Tuesday, February 28, 2012

We want your junk! Auction for Aaron.

Last Saturday Lester and I attended an Auction at a home down the road from where we live.  It was called an "Estate Auction" which usually means that someone has passed away and the family is auctioning off what is left of their stuff.  However, in this case, the auction was held by a family that was moving out of state.  They didn't want to move a bunch of things that they couldn't use so they hired an auction company to come in and auction off their things for them.

I watched in amazement as people happily bid on the things that these people had. Don't get me wrong they had some really nice stuf bfut it was the price that people were willing to pay for these things that was amazing to me.  I love to shop yard sales. For those of you who don't live in the south, that is where you drag all of the things that you no longer want or use out to the front yard, put prices on them, and invite people to come out on a weekend and buy your things.  Do they have those in the north??? I'm not sure.  Anyway...people down here tend to want to "haggle" over the prices and often want to pay next to NOTHING for the treasures that they find.  I love a great deal myself so I am not faulting anybody for this, just stating the facts.  HOWEVER, at this Auction, I watched as people paid almost the same price for these things (and sometimes more) than they would pay for them at the store. *insert open mouth here*   I knew that there was NO WAY that they would expect to pay that much for those exact same items if they had seen them on a table in this family's front yard on a Saturday morning.  So what was the difference? I think maybe it was the thrill of the competition as they bid against another person. A lady standing next to me at the auction said that they were probably bidding against was someone's ex husband's cousin's uncle and they were determined that this person was NOT going to take it home with them at a cheap price. LOL.   I'm not sure about that one but whatever the reason..the family made substantially more $$ that day than they would have made had they held a yardsale instead of an auction.

It was then that it hit me! Several blogs that I have read by families who are currently in the adoption process mentioned a Yard Sale to raise funds for the adoption costs at some point.  We are told that we can expect to pay somewhere between $15,000.00-$25,000.00 to adopt from Haiti.  There are several organizations out there that offer grants to families who are trying to adopt but they only "match" funds that are raised by the family who is adopting.  We can only qualify to apply for these grants AFTER we have passed a U.S. homestudy which means we will have to come up with the money up front for the things that are required to get that done.  We don't have a savings account to pull this from, but we have a Heavenly Father who owns the cattle on a thousand hills!  We know that he will provide, but the truth is, he allows others to partner with the plans that he calls us to so that they can be blessed by their giving. We knew from the start that some sort of opportunity to allow others to give would be a part of our journey too.  So..why not hold an auction??  It's fun, it's thrilling, it's a competitive sport,  it's good for the environment because it goes along with the new trend of "going green"  by taking other peoples junk and recycling it into something NEW for you....okay, so those last two were stretching it a bit...but it sounded good right?  Seriously, standing at that auction,  I really felt like God was saying..Do an AUCTION FOR AARON!

So, that is what we plan to do.  If you have any junk..urrr...I mean TREASURES...that you have sitting around (That is in good shape and still works. PLEASE don't donate something that you wouldn't be willing to pay money for if you needed it) and  you no longer want them, WE want it!  We have a storage trailer that we will put these things in and when we have enough to hold an auction..THAT is what we will do. 

Anyone know a licensed auctioneer that would donate their time to help?  We plan to grill hamburgers and hotdogs, have nachos and cheese, baked goods, drinks etc for sale that day too so we could offer him/her a free meal for their services. *BIG GRIN*

What do ya think? We'd love to hear from  you.  Would you attend?  Got some treasures you'd like to donate?  It's for a really good cause..have you seen my Handsome Son?  No??  Let me show him to ya.  AARON: