Enterprise Yard Sale

     Our first yard sale was a success! My grandmother, great aunt and uncle, daddy, sister, aunt and cousin all helped out and really made it an awesome fundraiser! We tried to make it all donation based, but a few things were priced. My sweet cousin made a lemonade stand and sold cups of lemonade for $0.25. My family took care of making signs for the yard sale, putting up tents, setting out tables, and ran the yard sale all Friday until 3! It was honestly a huge blessing, because I know they all did so much work to make sure our yards sale was great. My sweet daddy took everything out of the loft above our garage (which is a ton of stuff, btw) and sifted through all the stuff. He delivered tables that had been bought and helped organize everything.  He even stayed all day to help. My whole family stayed out all day! If there’s one thing I’ve learned, its that… yard saling is hard. So for everyone to work so hard to help us really meant a lot.

I have a few of my favorite stories from today that I want to share.

     First of all, my cousin is one of the sweetest and most thoughtful people I have ever met. She donated her old bicycle to our yard sale, and came out early this morning to set up a lemonade stand. And it was so serious. She and my aunt had one of those fancy lemonade containers that is tall and clear, and has cute little spout. They made a fancy sign. She brought her own fancy cash register that made a “cha chinggg” sound when she opened it. It was all really fancy. And she sat there faithfully most of the morning asking people if they would like a cup of lemonade. This morning I sat down at her lemonade table and grabbed her shoulder. I told her that I really appreciated all of the things she was doing and it was so thoughtful and sweet. I almost teared up, because, she just said “your welcome!” and went on about her lemonade business. I felt a similar way several weeks ago when a friend’s daughter had a lemonade stand also to raise money for jack jack. Children seem to have this innate desire to be helpful and do right. Of course, not every second of the day, but overall they do. It didn’t even seem like a big deal to her. She’s just helping out her cousin because she loves her. It’s such sweet and pure perspective. She didn’t want anything. She wasn’t getting anything out of it. She was just doing it. And that $15.75 is some of the best money we’ve earned so far. I wish I took that attitude more often.

     There was another little girl that came up to T.J., and he later told me her story. She said her and her mother came by and looked earlier (I’m assuming she heard our shpeal about raising money for the adoption). She looked at T.J. and in her shy little voice said, “We looked around and there were a lot of things we liked, but we just wanted to give a donation…” and then she dropped a handful of coins into his palm. He came inside to tell me the sweet story, and I kept the money separate because I wanted to count it by itself. It was exactly two dollars in change. But it so blessed my heart because I knew she put herself in the frame of mind to sacrifice. Offering up her money without taking or expecting anything was amazing. It completely energized and encouraged me.

     Seeing other people’s generous hearts has taught me something about my own. I saw God’s heart in those actions and their selflessness, and it makes me realize there are many times in my life that I don’t show those same things. Kids will teach you a lot.

     We also had a couple of family friends that came up and just made a donation.  One friend literally drove to our house way early on a Saturday morning just to give us a wad of 20-dollar bills. She got out of her car, walked up to T.J. and chatted for a bit, gave him her donation and drove off. How awesome is that??!

     So, today was, EXHAUSTING. It is seriously hard, taxing work to put on one of these things. But at the end of the day, when we finished the yard sale and packed everything back up, we all sat around the kitchen table and counted. Altogether, from things we sold at the yard sale, our lemonade stand, and donations, we raised $782.00!