!!

Looking down our driveway...

Saturday - Day 1

As you can see, it was no exaggeration to say that we were having a HUGE garage sale!!  We knew we had a lot of donations, but once we got everything out, it was hard to imagine just HOW it all fit into our home! 

But what a weekend!

Hanging out with friends/family/neighbors...lots of shoppers...TONS of love and support from those around us...many generous hearts who simply came by to donate money...kids playing with friends, running a lemonade stand/bake sale, running through the sprinklers, eating popsicles... All in all a successful weekend.  

Not only that, but our prayers have been answered!!  $4155!!!  What a blessing!!  We are speechless! 

So...we sit here, in awe of God's grace and His faithfulness to answer prayers, and we praise Him, for none of this would have been possible apart from Him and His ability to use others (our friends/family/neighbors) to bless us!  Thank you to all of you who helped make this possible!!  We love you!

And now we rest...