Friends in Low Places

Garth Brooks is doing nine concerts in Nashville this week for flood relief. I had the privilege of going to the show on Friday night. It was absolutely amazing.

I went with Treydrienne and they were so much fun. I never knew Adrienne was such a country music fan!

Garth puts on such a great show. He is a great entertainer and we had awesome floor seats (thanks Trey!). Tricia came out and sang a few songs with Garth. She sang my favorite song "She's in Love With a Boy." Loved it.

The best part of the concert was the very end. We were lucky to go on the night that only had one concert. So Garth came out after the encore with just his guitar and took requests. I felt like I was the only one in the room. My friend Lindsay does a great job of explaining it.

As I was shopping in downtown Nashville on Saturday morning, I met lots of people from Florida, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. All of these people had come to see Garth in concert. They were all shopping downtown and supporting the businesses that were so badly hurt in the flood. Garth was helping Nashville so much more than just doing some benefit shows.

And look who I ran into..... Anna! I was so happy to see you!

The Volunteer State

I am sorry for another blog post about the flood. I didn't want to write another one, because I think they can be a little depressing. But this blog is kinda like my journal or a scrapbook for my life and the floods have really been on my heart and mind. Sorry to like the 5 people who read my blog! HA!

I spent Saturday doing some flood relief. The damage was truly unbleieveable. I cried most of the time I volunteered (shocking I know). The area that I volunteered in was really bad off. The water line in the house came up to my eyes. One house that I worked on, had not even been touched yet. Water was still everywhere. It was so sad.

I was throwing away all her things, demolishing her house. But what she really wanted was someone to listen. She really wants a hug, and to know that someone is there to care for them. I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have volunteered with the flood relief. I have heard amazing stories and seen the pictures, but I didn't think it would be this hard.

Tennessee is called the Volunteer State, and now I know why! I was so blessed by the other volunteers working as well as the people who we were helping. What a lesson of love, compassion, and hope.

Nashville Flood

I have been having a hard time trying to find the words to write this post. Last weekend, Nashville got a massive amount of rain and flooded. Some people described this event as "devastating" "catastrophic" and "daunting." It is the worst natural disaster to hit Nashville and the death toll is still rising. Nashville and 52 other counties have been considered disaster areas. According to Mayor Dean, the damage assessment (so far) is 1.5 Billion. Yikes!

So I was out of town last weekend during all the storms. I was with some of my sweet friends in Atlanta for Marcy's Bachelorette party! Thanks to twitter, I was aware of what was going on, but did not know the full extent. Sunday, we couldn't make it back to Nashville because all the interstates were closed. I finally made it back on Monday to find the water STILL rising into downtown and Opryland. I also came home to find Nashville on a water shortage! So many of my friends and co-workers lost everything.

It makes my heart so heavy to see hear these stories and see these pictures. It has really affected me, and I am sure I will have more posts and stories from this event.