oops.....

Hello friends,

So I'm a complete blonde. I have no idea how I manage to do certian things that I do but I've managed to mess up my blog. I can no longer edit the layout or add anything on my blog because I've appearently gotten some sort of virus that wiped my editing abilities out on my blog. Moral of the story is that I'm having to relocate to a new blog. here's the link:

http://placemeinyourplan.blogspot.com/

sorry for my "blondeness". i love you all! check me out at my new home.

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.

58 days.........

So my phone has a D-Day countdown and I've programed the day that I leave for China on it and it displays how many days are left until the D-Day. And it is 58 days away! I think as the d-day gets closer I might have to remove the countdown off of my main screen for fear of a panic attack. :) But seriously, you would think that there is a lot to do to in preparing to move to a foreign country but right now the thing I am most stressed about is how to fit 1 years worth of my life into a suitcase! You would think there are more pressing subjects that I should be worried about but I think if I can fit all of my stuff into two bags that don't weight more than 50 lbs each than I can handle anything. But seriously the emotions of moving away are starting to come in waves. One day I'm worried, the next I'm so excited, and the next day I'm an emotional wreck but through all the emotions I know that God is faithful. His provision might now be what we always want but it is always what we need.



The organization where I will be working in China has launched their new website:

http://www.chinahomefoundation.org/

They also are blogging:

http://chinahomefoundation.blogspot.com/

New year.....new beginnings

Ni hao (hello in mandarin)


*China Update*

My roommate Julee and I bought our ONE WAY tickets to Beijing, China this week. (craziness) So I will be leaving on March 4th from Tulsa to meet Julee in Newark, NJ. We will spend the night in Newark and then leave for China on the 5th of March. I am sending my visa application into the agency today and I purchased my laptop last night. So this week has started the China madness for Julee and I. With the excitement and preparation to make our big move I was reminded of how far away I am from my financial goal for this trip. I am only 1/4 of the way to where I need to be financially to live in China for one year. I have two months left to raise roughly $9,000. By raising that money before I leave for China I could gruarantee my stay in China for one year as well as be able to focus 100% on my work in China instead of worrying about raising money. Believe me, you could not meet anyone that hates asking for financial help more than I do. But it's a process that I'm walking through to make this next year a reality.

But I have already raised $4,000 through your faithfulness. Again just in case you didn't hear that the first time, with your help I raised $4,000 through the thanksgiving and Christmas seasons! Thank you so much for your faithfulness and your financial support! I love you all!!! God has blessed me with amazing friends and family and I couldn't be more thankful for you!



Prayer Requests:


1.Please pray that I raise all $9,000 before March 1st

2.Please pray for my roommate Julee and I to make wise decisions as we prepare to move to a foreign country for one year! Please pray that I can fit everything I need to pack in two bags. (yikes)

3.Please pray for the China Home Foundation to be fully functioning my March 1st. (the orphanage where I will be working and living.)

4.Please pray for Godly wisdom and favor for my friends Mikey and Michael (the directors of the orphanage that I will be working in)

The Louyang Children

I love watching these videos and I wanted to share them with you guys. These are the children I will be working with soon! And I couldn't be more excited about it but I knew if you could only see their faces you would fall in love with them too so here's a link to my friend's youtube videos of them..............


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSjuadyh45w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSjuadyh45w

Let me not be blind with privilege...

Let me not be blind with privilege
Give me eyes to see the pain
Let the blessings you've poured out on me
Not be spent on me in vain
Let this life be used for the change
I will go............


Hello blogging world, for those that may not know my story I've started this blog because I feel that God has called me to move to China and work in an government orphanage with the beautiful children that live there. With over 600 orphaned children living in the orphanage where I will be living and working I often ask myself, what am I thinking? Why am I moving to a foreign country as a single 21 year old women? What could I offer these children that they truly need? Who am I to think that they even want my help or love? Who am I to try and make a difference for children half way across the world?

If you plan on following this blog let it be known now that I will always voice my doubts about my abilities, my strength and my knowledge.

But I will never doubt Gods call on my life to care for orphans.

When it comes to lives circumstances or trialing times in my life I have always had people telling me "God will never give you more than you can handle" and I've even found myself offering these same words of advice to people when they face trials in life. But it dawned on me while driving home from work this week that this statement could not be farther from the truth. While looking back on situations in my life it occurred to me that God had given me more than I could handle on several accounts. (religious people stay on board with me for just a minute, I promise I'm going somewhere with this) God had placed me in the middle of situations that I could not handle nor could I find my way out of. But in those circumstances and in those times of trial God always was there to handle those situations with me. He put me in situations where I had no other way out but to offer him the situation and let Him take control of it. Some of you might think when reading this....... she's lost her mind to serve a God that would do that to someone that He loves, or maybe others of you are knit-picking me to death finding all of the religious errors in the statement I made above. But looking back on those situations in my life I could not be more grateful for God forcing me with life situations that I could not handle. His grace and His love that He bestowed on me in those times in my life are more precious to me than gold. I believe that God will always give His children more than they can handle so that if we surrender everything to Him, He can reveal to us everything we need to know.

So I am not bilingual, I am not financially prepared, I do not have a counseling degree, I am by no means very knowledgeable on China or it's government. But I have seen the faces of it's orphans and although I have no special gifts or talents that would make me a perfect fit to be a role model or a friend to these children, God has called me to return and work amongst them for a year. And I could not be more thrilled about it. I have seen just a glimpse of Gods heart for the orphans of this world and I cannot wait to gain a greater understanding for Gods love for His orphaned children of the Republic of China.