"UN-Garage Sale" Fundraiser Report
Melissa Fischer
My heart is completely bursting with gratitude. About a week ago, Travis’s aunt Jenn let us know that she would be planning + hosting what she called an “Un-garage sale” in order to support our adoption. She had been collecting a ton of really nice items from around her home that she was planning to offer to others in garage sale form. However, instead of putting a price on all of the items, she was planning to allow people to come and take what they wanted from the sale and only pay what they wanted to as a donation to our adoption fund. What a wonderful way to bless us and others at the same time!
Travis's aunt+ planner of this entire event, Jenn {left}, Family friend, Jeannette {middle}, Travis's mom, Kaye {right}
Travis's sister, Blessing {left} and his cousin, Greta {right} were SO sweet. They wanted to donate their toys and do whatever they could to help bring our baby home. They also created a concession stand to help raise funds. Nothing more beautiful than seeing little hearts that long to give and serve.
Throughout the week we received many updates from WI about all of the amazing ways God was pulling this event together. Many people decided to donate items to the sale, making it an even bigger event! There were some amazing donations including a bike, a snowblower, a tablet, GPS devices, a Nintendo Wii, and lots more. With each update we got, we just could not believe that so many people were coming together to support us and our baby.
As you probably saw through all of the Facebook promoting, the sale happened yesterday morning. Travis and I received texts and pictures all morning from Wisconsin of all of the people who went out to be apart of the garage sale. It truly was such an amazing and encouraging morning. Seeing all of those people 2,000 miles away thinking about us, supporting us and loving us was one of the most powerful experiences we have had. We are so humbled and so grateful.
This little angel was also adopted from Florida <3
Our niece, Finley, used her own money to purchase some barbies and help bring baby home. #tears
I wanted to take a moment today to do a few of things. The first is to publicly thank everyone who was apart of planning, donating items, and attending the sale. You have helped us so much in this journey. I want to especially thank Dan + Jenn Speckeen. You will never know the depth to which you have blessed our hearts and souls with your sacrifice, willingness, obedience and hard work. Truly, you have given us such a HUGE boost of encouragement and joy on this journey that can so often feel wearisome and hard. Having you come alongside us and support us in not only a spiritual and emotional way but also financially is an answer to our prayers. Thank you a million times over for being the Lord’s hands and feet in our journey. We love you!
The second thing I wanted to do was to let you all know about the success of the “UN-Garage sale”. Thanks to many, many generous donations the garage sale collected just over $2,000!!!! We are amazed and in awe. Just a week ago we heard about this wonderful event and after days and hours of preparation, what a blessing to see how God was so faithful to provide through it. THANK YOU ALL + PRAISE GOD!
The last thing I wanted to do is give you all another update on our puzzle piece fundraiser. We have had such an amazing and encouraging response. We hope that seeing the generosity and love of others blesses and encourages all of you at least a fraction of the amount it has for us.
Our puzzle is 58% complete!
We have 318 pieces left to sell to raise our remaining $7,950.
We only have 37 days until December!
I truly believe we can complete our puzzle by December. Thank you to all of you who have helped us get this far. To everyone else, we cannot wait to share this treasure with our little one. We would love to have your name on the back of our baby's puzzle and to have you be a permanent part of our journey. Would you please consider joining us and buying some puzzle pieces?
You can find the details on our puzzle piece page. <3