Hey!

I am so blessed to be able to write this blog right here. Out of every single blog I've written within the past year, this one means the most. It's symbolic of everything I am.

Seeing, not to mention MEETING, Reba McEntire was one of the greatest nights of my life without a doubt. But, I have been a fan of Amy Grant for much longer, and seeing her in concert was something I never thought I'd get to do.

BUT, I did. Last night, September 11th in Rio Rancho, to be exact. It was so exciting, and as I walked away from the Santa Ana Center, I couldn't help but smile at the beautiful person who has been one of my lifelong inspirations.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved everything about the person Amy Grant is. I loved the fact that her first love of music was Christian and that things were right in her life bc God was in the right place. I loved and admired the fact that she could go back and forth between christian and pop music without ever losing sight of "WHO" is most important. Her career and life just amazed me to no end. I wanted to be like her, and my CD player always consisted of one of her CDs.  Many of my childhood memories, not to mention friendships (Jessica :D) had the music of Amy Grant playing as the soundtrack. Not very many kids my age even knew who she was, but that's a quality I've always loved about myself. I like what I like and I don't care if it's not considered to be "popular."

SO! Fast forward many years down the line, and there I am sitting on the floor of one of her concerts. (We were really close to the stage; we were no farhter back than like the tenth row, but I could look them right in the eye! It rocked!)  It was "Vince Gill's Friends and Family Tour," but obviously since she is his wife, she had a significant part in it.

The show started at 7:30, and Vince Gill opened. Vince Gill is one of the funniest people I've ever seen in my life. Some of his humor was rather crude, but it felt so good just to be able to laugh for so long. He played for about an hour and then the Del McCoury Band played. WOW, how to describe them, LOL. Their genre is really old Bluegrass. I literally felt like it would never end because I really don't care for Bluegrass that much, but I do have to admit that it takes a lot of talent to play those instruments at their speed, so they did a good job.

Finally, Amy Grant came out. She opened with "Baby, Baby" followed by a new song called "If I Could See what the Angels See." I love the stories she told and this particular one had to do with the fact that both she and Vince Gill had been singing and touring from young ages. She sang in churches, he sang in bars. "In time though, you begin to realize they're the same people," she said half-jokingly. "Sooner or later, everyone finds their way to their knees, and this next song was written after a long period of being on my knees." That song just happened to be one of my all-time favorites, "Carry You."

 Then, she began introducing the next song. "This is for all of you who are having a bad day. Maybe the drive out here was longer than you thought and you barely rolled into the parking lot, missing the first two songs. Or, this is not the day, month, or year you expected it to be. This is a song to remind you that sometimes it just takes a little time." Vince Gill then kindly informed her that this was not the song they were planning to sing. "Forget that. We're not going to sing that song; but the next song does have the word 'parking lot' in it. :)" Amy responded. So they sang Joni Mitchell's classic (which was also a huge hit for Amy) "Big Yellow Taxi." "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." Everyone knows that song for it's applicable to everyone's life. Halfway through this song, though, Amy messed up on a note or something. It was obvious to everyone that she was frustrated with herself for messing up, but I realized something from watching that, aside from nobody's perfect. When it comes to the people we love in our lives, whether they're family members, friends, or entertainers, we love them unconditionally. You don't look down on them. You have empathy for them and you continue to love them as if nothing even happened. After having an amazing career for over twenty-five years, I highly doubt Amy Grant is going to get "booed" off the stage! Ha!

After "Big Yellow Taxi," Vince asked Amy, "What song do you want to sing now ? And she replied, "It Takes A Little Time." They were supposed to sing it all along; she had just gotten the order mixed up, and I honestly didn't understand why he didn't just sing it before "Big Yellow Taxi," so he wouldn't have humiliated her in front of everyone. I really felt bad for her, but she made a quick comeback. That's a quality in her I just love!

The next song was "I Will Remember You," and Amy told a story about her and Vince Gill's youngest daughter Corrina. Corrina leaves voicemails on Amy's phone while they're touring and she left a voicemail saying," It's not that I don't remember what you look like, but I don't remember the last time you were here." That's when Amy Grant and Vince Gill knew it was time to go home. The point Amy was making though was that memory is powerful and even if someone is really gone (as in passed away) but you remember them, they never can fade away. Her challege to us was to think of somebody we had lost and to remember them while she sang the song and she would do the same thing. Needless to say, I did :)

There was a short intermission (the concert ended up being three and a half hours long!) and then Vince Gill came back followed by the Del McCoury Band. Amy then came back and sang a new song called "True Love" which she wrote for Vince Gill, and "House of Love." Vince closed with "Liza Jane," and the show was over.

It was eleven and we drove back home right after the show ended. We got home around two, and I instantly fell asleep, but the whole way home I listened to my CD player and was just so incredibly thankful to my family and to God for letting me experience such wonderful things. Anymore, my life consists of exciting adventures every day, whether I make a new friend, learn something new, or go to a concert.

My life is pure joy. I am just so infatuated with it. My family, my friends...anyone who supports me beyond what they have to. You all keep me going and I love writing these blogs because I get to share a glimpse into my wonderful life with you, and it is my hope and prayer that when you finish reading the very last word:

You'll smile.