Amazing weekend!

This has been an amazing weekend.  I am absolutely exhausted and have slept weird hours this weekend but it has been all worth it.

Friday night started the weekend out with Hope's spring piano recital.  This little girl rocked it and the whole family came to support her. 

We are so thankful that the amazing Melody Payne is in our daughter's life.  She has instilled a love of piano in her and playing piano has increased her confidence so much!  What a blessing!  After the recital we had a potluck supper and a time of celebration.  It was a wonderful evening.

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4:15 a.m.  It was super early for a Saturday but for a wonderful cause.  Our county was hosting a Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic.  I have always wanted to be apart of something like this and this was my chance.  I have no medical skills at all, but I came as a general support volunteer and helped welcome people and helped with the food. 

This is the dental area where many local dentist and hygenists were volunteering their time and skills to serve folks that desperately needed dental care.  RAM offered dental, vision, medical, bone density, mammograms, womens health, all weekend long free of charge.  It was truly life-changing for me and a wonderful experience to be apart of. 

In this trailer folks could get a vision test, and new glasses made on the spot in 8 minutes! 

I felt so honored to be apart of something so amazing as RAM.  Our community raised close to $90,000 for this effort and to see all the professionals and volunteers giving their time made me so Smyth County proud.  As a volunteer I received a text this afternoon that over 773 patients were seen in the three day clinic with over $498,912 in services provided!!!  We are called as the family of God to love others and in the last few days at RAM I witnessed neighbors helping neighbors and it was truly a blessing!  I am exhausted and my legs and back are throbbing from all the standing, but I already cannot wait until next year!

This morning I helped at RAM and I took Hope with me.  She was confused as to why some people had to go to RAM to see Dr.Bill (our dentist) and we went to his office to see him.  I want our kids to understand that we are here to love and serve others.  My heart was so full watching our girl pull a wagon of snack bags around and hand them out to patients waiting in line. 

My pictures are totally out of order, but here is a huge surprise that happened last Thursday.  Several of my preschool parents nominated me for teacher of the month from a local radio station.  Amazingly I won!!  The kids were so excited and I was shocked yet honored. 

After the awesome weekend including piano recital and RAM, tonight we headed to the New River Valley to visit two different Panera bread locations.  They have been doing a change for children campaign where you can round up your order and the change will benefit UVA children's hospital.  the Virginia Panera bread locations have raised over $80,000 and tonight was the meet and greet party!  Tonight we got to visit the Christiansburg location and see David's sign and meet the folks that have been raising money for UVA. They gave David many gifts and were so sweet to him.

After the Christiansburg location we headed to Blackburg where all the associates that work there had formed a line and cheered for David as we walked in. It was precious and so much fun!!!

They presented him with a basketball and a new hat!! It blows my mind that folks that do not know David or even have children of their own yet are passionate about raising money for UVA Children's Hospital?!  It was very awesome!

These two ladies raised the most money at their registers during the campaign! 

Check out this amazing cake!!!  This cake was not only beautiful but it tasted awesome!!! Thank you Panera bread for making us feel so welcome and raising money for a place that saved our son's life! 

After all the partying at Panera we got to catch up with Seth Allen for a few minutes while in Blacksburg.  It was great to see him and it was icing on the cake of a wonderful weekend.  :)