I Saw a need......... Clothing Drive part 1

My mind is reeling from this weekend, please stick this post out with me, I promise you will be glad you did. A couple of months back I blogged about an inspiration to jump on the bandwagon with Patrice a fellow blog mom who issued the Get your Serve on Challenge, as most you of you know I decided to organize a community clothing giveaway  at my church because I felt that times are hard for just about everyone, of every income level right now, and over the past few weeks with the help of many of you, I received numerous clothing donations and this weekend my best friend Tricia (who jumped on board with me, no questions asked, knowing she was getting herself into a big project and a lot of work! I couldn't have done it without her!!!!) and I along with a handful of wonderful ladies from my church, made the clothing giveaway come to life, in a bigger way than I EVER EVER dreamed possible!! You see, I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember, I have always believed in God and known Jesus Christ as my Savior (don't click off the page, stick this out with me, I promise I am not going to get preachy on you! Although I do think Jesus is pretty amazing and I hope you take the time to get to know Him!) and I have always prayed to Him when I was feeling happy, and clung to him when I was feeling scared, a I begged of him until my heart was raw when I was trying to get pregnant, and I cried out to him when we lost our babies to miscarriages but never in all of my years had I SEEN Jesus, I have felt him comfort me, and calm me and give me peace but never have I witnessed a moment where I SAW Jesus visibly in a room. (Are you sticking with me???) On Friday we spent all day organizing, folding and hanging up bag upon bag of clothing we had 20 tables and 3 hanging racks along with these coats racks to utilize!

People we so generous, this picture was taken a few days before we went to organize, there was more than this people, the response to our call for donations was amazing!! When we opened the bags we found clothes that were in great shape, lots of name brands, and lots of things with the tags still on it. There were winter coats, Halloween costumes, shoes and suits and so much more! On Saturday morning we set up platters of cookies and juice and made signs to hang up around town, I kept telling Tricia I was nervous no one would show up! At 8:50 we went outside to put a huge banner on the side of the building and there were two cars in the parking lot by the time we were done!! I was so excited! We went back in, did a few final things and at 9:00 I went to open the doors and ,oh my gosh guys, there was a LINE of people!! It was JUST like black Friday! They rushed in to our tables, we stood back in awe, within fifteen minutes I counted more than 50 people going through the tables with more people walking in, (not a shabby start in our small town!) they were filling up shopping bags and garbage bags and for a few moments I panicked! There was absolutely NO WAY the amount of clothes we had on those tables was going to last as long as we had planned for especially with everyone filling up shopping bags and trash bags! and so I prayed that those that needed them worst would get there quickly and went around to help the ones that were already there!





and the people kept coming and going, the ones leaving were so appreciative and thankful, people were kind to each other and other's were in awe that everything was completely free and that there was no catch. We heard from numerous people saying that this helped them because they weren't sure how they were going to get coats and clothes for winter. And then the inevitable happened, one our tables got down to almost nothing, it was  a popular kids size and we were only 45 minutes or so into the giveaway....

and now because it is Eleven o'clock at night and my daughter is still awake with a miserable allergy attack and a stuffy nose that is making her completely miserable I am going to have to leave you hanging! Watch for part 2 tomorrow!! This story just gets better and better!!!