July 22- 28th
Wed, July 22nd-Tues, July 28th
July 22: Today’s the day when lots of ‘stuff’ is going to be picked up and delivered to the church for the Rummage & Bake Sale. After a couple of hours in helping load two 14 ft trucks (which someone generously donated) I arrived to at the church to help unload.
While I knew there would be lots of stuff brought in and collected, I was still pleasantly surprised and a tad nervous to see ALL this stuff everywhere. I was hoping to have just large furniture for sale in the lobby but it was clearly obvious that would not be the case. Piles & Piles were everywhere and the stuff kept coming. For my own sake I needed to reassure my boss that the lobby would be in good shape by Sunday. Needless to say it was an absolute non-issue for my boss and co-workers (who had the blessing of seeing all the stuff come in first hand). I’m so very thankful to be working with this great group of people.
As I walked through the lobby and into the rooms that were also being used I really had to fight back the tears. I’m thinking if these volunteers see me crying here they’ll think something is really wrong) In reality my heart was touched by all the people, some I didn’t even know who were there sorting, moving, and trying to organize the items in a way to make them sell.
There were people from Mountain Park Community Church (our current church and employer), from our previous church, there were teenagers there from Valley (school where McKenzie will be a junior), families and a few college students and other adults I didn’t know. As my heart was touched with emotion and fighting back tears, I thought that these folks are helping for no other reason than to love on my family by providing support (and hopefully generate additional funds for Bonnie’s medical treatments. Those helping were not earning money for a mission’s trip or getting a percentage of what they sold. There was nothing in it for them….It was purely to help…what a humbling experience. Again, I’m reminded that it’s often more comfortable to be on the giving end than on the receiving side of so much love.
July 23 –Thursday a local church, Cornerstone, graciously let us borrow 20 more tables and some signs (OK – so I need to replace some of the signs). Many folks were back sorting and arranging items for the sale. McKenzie even found some new tops that ‘she really needed’. When I was walking through I noticed some photos in a frame that looked very familiar and when I looked more closely I realized they were Bonnie’s and my baby pictures in frames (OK so we should have re-checked all the boxes we took out of storage). I reassured Bonnie that I looked through all the ‘stuff’ to be sure no other treasures of ours were displayed.
Our Yoga Director donated DVD’s to the sale, and a Tempe Police officer donated a box full of crosses to be sold as a way to generate funds. Friends from our previous small group were there until almost 11:30 PM setting up and several folks showed up by 7 AM on Friday to put the finishing touches on things, set up the bake sale and get ready for the sale to begin.
July 24,25 – It was a very long week as many trips were made from our home to the church with vans, cars, and picking up loads of ‘stuff’ emptied from our garage (and many others) to the church. Bonnie was very disappointed not to have the energy to stop by just to check things out. In fact, on Saturday she called with so much pain that I left the sale and had to take her to the ER. Basically complications from 17 units of blood are messing with her liver. So they had to transfuse another 3 units of blood and on Monday drain 4.7 liters of water from her stomach (not the weight loss program I want to be on). She came home on Tuesday and is slowly regaining strength. Continue to pray for the bleeding to stop and for her liver to do what God intended for it to do.
A special thank you to Barb, Kurt and Adair for your efforts in getting this off the ground and going. An additional 40+ people had helped throughout the week. All of their efforts and purchases from many people helped to raise the funds needed to cover over two months of IV treatments and supplements for Bonnie. We are so grateful for everyone’s help, words of encouragement, donations, and prayers.
With grateful hearts…and tired bodies.
Bonnie, Juno and McKenzie