Fundraiser Success!!

"I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good." -Psalm 54:6 (NIV)

Saturday night was our fundraiser event. It was such a magical night and it turned out to be an amazing success. Our Lord is so good.....he made sure the right people were there, he led me to prepare and plan a type of event I have never done, his words and spirit flowed through Pete as he presented and the hearts and minds of people were opened and touched! And America World was so amazing to have 4 people there and to help us so much in getting the right visual and beautiful pictures of the children there!

We had a cocktail reception for about 50 people including a silent auction, a lot of emotion and a lot of laughs. We raised a total of $8,000 for AHOPE for Children and for America World's Visiting Angels mission teams. We can't wait to do it again next year and hope it just gets better. Next year we will have had the experience of having been to Ethiopia as well as having Gabrielle. Hopefully will be able to give people more of a picture of what it is like there as well as share our video of gotcha day with Gabrielle.

Our freinds, family, neighbors and community are so amazing. Everyone came who rsvp'd and it just turned out better than we could have ever expected! My dear husband did such a FANTASTIC job speaking, I was so impressed and again in awe of him. I am so blessed and so proud of him and that he is my husband.

It was a little like this was our second step to Gabrielle (first being the paper pregnancy), I felt so close to her during this whole event and know one day this will mean a lot to her and to us. We have to keep helping the children and people who are from her birth place....they will be her extended family and we will never forget that or that she could have easily been one of the other beautiful children left behind or in a worse situation. The country is beautiful and historically rich, the people are beautiful and have amazing spirits and we are so looking forward to finally going there in a couple months to witness it first hand and fall in love with it even more!

Till next year!