Abby's 5th Birthday Party

Hi all. I haven't written in a little while - sorry about that. Got a little busy with everything.

Today we celebrated Abby's 5th birthday with the family. It was a fun day - High School Musical Theme. Those of you who do not know, Abby is very into HSM right now. Corbin Bleu (spelling) is her new boyfriend or so she will tell you. We all had a lot of fun and ate too much. Two cakes - one to celebrate Deb's birthday also which was back on Thursday. Next weekend we celebrate Abby's actual birthday at Disney. She is getting to eat breakfast with Mickey at "Chef Mickey's". Here are some pictures below of the party. I am going to upload some video clips as well, maybe in a separate post.

Beijing Olympics with kids

Hi all,

Here is a link below to an NBC coverage clip of David bringing 5 of the orphans from the Beijing camp to the Olympics. There is a short commercial before you play the clip.

http://video.nbcsandiego.com/player/?id=286883

Videos from Camp

These are videos from the Zhengzhou Camp for all four weeks.

Video Week 1:

Video Week 2:

Video Week 3:

Video Week 4:

Things may be changing... ??

Well, things may be changing around our household. Those of you who followed the trip to China know that I was paired with a boy named Billy for a week (Lu is his Chinese name). I was able to make a special bond with him and at the end of camp he made a statement to me that has not left my mind (or Debbie's) which was "Why has no one adopted me?" This has not left either one of our hearts and minds ever since he said it. 

We thought we would dig into his situation a little more and found out that he is new to the system (not sure why) and that they are getting paperwork ready for him to be put onto a list. Thank you Rosa for helping with this. We found out that he is actually 12 years old contrary to what I was told in China. He just celebrated his 12th birthday in July. Debbie and I have been talking, debating, or whatever you want to call it about whether or not we could try to adopt this boy and if we should. We know for certain that God has put him on our hearts but we just are not 100% sure for what purpose. I told Debbie the other day that we should first find out his situation before racking our brains on what we should or shouldn't do. Then pray really hard and hope for a fast answer, that is if we do not already have it and are just not open to hearing it.

Now we are at that point. There are still some questions out there but we do know that it is at least "possible" that we could adopt him. I really miss being over in China without all of the distractions and "spoiledness" (not really a word) that I have here in the States. This question would not have been nearly as hard over there but for some reason I get home and things become difficult again. God clearly calls out that we are to take care of the "widows and orphans". Why is this so hard? I am so worried about what this would do to our family structure and the room/bathroom situations. It's funny, I shared a bathroom with 8 people in China and I am worried about Abby and Jadyn having to share a bathroom with just one. Plus there is the fact that Abby would have to move into Jadyn's room. Growing up there were times when we four boys would share a room but the room was never as small as they make bedrooms these days. Just another part of the "spoiledness".

I guess I am just writing this all now, because I have not posted in a while and wanted you to know why. This has consumed a lot of our conversations, along with watching the AWESOME Phelps win all those medals. I would ask for your prayers at this time while we go through the emotions and decisions that will have to be made. Also about how this will all play out physically, mentally, monetarily, etc... One thing that hasn't changed is the cost of going through an adoption - correction - it has changed, it's more now and takes quite a bit longer. At 12 years old he will not have much time left to either be adopted or finish his growing years in an orphanage. He is a very bright boy with dreams for the future. I do believe whatever happens God will watch over him.

Bill

Friday Morning

Friday is here. I have been home for 5 days now. Sorry for not posting anything much since. I have been very tired and trying to adjust back to US time. I also got a cold that kicked in by Tuesday. I want to thank everyone again for following the journey at camp and for the prayers. The family and I really appreciate it. 

I have to admit that it was a little hard coming home and going back to work. It is like coming down from such a high and back into the grind. It is so easy to lose sight of all you have learned. Debbie and I are talking and praying a lot about what God would have us to do for the future. We both feel such a strong connection to Billy, my buddy from last week and for China in general. I am not sure if any of you were able to see the latest Steven Curtis Chapman (and family) interviews over the past few days but they were amazing. That family is truly an inspiration. I just read an article this morning about a building that the Maria fund will be putting up. It happens to be in Louyang which by coincidence ( or God's plan) is where one of the large group of kids came from for the week two camp. It is so easy to see God's plan when you trace things backwards. I wish we had a better glimpse of them before they happened or at least looked and listened more to hear from him. In the last few days I have seen a lot of things that would lead me to believe that there is a plan that I am not fully aware of, or willing to accept yet. Pray for us that we will see a clear path for what God wants us to do.

Well, Olympics start tonight. It should be a very good show. One thing I can say from experience is China likes to go big with things so this should be BIG. 4-1/2 hours and counting... 

Bill

Monday morning - I'm home!

I just wanted to do a quick post and let everyone know that I got home. It was 4:00 am Sunday morning. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and for the calls to Debbie and being there for her and the rest of the family. I do have a small cold that was kind enough to wait until I got home to kick in. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and woke up at 9:45 this morning. I am still a little tired and may crash again.

Thank you again to everyone and please continue to pray for the following two weeks of camp.

Bill

Friday afternoon

Hi all,

It is 6:00 pm Friday night. My last post left me at finding some of the others. I went down to the cafeteria and made the rounds talking to a few people like little Sarah, Tilly and Katie and Steve. I was also able to meet one of the new translators for next week. Here name is Yvonne. She was at the Beijing camp last year. She came over to me in the cafeteria and introduced herself and just started talking about camp and asking questions. I think the conversation lasted about 20 minutes and when I was ready to leave for lunch she asked if I could get a picture with her. It was really kind of cool that she would want that after only a 20 minute talk. She is studying technology. She said that the men say that the women would not be able to do this and the 3 out of 10 people in the class are girls. She spoke perfect english, probably better than me. She is going to be staying for the rest of the camp. I am a little envious. Part of me wishes that I could stay for the next two weeks also.

Me, Chris and Bob went to the Cafe to get some lunch. I got a Hawaiian pizza. It was okay. Also the Cherry Coke is a favorite here. Not sure why though. I couldn't really taste a difference. It is 10 qui in the cafe and 2.5 at the store. 10 qui is about $1.25. Qui is the same as Yuan (RMB), just slang, I think. As soon as I was finished it was time for the second group to leave. That was Kate's and Byron's. that group did pretty good or at least the kids did. I am not sure about the volunteers. Kate had asked how to say "I love you". Both of her kids said it back to her which was cool. I was even able to get a hug from the boy with her. They just love the affection. Byron was a basket case (sorry man if you are reading this. Go and take that bubble bath and maybe get a manicure,  j/k).

Sorry I have to stop here in the middle but it is time to go to the ceremony for the translators.

Okay back to Byron... Really man, you are amazing. I am so moved the a young guy like you was so moved and touched by these children. It gave me so much joy to see you show your heart the way you did. Love you Bro.

Probably less than 30 minutes later the last bus came. This one had Alan's kids on it. This one was really rough. One thing you new for sure during craft time and lunch time was if Alan was in the room you could hear his boy calling for him "ALAN!!!" It was so funny. Well, we heard this sound one more time but there was no laughter. There were only tears. You could see this little boys hand reaching out the window towards him as the van was pulling away. Tears running down his face. Alan is such an amazing guy - Ladies out there he is single and would make the most amazing father. I am going to miss him quite a bit. 

This van also had Joy on it. Joy is the little girl that I have already talked about with the burns on her face. I cannot remember if I had written about the experience that I have had with her at camp. It has not been much in quantity. The first interaction I had with her was just before one of the assemblies when she came and sat on my lap. Today when I went to find the rest of the kids still here I ended up finding Joy, literally and spiritually. While I was having the conversation with Yvonne Joy had come up to me and sat on my lap, face to face and then put her head on my shoulder for probably 10 or 15 minutes. I almost thought for a minute that she had gone to sleep. Then she popped up and asked in Chinese if I could come back with her to the orphanage. I wasn't sure what to say. I asked Yvonne to let her know that I would if I could. She made the AWE sound like she was upset about it an then gave me a big squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. I don't know how common it is for that to happen but I had not seen it in the time that I have been here. Well, it gets even better (no tears, just Joy). I made it a point to be there when she left. She made the rounds giving hugs to everyone there and then when she saw me she jumped up into my arms and gave me an enormous hug. There was a translator standing close by that she asked again if I would come with her. I simply said "I wish". She did the AWE sound again and the another big hug and kiss on the cheek. It made me feel so special that she would do that without even knowing me. I will be honest that when David told me she would be back at the camp this year I was scared. I didn't know how I would be able to handle looking into the face of this child. God knew though. When she jumped up into my arms and never even saw scars, just Love and Joy. I have to tell you that this camp with change your life. You can read all of these blog entries and maybe shed a few tears of sadness and joy but I don't think anyone can truly understand what this is like without being here. It is a life experience and one that has changed me into someone that I never thought I could be. Follow God's plans and do those scary things and I promise you that God will meet you there.

After the last batch of kids left and the MAN group consisting of Adam, Byron, Chris, Kyle, Jay and myself went out to get some cokes, ice cream, etc... This is the same group that was crying their eyes out 30 minutes ago. Oops did I type that out loud, sorry guys. We ended up walking down the street and came to a river. Across the bridge on the other side of the river was an old amusement park that had closed down long ago but they still had some paddle boats. We decided to give it a shot. It was pretty cool. We went up he river a little and watched some of the local fishermen and then back again. It was a nice diversion and a good chance to see more of REAL China. 

We had a ceremony for the translators tonight. It was a time to say goodbye. Andrew was there with me. I got to see Sarah before she left. She had to take a group to Xian and wasn't going to be back until tomorrow night. She must have given me 10 hugs and thanked me over and over again for spending time with her and Billy. She was just incredibly sweet. She was taking Alan and Kate and the rest of the MN group. The ceremony was to just recognize the translators and the work that they did here. They would call out names and you would both go up together and get the award. When they called Andrews name I YELLED out ANDREW and then we both jumped up and ran to the stage like a scene out of Rocky. It was great and got a lot of laughs. After the awards a cake food fight broke out. It was crazy. I tried to get photos while running away. We all then headed back to the bunkers to have a meeting where we could just talk about the week and what we have learned or taken out of this experience. It was a good time of sharing with a few tears here and there. Then we said our final goodbyes. It was hard to see Andrew leave. I have spent so much time with him this week and he is such an inspiration. I let him know that he is going to be a great dad some day.

Well, that's about it. Camp is done but the work will never be over.

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world". 

We have all been called. Who will step up and Answer?

I'm out from ZhengZhou China,

Bill