Where to begin? Feb 4th, 2013 started off to a great start with many Birthday wishes & donations to the chipin! Slowly but surely we started getting closer to that $21,000 goal. I was nervously awaiting the main event of the night, Leatherbys. As soon as I stepped through the doors of Leatherbys I was feeling OVERWHELMED as I saw person after person after person all from different places most of which was my Church family filling almost the entire restaurant. I visited every single one my friends & everytime I heard another Happy Birthday & said another Thanks for coming I just wanted to go back to that day when I heard we were moving to CA. That day, when I thought It is the worst day & I did not think I would ever make friends with my shy personality. Well I am so greatful for all the friends that I have made here!
I did get teary eyed a little when almost the entire place was singing Happy Birthday to me & clapping. Even some of the managers were teary eyed knowing why I was having the fundraiser & my goal. I managed not to burst into tears til I got home. If you know me, I'm simply a person who rarely cries in Public. Seeing all my friends under one roof, it just meant the world to me! The support & love of my friends was just indescribable if you were there you know what I am talking about! I wish I had gotten a group shot of all of Leatherbys & taken a picture of the line out the door! So happy it was such a success! The servers & managers were SIMPLY AMAZING handling the HUGE crowd! For some, it was only their 2nd day working there so that was great for them to handle our fundraiser so well! From what I gathered they said this was the busiest its been on a Monday night! Way to go all my SWEET friends!!! From my littlest friends who I have watched grow from babies to the kids I have not known for but a short period of time in the toddler class at my church or in general, to the persons I have met when we moved here, to 2 very special girls who have inspired me so much, to my family, my church family, & my girlfriends small group, to the new youth pastor & his wife who just moved here I could go on & on about how awesome it has been getting to know all these friends & the new ones getting to know even better.
These are the types of friends who even though I probably drive them nuts somedays with my out of the box personality they TRULY STICK BY YOU & LOVE YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE!!!
This is just a glimpse of who all was there. It was so enjoyable being surrounded by those who love & support you no matter what.
Though I knew most of the friends who came some who I did not know came cause their friend(s) knew me so they came out to support someone they don't even know or even we had people I did not know very well come from our local Down syndrome support group.
THANKS TO YOU ALL $246 WAS RAISED THROUGH SALES ALONE!!!! Theirs no way I could have done this without YOU ALL!!! Not to mention that does not include an amount (which will remain secret to my blog readers til I send it off to Reeces Rainbow!) that was OVERWHELMING in the donation jars & in my Birthday cards!!!
Now I am just going to let the pictures & video do the night justice! Though I am not sure even pictures or words can do that cause you just had to be there to know what it was like!
Best friends forever!
As you can tell from the cheering the place was truly full!
THANK YOU ALL AGAIN SO MUCH!!! IT SERIOUSLY MEANT THE WORLD TO ME TAKING TIME OUT OF YOUR BUSY DAY TO COME SUPPORT ME!! I especially want to say thank you if you came in & got to go! Jocelyn, I know your family was sick so thank you even though you could not stay!
Love this girl friend very much!!!!
Can never forget my awesome fellow RR & real life friend from church! She is amazing! Truly a Birthday to go down in history as the most MEMORABLE ONE EVER!!!! Thank you Mom for figuring out the details/idea as Leatherbys was the BEST CHOICE & MOST SUCCESS!!!
By the way if you still wish to donate TODAY IS THE LAST YOU CAN DO SO ON THE CHIPIN AT LEAST!!! Ends in 17 hours! If you wish to donate later you can always write a check to Reeces Rainbow & put in the subject line Leah's 21 for 21. Thanks everyone for over $2,000 raised on the chipin!!! We still are quite a ways from that goal but I hope we will get there eventually!!
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