At 9:45 this morning, when I spoke with Stacey Lilley, doctor and counselor for Jefferson College of Health Sciences, she said, "I'm just back at the office and drinking my coffee."

This comes after Lilley and her three children, Addison, 7, Davis, 5, and Graham, 3, and her husband Tim camped out for close to 18 hours in the Chick-fil-A parking lot for its grand opening on Southern Hills Drive.

For video and more on the camp-out at the Chick-fil-A opening, click here.

The first 100 people, when the doors opened at 6 a.m., received a year's supply of Chick-fil-A, that is 52 vouchers for free combo meals, but that isn't why Lilley decided to participate.

"I love Chick-fil-A. But I don't know if I would do it for a year's supply," she said.

Lilley had originally planned to camp out quite some time ago with her friend, Miche' Tentor of Richmond, with a family of four and a true fanatic of Chick-fil-A, who had camped out twice before for free food. However, in early January Tentor was diagnosed with a large brain tumor.

Lilley and her family decided to do it anyway and honor Tentor by making t-shirts that read "Chick-fil-A for Miche'." They re-arranged their schedules and arrived in the parking lot as number 82 on Wednesday, April 30, around 12:40 p.m.

"Doing this made the project mean so much more and to have the whole family there- we all wanted to do it together. I feel like we had a cause and a mission," Lilley explained.

Lilley made it a family affair, despite the opinion of others. She and her husband entertained their children throughout the day and night by playing football, frisbee and cards.

By 10 p.m. her children were exhausted and Chick-fil-A, which had fed them lunch and dinner, served them ice cream with their choice of toppings.

"I was surprised, time went by really fast. It was fun," she said. "It was crazy, when they served us food they made up line up in our original order and walk through the drive through line - all 118 of us."

Throughout the day and evening participants were called to line up in order to be counted. People were on standby just in case anyone dropped out.

By midnight, lights were out, until 5 a.m. when everyone was awakened to brush their teeth in the Chick-fil-A restroom.

After receiving their vouchers for the free combo meals and given t-shirts and stuffed cows, Lilley headed to Starbucks across the street and ordered the biggest coffee she could because her day wasn't over despite her lack of sleep.

Lilley and her family were home by 7 a.m. and her children were clean and ready for school. And then she headed to work.

"My children felt really good about doing it for Miche'," Lilley said. "It's their family (Miche's family's) issue with her having cancer, but I think they [Lilley's own children] appreciate me more. They wonder what her kids are going to do without a mom and it makes you stop to appreciate things more when you go through a tragedy like this."

"I think we'd definitely do it again, but not tomorrow," Lilley laughed.

Lilley and her family received two sets of vouchers for free food, but will give one set to their friend Miche'.

"We definitely had a lot more fun than I thought we would. My first thoughts were, we are too busy to do this, but it's for my friend and it's worth it."

Top photo: The Lilley family, Davis, 5, Stacey, Tim, Graham, 3, and Addison, 7 stand in front of the Chick-fil-A excited to begin their camp out.

Bottom photo: The Lilley family outside of the tent they camped out in for almost 18 hours.

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• Posted by emily flora in PeoplePeople
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