Treasures galore!

This past Saturday we had the massive garage sale that we had been working on.  To say it was a success is minimizing it for sure.  It was a ton of work but in the end, the Lord provided abundant provisions and blessings.
First, I have to give a huge Thank you shout out to my "Director" of Garage Sales; Chris Halvorson and his wife Amy!  They knocked on our door a few months back with a proposal we couldn't refuse.  We were humbled to say the least that they'd offer up their time and energies to help us organize and coordinate it!  Little did I know, Chris is the Master of all Masters at selling junk treasures!
For weeks we began collecting stuff upon stuff.  My garage was full to the brim, Chris's garage was full as were two large storage units.  To add, the day before Doug set out with his Dad at 8:00 am to begin collecting large furniture items that many friends around town were blessing us with.  By 12:45 that night we were finally calling it quits and heading home from our garage sale site to get a few hours of shut eye.  We had also already sold many of the large items and made a hefty profit and we hadn't even officially begun!   5:00 am came quickly and I'm not sure I slept much thinking about all the stuff that was sitting on the driveway and lawn of a precious friends home (who was out of town).  I suppose in the end, it was all STUFF anyways, so if it was stolen "oh well" ... but that many hours of work behind me made me lay awake much of the night asking the Lord to be the watch guard.  Indeed he was!  We arrived at 6:00 am with everything untouched.
By 6:30 am, we had buyers - serious buyers!  By 11:30, Chris was selling kitchen sized garbage bags for 5$.  Anything you can fit in this bag for 5$ he'd say.  Within just 10 minutes, we'd made another $100 and honestly, they were paying us by now to do the clean up.  Shortly later, it became 3 bags for $10, then each bag $2.
By noon we began to clean up the remainder of the stuff and put it into large trash bags to haul away, even while a few still sifted through a mound of clothes and trinkets.  BUT ... to the Director's praise, he finagled a construction worker across the street to pay us $30 for "Todos" stuff.  We laughed as we loaded every last item in the bed of his pick up and watched what would have been a massive "Good Will" haul and more work drive away!  AMEN!  In the end, he was blessed too.  I'm sure next weekend, their will be a massive garage sale with a lot of nice clothes for a $1 an item somewhere on the South side perhaps.
So, the sum total of the day was first and foremost too many blessings to count!  Thank you to Chris and Amy Halvorson!  Thank you to Christi and Levi Pool for hauling items and working your tails off at the sorting party.  Thank you Danielle Patteson for working until the wee hours with us and making all the sorting of clothes fun!  Thank you to my precious friends Brian and Courtney Garrison for providing us your beautiful home and perfect garage sale site!  I wish you could have seen it.  You would have laughed and would have never believed it was your home and driveway!
Lastly, thank you to the many many friends and friends of friends who donated on our behalf.  Your treasures brought our journey $2,400 closer to Levi!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!
And of course, the one that should never go unnoticed or praised is the Lord who had a hand in every detail of the weeks leading up and the days of selling!  He far exceeded our imagination as always!

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his 
power that is at work within us."  Ephesians 3:20

Check out the shoes and clothes!

I'm sure the neighbors were loving us!  

Early early in the a.m.  Just a small glimpse of one area.

Many asked about you, Levi.  This sign brought lots of conversations.  Some heard about international adoption for the first time.  Some were amazed!  Some looked puzzled ... but all were excited for YOU!

Doug bartering with a buyer

Check out the people!  From 6:30 on, it never stopped!

5$ bags ... they stormed the clothes and started stuffing!