Chandler Pow Wow and Refuge of Light

Last night I was up all night. I am usually up all night the night before I have a Bitter Berry Boutique booth at an event because I am busy sewing and making items for the booth. Last night, it was because I was praying for a very sick little boy. He hasn't been far from my thoughts since I heard he was sick. Pray for him, will you? His name is William and he has quite the battle to fight for a 5 week old baby.

The whole fam woke up early this morning for a full day of festivities. While I went to a local park to set up my booth, Luke and Madelyn headed to Chandler for the annual Pow Wow. The high light for Madelyn (from what I heard) was Minnie Mouse! She doesn't even know who Minnie Mouse is, but Luke said she loved her!

After they were done at the Pow Wow they joined my mom and I at the park in Tyler. The event we were at was an awareness rally and fundraiser for Refuge of Light. It's a non profit organization that is:

"...dedicated to the redemptive rescue and restoration of minor sex-trafficked girls through advocacy, awareness and holistic care."

Right now they are trying to raise funds to build a home for the girls. As a mother of a girl, the statistics were sobering. Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing criminal activity in the world and according the Department of Justice, between 100,000-300,000 people are sexually trafficked in the US alone annually.

They had an awesome line-up of speakers, bands and survivors of sex trafficking. I definitely got an education that every parent (or person really) needs.

Madelyn had so much fun chasing the bubbles from the clown booth around and popping them.

She and Grandma had a blast walking around together. Madelyn jumped in the bounce houses, got a flower balloon from the clowns, met some midget Chick-fil-A cows and ate some yummy food while they were together.

Our booth didn't sell much that day. We kept making jokes about how much MORE I spent on the event than I was going to make. In the end, I did make a little but I definitely spent more. They had a silent auction where I bid and won a private concert by some local artists. I'm super excited about that! Then, I bought ten $1 raffle tickets. I put two of them in a bucket for one night at a bed and breakfast, four of them in a bucket for a week at camp at Sky Ranch and four in for a week at Rockin' C Ranch. I never win anything. However, $1 for a chance to give one of the student's from our youth group a week at camp for virtually free? I'll take it! I was loading up the car when they were drawing names. I told my mom to listen close for my name. We were on the phone when they called it...I WON! One week worth of summer camp valued at $600! I picked up the certificate, called Luke and immediately thought of how much fun one of our students would have! I overheard them talk about how they accidentally only drew one name when they were supposed to draw two. I joked that they would draw mine again because I had more tickets in there. Can you believe that they did??? Two weeks worth of summer camp. A $1200 value!

Despite the fact that I didn't sell much, it was definitely worth being there!