Evening in Ethiopia = An Amazing Evening!

I know many of you have been asking about how our dinner went…. Well, let me tell you! It. Was. Awesome!! At least we think it was, hopefully those who attended felt the same. Of the few I’ve talked to, it sounds like people really enjoyed themselves! And it appears the Ethiopian food was a HIT! I am SO SAD to say that I don’t have many pictures of the event!! And none of the food. My sister Julie did take a few, but she was also working in the kitchen and in charge of the dinner staff (the servers, who happened to be girls from Boz’s basketball team – thank you team!!). So she was insanely busy from about 3pm until the end of the night. Julie – YOU ARE INCREDIBLE and it wouldn’t have run so smoothly if it weren’t for you.

We had a minor victory in the fact that only 1 couple didn’t show up who had RSVP’d (they had a legitimate reason!). So that was kinda huge! LOL!! We had 52 people attend our Evening in Ethiopia. People began arriving around 5:30 (the auction began at 5:45) and dinner was served at 6:30pm. I was actually very surprised at how many showed up early for the silent auction. I figured we’d get a handful, but there was quite a bit! I was thankful for that. We had some pretty amazing items, such as aprons, gift baskets, signed Blackhawk’s picture and puck, we had a book purse ~ a purse made from an old book – you should see it, ‘becca did an incredible job! And our big ticket items were a weekend stay at a cabin on Schafer Lake in Indiana and a WEEK stay at our cousin’s cabin in the Smoky Mountains!

At 6:30 we served dinner, then Boz made a little speech and thanked everyone from the kitchen staff to those in attendance. After dinner we served dessert and opened the auction up for a little bit for those last minute people . Once we shut it down (as we were figuring out who won what) we showed a slideshow giving people a glimpse into Ethiopia. By the time the slideshow ended they had everything figured out. And thus ended the evening.

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…. How much were we able to raise…. With the dinner and silent auction combined, and AFTER paying the caterer….. we raised…. $8,805! Not only that, but we had received gracious donations from those who couldn’t attend ($475), and with that the total is $9,280!!!! God is So Good!!

Granted I only have a few pictures, but for whatever reason Blogger is not letting me upload them. So check back tomorrow for pictures! Here are two that i *finally* got to upload. More tomorrow. These were two of our display tables. Our dear friends dee & Sanusi Mutuwa let us borrow a bunch of items for our display. Sanusi is from Nigeria and has quite a collection! Then other friends of ours, the Torens, let us borrow a bunch of their items as well. Dr. Toren was a pediatrician in Ethiopia for about 3 years and so their family lived there and collected a number of amazing things as well! I'll have more pictures of those tomorrow as well, if anyone is interested.