Every little bit helps

This weekend we are holding a yard sale. We have only been living in our house slightly over 1 year, and even though we don't have a lot of furniture to sell, we always have a ton of kids' clothes to donate and toys are always circulating through. So, we pooled together as a family and decided to sell everything we don't use anymore so that we can raise money for Viakeshwar. 


Viakeshwar is our sponsored child from Compassion, a great organization that exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults. Viakeshwar and his family live in India on the plains of Bhandewadi Slum, home to approximately 7,500 residents. As a sponsor, our contribution allows the staff of UTTHAN Child Development Center to provide Viakeshwar with Bible teaching, health and hygiene education, medical checkups, nutritious food, field trips, cultural programs, school fees, school supplies, tutoring and remedial classes. The center staff will also provide monthly meetings, home visits, skills training and income-generating programs for the parents of our child. 


I tell you all of this in case you are interested in sponsoring a child in the name of Christ. www.compassion.com. It really is a blessing. 


The letters we receive from Viakeshwar touch us to the core, and we want to do whatever we can to help him. His birthday is this Friday (he's turning 7!), and although we already sent him a birthday care package, we decided we really want to send him more this Christmas, thus the yard sale idea. Both of our kids have completely jumped on board to donate many things from their rooms. 


We started last night on Avalon's room, and she couldn't have surprised me more. I assumed her initial excitement to contribute would diminish when she actually saw her toys move from her closet to the "giveaway" pile, but it was quite the opposite. She gladly joined in and offered toys and stuffed animals and blankets before I even ran across them! She did have a hard time parting with her stroller. Not because she will EVER ride in it EVER again (too independent for that)...but because she pushes her dolls around in it from time to time. But after I let her play with it for about 20 minutes, she was ready to donate the stroller as well. All of this sorting and organizing resulted in a VERY, clean room, a room I haven't seen like this in months. It gets "mostly" picked up from week to week....but the junk has definitely accumulated over time. Ya know, like the happy meal toys, the band-aid wrappers (she's addicted to band-aids!), the empty bubble jars, and the lone plastic shoe for the polly pocket I haven't seen in months. It's all gone and the new cleanliness even made a difference in her excitement to go to bed last night! We'll see how long that lasts. 


Tonight we are moving into Loudoun's room to continue the search for donations. I am so glad I started this process early in the week so it isn't all left to Friday at midnight! We are also writing up the posters for the neighborhood and can't wait to bake a few refreshments on Friday night to sell to our early morning visitors. 


It makes me so happy that my entire family is behind this project and wants to help Viakeshwar in any way possible. I can't take credit for this idea though, I read about it through MckMama, and thought, Wait, I can do this, too!


Stay tuned for pics and details of how it went.