Loaves and Fishes

Saturday and Sunday was Evan's BIG Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale.  I did some mild "advertising" for this event.  I had a couple online ads, and I e-mailed about 30 of my co-workers personally with the information.  I also posted fliers around the break rooms at work 2 days before the event.  In spite of this, God showed Himself faithful and provided in a BIG way.  This weekend was BLESSED- and I'll explain why!

Blessing #1)  The Planner.  I had an old co-worker at work that told me that a yard sale would be our big fundraiser.  We spread the word and started to collect items from other friends and co-workers for the past 5 months.  She let us store the items at her father's empty basement for the time being.  This co-worker priced and cleaned about half of the donated items before driving them back to my parent's house.  She acted as the 2nd cashier putting her foot down on hagglers trying to negotiation the prices on items.  A quoted phrase: "You see that boy over there? (Pointing to the Evan poster I made) You really are trying to keep 25 cents from him? Well I'm sorry- the price stays!" (They were trying to talk their way down from 50 cents to 25 cents.)

Blessing #2)  The Location.  We had the sale at my parent's house.  They have a 1/4 acre lot next to their home adjacent to a busy main road.  The area was private enough to leave the items overnight without having anything stolen too!



Blessing #3)  Signage!  I had a banner from my old business that was made out of vinyl with reinforced holes on the corners.  So I turned this banner around and made with HUGE lettering "EVAN'S BIG ADOPTION FUNDRAISER" and it was posted so all of the driving cars could see.  We had 2 open house signs, that were put by the road to say "Yard Sale" pointing towards the home.  A friend of mine brought a big bunch of balloons that we tied to each open house sign.  These signs caused nearly every driver to slow down and turn down our street to come to our sale!

Blessing #4)  The Bake Sale and the Bakers.  The Bake Sale probably brought in half of the money.  Without the bake sale, the shoppers could have paid for the item out in the yard and they could have left to their cars to drive away.  The Sake Sale was placed near the house as a "check out" point next to the Evan poster I made.  We had a variety of donated items that people could purchase for 50 cents each.  But this check out point allowed for the conversation of the adoption to happen naturally as we were allowed to give the shoppers one of our adoption hand out cards as well.  So many times they would pay above and beyond once they realized the cause.

Blessing #5) My Mother.  My mother planned out the bake sale.  She made and froze cookie dough ahead of time and baked hundreds of cookies the day before.  She even planned for hot dogs and all the fixings so we could serve a meal for $5.00.  She watched and fed David for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!  I couldn't have done it without my mother!

Blessing #6)  The Volunteers.  During the actual event the following volunteers were vital to the success:  The planner and her son.  They also kept organizing the clothes and items the entire time!  My sister came to help and boy did she!  She helped at the bake sale with the check out.  She answered questions and helped direct the shoppers.  My cousin came both days to help!  She is super good at selling stuff!  She complimented all of the items people were purchasing and took the time to showed how items worked and complimented the value of items as well.  My cousin also helped to hand out the adoption cards in a sincere way.  My uncle happened to be in town for the event and helped with pricing and putting together the furniture items.  He stayed for the entire event for both days!  On Sunday he even serenaded everyone with his guitar playing, and helped with the tear-down of the sale.  My dad helped with the setup, tear down, cooking hot dogs, and was awesome in putting some great "handy man" items out for the sale!  (This is a brief detail of my volunteers, but you get the idea on how each person fit into a different role that made the experience such a success!)

Blessing #7)  That the event itself was a blessing!  Looking back it was amazing to see the process of being a blessing all around me.  Let me explain.  Some families came and needed to be blessed.  If they were having a baby they got 2 bags of baby clothes for $7.00!  What a blessing for them.  Some families got so many children's toys and household items for just a couple bucks- what a blessing for them!  Some families wanted 1 item, and gave $100 for it to bless Evan.  What a blessing for us and for him!  Some families returned back after paying to give us baked goods and additional donations to sell.  We kept seeing new items show up hour after hour!  Our baby clothes lasted and lasted, the supply never seemed to ran out, and I still have several boxes leftover!  On Sunday everything was nearly 25 cents and people kept coming to buy items, but our "inventory" never dried up!  It was unbelievable- this event was an eye-opening experience of how God's economy works.  Though I sold literally $500 worth of priced items we brought in $3800 in 2 days!  $3800 all for donated items that someone deemed as "junk".  This was a true success.

Blessing #8)  Prayers.  Thank you for your prayers.  This event was covered in prayer from start to finish!  The day before the event my parent's pastor happened to be over at their home to visit, and he saw us start to put together the yard sale.  He prayed over our sale.  On Sunday we had another ordained pastor come to pray a blessing over me in particular and the sale as well.  Later that day one of the shoppers asked to pray over James and I and she prayed more over the adoption paperwork aspect and for the sale as well.  It was so neat to see that each person in their prayers focused on a different aspect of this adoption process.  God is so good- He wanted all of it to be prayed for so He could send His angels out to get to work on answering these prayers!  

It was a true pleasure to have been apart of an event such as this.  It took a lot of effort, but Evan is so worth the time and energy.  I loved how it brought the community together to support such an awesome, uplifting cause.  But above all, I saw first hand God as Jehovah Jireh - God our Provider.  Glory to the Lord!