Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Grace, Shiloh, and The Fire Escape.

First off, I've been gone for a while, and that's because I'm a mom now. :] September 13th, 2009 at 4:18am we had our baby girl. And it has changed everything!

I was always aware of the huge amount of Grace in my life, especially when Matthew and I got married. But when I got to see Shiloh for the first time, I was overwhelmed by it and suddenly found myself searching for a better word to describe it, because Grace didn't feel big enough to contain what I felt. That's because we belittle words like Love and Grace by just throwing them around. But looking at this perfect, beautiful baby made me think of all the bad decisions and destructive behaviors in my past that should have gotten in the way of this happening for me, and I knew it was only by Grace that I didn't miss out on her. Think about it...how many good things are in your life that you cannot take the credit for? How many things have you done to get in the way of goodness in your life? And yet here we are, with plenty to be thankful for, no thanks to us. It's all Grace.

Just wanted to share that...it's been a huge lesson for me. -shepardlilley

As for The Fire Escape: We are back on track! We missed a few weeks due to super hot weather and then baby related craziness, but we are re-focused and ready to go. There's a lot of work to be done before we open full-time in January, and some of it will require some awesome volunteers. :] We will need people to get some flyers from Shepard and flyer the crap out of ECU campus over Christmas Break. We also will need people to volunteer to work some hours in the shop at first, until we steadily make enough to pay minimum wage. Any time you volunteer, you get to keep the tips from that shift. And the shifts can be broken up into as short as 1 hour or as long as 6, depending on your availability. We are flexible. :] So if you're a student at ECU and have an hour or 2 between classes and you'd like to come earn some tips, we can work that in. You're welcome to sit and do schoolwork or whatever while you're there, too. Some volunteers will also be needed for some artsy/decorative stuff.

So just let us know! You can comment on this as a response, e-mail shepard.lilley@gmail.com, or message us on facebook. Have an awesome FALL day [finally!]!!