Steven Curtis Chapman Concert

Last night we were blessed to go to the Steven Curtis Chapman concert. And we were doubly blessed to be in attendance with two other adoptive families that we have come to know through our amazing adoption journey. Here's our wacky group picture (thanks, Romi, for taking a lot of pictures! This was the best one).

Tonya had the great idea to make signs with our Log in Dates and cover them in glitter hoping they'd sparkle enough that SCC would see them from stage. And, guess what? HE DID!!!

Unfortunately, the second part of her idea didn't happen ... the part where he was suppose to call us on stage and offer us money to help fund our adoption. Dag! But, one other couple adopting from Ethiopia received $2,400 from change collected during the concert that acutally turned in to $4,000 after someone matched up to that amount. Rick and I had to chuckle when they said they should get their referral in 5-7 months and travel by the end of the year ... yep, we said that once. And over two years later ... ... ...

Here are the three of us getting ready to enjoy the concert. We had GREAT seats.

One of the cool things about this concert was seeing both of SCC's sons playing in his band. They are very talented young guys. The following picture is SCC on the right, his older boy in the middle playing guitar and his younger son on the far left playing a rhythmic instrument. Yep, very talented.

In the above picture, take notice of the tiny number up in the right hand corner of the screen (it's a little hard to see, I know). That number would increase by one every 18 seconds. Statistics say every 18 seconds a child somewhere in the world becomes an orphan - currently, there are over 43 million! As SCC mentioned the meaning behind these numbers, Spencer turned to me and said, "I hope they get to 928, because that's Malia." His comment really took me off guard and had me distracted watching the numbers change the rest of the concert. I figured the concert wouldn't last long enough to get to 928 (it ended somewhere in the 500's), so when it hit 464 I almost took a picture, but didn't. It will be interesting to see if Malia's documents indicate the date she was found. Who knows ... Spencer's comment may just be a red thread in our adoption story.

One of the girls in our youth group helped work behind the scenes at the concert (she got to unpack the guitars!) and in the morning was able to see SCC's three adopted daughters running around. Unfortunately there was some sickness being passed around between them and their mom, so they weren't on stage during the concert. The next day we found out that she also got to meet SCC in person after the concert. How cool! And cooler yet, one of the guys in our youth group (yep, that's two of our youth group kids) was dropping off some artwork at the building that afternoon and got to meet him as well! Hellooo! I want to meet him, too!

Our local grant organization, His Heart Our Hands, was started with the help of Shaohannah's Hope, the grant organization started by SCC and his wife. We encourage you to think about how you can help orphans around the world through your prayers, donations, and even possibly adoption if God is calling you. Think about it.