The item was small yet profound.

Kristiina Miller pulled a small figurine out of a box in the lobby of The Garage of Blessings and looked for the customer she knew would be pleased to have it.

Mary Hanson walked in and her face lit up.

“Ah, a little angel,” Hanson said, beaming.

Hanson, 91, is a regular visitor to the free second-hand store on Goldie Road in Oak Harbor. She was surprised to learn last Thursday night that the store she loves to search for toys for children ultimately will need to move again.

Although there is still a year remaining on The Garage of Blessing’s non-renewable, two-year lease, Miller has been actively seeking a new, larger location.

Miller, who started the unique nonprofit from her garage in 2012, is frustrated that her attempts so far have gotten her nowhere.

She said she has written the owners of three vacant buildings in Oak Harbor in recent months and heard back from only one of them who informed her he wanted to sell rather than rent.

The price was well out of reach.

“I need somebody to believe in me,” Miller said. “I feel like I’m invisible.”

Miller said she is actively looking because she doesn’t wait until the last moment and doesn’t want to be left without a home for the store when its lease expires in February 2017.

She is looking for a building around 10,000 square feet because the current 4,000-square-foot structure is “bursting at the seams” from the high volume of donations.

Already, she said she has had to turn away many furniture donations due to a lack of space, even though the demand for such items, including beds, is high.

The Garage of Blessings has helped change lives and brings lots of smiles to people’s faces, Miller said. Every month, the free store serves more than 2,000 customers and receives about 700 carloads of items.

“God will figure a way,” Hanson said. “We’re just messengers. This (the store) doesn’t happen without a message from God. It comes from something divine.”

The Garage of Blessings moved out of its former location behind the present store last year to make room for a marijuana production facility.

Miller said she was told then by property management that the growing operation could possibly expand. She’s noticed boards going up in the windows of buildings around her, leading her to believe that process is underway.

Miller said the buildings she has looked into for a new home for The Garage of Blessings are either selling at prices that are too high or the owners have shown no interest in leasing to her.

The silence concerns her, particularly when some of the places she’s inquired about have been long empty.

“I don’t understand the business side,” Miller said.

“If it’s a bad thing to have us in there for business reasons, I don’t understand that. It would be nice if somebody would communicate to me.”

And the sooner, the better.

“We have to go somewhere,” she said. “I can’t fit this back into our two-car garage.”