Yard Sale, Banquet, and Booth Oh My!

This summer will not be soon forgotten by the Stahl family.  We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our dear friends and family giving of their time, energy, money, and creativity.

Early in the month of June I received several calls asking if we were going to be hosting anymore yard sales. (We have made over $5,000.00 in yard sales over the last year and a half!) So after receiving the calls I thought it must be time to hold another one.  I put the word out and received a ton more donations, and many sweet friends  came to help sort and set up through out the week for a Fri-Sat sale.

Friends make everything better! These fabulous gals came and helped sort and set up for the yard sale!

Our friends the Lindvalls dropped off a generous truck/van load of donations!

Family photo op...posing with random stuff :)

After a week of preparation and two days selling, our final number was $800!!! Which is amazing for a yard sale. But to be honest, as silly/embarrassing as it is, I was feeling a little disappointed. These were my reasons: It was the first one we’ve done that made under a thousand dollars.  I had put the most work in to this one and was feeling so proud of how organized I was.   I was expecting all my extra efforts to pay off.  It wasn't all that bratty though.  I was also bummed for the people that gave so much! I wanted to sell it all, and make them feel blown away and so excited about how much their donations helped.  I really just needed to STOP all the analyzing.  At the end of the day, I put my tired feet up, ate a scorching hot donut, got over my self and and humbly gave big thanks to God for His faithfulness and provision.  I thought of all my sweet friends and the fun and laughter we shared together throughout the week and everyone who gave donations or just showed up to say hello or shop at the sale and felt truly happy.  Once again I was reminded of the tension between results and process, and how easily I can get overly focused on what I would consider the main point to be and forget about all the blessings in between.  And plus it's just a really good idea to trust God and be grateful! I am thankful for the grace and love of God towards me even when I'm being really petty.

The following morning something so precious and powerful happened in my kitchen. My daughter came over to me and with a fierce love said, "I will give everything I have....everything until my sister can come home!!"   She marched down the hall to find her change purse. She pulled every bill out one by one looked at it and put it in the donation jar.  I wish I could have captured the purity of her heart and the resolve on her face as she gave everything she had.  She dropped in the last dollar and turned around.  She had a sweet proud look on her face for a second or two, and then just burst into tears.  "I want my sister!!!  Why can't she be here!!! I don't want her to be apart from us!!!"  She ran into my arms and I just held her as she cried.  We prayed together, wiped away the tears, and counted the money.  I have no idea how, but that little girl put over $60.00 in that jar!

She wasn't done just yet.  She found her brothers and called them over to give as well.  My children put a hundred dollars into the jar that morning!  Brent also sold a handful of the yard sale items on craigs list and when it was all said and done we had a grand total of $1,095.00!!!  Not only had we raised our total but we all felt stronger as a family unit through all the hours, efforts and sacrifice given together towards bringing our whole family together. 


The following weekend was our annual adoption celebration.  This is such an amazing evening!  We had more donations than we knew what to do with, friends helping set up, tear down, run sound, decorate, organize, cook and serve food, and a house full of generous loving people who joyfully gave over $17,000.00 for families adopting at Radiant church!!! We are just blown away!

Prepping the fabulous food!

Sweet friends volunteering to serve during the celebration.

A very full house!

We announced to everyone that night that we had been matched with the twins.  The place erupted with cheers, and my face erupted with tears.  I can hardly believe the community we have sometimes.

Catalina baked, oh...about a million cookies! What I wouldn't give for an Earl Grey shortbread right now.

Ok! To follow up the amazing adoption celebration that followed up the perfect yard sale we were given a firworks booth.  That's right, a fireworks booth.  There are three families in our church right now that are adopting internationally and this booth was donated to us to help raise funds to bring our children home. We all feel so honored be on this adoption journey together, and we were able to raise about $4,000.00 PER FAMILY!   We spent four days and nights together loading, unloading, laughing, sweating, drinking lots of water and selling our little pants off.  We had a blast together and SOLD OUT by 6:30 on the 4th of July. We had so many volunteers, who showed up with amazing hearts and attitudes to work in the ridiculous heat, friends and family who helped love and take care of our kiddos, and to top it of ABC channel 30 showed up to interview us! (here's the link to the interview) By the time the interview aired, we had already sold out.  I thought it was pretty cool that the Lord just wanted to tell our story. This is what actually prompted me to start blogging.  I realized the Lord wanted our story to go out.  I only had selfish reasons for not sharing our story.  I decided that day to lay my self centered reasoning aside and open up believing that the Lord could somehow use it for his greater purposes.  He is really good at taking the little that we give Him and making it go a long way!

Our first day.  Getting the hang of it!

Sweet friends showing up to make a scene!

Loading and unloading all of it, every day!

Volunteers!

Volunteers!

And more volunteers!!!

Can you read that shirt??? It says "I LOVE ADOPTION" and it's true!