James 1:27

I have found myself thinking a lot about God's goodness to me through out this whole journey of preparing to move to China. If you had told me two years ago that I would be moving to China to volunteer for one year in an orphanage I wouldn't have believed you. I often find myself thinking about how God planted this passion for orphans in my heart such a long time ago.

When I was a little girl instead of playing house or princess I would always play "orphanage". I would get all of my orphaned baby dolls, teddy bears, and stuffed animals together and I would be their orphanage mommy. I can remember always having a passion for children half way across the world that I had never met before. Honestly, when people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would always tell them I wanted to be an orphanage mommy.

My dream growing up was to travel somewhere over seas and meet these orphaned children that had always been in my thoughts and in my heart. If I went into detail of how God was faithful to place me in the Church at BattleCreek here in Broken Arrow, OK it would blow your mind. God told me the second Sunday that I was visiting TCABC that He had brought me to this church to finally have a place to get involved with orphan care. As clearly as the pastor was talking from the stage God spoke to me that this was the place where He was going to allow me to get involved with my life long dream. (and they didn't have any connections with any orphanages or mission trips to visit orphans at that time) Six months later Alex Himaya (my pastor) had a sermon on EASTER morning about how the modern church has completely dropped the ball on caring for orphans and how TCABC was going to start being advocates for these children that God had called us to care for. Thus was created the Adopt(ed) ministry.

And I could honestly go on and on about how God has guided and directed every step to bring me to where I am now. If you have a few hours of free time call me up and I will tell you about the amazing things God has done through my process and life. :) But I sit here writing this blog in awe of Gods love and grace. In 52 days God is allowing me to move to a foreign country and be apart of my life long dream. Honestly, who actually gets to do their dream job from when they were 5 years old? How many little boys grow up to be astronauts or little girls actually marry a prince to become a princess. But God is allowing me to be an "orphanage mommy". I believe that God gives us dreams that sometimes seem like they are un-attainable or un-reachable but I am here to tell you that God planted the passion for orphans in my heart 21 years ago that seemed like a passion that I would grow out of or that I would never do anything with. But in 51 days I am moving to China to live/work with beautiful orphaned children.

And the most beautiful thing about the whole story........ it has nothing to do with me.

And has everything to do with God's glory and faithfulness.