Oh How the Years Go By

On a hot, humid Saturday....17 years ago....in a church surrounded by cornfields in central Illinois....we said "I do".

We were young....thought we knew what we were getting into, but really had no idea. But God has been good...so good.

17 years later we are still going strong. We have a great marriage and still love to be with eachother more than any other person.

Last night we celebrated by going to see Amy Grant in concert - the second night of her "How Mercy Looks From Here" tour.

Amy with Brandon Heath

We didn't get to meet her like last time, but we did get to meet another of my personal heroes...

Shaun Groves

Shaun is also a talented artist - singer / songwriter. There was a time when he was touring and opening for Michael W. Smith. But these days he focuses on spreading the message of sponsorship through Compassion. He does tour and give concerts, but he also tours and speaks on behalf of Compassion. I've been wanting to meet him for a couple years. We've "talked" through blog comments, and my mom met him a couple years ago. So it was a big blessing to finally meet him last night.

He gave an incredible presentation. Two years ago he adopted a boy from India and he used that experience in his presentation. He talked about how as great as orphan care is, orphan prevention is even better and sponsorship can and does work to prevent orphans.

As much as he loves his son, he wishes Compassion had worked through the local church where he was born. He wishes his son had a sponsor so his family could have remained united.

We didn't get to hear Shaun sing - he was just there to speak, but it was definitely a highlight of my night to see him and meet him. Although we weren't officially signed up to work the Compassion table, Kevin and I hung around in the lobby and fielded questions as people were flocked around the sponsorship table. It's always fun to help connect new sponsors with kids.

And it was also fun to see 5 of my advocate friends who I often run into at events!