Concert Time

The concert was to begin around 7:00pm. Friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances began to show up around 6:15pm. To be honest, we had no idea what to expect. K-Love had told me to reach out to as many people as I could and to impact the community, so without knowing if Mark would have a mic and if the weather would cooperate, we tried to keep it semi contained in case we had to move inside.

When Mark arrived (after spending 10 minutes on the phone with my husband Ryan trying to figure out how to get to our house) he was gracious and so flexible. He saw our little set up in the garage and over 100 people in our front yard and said, "lets do it". Even without a mic he sang his heart out and brought everyone to tears.

Mark has touched my life in so many ways. We have seen him in concert numerous times and watched all of his videos (scroll to the end of the blog to view a few). Each time I am amazed by his genuineness. While he has a song that touches almost every walk of life, his songs about little girls and adoption always make me drop to my knees. Mark was adopted at birth and often shares of this experience and his loving adoptive parents. The theme of the night continued to center around adoption, as my biological daughter and her adoptive parents (the Stantons) joined us for the event. Kellie was born 13 years ago right after I turned 19. I will save the details for another post as I would love to eventually start spending more time ministering to young girls that find themselves pregnant and contemplating adoption. Every adoption is unique and personal, and our situation has taken a life of its own. From the beginning, I think the Stantons and I really placed these relationships in God's hands and he has continued to grow and foster them, creating a strong sense of trust. It is times like these that we are able to reflect and embrace God's truth as stated in Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God".

I think my aunt summarized the evening well ~

It was such an amazing evening. I will never forget it. Too many stories to share here. God really showed up. What was so special is that Mark said more than once that he would never forget it…and he was blessed by it. I wish you all could have been there. Yet it was so intensely personal…lots of tears….lots of people that just needed to know that God is real and He loves them and wants to have a personal relationship with them.

Tomorrow is my 5th day of being unemployed, and I couldn't be more filled with Hope. This has been a life changing week. I am anxious for the future and to work towards the purpose (whatever that is) God created me for. I am continuing to experience the joy in the journey, realizing that I will never arrive at a destination just change courses with hopefully God's directions guiding my path. K-Love and Mark ~ THANK YOU for helping me kick-start this new stage in my journey.