My Heart is Full...

I am not even sure how to put this day into words, my heart is so full. I woke up this morning to the smell of homemade spaghetti sauce cooking throughout the house. I didn't sleep much last night, because I was anxious and nervous and excited all at once for our Ethiopian Dinner. My mom and I spent the morning pretty low keyed, and then my Dad arrived and we began to kick the afternoon in gear with final preparations for our fundraiser.

My Dad arrived around 11am with a bouquet of flowers from my sister, Heather (who was supposed to come but got sick), and a really cute plant from my sister Kristen (who lives in Boston) and his mad peeling skills. You see, Dad and I had been put in charge of peeling about 60-70 hard boiled eggs for one of the Ethiopian dishes, and I think for about an hour it was a battle of Dad and Ang vs. the eggs. In the end, I am pretty sure the eggs won...they did not want to peel, but nonetheless, we accomplished the task.

We were sitting at the table when Nate came in and gave me a package from my sister-in-law that had just arrived. I opened it and out poured 86 bracelets to sell at our fundraiser that she had personally made. Wow...I couldn't even believe it, and we were so blown away by her thoughtfulness!

Well, preparation got under way and I am not going to lie, I was anxious about everything. We had a few people back out during the day (I was worried people wouldn't show up), I had no idea how many teens from my youth group would actually come to serve, and I wanted to make sure we had enough food. Let me just tell you, my expectations were BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER!

First of all, Aster, my new Ethiopian "sister", who had cooked all of our food, showed up at 3:30pm, with a present for me. I opened it up and there was this amazingly beautiful yellow Ethiopian Dress and Scarf. She had gotten it for me to wear, and hoped it fit. I put it on later, and it fit like a glove and was stunning. My heart was overflowing!

As far as people, let's just say EVERYONE showed up and then some! I ran home to change into my new Ethiopian dress, and came back to a huge line of people waiting to be seated. There were friends who had traveled over two hours to be there with us, friends who we had known since we were younger, people who we had never met before but were friends of friends, several of the families of girls I have coached for volleyball, friends from Nate's work, church family friends, and more! As soon as I stepped foot in the church, I immediately began to cry. Again, my heart was overwhelmed and blessed beyond measure.

The teens blew me away as well. In the end I had about 15 teens and young adults that served drinks, served food, ran dishes back and forth, and did just about whatever we asked of them, including entertaining like 30 kids on the spur of the moment. (Big Thanks Tasha, Linnea, Drake, Ben, Krystal, Diane, Kaitlyn, Courtney, Raymond, Alicia, Bubba, Kayla, Natalie, Lindsay and Bethany). Not only did they do all of that, but at the end of the night, I came downstairs to what I thought was going to be a major pile of dishes, and instead my youth group had scrubbed and cleaned EVERYTHING! Can't even put that one into words.

The ministry center looked so good. My mom had made these super cute African Christmas Trees (which she stayed up until 1:30am the night before finishing), we had yellow, green and red tablecloths, and it just looked sweet! I am not going to lie, the night flew crazy fast. From about 5pm-6pm it was a little overwhelming. We had probably 130 total there. My mom was running around like crazy (enough said if you know my mom...you are probably imagining what all that entailed), bringing spaghetti back and forth from my house to the church. She did an AMAZING job! Aster and her entire family were serving the Ethiopian food, which people ate a TON of, and Nate and I were running in between all of that. It was a little insane.

Our friends, Jeromy and Kim, shared their powerful adoption story to close out the night. I am so grateful they made the trek up and that people could hear and understand the call to adopt. Jeromy even quizzed Nate and I on some "Ethiopian Fact" questions...to which I epically failed in front of everyone!

At the end of the night, EVERYONE stepped in to help. The ministry center went back to its original shape in a matter of minutes, the dishes were washed and dried, the food was packaged up, t-shirts and bracelets boxed up, and we just felt an incredible love and support that again, words cannot explain. Aster just kept telling me over and over that we are family now...we are family.

My Dad had to head out quick due to the fact that he has to preach tomorrow, but my mom, Nate and I, came back to the house and realized not one of us had eaten! Mom decided on a cream filled donut (for dinner...not sure about that Grammy), Nate and I ate our incredible Ethiopian food, and we just sat for a few minutes. Then came the closer to the night...

There was a knock on our door. Nate opened it and in walked Krystal and Ben, two of the teens from our youth group that served tonight...with Starbucks for us! They bought us Caramel Macchiatos, White Chocolate Mochas, and several other drinks to choose from. We seriously wanted to cry we were so touched. They stayed for awhile and when they left, again, my heart was overflowing.

At the end of the day, words can't express the gratitude that we feel. God has placed so many people in our path along this journey, and so many of them were present tonight. As I stood there with Nate on the platform, in my brand new Ethiopian dress, and looked around the room, I experienced an immense joy. Even as I write tonight, I can't help but think, "I have the most incredible husband, who is my best friend, and we are on an amazing journey together that God has called us to. We could not have asked for a better life story." While there have been a lot of days of questions, doubts, and disappointment, and we are still "WAITING", it's days like these that I want to savor forever, reminding me...this is the journey that God has called to, and we have no other response than to offer gratitude. Our hearts are filled.

PS...Pictures will come tomorrow!