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This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Today, is a wonderful day - we are feeling so encouraged! Our Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction was last night and we are thrilled to say it was a success!

We were concerned because we really did not have a great response to our invitations. We sent out over 125 and only received responses from 32 saying they would attend. Sadly, we did not meet the minimum of 50 that we needed and will have to pay extra for those tickets not purchased. However, the Crowne Plaza adjusted that number to 43 - which made it a little less painful. And some of those who could not attend, donated money which helped offset the unpaid for tickets.

We were amazed at the number of auction items that were donated such as gift certificates to restaurants, a hotel stay, tickets to a dinner theater, jewelry, several nice gift baskets, a week stay in a cabin in Tennessee, artwork, and more. The fact is, we had more donated items than we had people attending.

We were not sure how the evening would go. On the way there, Don drove and I prayed out loud most of the trip. We prayed that proceeds from our silent auction would cover the tickets not paid for as well as provide substantial funds for the adoption.

Well, I have to say the evening was great. We had a nice dinner, the food was exquisite. Everyone seemed to have fun with the silent auction - several bidding wars were going on during dinner! Everything in the auction sold except 2 items! Amazing! We have some photos and we will share those later this week.

This morning we calculated the cost of the event and what we made on the auction; we made over $1200.00 after all expenses! I am thrilled! My goal was to hit $5,000 by the end of May! Yippee - we made it and then some!

Thank you everyone who has prayed for us and/or donated to help us - you have helped get closer to bringing our Angel home. We are so grateful!

Praising the Lord,
Elizabeth

Here's the Scoop on our Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction

Well, plans are firmed up for our event. Don and I are both quite nervous about it. However, we are praying and trusting that God will provide.

I am one of those people who many perceive as outgoing and extroverted. I am here to tell you, I am not! Truthfully, I am very introverted and would rather spend time alone than in a group. I would rather stay home than go to a party. I am just not good at it. Until recently, I even had trouble returning something to the store - I've worked my way through that one.

Anyway, where I am going here is that to get this dinner off the ground, I had to do some foot work. I prayed and prayed and God told me what to do. Boldly, I called the Crowne Plaza hotel (they always advertise on Way-FM) and made an appointment with their banquet director. I told her exactly what we wanted to do but that we did not have the money to pay for anything. In other words, the event had to pay for itself. I also asked that they waive their room fee (which was $500-$800 depending on the number of people!). She said she would see what she could do and get back to me.

Several days later, I heard from her and she worked out a great price for us and even threw in a hors d'oeuvre pass during viewing of the auction items. It turned out to be a great deal! Now all we need are the auction items and people to attend. We sent invitations to about 200 people and we are hoping for 75-80 to attend.

We are still trying to get auction items, if anyone out there has suggestions or would like to donate please email us.

We are praying that our benefit dinner and silent auction will be a great success.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:19

On my knees,
Elizabeth

More Fundraising For Our Angel

Well, we are racking our brains for more fundraising ideas. See our list to the right. We've done a lot of events but nothing big ticket! We've decided to have a benefit dinner and silent auction. We have some friends who said they will help us get auction items. Don's stepfather donated two beautiful water color paintings to start us off. So, it's a go. Now we have to find a venue and decide how we are going to pull it off.

Those of you following our journey, please pray for us that we can make this a success.

I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. Psalm 119:58

Blessings,
Elizabeth