Combining my talents for Miss Courtney

I love to bake. I bake when I'm happy, when I'm stressed, when I don't know what else to do. I bake in order to look productive while the laundry goes unfolded and the children go unbathed. I bake to distract myself and to give myself an opportunity to think. With all the baking I've done over the years and all the instruction I've gotten from my mom I've become a pretty good baker. 

It just so happens that the day Mary and Jerry's plumbing went out I had several extra sticks of butter and plenty of eggs, flour, chocolate, and sugar. With everything else the Lenaburgs were going through this was the last straw. They're daughter is dying and now they couldn't even care for themselves or her properly because they had no water. 

Mary has taught me so much about the dignity of the human person and about what quality of life really means. We don't have a lot of extra money on hand but we did have butter and eggs and four and so I was going to do what I could to help Mary and her family.

I baked chocolate chips cookies, monster cookies, and Grace's brownies. I brewed some coffee. I made a couple of signs. I carried the kids' Melissa and Doug grocery store down to the corner of our lot. The kids brought down lawn chairs and a treasure chest for the money. 

We were open for business.

One woman stopped and bought a couple of baggies of treats and asked why we were fundraising. When I explained about Courtney she sadly told me she only had those two dollars but would debit the price of the whole stand if she could. Many people gave extra donations for Courtney's sake and some only gave money and took nothing in return.

Our first customers were our neighbors and soon there was a whole group of neighbors chatting in my yard, discussing the rebuilding of our neighborhood. It was really neat and the kids loved having all the ladies buying their cookies and telling them how cute they were. 

Because our neighborhood is still being rebuilt from last year's tornado we had lots of carpenters, electricians, cement pourers, and more who stopped by - which was also really great.

I loved seeing how the Body of Christ is so large and so active.

Ben was really great at waving customers down. JF mostly did what his big brother did. Resa played on the ipad or stole cookies. JP napped for most of the time and then joined us and got a cookie from his sister. L was at school at the time but when she came home she went straight to her piggy bank and brought out a couple of dollars so she could buy something, just like Ben had done at the beginning of the sale. I was really proud of them.

I was able to combine my talents for baking and sitting around and chatting with people with a fundraiser for the beautiful Courtney, Mary, and family. In the end we raised $66.24. I wish I could have done more but maybe you will now be inspired to use your talents for Miss Courtney too. Bake Sales for Courtney across the nation! (or lemonade stands or garage sales or ...)



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