Happy Like This does not exist for the gain of our family, but it does exist because of the joy God has shared with us through Alex and Emma..  It is with sadness that I share with you all that Emma passed away just after 9pm on March 27th.  Up to this point I have left my personal blog out of the information that I share on HLT.  I have decided to now share it with you, with the hope that our journey and Emma’s life may  touch the life of others for Christ.  Please feel free to visit my blog and to pass that and HLT on to others.  Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement during this time and, though I have decided to share our very personal journey with so many of you, thank you for respecting our privacy and the time that we need for me, Drew and Alex to mourn the loss of our sassy Emma.

Much Love, Mandy

Our God is an AWESOME God!  I feel like there are not enough exclamation points to emphasize the awe I have for how our God works!

Our spaghetti dinner and silent auction was a huge success last night!  If you attended… Thank You!  If you didn’t make it… we hope to see you next time!  Let me tell you about our evening and how wonderful it was.

It was amazing for me to spend the evening greeting and visiting with the 150 people who attended!  How awesome to see how the love for our God and support of this mission, in His name, brought together so many people from so many places and all different ages!  My sweet Alex & Emma thoroughly enjoyed our ‘Happy Party’ and greeting all of our guests.  They radiated joy and shined their beautiful smiles!  I challenge you to spend an hour with my happy girls and not leave feeling totally and completely joyful!

After welcoming our guests and blessing our meal and time together, we all enjoyed a yummy spaghetti dinner with salad, bread and wonderful desserts.  We had tons of great items in the silent auction and the bidding wars really picked up just before the auctions closed at 7pm.  What fun it was to see everyone getting into the spirit!  We raffled two Razorback footballs, one signed by Coach Bobby Petrino and the other signed by many of the players from this year’s awesome team.  As badly as my dear husband wanted to bring one of those footballs home, the money that was raised for the cause completely trumped the fact that a Texas fan won a Razorback football!

In total last night, we raised $3500 to reach out to local families caring for children with special needs.  What a blessing!!!  Because of each and every one of you, HLT will be able to reach out to at least 7 families this year.  Our prayer is that these recipient families will be touched by the generosity of each of you and that they will personally experience the joy found in Christ.  It will be my privilege to reach out to these families, with full acknowledgement that the gifts are not from any of us, but from our God.

I must give a special shout out to Britt Doyle for all the work she put into this event.  She will tell you that she didn’t do very much, but I will tell you that she has worked so hard for months to put this together and that she did an amazing job!  Thank you, Britt, for being such a blessing to this mission for Christ!

Many thanks to Community Christian Fellowship for allowing us to use their facilities and to Cheryl Scarbrough for managing the kitchen and our crew of generous serving volunteers.   Friendship Community Care, you all are awesome!  Thank you to each of you who pitched in to make this event a success!  I’m also so grateful for the HLT board members: Carrie Hardin, Christin McGowen, Neil McGaugh and Daniela Salamo.  They help Drew and I to manage this organization and we couldn’t do it without the time and effort they devote to the mission.  I am scared to keep naming names, for I will surely leave someone out, so please humor me… I would like to send special thanks to (insert your name here) for supporting the mission of sharing the joy of Christ with special needs families in our area.  You are the best and I love each and every one of you so much.

Again, there are simply not enough exclamation points to express the awe I have for our God, the blessings He gives us and for each and every one of you!!!  May God bless each of you, just as you have been a blessing to Happy Like This.

Many Thanks & Much Love & Mucho Happiness,

Mandy

Thank you all for your patience as we have been working on the site.  There is still much to do, but at least you have a place to find us now.  Happy Like This is really taking off and I want to say how much I appreciate each and every person who supports us.  Whether you give a dollar, donate your time or talents, tell someone about us or say a little prayer for our mission… I appreciate you!  I have much more to add to the site, but as I get it going there are a few things I want to remind you all of.

Saturday March 3, 2012- 5pm- Spaghetti dinner and silent auction- Community Christian Fellowship church in Siloam Springs, AR!  If you would like to donate items to the silent acution, please contact me at HappyLikeThis@yahoo.com   -Please put us on your calendar and join us for an evening of fellowship and fun as we raise money to give special needs families a piece of happiness in the name of Christ!

Saturday April 13, 2012- Kelly’s Kids & Scentsy open house at Cherry Berry in Siloam Springs.  More information to come.