Travel and Day #1

Travel time from Nashville to Chenzhou was about 30 hours. The flight from Dallas to Hong Kong was 16. It has been rough, but anything is worth being able to see the kids and the nannies again.

I am so so happy to finally be here in the place that I have come to love. Time is quickly slipping away and I am trying to soak up as much as I can in the short time we have here.

The nannies remember us, and are so happy for us to be here. I am not sure if the kids remember or not but they were so excited when we walked through the doors.

Thanks

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported, donated and prayed over me for this trip. Your contributions have not gone unnoticed, and I greatly appreciate the love and generosity.

The team is great.

And so many of the healthy kids have been adopted!

But the kids that are still here, will most likely never leave, and that breaks my heart.

Seeing the kids put me in shock.. I was amazed at how much has changed, how many more kids are there, and how many have disabilities and problems.

It was overwhelming. But we jumped in there, what else could we do but love on these kids and show them that they are special, and loved.

Love.

Jesus is love.

Humans crave love, attention, affection, we need it for emotional stability and well being.

We are being Jesus to them, and showing them what love is.

To be able to hear the laugh of a child, who has no emotion and sits on a pot all day, is magical.

To see little Jessie who is an 8 year old in a 2 year olds body is unbelievable.

God is doing such great things.. He goes before us and we do not know his plans.

Learning to LET GO and let God is a tough thing for some of us "doers" but it is his plan that shall be done. not our own.

Saturday 7/18/15

Today we could not go to the orphanage so we had our devotion and worship time, ventured to KFC (no I did not eat any meat/chicken haha) and then we went sightseeing in Chenzhou to this mountain. It was beautiful, there were amazing historical buildings, gorgeous scenery, and A LOT of stairs. Not all of us went all the way up to the temple, but for those of us that did it took almost 2 hours. We were exhausted and decided to ride the cable car down the mountain. This was a tad bit scary, but also very beautiful.

After this long nature hike, we traveled by bus back to the hotel to clean up and meet the new director, assistant directors, and some of the nannies at a restaurant for dinner. We have two translators this year and it has been such a blessing! Jenny is the sweetest person, and the love she has for Jesus and serving others just radiates off of her. She always finds an opening to tell people about Jesus, and our love for him. The dinner was amazing, and we got to interact with the nannies and ask questions. We really got to know who they were as people. We encouraged, and praised them which they so humbly accepted. This was a great opportunity for us to show love to them, and to show them that we care for them, and appreciate all they do for the kids. I believe it was a success and a good stepping stone for them to continue to trust us. These nannies do so much for these kids, and they truly love them and want what is best for them. Especially after tonight talking with the nannies, I am truly amazed at all they do… how well they handle this difficult job, and also their personal lives and families. They are very strong women, and deserve every bit of recognition.

The days are long and exhausting, but it makes sleeping on this boards for a bed so much easier, we are too tired to care!

I cannot wait for the rest of the week, to see what God has in store.

Please continue to pray for guidance and peace as we go into the following days with the kids. Pray that we will not lose our way or lose Hope. Sometimes it is hard to stay positive because you see it all and do not know what to do about it. But staying positive and hopeful and happy and excited is what is going to get us through.