A Humbled Thanks

I am usually a very quiet person, and keep my thoughts to myself.  Part of that is my personality, part of that is my non-verbal male brain, and most importantly, part of that is the fact that I know I most likely will offend someone if I speak, because I tend to come across very rough when I don't mean it that way. So that's a major part of the reason why I started this blog- it was an outlet for me to collect my thoughts and to voice some of the things I am thinking, without actually saying anything.  I guess it is a way for me to say what needs to be said, in a forum where others can reflect on the message and not the messenger.  So I say all that to lead me to the point of this post.

Brandy and I, along with another family, hosted a fundraiser for our upcoming adoption and for missions.  The idea was presented back in October or November, and through the leadership of my wife and TW, was organized and executed in a relatively short amount of time.  The inital idea was to have a band playing at our yard sale, which we hoped would help bring more people to the yard sale- and this would be in honor of Abigail, my daughter that was killed.  We wanted to do something to raise money for the adoption and for missions to help other people, but at the same time honor the life of my little one.  However, it grew into something much larger and greater than we would have ever imagined.  It went from a yard sale and turned into an event.  An event that humbled me greatly.

My estimate was about 1500 people (give or take a hundred or so) attended the Hope Project.  Which to us was completely shocking.  We never imagined so many people would come and support us.  We had stories on multiple news channels about our family and about the Hope Project.  Which is awesome in some regards, but also frustrating because I had to lose my daughter to get this type of attention. But nonetheless, all of that was very humbling, because the reality is neither Brandy nor I chase the spotlight.  I could really care less about being important.  It's just not for me. So to watch my family's story as a feature on TV was almost a little out of my comfort zone, to be honest.  Yet, many of the people that came to the Hope Project went out of their way to track Brandy and I down and say they saw our story on TV, and were compelled to come and support us.  That is humbling.  Almost overwhelming.

However, the most humbling thing I saw was the number of people who were willing to give up their Friday night, and Saturday, and volunteer to help us.  My guess is close to 50 people.  Frankly, a lot of which I didn't even know.  There is no way we would have been able to put on this event without the generous help of our volunteers.  And I can think of a lot of things people would rather do than work in the hot sun for 8 hours on a Saturday.  Yet, we had so much help.  So many people showed us the love of Christ-doing something you probably don't want to do because it brings hope and joy to someone else, and brings glory to Christ- that it left me speechless.  I really didn't know what to say. 

So I guess this is me saying "Thank you" to everyone.  To everyone that supported our event, whether through donations, through volunteering, attending and buying stuff, or whatever you did, thank you. Thank you for your help, for your kindness and love toward both our families.  Thank you for giving your time.  Thank you for helping us honor God, and honor the life of Abigail.  Thank you for helping us bring home Malachi and Grace.

Thank you from a humbled man.