Next stop: Nashville, Tennessee!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had never been there before, but we immediately fell in love with Nashville the minute we stepped foot into town!
Here we were at our first restaurant stop! UNCLE BUD’S!!
It was down- home goodness, pure Southern Diner! Loved it!
Brian especially loved their catfish! Evidently, its the best catfish in town!
Personally, I was all over their homemade cheesecake! yum!!!
We quickly checked in the hotel and, then…..the BEST part. We got to go to see the offices of SHOW HOPE! They were having an open house for supporters and grant receivers! What an awesome opportunity to get an up close look at a ministry that is so near and dear to our hearts!
Here we are waiting to meet the Chapmans!!!
Yes….I said, waiting to see the CHAPMANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
holy DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did I mention that this was one of the most special days of our lives!!!
Getting to meet a family that has inspired us. A family who was specifically used by God (through their testimony) to help open our hearts to adoption years ago….
We just respect and admire them so much!
Here are our moments captured with the I phone!
What I love most about the Chapmans, was how easy they were to talk to….so humble and real….
Tahlia was super excited to have SCC sign her shirt!!!
AWWWWWW
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| He’s so cool to sign 6 shirts for us! LOL |
With Shaoey Chapman! Her and Bella are the same age!
With Julia Chapman (Caleb’s wife) She’s so sweet!
And here is Emily Chapman, again …SO sweet and kind and easy to chat with!! She looks so much like her mom, Mary Beth!
With Caleb Chapman!
Sweet Stevey Joy!!! Her and Helaina are the same age!
SO CUTE!!!
She was so sweet and gave Tolly a special hug.
Precious, beautiful Maria Chapman…..(sigh) 🙁
…..I wish we had the privilege to have met her.
But, one day….in heaven we’ll get to see her and her beautiful BIG smile!!
And in heaven…. the dear Chapman family will be whole again. I grieve for them. I ache for this family as they miss their daughter and sister…..
Getting to meet Mary Beth was such a gift
Her book: Choosing to See seriously touched my soul like no other book ever has. She was so real and authenitic in this book and shared about God’s redeeming work in her family. You really get such a picture of her momma’s heart.
When I first met her, I felt like I wasn’t able to verbalize all I really wanted to say…I guess I was a little star struck! LOL. But, she is so warm and sweet and makes you feel comfortable right away!!!!
I am so thankful that the Lord enabled me to have another opportunity, later that weekend, to share with her what was on my heart!
She was so sweet to sign Tolly’s book that she just recently wrote (with her daughters) about adoption!
ITS SO CUTE!!! Look it up here for all you AP’s out there! It really is so PRECIOUS!
ummmm, can you tell I am just so giddy and glowing???!! LOL
I mean, really people…I am about to faint! ha!
SERIOUSLY….is that us REALLY chatting with STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He’s just awesome!!!
eTolly really liked him too!
LOVE!!!!!!!!!! The kids couldn’t believe it either!!!! Truly a GREAT ADVENTURE meeting the Chapmans and the Show Hope staff!!!!!!!!
We don’t look happy or anything, do we?? LOL
and Tahlia met a new friend. This is Ayla and she is from the same province as Tahlia!
They hit it off immediatly! We parents did too!
……but the fun wasn’t over…still more adventure awaits!!
The next day SHOW HOPE was having a picnic at Lipscomb University to celebrate their 10 year anniversary and we got to have some family fun!! And, how cool was it that the Chapmans were just walking around and enjoying it too!!!
Tolly Painting her “Maria” flower with her new friend, Ayla!
Getting the opportunity to meet Will Chapman and his beautiful wife, Jillian.
Again, SO sweet to talk to!
The girls having Instagram fun with SJ!
The Lord allowed me another blessed opportunity to talk with the lovely and sweet MaryBeth Chapman!
This time I got to tell her all I had wanted to say the day before!
What a gift to get to personally tell her how profound and instrumental her and SCC’s story was in opening our hearts to adoption. And to thank her personally for telling her incredible, yet heart-wrenching story of Gods redemption in their lives and to thank her for the ShowHope grant to help bring our Tahlia home!!
She gave us the biggest hug and we talked about the blessing of adoption and the gift it is in our lives! And the feeling of “what if we had missed it…..what if we had missed God’s still small voice?”
I just love her heart…and what a joyous gift to be able to meet her!
And Tolly was a little on cloud nine getting to meet the FABULOUS Miss Patty CAKE!!!
and getting animal balloons!
and being Saved by a princess!
So, Tolly had looked around and didn’t see me (I was right there standing close by in line for a balloon animal)..
so she went over to Ariel in the next tent and told her that she couldn’t find mommy with tears in her eyes. Ariel “saved her” and brought her to me.
Now Tolly talks about how Ariel rescued her!! So cute!!
….AND, If you haven’t heard about the Red Bus Project!! LOOK it up, cause people…. its awesome!!!!!!!!! A major MOVEMENT to help care for Orphans by College students!!!!!
WE JUST LOVE IT!!
It had been SUCH a special day filled with AMAZING memories!!
But, wait there’s…..even MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!
After an awesome dinner at California Kitchen ……..
It was time to throw on our NEWLY autographed SHOW HOPE T-shirts and go to the HUGE TEN YEAR Celebration Concert!!!!!
WE were READY TO ROCK IT!!
This concert was seriously amazing! We were up front in the fourth row and it felt like we were the only ones with them, in a living room setting.
There was testimony after testimony of God’s workings through the awesome and powerful ministry of Show Hope and how so many lives have been changed through the great work of God through them!
The Precious Chapman family…..
Laura Story performing first…..
A special interview and testimony from Jim Caviezel and his wife Kerri. They shared of how God has worked some amazing miracles through their lives in the blessing of adoption Special needs children…..
Such a humble and Godly couple!
We were so encouraged!
Audio Adrenaline performing “Its a BIG BIG HOUSE”…..
TOTALLY ROCKING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tim Tebow and ShowHOPE awarding a grant to a waiting family! (Tim Tebow Foundation has partnered up with SHOW HOPE) Isn’t that just awesome!!
The family was so surprised!!!
Mark Hall from Casting Crowns! Singing many special songs, but the most meaningful one to us was this song, “So Far to Find You”….because the song puts into words exactly what our hearts were feeling those first few moments, days…months. Especially through her journey to come and love her daddy, which was a slow journey……
Wow, God has brought us so far!!!
Sharing the awesome testimony of this amazing little warrior girl, Jaelynn, who came from Maria’s Big house in China! Her story is so incredible!!! Such a demonstration of GOD’s LOVE!
The best part of the night!!! SCC!!!
Singing withe Geoff Moore!
Singing CINDERELLA!!!!!!!! (SNIFF SNIFF….UGLY CRY)!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the singers coming out for an awesome ending to an amazing night!!!!!!!!
We had to take this pic cause Ethan and I LOVE to listen to KLove on the phone!
….a day filled with such joy, emotion, love, and fun! TRULY MEMORABLE!!!!!!!!!!
and after a good night’s sleep….. it was OFF TO THE next fun stop on our MOST AWESOME ROAD TRIP EVER!!!!!!!!!!
and yes, this destination would be over ten hours away!!!!
ugh. But, they kids did great!
Stay tuned for Part 3 of our Road Trip adventure!!!
WOW! Just WOW!!!!!!!!!!
Wow! What an amazing day!!!
(visiting via Sunday Snapshot)
It seems that your family had great bonding moments. It looks so much fun. I guess it is really great to go out and spend some time with your family. It would surely bring the family closer together.
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