Blog features for Tavin, and new total!

So first of all, take a peek at the little thermometer over there on the right! Yes you read right we have UNDER $1000 to go!! What the heck?!? Amazing and incredible, and a thousand other words I can't think of right now! I had to add it like 10 times because it kept coming our different because my mind wasn't working right from excitement. Wow, THANK YOU!!

Our friend Brian stayed overnight with Steve and a couple other friends Friday night to smoke all  300 lbs of meat for the fundraiser. He is a poet, and has a blog called waystationone. He wrote a poem on his blog about the fundraiser and Tavin that I read today and of course it made me cry.

  I have had quite a few comments from his readers, one of which asked if she could write a post about Tavin on her blog My Five Men, which you can read here. Betsy's post also made me cry. (I'm telling you, it's like a daily occurrence around here. I tell myself it's good for the soul.) Just as meaningful as the posts themselves were the 50+ comments on one blog, and 80+ on the other, ALL of which were encouraging. (Yes they kept the tears flowing).

Here's Brian's poem "Dear Tavin":

"i haven't slept in 36 hours
& the world swims like a cup of water spilled
on a still wet canvas

earlier,
i couldn't get warm after
dozing off a moment on the concrete
& it sucked

all the heat from my body.
the ice left in the coolers after the all the drinks were gone
didn't melt building a small berg in the parking lot.

i talked to several hundred people
in two hours as they waited in line, one was a West Virginia fan
& regional director of WalMart.

we ran out of barbecue when the 300th lb. was bought,
leaving 20 or so people without.

some paid anyway

& after all, it's quiet now,
all the trash in a pile: posters, cans, plates, plastic bags,
empty bottles of sauce. chairs wait patient to be taken
to the closet.

your future dad & i sit on thin carpet stairs in the back.
we don't talk about your twisted legs,
that you've been confined to a crib since birth because of them,
labeled an outcast cripple unworthy of society
or a gentle touch, destined to die
in a mental hospital for physical deformity

unless adopted, but

these don't cause the tears in his eyes,
they are a joy
                   they are a joy
because soon
you will learn the meaning of 'home'
is not alone,
                
                     hold on.

for Poets United

Friday night into Saturday I helped a good friend prepare for a fundraiser in order to raise money for the adoption of a child. We cooked 300 pounds of meat---and sold out in less than 2 hours. It was crazy, in a good way and they raised quite a bit more toward their goal. You can read more about Tavin here.

I rewrote this one numerous times...maybe i am just too tired or too close to it. I dunno."

WSET also did a followup story on how the fundraiser went which you can check out here. We weren't expecting that, so extra cool to see.

Ok that's all for now. I might need to find a tissue again. 

~Chrystal