6 months and a new idea...

Sept 6th, 2009 will mark my 6th month of living in China.

Can you believe it? It seems like it's been 6 years at certain times and then at other times 6 weeks.

But I am grateful for every moment.

Some things truly can change a person and these past 6 months have changed my life completely.

Although I had originally planned to be living in China for a year, it seems I will be moving back to the States in roughly 2 months. Before moving to China I had a desired amount of money to raise to be able to remain in China for 1 year. But I never reached that desired amount. 

*Now don't get worried, I'm not asking for more money to stay, so you can continue reading. :) *

Although I never raised as much money as I had originally intended I prayed that God would allow me to stay as long as He desired me to. So with that being said it looks like I will be returning home to Oklahoma before Thanksgiving 09".

As you can imagine I have a million different emotions running through me but the overall emotion is peace. 

Nothing comes as a surprise to my main man Jesus. So I'm slowly learning to be less impressed by hick-ups along the road and rejoicing for detours.

I've had an amazing time in this country with these children and I am going to do my best to treasure every last moment I have with the babies over the next 2 months.

With all of that being said, I often find myself thinking of ways to get you guys involved with my life here in China. I know my blog has been everything but reader friendly on most days but thank you for continually reading it anyways. I know you love me, and the feelings are mutual. 

But about my IDEA: I'm am going to do my best to write about 1 child here at Starfish everyday for the remainder of my 2 months with them. My reasons:

1. So you can meet the beautiful babies that I get to spend every day with.

2. I want you to meet "orphans". A lot of times I feel like people have misconceptions of what orphan care looks like, or what orphans look like. I want you to meet the wonderful little babies I get to spend my days with, and I want you guys to have the oppurtunity to learn their names and their stories. 

3. Over 85% of the babies that I work with have some sort of medical condition or physical condition. Which means these babies are sometimes in and out of hospitals or doctor visits. So I would love for you guys to have specific ways to pray for each child and their specific medical conditions. 

4. All of these babies are available to be sponsored through the Starfish Sponsorship Program and I would love for you guys to have an opportunity to be able to prayerfully consider sponsoring a sweet little child.

5. Last a final reason- Because our babies are so stinking CUTE I want you to meet them.

So stay tuned to meet my beautiful babies, I will begin this new "meet my babies campaign" as of tomorrow.