turning misfortune into memories

I think I need to start off this entry with thank yous to all the people who donated items for the garage sale and all those who've been supporting and believing in these memory boxes. A HUGE thanks to Christen and Bradley for helping us set up last night, sell today, and clean up!! Yep, we could have done it without you but it would have been a heck of a lot harder and not as much fun : ) The sale was a great success! We were exhausted at 5:45 this morning after setting up all last night but we were also full of excitement as to what the day could hold for us. Overall, we raised about $500 (and raised awareness about miscarriage and stillbirth) which included the money from the sale and three different donations (thank you Wendi and Ben, Mary, and Dr. Koch!!!). I've already been online ordering things to put together more boxes.

A little over a year ago, we were forced to deal the fact that we wouldn't bring our baby home with us from the hospital. We left the hospital completely empty handed, devestated, and confused as to where to go from there. After a couple of weeks of doing online research, I told Kelly that I wanted to put some kind of comfort kit together for parents like us so they wouldn't have to feel so completely empty. We also wanted to find a way to honor our baby boy. Between the two us, we came up with the memory box and what we thought would help parents in that same situation. Initially my goal was to just complete 5 boxes. Since then, those five boxes have been sent out. The response we've received from those parents or the family/friends that gave those boxes has been nothing but positive. How could we stop at only 5 boxes? We can't and will work as hard as we can to keep it going.

At times the support is overwhelming, but in an awesome way. I am beyond appreciative of how many different ways people support us...through prayers, monetary donations, donations of time and effort, and coming up with new fundraising ideas. I love that our boys wanted to sell drinks to try to raise some money and learn how important it is to help others in need. This day was successful on so many levels!