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.