Saturday, May 24, 2014

Blessings


This week has been filled with blessings! Praise God! On Thursday at school Victoria received her Home Reading Program Bronze Medal for reading 130 books. We are so grateful to the school for the extra help they have given Victoria with her reading, enabling her to catch up on all the school time she missed last year. How blessed Victoria is to be at Belmont Christian College.

Ken and I sat with immense pride at the ceremony, knowing how much effort Victoria herself has put in to doing the extra work. She truly is victorious in every way! Ken's parents were also able to join in this special event.

You may remember a couple of months ago a film crew came to our home and made a video about Victoria's story and the impact of the Starlight Children's Foundation's various programs (The Wish, The Starlight Express Room, the Starlight Captains) has had on her journey. The purpose of the video was to help people at the Starlight Foundation's signature fundraising events, the Five Chefs Dinner, understand the difference their donations can make to a child's life. The Five Chef's cooking at the Sydney dinner included Colin Fassnidge, Matt Moran and Adriano Zumbo!

Ken and I were privileged to be invited to the dinner on Thursday night. Thank you Starlight Foundation for this blessing. It was an amazing experience, starting with me having my hair and make up done. I felt like a princess!




My hair was done by Sloan's, who have an on-going partnership with Starlight, committing to raise money to help grant children's wishes. Thank you so much Georgia for doing an amazing job with my masses of hair!



My make up was done by a makeup artist from, Napoleon Perdis (NP Set). Again I felt like a star.



 I even wore fake eyelashes for the first time in my life - aged 42!!!! What fun.




I had so much fun, and felt so blessed to part of such an amazing night.


Once the hair and make up was done, we were allowed a sneak peek at the Grand Ballroom at the Four Season's Hotel where the event was being held. Almost everything for the event had been donated. Again we are so grateful to the people and businesses that give so readily to make a difference in these children's lives.


The ballroom looked fabulous.



It was a little surreal for Ken and I to see Victoria's photo on the 500 menus and programs at each seat.




The event itself was incredible. Victoria's video evoked many tears and had the desired effect. For anyone wanting to see the video, it will be available after September when all the fundraising dinners have been completed.

We got to meet some wonderful people who generously donated to this cause. It was very humbling to see all these people giving to make a difference for children like Victoria. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And needless to say, the food, all five courses, were sensational!

At the end of the event, Ken received a bottle of wine signed by all the chefs, and I received a bouquet of flowers, Starlight style.


Anyone who has come in contact with Starlight Captains will know they always have balloons and a pump ready to make a creation that brings a smile to children's faces. Well, these flowers and this whole Five Chefs Dinner experience put a huge smile on my face!!!

Ken too has a pretty big grin on his face after an impromptu meeting with Tim Finn in the lift and then having Tim recount the impact of their conversation to all the dinner guests from the stage! Thank you Tim for giving your time and voice to the Starlight Foundation. And for bringing back so many great memories with songs of yesteryear.

Thank you so much to Kerry, Robyn and Jo who so capably looked after our children so Ken and I could spend the night in Sydney and extend this blessing to Friday. We thank God for the many people He has bought into our lives to practically support us in this journey.

So once again God has shown us that there are many blessings amongst the trials and tribulations of life. As it says in Colossians 1:10-12 ...

As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul - not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for our family, and continues to pray for our family as we live to get the most from each day, knowing that our Heavenly Father is faithful.



2 comments:

Corinne P said...

Wow what an experience for you both. Hair/beauty pampering, eating yummy food & meeting celebrities and all for such a wonderful cause. I'm looking to seeing the final video too. I'll shed a tear like I did reading your blog post.

Wendy said...

Thanks Corinne, it was an amazing experience. Yes, you will need the tissue box when you see the video. We have watched it at least 10 times and still need tissues!