With a little help from my friends....

There are days when I really want to just hide in a corner and cry. Even with the enormous faith I have in God the past few months have been extremely tough. I honestly don't know how people get through any part of life, much less the tough parts, without God.

I also don't know how I would survive without the love, support and generosity of my family and friends. We have received more encouraging words than I even have time to tell you about. We have had a ton of leads on jobs due to people keeping their ears open for opportunities. I just can't tell you how this warms my heart and keeps me from feeling defeated.

Right after we found out that Bry lost his job, I received a call from my Mom. She told me that she didn't have a lot of money (duh), but that she wanted to help. She came up with this idea to have a huge garage sale. If you know my Mom, you know that she is the garage sale queen. Seriously, she would see the chair right out from beneath you if you're not careful! :) She wanted to tell all of her friends and co-workers about the sale and if they had anything that they wanted to get rid of, she would come haul it away for them. I have to admit, when she first told me I was a little uncomfortable with the whole thing. I mean, times are tough for EVERYONE! I really hated asking for anyone to give away their stuff. Mom reminded me that one, I wasn't asking and two, it's not like we were asking for money, just junk. :)

It took a little convincing but I finally swallowed my pride and decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, Mom spread the word and D told his co-workers, Jo told some people from church, Bre pitched in and it just kind of spread! I was amazed at the stuff that showed up in my garage everyday! D dropped things off by the truckload! Friends, Family and Strangers sent clothes, electronics, furniture and everything in between. By the day before the sale my garage was completely full and I had things stacked all over my house. I couldn't get over the generosity that was shown to my family! After a ton of work, pricing, and organizing, the day of the sale was here. Mom, D and Bre came over to help. There were so many people there that all of us stayed busy from 7 am until 1 pm on Friday and Saturday! My neighbors told me later that they had trouble getting through the street because there were so many cars out there!

We ended up making a crazy amount of money for a yard sale and still had a ton of stuff left over! But what meant so much more to me than the money was how everyone was so generous with their belongings and their time. I have been completely humbled by the entire experience.

We still don't know how we are going to dig our way out of this mess. But I do know that we will be ok. How could we not be? We have so many people who love us that everything else is just gravy. Whenever I think about it I still can't get over the generosity of my family, friends and even total strangers.

I had to show off a few pics of our sale and some of the things that were donated...