Exceedingly more... yard sale

Many families who travel to Ethiopia to pick up their child bring donations for their child's orphanage (clothes, toys, etc.).  Scott and I knew we wanted to do this, too.  As we discussed it over the months, we decided we wanted the donations to "cost" us something.  We wanted some kind of sacrifice to be involved.  And so we decided to host a yard sale.  We knew that the time and energy involved would be a small sacrifice to bring orphanage donations into being.

For the last three weeks, we have been a little consumed with the planning and completion of our fundraiser yard sale.  We asked our church to send out an email asking for donations.  And the people responded!  Calls and emails poured in.  "I have a sofa..."  "I have some baby clothes."  "I have a garage full of things I need to donate."  And so on!  

Yet again, as we have found all along this adoption journey, God showed us that He is willing to bless His people more than we can ask or imagine.  (Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.")

I could tell you in words how many contributions came for the yard sale, but I do not think that words can fully capture the vastness (I don't think the pictures quite do, either!).  None of us imagined that our sale would be this big...



Not only were we blessed beyond belief by the contributions for the sale, but we were also blessed with the volunteers who offered to help us.  We had older kids who came play with Adrianna while we set up.  We had volunteers who came for hours on Friday to help set up.  We had volunteers arrive at 6:00 am on Saturday to help with pricing and sales.  We had older kids who came to help Adrianna sell lemonade and cookies.  We even had volunteers help until 4:30 on Saturday afternoon to help haul away the extra contributions to the local thrift store.

We were so humbled by the spirit of service and kindness that was offered by these loving church friends.  It was almost 100 degrees during and after the sale on Saturday, and there was nary a word of complaint as these friends sweated until completion.

And how did the sales go...?  Well, I had a big goal in mind that I was hoping to reach.  And the grand total came within $50 of reaching it.

Praise be to God for His blessings -- exceedingly abundant more than we can ask or imagine.

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