Round two.

It's taken me a few days to bounce back from our second garage sale on Saturday.

But let me just begin with this...

WE RAISED ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!

We are SO blessed by our community. Again, people showed up to donate items for the sale. Again, friends came and overpaid for items on purpose. Again, some friends made an appearance only to give a donation. And again, we had angels who broke their backs to help us through the sale.

Blessed. 

There were some crazy lows...the haggling is such an ugly place sometimes, and I lost patience in the battle more than I'd like to admit. And though there wasn't rain on the forecast anywhere...it totally poured. A deluge. Sadly, it ruined a lot of things. I thought Jimmy was going to cry. But then, suddenly, he didn't have time to cry, because Charlie and his little buddy had decided to pour 1/2 jar of dried worm food into the turtle tank. Thank goodness for Madi, who came running out to deliver the news, but she was devastated because she felt responsible. And that was after Charlie decided to touch Peter, our Christmas elf, which had Madi in a troubled state to begin with. It was shaping up to be a Murphy's Law kinda day.

Then came some amazing highs. Jimmy removed himself from the scene to clean the turtle tank. Thankfully, he made it back out front in time to see the RAINBOW, which had formed at the very end of our driveway right before our very eyes!! It only lasted for a few minutes, but we saw it. And it seemed like we were standing right next to the pot of gold.

We felt HOPE.

And you just know, by now, that there's always a special story to share. Well, toward the tail-end of our sale, a beautiful family whom we know from church, pulled up. Seeing them was such a bright spot, and their timing was so perfect. The Holy Spirit, indeed.

Their daughter handed me a card, with a generous donation clipped inside, and it read:

Dear Murphy Family,

I found money on the ground. Although I tried to find the owner, I could not. I decided to do good things with it. First, I gave some to the Core Ministry. Then, I planned to do something helpful at Christmas. My mom told me that you were going to adopt another child and I thought that I can donate some money to you. I hope this donation helps.

Love,
Lauren

Seriously?  Oh, my heart. People just amaze me. What a testament to the goodness of God on this Earth. And from a young child's heart no less. 

The sale ended early, once again, due to the weather and the fact that I was rescued by a commitment to speak about adoption at the 4 o'clock Mass. Time in the Lord's house was exactly the peace and calming medicine that I needed for my soul. And you won't believe who the altar servers were at Mass..the sweet girl who found money and donated it to our adoption, and her brother. Amazing, huh?

Our timing for these sales was perfect. Banyan Creek, Madi's elementary school, happens to be having a clothing and shoe drive this week. We delivered four huge Hefty lawn & garden bags and one large box full of clothing and shoes. I think we might've filled the bin!  And our church, St. Vincent Ferrer, is already collecting items for their Spring rummage sale, so they are going to get the mother lode this week! It feels so good to give in the midst of all this receiving!

Thank you, thank you to ALL of you on this journey with us. It takes a village, and we sure appreciate ours more than you'll ever possibly know.