not too far from here

Somebody needs a little hope,
Not too far from here.
And I may not know their name,
But I'm praying just the same,
That you'll use me Lord, to wipe away a tear,
Cause somebody's crying,
Not too far from here.

HeartLight 2008 (previously mentioned here) was a little over a week ago, and what a huge success it was! The theme, of course, was "Not Too Far From Here", inspired by the song of the same name. The first half of the evening included dinner and a series of videos highlighting the many ministries of Agape, along with a special performance of our theme song by one of our talented HeartLight committee members. And the second half of the evening was a Mark Schultz concert! Mark was awesome, both on and off stage. Onstage, he made his performance more about Agape than himself. He sang most of his hits and shared many personal stories, including some about his own adoption. His jokes and stories would have the audience in stitches one minute and his songs would have us crying the next. Offstage, Mark was a pleasure to work with. I was his "person" for the weekend, making sure he and his crew were taken care of, so I was able to hang out with Mark quite a bit. He is such a genuine, kind person and so incredibly down to earth - he flew coach! Dad and I had a good time with him on our trips to and from the airport, but I think Tekia was probably his favorite member of the family. Anyway, we had a fabulous evening. It was quite possibly the best HeartLight ever!

Our theme song and lyrics can be heard/read below (and, yes, that is Tekia on the background of the lyrics . . . just because I learned a new trick).

The most powerful part of the evening for me (I think this was the 2nd of several times that I shed tears that night) were the cardboard testimonies, which were done to our theme song.

They got a standing ovation, of course.

Mark was awesome!

three of his newest fans

We love Mark Schultz.

Mom and me in the dressing room at the end of our very long day

The other half of the family was there as well. They (and by "they", I mean Shelby) wanted me to take a family picture of them. Isn't this one great? Look how they're all looking at the camera, eyes open, smiling pretty. And then there's Hunter. This is our Hunter. We're all so proud.

As fate would have it, Saturday, November 15th was also National Adoption Day. Below is a short but moving PSA about this day (for those of you in the medical field, this "PSA" stands for public service announcement, not prostate-specific antigen. What? No one else thought that?) . Courts were open all across the country to finalize the adoptions of children in foster care, and events were held to raise awareness of foster care adoption. Over 3,500 foster children were finally introduced to forever that Saturday. May there be thousands more than that next year.