Payne Family Blessings: WE SURVIVED!!!!! :)

We don't really know where to start...

This past weekend, Friday,October 22nd and Saturday the 23rd we had a HUGE Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale!!!! When I mean HUGE, We are referring to THREE ENTIRE garages full, plus the inside of our first floor of our home! OVERFLOWING with treasures, is an understatement! Thanks to EVERYONE for all of your donations!!!

I was worried a few days earlier that this was TOO BIG! We had a lot of people tell us they were coming to help us on Saturday, but I was FREAKING out about HOW we were going to set up and work 3 separate yard sales on Friday!!! We sent out an S.O.S for help for Friday am, and boy oh boy did our ANGELS show up!!! 6am came early and I am FOREVER grateful to all of you who joined in to help us pull this off!!! We are so blessed!

We have all heard the old African Proverb that "It takes a village...", well our village is the BEST! I can't even begin to thank everyone for all that you helped us with! I had friends show up a few nights before when we were literally drowning in all of our stuff....( seriously, sitting in the midst and just blankly staring at an unbelievable amount of stuff)! Our friends took charge and helped sort to 3 different garages and tag items to create some type of order! My BFF Meg, took charge of ALL of our print and online advertising! My friend Alicia and her father in law made our signage for the sale and some yummy chicken tortilla soup for lunch! My sweet sis, J-Rae, made some AMAZING posters and banners for our sale!!

Our Angels showed up and set up the sale and put out our signage!!! My neighbors, Janet McGirr and The Lefflers really stepped it up by letting us have their garage for 4 days, not to mention getting up early the days of the sale to help and let us use their driveways!!! MY friend Candy, Dave, Shelley, Katie, Melodie and Brayden were here early with the chickens ready to work!

Our kids got up early to help us before they went to school! Phil's parents were here and helped the ENTIRE SALE- what a BLESSING they were (and they worked sooo hard!!)
My friend Meg, my Rock, helped in so many ways that I simply don't know where to start! She was the backbone behind the organization of this sale and my sanity! (She has me hooked on some Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks now too!!!)

My friend Lily had to work Friday, but she sent her parents to help us in her place!! They were so much fun and such a HUGE help!!!

I know I am forgetting someone, and if I am I am so sorry... These were our Friday Angels and there were so many...and I was worried HOW it would work out!! I have to remind myself constantly, that I am not in control! This adoption is God's plan for our family, and he has been providing everything that we have needed!!!

I wished I had taken pics of how many shoppers we had-- it was AMAZING and OVERWHEMING! I am talking at least 60 people at one given time standing in our 3 yards!!! There were cars lined up the street on Friday as far as you could see!! It was CRAZY!!!! And soooo wonderful!!!

We raised $1900 smackers Day 1!!!
We sold sooo much the first day, but to be honest, when we went to put it back in the garages at the end of the day, it looked as if we hadn't sold anything!! This is how much stuff we had from all of your donations!!! There were even some items still in bags in our home, that had yet made it out to the driveways!!! Oopsey!!!

Day 2--- So tired-- That alarm was NOT our friend when it sounded at 5am! Ready to go and do it all over again!!! If I attempt to list who all came and helped, then I will surely leave out at least 50 people in my list... that is how much support from all of our family, friends, Sunday school class, friends from recent and past employers, neighbors, and friends of friends who showed to help and to shop!!!

We sold many Adoption T-shirts and Uganda beads and we continued to sell, sell, sell stuff!!! Big shout out to Buzz Leffler for cooking us a BBQ lunch!!! Thanks to all of my family who came and supported us!!! We could have not "ordered" better weather-- it was simply gorgeous both days!!!

There literally was something for everyone at this sale!!! And we had a lot of fun!!!

It was also awesome how many times I was able to talk adoption!! God is busy at work in this community and I pray I was able to provide some encouragement to others who feel this journey is being placed upon their hearts!!!:)

So, how did we do day 2???? Would you believe we raised another $1600???!!!

In 2 days, we collected $3500 in donations towards this adoption of little Daniel Mamo through this Yard Sale!!! We could have NEVER, done this without our Village of Chosen Family and Friends!! We are truly blessed!!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and from this sweet face!!!

So, now what did we do with all the leftover stuff?? (Our friends really do like us, because they even stayed and came back to help us clean up!!!!)

Leftover items went in a lot of directions-- some items went to the dump for items with holes and deemed unsaleable or undonateable. GoodWill and ARC were recipients for a lot of stuff! We pulled out shoes and clothes to go to the trash dump in East Africa that we will visit very shortly. We pulled out items for our son's orphanage AND we are donating a whole lot of AWESOME items (half of a garage full) to another sweet mom, Wendi Green, and her family, who are about to have a Yard Sale too, to raise funds to help bring THREE kids home from my son's orphanage!!! So, not only did your donations to our sale benefit us in funding this OUR adoption journey, but they will continue to bless sooo many other people, here locally and abroad!! How cool is that? Our Living a Better Story Journey continues to bless others and touch others that we could have NEVER imagined!!

We are ALMOST at our goal!!!

We will continue to sell our Adoption T-shirts and the Uganda beads!!!

We are going to continue to place the last step of this fundraising in HIS hands and we know that he will provide it!!! God is funding what he favors and we KNOW he favors the adoption of this sweet little boy!! It is amazing how far we have come in such a SHORT time!

TWELVE (12) days from today, we begin our first journey, 7700 miles, to see Daniel Mamo and to prayfully make him part of our family!!!! We can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!