He does big things

'Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'

The garage sale is over. The weather was gorgeous, business was consistent and the sales were phenomenal. Thankfully, some of my amazing friends came to help because we could not have done it without them.

These are the donations from the past few days alone. Several friends did nothing but sort through these and bring them out to the garage and driveway.

Saturday was extremely busy. It felt like we were selling everything, yet we had a garage full of items at the end of the day. 

Packed up and ready for the next day's sale:

We opened the garage again today and prepared to organize the things we had left while selling to a few customers. Instead, we were as busy today as we were yesterday. 

My friend, Randi, came by to help and rocked the sales! In true Randi form, she just kept saying, "It's all God, Ruthanne. He's working here."  She's right. 

One woman came to our sale all three days. She spent a decent amount of money each time. Today, she told me that she had dropped off two garbage bags full of baby clothes on Jill's porch sometime after the first sale. She just wanted to help.

Another man tried to dicker with me about the toddler bed we were selling. I told him I could not take less than $50 because a friend had given me the bed as a gift to help raise money to bring my son home. He and I both had tears in our eyes as he pulled out the $50 and said, "I will gladly pay the price you're asking to help you do that."

Many people came because they heard it was an adoption fundraiser and wanted to help in some way. 

While we packed up today, a man came by and started talking to Randi. He buys things to give to people who need it. By the time he had left, his truck was filled with $300 worth of items that we thought we would have to donate. It was one of the most amazing things we had seen all weekend.

Our God is big. He does big things.

I am humbled by the donations, the help, the selflessness of people who are friends and strangers. There is no way to thank you all except to bring Manno home and teach my boys how to pay it forward. 

Because of you: the people who helped by donating, buying, praying, sorting, selling, watching my children and/or lending me your garage, backyard, family room and weekends (Peter, Jill and Barb--I can't ever thank you enough), we have raised an amazing amount of money. The combined total of money raised between the first garage sale, the Hoarders for Haiti page and this weekend's sale was....

$7,000!


Can you believe that??? 


We've made a nice dent in the amount of money needed for this adoption. I have no doubt that all of the money will be there exactly when it is needed. 


This was the view from our window when we got home tonight. A rainbow. A promise.


Our God is big. He does big things.