Thursday, June 28, 2012

Hard. But Good.


Have you ever had that anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach? The one where you can’t eat and sleep? That’s pretty much what it has been like for the past two weeks. Well, until I got my big surprise the last day of our yard sale. 


I had my moments the week or two prior to the sale. Sitting on my little boys’ floor sorting through their airplane collection with Jonel was one such moment. It came on suddenly. I started picking up metal airplanes that barely can be called just that anymore. They’ve been well used. There were three such planes that I had to set aside for a keepsake box. I remember when Mickey and the twins got them. When they were just little tykes, Grandpa Harman would take us up to the Elkhart airport for the annual air show in the RV. And Grandpa would buy his favorite little boys their choice miniature plane. There’s much more to those memories, but I’ll stop there...so I can stop wiping my tear stained face. 


Jonel offered to help go through the girls’ room next. I’m so glad she did. Kate is excellent at sorting through her stuff and not holding on to stuff. I, however am much more clingy to stuff. In fact, I had to rescue a few of her sale items. She didn’t have many memories of them. But I did. Then I had my dad help the twins go through their room. I avoided so much emotional trauma by passing this off. And I’m glad. Because there was much yet to come. Tuesday before our big sale weekend we started hauling all our stuff out in the yard. We weren’t worried about rain, just heat. I sent out an invitation to our church family, offering any who wanted to come by early. This cut back on a lot of pricing. And I knew they would be fair about their offers. 


Our church family was a huge help in making food,
sorting, pricing, setting up and then buying our stuff.
Before our sale started on Friday, I had already sold $800 worth of merchandise. Yet it still looked overflowing with stuff. It really felt good to have my church family take things that were precious to me. I knew they would be in good hands. It was still hard. It was hard when Chelsea walked up with a pan of delicious food, knowing I had no time to cook. And knowing all the things she has gone through lately...bringing us to tears. When Kelee asked how much I wanted for my shelves...loaded with memories, and I had to walk away. And when Ami wanted to buy anything that was precious to me, so those memories could live on. At least I know these girls can’t help but pray for us now every time they use or look at my stuff. 


This was everything but the big furniture.
The sale didn’t start as most sales. There weren’t swarms of people cramming into our driveway a half an hour early. Just a few. They came trickling in. I knew God would bring them. He told me He would. It was a very draining, but a good day. Lots of people asked about what we were doing. Most said, “I could never do that”. And I say, “I can't either”. I’m definitely not doing this on my own power. How could I? How could anyone? We had several people say, “keep the change”. And one lady just bought stuff, because she saw our signs as she was driving down the highway and had to stop, “cause she supports mission work whenever she gets a chance”. We made 100 quicky copies of our mission card and handed them out to people as they paid. It was really cool when people were curious enough to ask more. We loved that part. We had a friend of a friend come all the way out because she heard what we were doing. I don’t even remember if she bought anything. But I won’t forget her, cause she asked us if she could pray with us. It was so moving, it brought both Britt & I to tears. And then there was the lady that bought the Ann Taylor outfit Britt bought me for my 34th birthday, when he surprised me with a Celine Dion concert on one of our annual trips to Las Vegas. That, by-the-way was my favorite ever birthday. Not much could top that off. I was stunned by the emotions that welled up in my heart by the simple act of selling off that special beer-stained outfit (another story in itself...another time). That outfit probably cost Britt around $80 (I would never pay full-price myself.), and I sold it for $6. It took all my will to keep myself from grabbing that outfit and running back into my house with it. 


So are you depressed yet? I am, and that was not my intentions with this blog. I wanted to show how good God is. How when he asks us to do a yard sale too far for anyone to want to drive, He will bring the people. And He did.

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