Looking back with a full Heart

As we look back over these weeks, I hope we have loved and honored our parent's home, helped others, and taken time to reflect on the magic of giving back. I know our parent's and Grandparents would be so happy that their Grandchildren wanted so much of the furniture, china,  antique tools and treasures to place in their own homes. I know our parents would have loved meeting Melanie, Cheron, Micki, Cindy and all the wonderful volunteers that have walked through their home. We still have work to do before we think about selling their home in the spring, but now we can relax and enjoy looking at these 8 weeks as a gift. Thank you to everyone that has made this journey possible!!

The Non profits and ministries that were served:

Open Table- www.opentable.org /  They set up living spaces for the homeless
Next Door- www.thenextdoor.org /  services for women and families impacted by addiction, mental illness or incarceration
Be Blessed- /A Christian ministry in Hendersonville that gives to a needy community
Grace Place-www.graceplaceministry.org   /   Helping single Moms with children
 Elevate Madison Ministries-www.elevatemadison.org /  Giving to homeless in Madison, TN
Goodwill-www.giveit2goodwill.org  /  Sells items to those in need and trains for jobs
Room in the Inn- roomintheinn.org /  Helping the homeless in Nashville
Against the Grain- /helping women out of prison, educate and job train
United Way
Senior Center in Sumner County
Operation Stand Down-www.osdtn.org / assisting all honorably discharged veterans wth interview and job training, housing and support
Portland Cares-/ a thrift store giving to those in need in Portland, TN
Garage sales to support mission trips from Long Hollow Baptist Church to Ethiopia, Haiti, and Uganda. Clothes, shoes and bags sent to Uganda

                           
                                                        Some Before and After Photos

The downstairs Recreation Room is where we staged garage sale items

We filled this room multiple times, and then gladly released it to the non profits to give away
 or use for garage sales for mission trips 

1100 square feet of clothes given to Be Blessed,
 Madison Church of Christ, Goodwill and others

After this room was emptied

Melanie finishes cleaning out the Master Bedroom closet

The master bedroom closet when it was full with clothes and 2000-3000 pairs of shoes

A cleaned up alcove off the bedroom that was for shoes

The shoes area when it was full. The empty shoe boxes were even used again.
They were filled with supplies for children and sent worldwide

Master bedroom getting ready for giving away clothes

Empty

An upstairs recreation room empty

And when this room was full

An End in Sight

 9.15.16   I know I have left out so many details, but I'm trying to just give an overview of what can happen when wonderful people come together and trust God with the plan! Today was very special!

In the morning we all worked hard to gather clothes and socks for Madison Church of Christ Clothes Closet. They are bringing 5 trucks and 8 volunteers to help. When they arrived, we loaded and gathered clothes for 2 hours. When we were finished, they wanted to pray over our family for this donation. We all got in a circle, held hands and had a prayer that many people will benefit from these clothes.

9.17.16    Today 6 of us wrapped dishes all day to prepare for Portland Cares to come tomorrow. It was an especially tough day, but we soon completely filled up the side porch with bags and bags of dishes. When they came....they still had to box up the entire Rec Room!


9.20.16   I am skipping ahead a few days to Goodwill Day pick up day!  Brynn had done a walk through yesterday to assess what clothes we had left. They had parked a 40 foot truck at the bottom of the hill last night loaded with huge boxes.  They showed up this morning with a pickup truck and 3 wonderful men from Goodwill. It also took Brynn, another guy from her office, Janet and I, Micki, Melanie and Cheron to load 10,000 pounds(we later found out) of clothes into the truck for 6 hours.  While they worked in the upper Recreation room, throwing clothes from the upstairs window, Janet and I took bagged clothes and took them down the hill in her car. Later, when the huge boxes were full in the truck, we took clothes off the hangers, put them in bags, and threw the bags out of the window into the bed of the pick up truck to take to the 40 foot truck. There are a lot of photos, only because this is an area that took Melanie and Cheron weeks to organize, and the area we worried the most about!

Decided that opening up the windows and throwing clothes was the best 

The clothes Melanie had worked on for 2 weeks + ....laid out on the floor ready for Goodwill

Our crew from Goodwill

Loading the big truck at the bottom of the hill

Janet and I taking down the bags of clothes

Melanie and Cheron thankfully seeing the clothes leave

After the boxes were full in the truck, all clothes were taken off hangers and put in mesh bags

Brynn throwing mesh bags out the window to the pick up truck

And the room is 98% empty!! 10,000 pounds of clothes and $1,000 in cash and gift cards to Be Blessed Ministry!

Trucks and Cars in all sizes

It was always exciting on the days that a truck was scheduled for a pick up! Micki made phone calls, areas were prepared, bags brought outside ready to load, and someone would call from the bottom of the hill asking to come up. No one wanted the possibility of passing on the curvy and steep drive! We had to be careful to have only have 4-5 cars at the top, in order for a truck to turn around. The people we met were beyond wonderful, all volunteers who were trying to make things better for others.

Volunteers from Operation Stand Down

Portland Cares making their second trip of the day

  

Madison Church of Christ and one of their 8 trucks 

The 40 foot truck from Goodwill taking 10,000 pounds of clothes and loading over 8 hours

Portland Cares

Madison Church of Christ Clothes Closet

A typical day of making plans and laughter

These entries may be difficult to follow, mainly because I am writing them a week after they happen. Also, each day starts with a plan and changes many times during the days, as we hear from different people and non profit ministries. Exciting things are happening!! In every area we work in, we find so much stuff to be given away, but then in the back of a closet we will come across some precious handmade pillowcases sewn by our Grandmother, purses from 1920's or tools from Germany. None of us ever want to diminish the importance of anything in our parent's home, but there are times we have to laugh and think "how did all of this happen?"  I will try to give you a typical day:

9 am....We found out that 1/2 the purses will be picked up on Tuesday for Uganda and 1/2 will be picked up on Thursday for Against the Grain non profit. All plastic dishes are going to Uganda.

10 am....We found out that 20-25 bags of gowns and comfortable shoes are going to a Senior Center.
Micki talked to United Way and they need clothes for Disabled American Vets and women out of prison that are going for job interviews

10:30....We found out an Ethiopia mission trip garage sale is now involved. Stacey will come to gather items from the Rec Room tomorrow. Project Return may take 25 men's coats

11:00....In a few days, Operation Stand down are coming to get all of Dad's sport's coats and dress pants. These are for service men coming out of their service and going for job interviews.

Madison Church of Christ has a clothes closet, servicing 125 people a week. They do not sell, but give clothes to the needy. They will bring 8 trucks in the next week.

We had the pleasure of meeting Maddey, who is raising money for a mission trip to Haiti. She later sent us a thank you note that the yard sale made $2500!!!

Portland Cares want to come with a truck and gather "garage sale" items to be given to the poor in the Portland area. They will also pick up mattresses and 2 couches to be used.

1:00.....Brynn, a representative from Goodwill, came to assess the clothes and how they will get them to a truck. She stated that they have never seen this amount of clothes and she will need to talk to the person in charge of transport. One idea is to park a 40 foot truck at the bottom of the hill, and put clothes into smaller trucks to take them down. She came back 2 weeks later and that is what they decided to do. More about this later!!

Our team treating ourselves to a lunch out!

9 am- 5 pm   In between people coming to the house and meetings, we sorted dishes, cleaned closets, and bagged and organized clothes and shoes. Each day the rooms looked different than the day before. The foyer and Recreation room would fill up and empty many times over, as volunteers came to take stuff away. Each new person that came by would want to walk through this beautiful home and want to know the history of the home and our parents. Each day brought wonderful people working together and treasures that brought back memories! We cannot tell you how much Melanie, Cheron, Micki and Cindy meant to us and how much hundreds of hours they worked to make this happen!

Cindy and Janet taking down a unstable shelf

Cindy and Cheron boxing up socks

Claudia and Melanie in our supply area 

Janet surrounded by some of the hundreds of empty shoe boxes that the church will send  to children all over the
world packed with school supplies 

John taking down the upper level of shoes 

Everything is for a Reason

August 29, 2016
This was another wonderful week! Although we are working in the house everyday, I am not posting an entry each day. We have now been working for 2 weeks, and although the rooms are crowded, each area has a label and a place designated to be used! We are so thankful and we realize that every person is coming here for a reason that is so much more important than we are!

Wrought iron furniture waiting to be picked up for a garage sale for Uganda mission trip from
Long Hollow Baptist Church 

Melanie went through all clothes...choosing ones that could be worn in Uganda.
  Long skirts and dresses only with no low necklines 

Michelle started gathering clothes, shoes and purses for women in Uganda. She will have a wrought iron, dishes, Christmas and Halloween sale soon to help raise $30,000 for an orphanage there.

Garage sale items to support a mission trip to Ethiopia 

Jeff, who represents Room in the Inn in Nashville came and picked up a truck and car of men's clothing!





Marti and Liz shoes said they would buy 300 pairs of shoes and we would donate the money. They ended up taking 400 pairs and we sent 600 pairs. It was not easy checking each pair and boxing them up, but we were so thankful that it worked and we were able to donate $2,000.

John, Cheron, Beth, Micki and her nephew loading the truck

We boxed and bagged 2000+ purses. 1/2 of them were going with Meredith with "Against the Grain" for women out of prison. The rest were being picked by by Beth and being used for a garage sale for purses, shoes, and hats to fund "Elevate Madison Ministries.

Meredith and her husband with Micki loading purses for her ministry

Janet with many bags of purses waiting for the truck 

We put a thousand or so bags in the foyer before they were bagged