the fundraiser

Sooo I am currently in the hospital with my little brother who just had surgery on Tuesday morning. He had a section of one of his ribs cut out and he has to be here for a week, so I'm doing my best to keep him company. I may write more about the hospital experience later.

What I was going to write about that actually happened a week ago was the Abetavu Children's Home fundraiser. I posted about it last month because I was super nervous about speaking at the event.

The whole day was a crazy roller coaster of emotions. It was such a good experience, I felt like I was on a high of different feelings all day. Nervous, happy, excited, stressed, sad, anxious, loved. Me and Kat were the first ones to show up early in the day to help set up. Everyone that was there to volunteer was sooo nice. Some were a little crazy but I couldn't help but fall in love with all of them. It was so nice to be around other people who just wanted to help and be involved. Everything came together so beautifully. By the end of the day we were getting pretty restless though. I could only handle being locked up in a church being bossed around for so long, haha. So we took a break and left for a bit before it started and headed back for the evening to begin. I wasn't going to enjoy myself until my speech was over with though. I was so happy and blessed to have a few of my friends show up to be there for me while showing support for something I feel so passionately about. Sooo I pretty much felt like I was going to throw up leading up to my speech... there was apparently around 140 people there and everyone was looking at me up on this stage..with a microphone. I felt super shaky but as soon as I started talking it got easier. It went really well and I got a lot of positive feedback on what I said which was nice. It was so amazing to be part of it and to really feel like I made an impact on the success of the evening. I was emotional all night. Carli made a video that they showed of her just saying thank you to everyone for coming and just seeing her face and hearing her voice made me break down and cry. Joan had pictures and videos and told stories about all of the kids for her piece and I cried during that too. It felt very comforting but at the same time really sad to revisit those memories. As painful as it can be I hope to be connected to all of them for the rest of my life in any way I can.