Tired and blessed

OK, so it's 10:11 pm Thursday night here (which makes it 12:11 am Friday morning at home!) and I have just now been able to sit down from our EXHAUSTING day!!  We have unpacked and both kids are completely flaked out in the bed - which, by the way, is where I would have liked to be several hours ago...but I could not go to bed without at least giving you a brief synopsis of how unbelievably blessed our journey has started.  Because so much has happened, and I'm so tired that I'm afraid I will forget all of it, I am just going to bullet today's truly supernatural events...

• Cade slept through the ENTIRE first flight...we were so happy because he was super anxious about flying.  He has been praying all week, "God, please help me not to be scared on the plane."  Glad we didn't have to deal with that one...
• I called the Ronald McDonald House in Aurora, CO the moment we touched down in Atlanta.  I am happy to report that I am writing from their computer room right now -- I was told there would be a room waiting.  There is more to this story, so keep reading...
• While in the Atlanta airport waiting for our delayed connection we met a wonderful lady from Seneca, SC.  She witnessed the meltdown that Cade had there (ok, so the getting up early and the flight and the delay was just more than he could handle), and came up and started talking to me.  Long story short - her son goes to Charleston Southern University, her husband went to Fruitland Institute in Edneyville, NC (that's about 5 miles from where I grew up!), and he is a pastor in Seneca now.  We had an awesome talk about all that God has done for us on getting to this journey and she will be praying for us.  I mean, come on people...what in the world are the chances that I would meet someone that knew anything about Edneyville, NC?!?!
• I went up to change our seats in the Atlanta airport (we were not sitting together so we were trying to fix that), and a gentleman standing at the gate let me know that he would be happy to change seats with us.  He went on to say that his son had just been diagnosed with autism (we just got that diagnosis, but I'm not ready to get into that yet!).  He ended up sitting behind Eric and the two of them were able to share so many "Special Needs Dad" stories. 
• We got to the Ronald McDonald House...this place is beyond AWESOME!!!  The boys went crazy with the enormous playroom and playground with a ton of tricycles...the entire place is immaculate and unbelievably kid-oriented.  Anyway...the House Manager let Eric know that just yesterday they had 6 people on the waiting list and had to turn all of them away...what??!!  So she says, "You guys got the last room..." and couldn't believe we had actually called this morning and were here.  Again, WHAT??!!  We get to our room -- it is on the end of the hall -- there is a small TV (we really needed this for Cade, so we were thrilled!)...Eric tries to connect to the internet and of course he is able to -- I guess usually end rooms have a better connection.  The House Manager gives him a tour and lets him know all of the places in the house that he will be able to connect wirelessly...the entire process is just so unbelievable that I cannot really say enough words about it...
• We went to eat tonight and met a lady when we were leaving that was super nice.  She was able to tell us where there was a Super Target (ok, those are just wonderful!!).  We went in to get some food for our pantry here at the Ron McD House.  The food was so unbelievably less expensive than SC I couldn't believe it (yes my coupon friends, be jealous...).  The amount for everything we purchased equalled exactly what we had left in my wallet for groceries...again, REALLY?!
• Cade bought a toy there and of course when we went to open it we couldn't get past the screwed in plastic (that is just the dumbest thing...).  Cade and I went back in to see if someone at Target could help.  There we met a sweet police officer who promptly set out finding screwdrivers to help us (all in all it took 3!!).  And where was he from?   Savannah, GA....just right down the road.  We shared a couple of good "South" stories before we left.

There is so much more to today, but I'm just slap wore out!  All in all our journey has started on an amazing note.  Tomorrow morning at 9:00 we begin Cade's therapy at the STAR Center.  We are nervous but anxious to get this show on the road.  I did take a couple of pics and videos today, and I'm hoping to get some uploaded on tomorrow's blog which will be written much earlier than tonight's!  We feel so strongly the support and prayers of all of our friends and family here...thank you for continuing to lift us up.  So until tomorrow, goodnight from Denver!