The totals...

I've been sitting here all day trying to put this past weekend into words... and I still sit here, without words.  I'm still trying to process all that has happened and when you combine that with total and complete exhaustion that I feel, this is going to be difficult.

Let me start here.  I am OVERWHELMED.  Totally and completely overwhelmed.  I have never before felt so blessed by my friends and family.  My mom is the rock stars of all rock stars and has made numerous trips to and from Pella to help me prep for this.  She spent the week here helping out and I could NOT have done any of this without her.  Seriously, she's awesome.  If you don't know her, you should.  Your life will be better with her in it.  Then there's Russ, who saved us endless times through out this whole process.  He was our table provider (even at the last minute on Thursday when I realized I had grossly underestimated the number of tables we would need), our truck and trailer provider, my pre-storage provider, and the space provider for the sale itself.  He even hauled away our garbage when it was all said and done.  I had numerous other friends that helped to haul stuff here, unpack, bake, bring soda, bring us lunches, help during the sale, pack up, clean, unload, arrange goodwill pick ups, etc., etc., etc.  I'm not joking when I say that we have the best friends in the world.  We were brought to tears at several points this weekend just thinking about the love and support that we've been given through out the last several weeks.

We had no idea what to expect in doing this.  Try that again, we didn't expect what actually happened!  I didn't expect to be given SO MUCH STUFF.  :)  I didn't expect to spend six weeks straight arranging drop offs and pick ups and early sales and cleaning and sorting and pricing.  I didn't expect to fill my garage (and have to find a place to empty it) FIVE times.  I didn't expect to have an unlivable basement due to boxes upon boxes of sorted and priced items.  I didn't expect such amazing volunteers before, during, and after the sale.  I didn't expect my husband having to live in our car at the sale site for three days because we had so many things that we were unable to put 3/4 of our items away over night, and I certainly didn't expect the end result... which I'm not sharing yet because you'll stop reading if I do!

We had over 60 people donate items for our sale.  Nearly a quarter of these 60 were total and complete strangers.  No joke.  There were even 3 people that checked out, found out what we were doing, and brought back their cars full of items to donate to the sale.  At several points through out the process, people donated entire garages full of items.  There were numerous times in the last three weeks that we would get home in the evening and there would be new piles of donated items in our garage or on our porch with no idea who dropped them off! I even woke up one morning this week to find an older gentlemen dropping off things in the garage (which is an awkwardly wonderful thing to wake up to).

So now, some photos of the sale itself.  You can't call what we had a garage sale.  First of all, no garage I've ever seen could have held so many things!  We ended up with a total of 37 tables full on top AND below, 6 pallets covered in toys, a long hanging clothes rack, and a giant space of furniture off to the side.  We even had a "lemonade stand" complete with a giant bake sale staffed with some of the cutest little ones I've been lucky enough to call friends and students.

As you can see, it was way more than a garage sale.  Which explains why I'm struggling to keep my eyes open and total exhaustion has taken over our household.  It also explains why our house is a filthy pit and we have no clean clothes to speak of (a job that can certainly be put off another couple days).

So, without further a due, the totals...

Our two day, 7-4 sale turned into a three day sale!  We sold almost $750 on Thursday before we were even open!  People saw us setting up and stopped in to buy! Then, beings we couldn't put everything away overnight, we stayed open three full days and two evenings!

So here goes.  The grand total for our garage sale, including early online sales, is....

$7,320!

You read that correctly.

Seven thousand, three hundred, and twenty dollars of blood, sweat, and tears straight into the account for Baby Loeding.  Do you know what this means!?!?!

WE'RE FULLY FUNDED!  A combination of donations, our savings, and our "garage" sale has given us the amount we need to cover our adoption fees.  Anything that comes in from this point on will be put into an account for Baby Loeding #2 (hopefully a couple years down the road...).

When I said I was overwhelmed, it wasn't an exaggeration.  It was a total and complete UNDERexaggeration.

I will end with this... 

I love you all.  Whether I know you or not, you hold a very special place in our hearts and we thank God every day for the place you've played in our story and in our family.

May God bless you abundantly, just as he's blessed us.

an update...

Well, it's been about six weeks since we sent out the letters and made our big adoption announcement.  It's so overwhelming to look back over the past six weeks and think about all that has happened!

I won't ramble, I promise, but there is just so much to share!!  Stick with me, it's good!  :)

1. The process:
We were supposed to be finished with our home study already BUT sicknesses happen and we got delayed a couple weeks due to cancellations.  As of Friday morning though, we will officially be considered a waiting family.  So, moms that come in to Bethany will be given our book to look at and could consider us to adopt their child (there's SO MUCH MORE that goes in to it than that, but that's the gist).  AHHHH!!  What this means is.... IT COULD HAPPEN AT ANY TIME.

[Huge sigh, giggle, deep breath...]

I should remind you that with domestic adoption, there is no set time frame.  It could still be months and months and months.  We could be chosen and then mom could change her mind and we'll be back at the beginning.  It's overwhelming and crazy scary to think about but I will hold to the truth that it will work out.

2. The garage sale:
I have spent the last six weeks traveling all over Pella/Osky/Knoxville collecting and dropping off garage sale items.  As of today's calculations, we have had over 40 people donate toward our sale - half of which have been total strangers that just heard about our sale and wanted to help.  CRAZY.  There for about two weeks, we were totally and completely storage constipated (sorry, not sure what other word to use there!) as our garage was overflowing, our basement was so full we couldn't walk through it, and our living room was starting to look like something off Hoarders.  By the grace of God, we've been loaned an empty rental house and Jeremy's family helped us this last weekend to move numerous truckloads across town.  My garage is still overflowing but my basement has allowed us some more room to clean/sort/price, etc.  This same friend is loaning us a semi-sized storage shed to actually hold the garage sale AND providing 20 long tables for the sale itself.  What a blessing!  Details are slowly coming in to place and panic mode has officially set in for both me and my mom.

I've been selling some of the bigger items online through a 'for sale' site on Facebook and have already sold over $700 worth of items.  I still can't believe that, even as I type it!  We had a small garage sale in Grundy Center last weekend with only mom's stuff and we sold just over $400.  Again, I have no idea how that happened as I feel like we came home with just as many items as we took over!  It's like the multiplying of the loaves and fish only with baby clothes and furniture and picture frames!  Our garage sale total so far is $1,124.10 and this is before the sale actually even takes place! Oh goodness.

We have - literally - THOUSANDS of really awesome items for our sale.  Please come.  Please.  :)  I promise that there will be something there for you!  If nothing else, there will be lemonade, baked goods, movie theater popcorn, soda, suckers... and every cent counts! And if that still doesn't get you there to shop, please come to help!  No joke, we need help!! Also, if you RSVP on the Facebook event, you can see some of the items that I've been given so far and get some early purchases in!

3. The finances:
When we sent out our letters, we listed our goal as $10,000.  Honestly, we don't know why we put this number down as the actual amount that we needed was closer to $16,000 (we were planning on taking out a large loan to cover the final amount due).  In our tiny little minds and with our peanut sized faith, we believed that asking for $15,000 was an impossible goal and that even needing $10,000 was a ridiculous and embarrassing fate.  Well, wrong again.  We have been blessed in abundance from your donations!

Our hope was to get $8,000 by July to pay off our home study fees.   Between the garage sales and donations to date, we have raised $7,544!  We have officially paid off our home study and from now on, every cent that is raised/donated/earned/saved will go toward the final $8,000 fee that is due at the time we're placed with a baby.  This will prevent us from having to take such a large adoption loan which makes the thought of monthly daycare expenses, diapers, and formula far less scary... :)

To wrap it up: a couple cool stories with our fundraising so far...

Brystal's kiddos chose to do a lemonade stand for Baby Loeding.  Seriously, so stinking cute!  Here's my cuties doing their thing:

We were blown away to find out that afternoon that they raised more than $250 to help us with our adoption fees!  Can you believe that!? What an awesome family!  I just really love being their Aunt Julie!! I'm so lucky to love them and be loved by them!

I received another email and photo from a friend that I went to college with.  Here's the gist of the email: she was talking to her kiddos about doing things to help other people and mentioned Jeremy and I asking for help with our adoption fees.  She told them we were praying that God would provide the money that we needed to be able to start a family.  (Please keep in mind these kids have never met either of us!)  A little while later, one of her girls brought this poster to her asking if they could help us....

So, there's another lemonade stand in our future. :) This one will be in Knoxville and we'll keep you posted with the dates and times!

Last story:  I had a friend drop off some donations for our garage sale and we were sitting in the garage chatting (this has become my reality lately - I've spent more time in the garage than I have inside the house!) and she asked me very specifically what she could pray for in regards to our adoption.  Well, at that time our home study bill was already a month overdue and we were still $2000 short.  I asked her to pray that $2000 would show up from somewhere so that we could pay off our outstanding balance.  She went on her way and was praying for that amount and more as she drove home... As she's pulling away, I come inside and get on the computer where I find an email from an acquaintance.  She had just happened across our story on Facebook and her family felt compelled to help.  The email told us that there would be $2000 in our Bethany account that next day.  Ummm... I don't think I need to say any more than that.  Goosebumps, tears, the works.

There are so many more stories to share about how God has taken care of us over the past several months.  Too many to share so I'll end with this:

We are blessed beyond imagination and we are truly overwhelmed.  We will never be able to fully thank everyone for the love and generosity that we have been shown.  Our baby - whomever and wherever he or she is - is officially the luckiest and most loved little one ever.  Thank you for being a part of our story and a part of our family.

Much love, the Loedings