Benefit for www.Chances4Children.org

This benefit has taken a month of winding up and lots of work but it was OH SO worth it. It started by clearing out the garage and moving things around (including very large and heavy homemade shelving units and hanging tarps to cover our family items that would not be for sale. Then it proceeded with making lists and phone calls, cleaning out the attic, and the barn. After that, making signs, and fliers to post,and gathering merchandising materials (table chairs, tarps, hot dogs and lemonade to sell, getting change, etc.) calling the newspaper for press releases and running around the county for donations pick-ups. Our"items for sale" were looking pretty sparse with such a huge goal in mind. We didn't seem even close to what we needed to reach our personal goal of $10,000 for Creche. I have simultaneously implemented a formula program to pediatricians offices that one of the other adopting moms had put together and other adopting parents from the forum where having great success with. I thought I would "kill to birds with one stone" as Grama always says. However, out of ALL the letters I sent out, I only got 1 positive reply. :-( It was NOT encouraging. Then.....I was reminded what Scripture says: " Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary." Gal 6:9 , the next thing you know the things we were collecting, were really piling up! Then people were bringing things by! All the sudden it looked like we might be able to really be able to raise some money (as long as people showed up with intent to by our wares!). The slots for volunteer help on sale day were filling up and things started coming together...not a month ahead like I would have liked to see...but it was in Yahweh's perfect timing...as always. :-) I always have to be reminded that we are on a "need to know basis" simply trust Him and press in to what HE has called us to do...and He'll take care of the rest!

We had such an outpouring of support. On the day of the sale, we still had people donating items for sale! A huge set of dishes, odds and ends, and a Amish lady from up the street who I hadn't yet met, came with brand new Tupperware containers filled with treats she had made, for us to sell! We met missionaries to Haiti, people in the community, Haitians and other adopting families. It was a wonderful out pouring of community coming together.

Our volunteers were amazing! The Blantzs, The Arroyos, The Zooks, Our neighbors Cody and Shawn, Ginger Muchmore, Mom, Lisa Fisher, they all just jumped in and hustled to do what ever needed to get down. Setting up, tearing down, Constantly helping people, rotating stock, answering questions, carrying things to their car, you name it. There is no way we could have done it without them! WE ARE SO THANKFUL AND BLESSED BY GOOD FRIENDS!

The sale was a great success. I wish we would have gotten pictures when we were flooded with people and when our stock was at it's fullest, but when that happened we were quite busy helping people. :-) There were people lined up at the orange cones on the driveway when we started the sale.

Even though the first day was a real hit, we had more stuff than people. We had tons of really nice used clothes and items donated from other people's garages sales; furniture; electronics; small appliances; a generous donation of thousands of items donated from a scrapbooking/stamping store that closed it's doors; two tables full of bran new T-shirts and sweatshirts donated by The Tee Parlour; We had delicious baked good donated by The Bird In Hand Bake Shop, and Village Inn Farm Market; we had gift cards from merchants for may different things such as - gas cards, restaurants, hair salons, spa, hotel, family passes to area events, merchandise, oil changes, the list goes on... Needless to say, we had A LOT of stuff. So, at the end of the day, we decided to run a 50 Cent sale the next day to try to raise as much as we can and move as much merchandise as we could. (What were we going to do with the left overs?) So without advertising we painted on the back of the original signs and stuck them out there. We have the advantage of Main Street traffic to be able to do this. We sold tons more stuff and stayed open until 9pm. Needless to say, it was a really long couple of days! :-) But again, it was so worth it. Now two days later, we are still tieing up loose ends, by returning borrowed items, and cleaning up and rearranging things back to life.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Ben also did a little side money raising project, with his co-workers. He encouraged them to send donation directly into http://www.chances4children.org/ and use their matching program provided by their employer. Some did and other sent us check directly, as did some of our extended family.

All said and done with all efforts combined (even though we are still waiting for checks to clear so we can send things off) it looks like we raised about $12,000 for the orphanage!

Thanks again to everyone for your contributions of every kind! More special thanks to the Hollingers, Shoups, and the Horsts. The list goes on and on, of indeviduals and businesses that pulled together! It was the collection of efforts from EVERYONE that made this happen!