Yard sale saves family's home

COEUR d'ALENE - Jason and Jane Morgan, after a busy weekend, won't lose their home.

Consider the family's prayers answered.

"My emotions are super overwhelming," Jane said Monday. "There are just so many amazing feelings."

Around 100 people stopped by the Morgans' yard sale over the weekend, not so much to buy things, but to donate. And after two days - actually after two hours - the family of eight received enough to ensure they won't lose their doublewide trailer on five acres off Huetter Road.

"Amazing miracles came from those two days," Jane said.

People started arriving around 8 a.m. Saturday after an article about the Morgans' plight ran in The Press. The family needed $1,005 by Monday, which they didn't have at the time, or the home would be foreclosed upon. Jason had recently landed a job, but wouldn't receive enough paychecks in time to meet the deadline.

So the family decided to have a yard sale.

Only, it worked it reverse. Instead of buying things, people showed up to give.

"The second day I tried turning people down," Jane said. "Actually, I tried turning people down after a couple of hours on Saturday."

Some people didn't take no for an answer, and the $1,000 goal was easily surpassed.

The exact amount Jane didn't want to divulge until she prayed about it, she said, since many people donated anonymously. With the extra windfall, she wants to partner with local churches to offer services, such as cleaning, for the elderly.

But the worry of having to move out suddenly without a place to go is all but eradicated.

"There's no way," she said of moving out of the home the family took over from Jason's ex-wife. The families remain close.

Nile Latta of Hayden was one of the late-comers whose donation wasn't accepted. The mortgage had been paid threefold by the time he got there Sunday.

"It's just a Christian thing to do, and if I have the money to do it, I should be doing it," he said. "Apparently, there are people in this world that feel the same way I feel."