A good turn out

Saturday's yard sale was a ton of work (we're all still recovering, I think), but it ended up being pretty successful -- we raised over $400 for Padma! A huge thank you to my cousin Stacy and her family for letting us use their yard. We had more stuff to sale then we realized, and there was still a lot left at the end of the day, but we were very glad to clear out quite a bit. And we learned some valuable lessons:

1. No matter how early you set up, people will start coming before you are ready for them.

2. Don't count on the weather for anything. If it's cold and windy in the morning and you decide to change into long jeans, it will be 80 degrees in two hours, and then when you change back into shorts, it will rain.

3. Impending rain makes cleaning up a yard sale go really quickly.

4. If you decide to sell just the set of chairs that go with a kitchen table, inevitably you will get at least two people offering to buy the whole set five minutes later.

5. People say they will come back for stuff, but they don't always do that.

6. But sometimes they do. (And then they come back again.)

7. No matter how cheaply you are selling stuff, people will always ask for cheaper, even when it's a fundraiser.

8. When someone asks, "How much?" don't respond with a question. ("Uh, a dollar..?")

9. One person's junk is another person's treasure.

10. It's possible to actually make money off a yard sale even when most everything is $1 or less.

And some pictures:

Stuff


More stuff


And even more stuff (there was so much!)


Our Nepal prayer flag


Jazz hands in the shade


The whole group towards the end of the day


This is the photo we displayed of the children at the Padma house when Rachel was there. (Can you spot Rachel in this picture?)

Come one, come all!

If you live in the Orem/Provo area, or if you know someone who does, please help me spread the word that my family and I are having a fundraiser yard sale on Saturday (tomorrow), starting at 8 am at 682 West 400 South in Orem. It's going to be completely awesome! We have tons of clothes (especially kid clothes), shoes, accessories, furniture, household items, baby stuff, and treats that we would like you to eat, so when I say "Come one, come all," I mean it! Come!

My family and I are raising money to donate to the Padma organization, which is a group that supports the Optimistic Children and Youth Home of Nepal (OCAYHN). There are literally thousands of children who live and beg on the streets of Kathmandu in Nepal, who have absolutely nothing - no homes, no food, no future, which is why the work of Padma and OCAYHN is so amazing and so crucial. OCAYHN takes in children from off the streets and gives them a clean, safe place to live, healthy food to eat, tuition for schooling, and a family community. When you look at pictures of the children - children as young as two or three years old - living on the streets of Nepal and compare them to the pictures of the children living at OCAYHN, there aren't really words to describe the differences. In the first, you can see despair, pain, neglect, and starvation; in the second, you see hope, love, and happiness.

Last summer, my sister Rachel got to go to Nepal and do some volunteer work. (Check out her Nepal blog for more stories and information, listed on the right under Family Blogs.) Though she had to come home several weeks early because of an emergency appendectomy, she was able to spend some time with the girls (and one boy) at the home. When she came back and shared her experience with us, we were deeply touched and wanted to do something to help. Sometimes it seems like there are so many desperate people in the world who are in tragic situations that our small efforts can't really make a difference. But what we do can and does make a difference to Padma and a huge difference to these sixteen children in Nepal. It's not the whole world, but it's a start.

So please come tomorrow. Even more than enjoying the sunshine and finding some awesome stuff, it's an opportunity to help someone in need. You won't regret it. See you there!

To Nepal and back...minus an appendix

Sometimes life is just so crazy, you try to write about it while it's happening and then something else happens and you have to start all over. I've been wanted to post on here about my sister Rachel's adventures in Nepal, but everytime I thought I was ready to put it all down on paper, something else happened. Like anaphylactic shock. Or appendicitis. You know, whatever. Little things like that.

Rachel was in Nepal for just three weeks (out of an originally planned seven) to volunteer at a non-profit daycare center and an orphanage; two weeks in, she was in the hospital getting her appendix removed and a week later, she was home, one organ lighter and eight pairs of shoes heavier (they are beautiful shoes though, so I can't blame her). For those three weeks, pretty much all my family talked about was Rachel, how she was doing, what she was doing, etc. I read her blog every morning as soon as I got on the computer, and every morning I had to hold back my emotions as I tried to imagine what she was experiencing: intense poverty beyond our comprehension, stories of tragedy that were just the way of life there, strange foods, an unfamiliar language, and a complete absence of friends or family or support of any kind. And as her reports trickled in of sickness, getting hit by a motorcycle, ripping open her thumb, getting a 2-inch splinter in her foot, going into anaphylactic shock, and finally, appendicitis, it just seemed surreal.

Rachel also had some amazingly good experiences. She was able to go to the orphanage (that she's been in touch with for almost a year now) for only a few hours, but during that time she met with the girls that she's loved and cared about for months. She came away with a rock-solid determination to do everything she can to help them from here, and after seeing the pictures and hearing their stories, I want to do everything I can to help them too. Rachel has always been driven by a desire to help people. She has such a big heart, and other people's experiences and sorrows affect her deeply. I can tell that caring for the children of Orchid Garden and OCAYHN is going to be her life's work.

In some ways, I am still processing Rachel's adventures, as I'm sure she it too. What is amazing to me is how her one-on-one contact with the children she met has affected all of our family already. We care too, and I think that we have learned with Rachel to appreciate the luxuries we have and recognize our responsibility to do what we can to help other people. It's overwhelming to think of the millions of people in the world who are suffering, but to find one group of children that you know you can help makes the desire to do so even stronger.

I've also come away from the last few weeks with a stronger testimony, as strange as that may sound. There were several times when Rachel could have died on her trip, very literally, and yet I know she was protected and saved by heavenly powers. It was a welcome reminder that Heavenly Father really does watch over all his children at all times. Not that I ever forget or doubt that, it's just nice to have it so forcefully (and gratefully) confirmed.

I highly recommend reading Rachel's blog (rachelgoestonepal.blogspot.com) to get a fuller sense of her trip. I'm so proud of my sister for being brave enough to go and loving enough to come away with a purpose and not just bitterness. And also, I'm very, very glad she's home.

Some pictures from her blog: