Blown Away

I sang "Shackles" last night at our Puckett's event because it has become my theme song for our adoption.  Not an inch of ground has been given willingly by the enemy, but our great God has once again overwhelmed us with His provision.  I came off of an incredible weekend surrounded by a group of people who I know will be in the trenches with us no matter how long or hard this road may be.  I went straight into another night that completely blew us away with the community, love, and generosity that we saw.  We came home last night feeling like we had a whole army with us!

I can't even begin to list all of the people we are grateful to for last night.  In all honesty, we don't even know all of their names.  We had some folks walk into Puckett's off the street, and once they heard what we were doing, they not only paid the cover to come in and eat, but they gave over and above.  Our church family packed the place out, and we all had a blast listening to great music, and our very own George and Diane rockin' it out as our professional auctioneers!  Our fellowship group has been so faithful to come around us and support us for the long haul, and they put in incredible amounts of time and effort planning and making sure the evening ran smoothly.  Gary, Steve, Lori, Steve D., Chad, and George were awesome about planning out all the little details.  It's hard to believe that Gary ran his idea for this by my only a few weeks ago.  What a difference community makes.  We could never, NEVER have done this alone.

So the moment everyone has been waiting for... I am still waiting to receive a final count as some last minute donations from those who could not attend are still coming in, and we're waiting to find out what the credit card fees will be.  However, from the initial count last night, it looks like the evening brought in...

<drum roll please>

$6,500!!!

Honestly, that is about one and a half times of what we have raised over the past four months, all in one night!  What an incredible blessing, and what an encouragement to us to see not only the financial provision for this adoption, but the spiritual and emotional support of such loving people.  Words cannot describe how grateful we are.  To those who were a part of this evening in any way, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!