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Monday, October 28, 2013

Concert update and auction item

Pickin' & Pies is less than two weeks away!  Aaaahhhh!!!!!  We have been super busy making final preparations and every day more and more things are falling into place that I can only attribute to God working out every detail for us.  I went out to Roaring Creek Farm last week and took Jonathan and the boys with me for the first time.  It was a gorgeous fall day, and I was just imagining how beautiful everything will be out there in the next two weeks as the leaves start changing.  



We are so SO excited!  (I know I keep saying that, but we just are!)  Remember to bring a pie (or two) and some blankets, chairs, whatever you want to make yourself comfortable for the afternoon.  In addition to the music, Joseph Kirkpatrick will be doing a live auction of a few items as well as some entertainment that I'm sure will not disappoint.  :)  Annnnd... we have two sweet, talented photographers that have generously donated their time who will be documenting the day for us as well as taking some family photos on the farm with your choice of some vintage props!  At the end of the concert, we will hopefully be showing a very special short film that some great and talented friends have been working on for us.  So we hope you will come prepared to stay for a whole afternoon of fun and fellowship!  We will have t-shirts for sale- our adoption shirts and some limited edition Pickin' & Pies shirts- and Jonathan has been spending many many precious weekend hours building crosses that we will have there to sell.  They are beautiful.  

In addition to what's going on at the concert, we have some seriously exciting auction items that have been donated to help bring Lulah home. Our dear friend, Hall of Fame Songwriter and Producer Roger Murrah, has generously donated the following items that we are offering as an online auction:


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Hall of Fame Songwriter Roger Murrah
To Offer Services At Auction

Nashville, TN For songwriters wanting to become more professional, this may be an opportunity for you. Hall of Fame songwriter, Roger Murrah, will be offering-at-auction 3 Two-Hour Consulting Sessions (with the bid starting at $250 per session), as well as 2 Six-Hour Co-Writing Sessions (with the bid starting at $2,500 per session). All proceeds will be going to benefit the Jonathan and Shawna Sheahen family, for expenses incurred in the adoption of thier new little daughter, Tallulah, who will be coming home soon to Nashville from Madagascar. For complete information, please call Shawna at 615-513-4168.

About Roger Murrah: http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/l-o/roger-murrah.aspx
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Roger with Al Jarreau

This man is a precious and gifted man, and we are so grateful to him for such an incredible donation. But, we need your help to get the word out to the right people that will be interested in this.  I figure that everybody knows somebody that is trying to get in the music business or already is but would greatly benefit from either the consulting session or songwriting session. Just look up Roger's bio and see all the amazing things he has done and awards he's received!  He wrote Don't Rock the Jukebox and High Cotton, for cryin' out loud!  Please share this on your blog, facebook page, copy it and email it to people you know, tweet about it, whatever. This doesn't just apply to Nashville people!  
We would so much appreciate your help in letting people know about it. Bids can be placed either by commenting on this post on our facebook page, sending me an email or calling me.  The auction will be open until November 13th. Let me know if you have questions or need more information.

Thank you for your help.  Every day, every act of kindness, every donation made, every prayer lifted up, brings us one day closer to bringing one orphan home.  To God be the glory.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Pickin' & Pies! A Benefit Concert for Lulah


I am so so SO excited to share with y'all about this concert right here.  Did I say SO EXCITED??  This has been in the works for a loooong time and it. is. finally. happening.  A friend had suggested about a year ago that this would be really cool to do (which I agreed) and especially here in Nashville where we know so many incredibly gifted musicians that are more than willing to share their talents.   So, after a long time of thinking and praying about it, waiting for certain things to happen, gathering the right people, it's time.  


{Thank you to Amanda Speer for designing this lovely poster for us!}

I can't even tell you how much we have already seen God at work in this.  For starters, He has totally blessed us with a beautiful venue.  When planning first began, we really had no idea where we were going to have this concert.  Several ideas were thrown around, but the one thing I kept coming back to was that I wanted it outside, ideally on a farm, in my favorite little Tennessee town of Leiper's Fork.  Okay, I know that's getting pretty picky, but that's just the picture I had in my head.  I'm a dreamer.  Work with it.  Well, we know lots of people who know lots of people that have farms all over middle Tennessee.  I asked these people who asked their people, but nothing was working out it seemed.  Then about a month ago, after weeks of looking and coming up with nothing, I started emailing people.  Random people, that is.  Meaning- people that I don't know.  This is kinda how I work.  I just start asking, thinking it doesn't hurt to ask.  (if you don't know our wedding story, ask me sometime)  And, it just so happens that one of these random people said "Yes" and made me one happy girl.  Meet Paul, aka "Farmer Joe" of Joe Natural's Cafe in Historic Leiper's Fork. 
                                  

giving us the tour

I had met Paul a couple of years ago at his adorable little locavore cafe in Leiper's Fork.   He has a farm where he grows much of what they use at the cafe and sources locally anything else that he doesn't grow.  He hosts a farm to table dinner every month that I know about only because I am on their email list.  So I knew that they hosted some events on the farm, although I had no idea if they ever did anything else there besides the monthly dinner, and if they were even willing to let anyone that they didn't know host something there.  I knew this was a long shot, but, like I said before, it doesn't hurt to ask.  We have had a couple of brief conversations before but I knew he wouldn't remember me, so I emailed him and told him who I was and what we were doing, and that I was just wondering if they ever hosted any outside events at the farm.  Within a few minutes he emailed me back and said, "Let me see what we can do."  I read it and started crying.   It honestly blew me away that he was even considering it.  But why should it have blown me away?  Earlier that very week, after hitting dead ends everywhere, I started praying hard that God would work this detail out.  That He would lead us to a great venue; just any venue at that point.  Could this be it?  I replied back to thank him and let him know that we could work with just about anything and started praying more.  In two days He answered that prayer when I got this second email from Paul:

I'm inclined to let you use the farm free of charge. Our customary fee for the venue is $5,000 for the day.  

WHAT??!!  Although we were hoping to not have to pay for a venue, we were thinking that we may need to the way things were looking. In my emails to random people, I had said that we could pay something, although not much, since we were trying to raise money, not spend it.  My mind was blown even more.  Not only did we have a venue, but it's a farm, in Leiper's Fork, and we are paying $0 for it. $0 when they typically charge $5,000.  AND- it's a man that we don't even know.  Our Father keeps on blessing abundantly.  I went out to the farm the next week with a couple of sweet friends, and Paul gave us the grand tour.  The chickens and the pigs and the horses and the dogs were all there to greet us.  We tasted some unbelievably sweet cherry tomatoes and enjoyed just walking the farm and getting to see a little snippet of farm life.  {He is a New Yorker and former mall developer, with a really interesting story on how he came to this bitty little town in Tennessee.}  When I thanked him over and over and told him he really didn't know how much this meant to us, he just said, "Well, I just thought it would be a good thing to do."  He is using what he has been blessed with to be a blessing to others, and so the circle continues.   


Roaring Creek Farm

We have an awesome line up of musicians that I can't wait for you to hear.  Each one of them are different and special in their own way.  From close family, to close friends, to almost strangers, they all share a love for our Lord and have eagerly and graciously joined our cause. We can't thank them enough for their generosity.   We are asking everyone to bring a pie or two to share, a blanket and chairs and we will provide coffee, cider, water and some other treats to snack on throughout the afternoon.  We have some fun activities planned along with some live auction items and an emcee that provides a level of hilarity that I can't even describe to you.  If you don't know Joseph Kirkpatrick, you need to come just for him alone if for no other reason.  If you do know him, you might be coming for him alone, and we're okay with that.   You can purchase tickets ahead of time at www.loveforlulah.eventbrite.com or pay at the gate.   We have a facebook event page that you can join and keep up with more specific details as we get closer to the day.  It's set up so that you can invite your friends so please share and help us spread the word!  We'll be doing some giveaways soon so keep checking back for your chance to win!  

We hope you will join us for a day of great music, yummy pies, good people, beautiful scenery and God's glory.  All for a little girl named Tallulah, who we are patiently waiting for in hope.  

"Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:24-25

***please see our most recent post for a concert update and fabulous auction item that has been donated for our cause!