Garage Sale-ing

I so wanted to take Martha (the 11 year old girl) out shopping today for a dress to wear to church. But I got nixed by the World Relief people. First of all I had not gone through the background check required for all drivers and companions. Downloaded the forms, filled them out, and delivered them on Friday afternoon. Then they do not want individual members of the family going on outings without all the rest of the family for a while. I am not about to drive the van with a family of 8 who do not speak English.
So, what to do? We went Garage Sale-ing. Jerry says he had never done that before. How can that be? I got the morning paper out and took down the addresses of 8 sales that said "kids cloths" and "toys". I bought two night gowns, a toy fire truck and some rubber stamps at the first stop. All the others were a wash. I next stopped at the NW Christian Thrift store and found some dresses for Martha. Then had to stop at Office Depot to get some stamp pads for the rubber stamps, a ream of copy paper (for drawing and stamping) and a package of colored markers. Oh, I found an 18 " doll which I'll give to Martha later (after she has been cleaned up) and some maracas which the boys loved.
Took the lot to them and was received so warmly. Martha broke into the biggest smile when she realized that I had brought things just for her, things she would not have to share with her brothers. It will be fun to see which dress (if any of the ones I brought) she will be wearing tomorrow.
It is so fun to see who ends up with what. I take something out of a bag and expect JeanMarie (age 5) to want it, Erike (age 14) latches on to it. Or I thought the rubber stamps would be of interest to Martha or Erike and Raphael (age 17) shows more interest (I think I saw him drawing yesterday).
As we were leaving Jerry told me to swing by the grocery store. Then he proceeded to purchase a watermelon and a dozen large muffins which we then delivered back to the house. By that time there were two car loads of people there. Their friends from the refugee camp who had arrived last month and one of the companion families.
Tomorrow should be organized chaos at church - or not. I do want to see about getting into the coat reserve to see if anything will be of interest to them.